tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133440622024-03-18T20:39:20.781+00:00Bloggin fae the 'Burn: Ulster-Scots thoughtsAlways learning. Born, bred and still living on the most easterly point of Northern Ireland - the Ards Peninsula - 18 miles across the sea from Scotland. I do lots of things- design, music, talks, trying to be a husband and father. This blog isn't an example of great quality writing or research, it's just a scrapbook pointing towards content that's of interest. <i>© the author; contact me for permissions</i><br><br>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.comBlogger2234125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-84926347197364255502024-03-17T00:42:00.003+00:002024-03-18T20:38:48.584+00:00Don't take it from me, take it from Winston Churchill - 1776 was based upon 1688<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTPDTc2McMnO_O5kzERPOE1OPgFozkv7zdp__Dr6aQtej4PSZwz88v4GHvCk_qOi1iACkTnaHjJhiX3LYQMIQ0rElMv2i29bSd8yYl675DWeh41Aw2N02qU8jP-0dgJAxJP7f8KWGqEm9BGJqCrpXQNt6_dz8JdgofXnGGlwuDQLQfV4cLzIjW/s640/Churchill%20640.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTPDTc2McMnO_O5kzERPOE1OPgFozkv7zdp__Dr6aQtej4PSZwz88v4GHvCk_qOi1iACkTnaHjJhiX3LYQMIQ0rElMv2i29bSd8yYl675DWeh41Aw2N02qU8jP-0dgJAxJP7f8KWGqEm9BGJqCrpXQNt6_dz8JdgofXnGGlwuDQLQfV4cLzIjW/s16000/Churchill%20640.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>He has repeatedly been voted the Greatest Ever Briton, and the very first of just 8 Honorary Citizens of the United States. He wrote this:</p><p><b></b></p><blockquote><b>"The Declaration (of Independence) was in the main a restatement of the principles which had animated the Whig struggle against the later Stuarts and the English Revolution of 1688, and it now became the symbol and the rallying centre of the Patriot cause"</b></blockquote><p></p><p>– from <i>History of the English Speaking Peoples</i>, Volume II (1956). The final chapter of Volume II is entitled 'The Revolution of 1688'; the first chapter of Volume III is entitled 'William of Orange'. It's brilliant stuff, and very far removed from the narrow Northern Ireland version of events.</p><p>He paints a scene of a pan-European alliance of Protestants / Calvinists and all mainstream Catholics, united against James II and Louis XIV. </p><p></p><blockquote><b>“Diverse interests and creeds united in a strategy far-seeing and broad-minded”</b></blockquote><p></p><p>Churchill’s ancestor, <b>Sir John Churchill</b>, was one of the first group of nobles in SW England to defect/mutiny from James II in rebellion.</p><p>History goes full circle: Sir John Churchill joined a pan-European allied force which crossed English Channel to overthrow a tyrant in 1688. His descendant Winston Churchill co-led a pan-European (&US) allied force which crossed English Channel to overthrow a tyrant in 1940s.</p><div>..........</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is another source about William's 1688 Declaration:<br /><br />"...Having brought matters to a great forwardness, the Prince of Orange, to justify his under-taking to the world, published a declaration divided into 26 articles, in which all the mischiefs and grievances of this unhappy Reign are particularly enumerated, and a redress proposed by a free Parliament; which declaration, as it would give too great an interruption to the thread of the narrative, is omitted here, and placed at large in the Appendix, more especially as the matter of it is particularly set forth in the several parts of this life.</div><div><br /></div><div>The said declaration was ready to be sent over to England, with another of the same import to Scotland, when the Prince being informed, that K. James by granting most of the Bishops demands, and retracting many of the arbitrary and despotick actions he had assumed to exercise, had taken measures to render it ineffectual; and as the Partizans of K. James had industriously spread it abroad, that the Prince intended to conquer and enslave the nation, his Highness to obviate these new pretences caused 14 days after an addition to be made to it, shewing the imperfectness of the redress offered, since the King might resume at pleasure, what he then seemed willing to lay down, and that there could be no secure remedy but from a free Parliament; and arguing from the disposition of his forces, and the numbers of the principal nobility and gentry attending him in his expedition, how vain the pretence was that he intended a conquest.</div><div><br /></div><div>With those declarations the Prince ordered a letter to be written in his Name, inviting the soldiers, seamen, and others, to join him, in order to secure their Religion, Laws and Liberties..."<br /><br />• From Walter Harris <i>The History of the Life and Reign of William-Henry, Prince of Nassau and Orange, Stadtholder of the United Provinces</i> (1749) p 136-7 : <a href="https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=wwZZAAAAcAAJ&pg=GBS.PA136&hl=en">online here</a>. </div><p></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-40274578161448066002024-03-16T00:30:00.026+00:002024-03-17T00:01:28.976+00:00The Siege of Derry, Bishop William King, and concepts of Liberty: "if liberty be lost it is never to be retrieved"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPAwhk7vYh602imva4b3GTkzXGcXvlOsbLygGGR0b2qw6On2718YowMOVoVY2zlv5q6Wx4xWwzb_7l-euUIwVf1lVOxwnuoJ4Q9rKwRMVd0rkX55ROKH6xdABCdNTARZ9EEwdnH1jFH_P8cdVn1b1OsGXtl0OzD7XqrvKp7r-7MtmC4uHovWS9" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="800" height="491" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPAwhk7vYh602imva4b3GTkzXGcXvlOsbLygGGR0b2qw6On2718YowMOVoVY2zlv5q6Wx4xWwzb_7l-euUIwVf1lVOxwnuoJ4Q9rKwRMVd0rkX55ROKH6xdABCdNTARZ9EEwdnH1jFH_P8cdVn1b1OsGXtl0OzD7XqrvKp7r-7MtmC4uHovWS9=w701-h491" width="701" /></a></div><br />The gates of Londonderry were closed on 7 December 1688, in the face of an army bearing down upon them which was led by the Earl of Antrim. In late February 1689, the Dublin government of King James II received a leaked intel report which said that the northern civilian population:<br /><br /><div><blockquote>"... were untrained, and had few experienced officers: that the most part were without arms; and, such as had them, their arms were unfixt and unfit for service; that they were very much scattered, and their number not near what had been written, and was confidently reported in Dublin; and that they wanted all ammunition and necessary provisions for appearing in the field..." (<a href="https://archive.org/details/mackenziesmemor00mackgoog/page/n43/mode/2up?q=%22confidently+reported+in+Dublin%22">online here</a>). </blockquote></div><div><br />So, it was time for the government to strike. Derry was in rebellion. King James II was on his way to Ireland to try to build a counter-offensive to reclaim his throne. A new King and new Queen had been offered the crown, but coronation hadn't yet happened. Any potential opposition needed to be crushed. Now.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just over a week later on 7 March 1689, the government issued <i>'A Proclamation'</i> (<a href="https://archive.org/details/derryenniskillen00withrich/page/388/mode/2up">online here</a>) which pretty much criminalised the entire population of "the province of Ulster ... no less offence than high treason" and announced that the army had been approved "to march into the province of Ulster to reduce the rebels there by force of arms". It offered pardon to any who would surrender, except for ten named individuals.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>The proclamation probably gave the government a degree of legal cover for what they planned to do (although in the age of the king having 'arbitrary power', and long before the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions">Geneva Conventions of 1949</a>, the King could do whatever he wanted). It promised leniency towards the civilian population, but in fact there are widespread accounts of army brutalisation and 'perfidious acts' unleashed upon against the general public in a campaign of oppression. James recruited men with skills in civilian persecution elsewhere, such as <b>Conrad Von Rosen</b>, who wrote –<br /><br /><div><blockquote>"... the wives and children of the rebels in Londonderry have retired to Belfast and the neighbouring places, and the hardiness of their husbands and fathers deserves the severest chastisements ... make an exact research in Belfast and its neighbourhood, after such subjects as are rebellious to the will of the king, whether men, women, boys, or girls, without exception, and whether they are protected or unprotected, to arrest them and collect them together, that they may be conducted by a detachment to this camp, and driven under the walls of Londonderry, where they shall be allowed to starve, in sight of the rebels within the town ..."</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>King James II himself arrived at the historic walls on 18 April 1689, beginning the formal Siege of Derry. The siege ended 105 days later on 1 August. If we count the whole period, from the shutting of the gates on 7 December 1688 right through until 1 August it makes a grand total of 237 days.<div><br /></div><div>It is impossible for us to imagine the conditions that 30,000 people within the walls had to endure; these were experiences which drove emigration to America, the stories of which were handed down to the American-born generations that followed.<p></p><p>One of those who knew many of the survivors was <b>Bishop William King</b>. On page four of his 1691 publication <i>The State of the Protestants of Ireland </i>(<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_State_of_the_Protestants_of_Ireland/UmkU49ts258C?hl=en&gbpv=1">online here</a>), he makes this statement –</p><p></p><blockquote><p>"… If we look back into history we shall find the best the happiest most prosperous people most jealous of their liberty and while they continued firm in their resolution of maintaining it against the encroachment of their governors even with the hazard of their lives they have continued great and happy; but no sooner did they degenerate from this zeal, but they became contemptible and dwindled into nothing: </p></blockquote><blockquote><p>and at this day let us look into the whole world and we shall find every nation happy and thriving at home and easy to their neighbours abroad according as they have preserved themselves from slavery whereas all countries under unlimited monarchies decay in their strength and improvements and though they may flourish for a little time by the ruin of their lesser neighbours yet they at last unpeople their own countries and seem to be permitted by God to come to that exorbitant power for their own ruin and for a plague to mankind.</p><p>And indeed <b>the greatest mischief of a civil war is the danger of subjecting the state to the absolute power of some potent general as it happened in Rome, Florence, and in England in the late civil war: for to lose even half the subjects in a war is more tolerable than the loss of liberty since if liberty and good laws be preserved an age or two will repair the loss of subjects and improvements though they be ever so great but if liberty be lost it is never to be retrieved but brings certain and infallible destruction*</b>; as it did to Rome, and has brought in a great measure to Florence, and will to England if ever the prerogative do swallow up the liberties and privileges of the subjects. So far it is from truth that the allowing of resistance in some cases of extremity has greater inconveniences than absolute subjection ..."</p></blockquote><p>The <b>Boston Revolt</b> in Massachussetts began 18 April 1689 on the same day as the Siege of Derry. When the 13 British colonies of America sought liberty - and eventually a new revolution - in the 1770s many of their writers and thinkers pointed back to the Glorious Revolution.</p><p>Agreed concepts - and actual experiences - of liberty bound the transatlantic community together. The only solution to the tyrannies they endured was liberty, which was backed up by a legally binding Bill of Rights to protect the citizenry.</p><p>............</p><p>A famous quote at the time, from the diary of soldier <b>John Hunter</b>, says this:</p><p></p><blockquote>“I am sure it was the Lord kept the city, and none else; for there were many of us that could hardly stand on our feet before the enemy attacked the walls, who, when they were assaulting the out-trenches, ran out against them most nimbly and with great courage. Indeed, it was never the poor, starved men that were in Derry that kept it out, but the mighty God of Jacob, to whom praise for ever and ever.” </blockquote><p>............</p><p>In <i>The Declaration of the Inhabitants of Derry</i> of December 1688 (<a href="https://archive.org/details/mackenziesmemor00mackgoog/page/n85/mode/2up">online here</a>), there are echoes of their descendants' thinking in the 13 Colonies in the 1770s. Each community demanded their liberties whilst at the same time expressing their loyalty to the King:<br /><br /></p><blockquote>"...Wherefore we do declare and remonstrate to the world that, as we have resolved to stand upon our guard, and defend our walls, and not to admit of any Papists whatsoever to quarter among us, so we have firmly and sincerely determined to persevere in our duty and loyalty to our sovereign Lord the King, without the least umbrage of mutiny or seditious opposition to his royal commands..." </blockquote><p></p><p>............</p><p>John Graham, in <i>Ireland Preserved</i>, records the kindnesses of some local Catholic parish priests towards their Protestant neighbours who were in distress - <a href="https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=pQs1AAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA282&hl=en">see p 283-4 here</a>.</p><p></p><p>The critical lesson here is that your relationship to institutional power - a state, a church, a monarchy, etc - is <i>not</i> the same as your relationship with your neighbour. However, some form of institutional power is probably trying to emotionally recruit you, while a competing one is trying to emotionally recruit your neighbour - and thereby to set you against each other.</p><p>As <b>Rev Thomas Witherow</b> said in his 1873 book about Derry, <i>'Every admirer of King William should remember that, as that great monarch often said, he had come over "to deliver the Protestants, but not to persecute the Papists." To tolerate honest difference of opinion, is the spirit that William always aimed to promote.'</i> </p><p>............</p><div>* this all sounds much like <b>Patrick Henry</b>'s famous <i>'give me liberty or give me death' </i>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_me_liberty,_or_give_me_death!">Wikipedia here</a>). <span face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #29303b; font-size: 14.3px;">Patrick Henry's father was from Aberdeen; his sister Elizabeth was married to Ulster descended <b>William Campbell</b>, one of the signatories to the <b>Fincastle Resolutions </b>of 20 January 1775<b> </b>(<a href="https://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2016/08/rev-charles-cummings-and-first.html">see previous post here</a>).</span></div><p></p><p></p><p></p></div></div></div></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-59127268770965946462024-03-10T20:36:00.012+00:002024-03-10T20:49:18.686+00:00Declaration of Independence - Part Two: The 'Declaration' of William Prince of Orange, 10 October 1688
<br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d2q_V6e6tB4?si=ATxTElgfaCAaSXP3" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div>
<b><br />• 1688: WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE</b><br />Last weekend while visiting family in Devon, we stayed at <b>Parliament Cottage</b> which nestles in the hollows near Totnes in Devon. A place of treason and Revolution. An area where, in 1685, locals had been rounded up and executed for their part in a defeated rebellion. So I made this very rough video. In the front garden is a monument commemorating that William, Prince of Orange, held his very first Parliament here in November 1688, having landed with his vast armada on the coast at Brixham just 8 miles away. The cottage has been beautifully restored in recent years by its current owners and is now available via Air BNB as holiday accommodation. Present at William's 1688 Parliament were various English nobles such as <b>Sir Edward Seymour</b>; some sources say that they all then went to Seymour's nearby castle of <b>Berry Pomeroy</b> to be entertained.<div><br /></div><div>I brought the iPad with me, and read William's <i>Declaration</i> through a few times at the very same fireside that William himself had sat beside in 1688. I've just written an 11,000 word paper on the multiple interconnections between William's 1688 <i>Declaration</i> and the American <i>Declaration of Independence</i> of 1776, which will soon be published in the <i>Journal</i> of the <b>Museum of Orange Heritage</b>. Renowned American authorities on the period such as <b>Gary Wills</b> and <b>Michael Barone</b> have written about those indisputable links; I touched on some of those links in some of the similar 'selfie' videos I made when in Boston just before Christmas.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwvaF7vTQtmxC-d-N3j4pGb2EuMMmEbKYyP9QtxXeGUxC6RKxoJS-18fHtdDZe1K8BejqrI6QRpOBQayqotc8ayyssDqNEzGG0_KFfGO_X3771a7tUvybsZf_nezNgnc1LfLQdTAv2rMsb8Pna6nfbwRrXAEp6cNd5avqOBnV-ovmHUrtbcdNr/s640/William%20640.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="640" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwvaF7vTQtmxC-d-N3j4pGb2EuMMmEbKYyP9QtxXeGUxC6RKxoJS-18fHtdDZe1K8BejqrI6QRpOBQayqotc8ayyssDqNEzGG0_KFfGO_X3771a7tUvybsZf_nezNgnc1LfLQdTAv2rMsb8Pna6nfbwRrXAEp6cNd5avqOBnV-ovmHUrtbcdNr/w639-h338/William%20640.jpg" width="639" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WaeQ0nhOj-mDOH_QciF13K_RF1IXzbDa94YmxGecc64gYcGCbynSB3KaLFg7sf9DIVAPO5lu0E3QtK2d7cc4dZyyYoNR8J3pFFnXcEmWawJi6yIMhDUyRJf_Sr0UkO9Jg3y2vlQBeRInU1d02_0R9625ST1U92014JL3bclqkcckxflZ96sJ/s640/Jefferson%20640%20copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WaeQ0nhOj-mDOH_QciF13K_RF1IXzbDa94YmxGecc64gYcGCbynSB3KaLFg7sf9DIVAPO5lu0E3QtK2d7cc4dZyyYoNR8J3pFFnXcEmWawJi6yIMhDUyRJf_Sr0UkO9Jg3y2vlQBeRInU1d02_0R9625ST1U92014JL3bclqkcckxflZ96sJ/s16000/Jefferson%20640%20copy.jpg" /></a></div><p><b><br />• 1770s: THOMAS JEFFERSON<br /></b>Thomas Jefferson was the most prominent of the five authors of the <i>Declaration of Independence</i>. He studied at the <b>College of William and Mary </b>(<a href="https://www.wm.edu/">website here</a>), in <b>Williamsburg </b>in Virginia, from March 1760-1767. 1776 was the ultimate outworking of the British colonists' desire for their full liberties as defined in law – on both sides of the Atlantic – by the Glorious Revolution in 1688, 1689 and 1691. The two <i>Declarations</i> use remarkably similar introductory vocabulary, and structure. Perhaps Jefferson and co knew that, when King George III saw it, he would realise instantly that it mirrored the prior<i> Declaration</i> of William, on which the British monarchy was founded. </p><p>Back in 1772 the renowned writer <b>‘Junius’</b> had already reminded, and warned, King George III by invoking the 1688 Revolution in a letter in the <i>Public Advertiser</i> newspaper in London:</p><p></p><blockquote>“…<b>The people of England are loyal to the house of Hanover, not from a vain preference of one family to another, but from a conviction that the establishment of that family was necessary to the support of their civil and religious liberties</b> … The name of Stuart by itself is only contemptible; armed with the sovereign authority their principles are formidable. The prince who imitates their conduct should be warned by their example; and <b>while he plumes himself upon the security of his title to the crown, should remember that, as it was acquired by one revolution it may be lost by another.</b>”</blockquote><p></p><p>Jefferson's <a href="https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/shadwell/">first personal library at his mother's home at Shadwell</a> outside Charlottesville, Virginia, had burned down in February 1770. There are <a href="https://tjlibraries.monticello.org/transcripts/shadwell/shadwell.html">only partial records of what he had</a> there, which include <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Robertson_(historian)">William Robertson</a>'s <i>History of Scotland During the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James VI </i>and also the plays of Londonderry born playwright <b>George Farquhar, </b>and various volumes by <b>John Locke</b><i>.</i></p><p>Six years after the devastating fire Jefferson was polishing the historic prose of the final version of the <i>Declaration of Independence </i>which he then handed to Ulsterman <b>Charles Thomson</b> to sign off, who then took it to Ulsterman <b>John Dunlap</b> to be printed.</p></div><div><i>More to follow....</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbkDNoP2jxrSfsg8PfT0F0NG65RM067BGrclofyMuInkjMCl_C3qkcHQYemtJlWikSecl7OseolmMgc5Pg5WTsd51bX6S1FSpI6l1gny930lk_Qe-ujzV8-H_Sdy1nJx6r5IjpxqJ74ISp6fvq6KCrogQaq9k4mrwpEXVOaA4iJL68KTGLx6qP/s640/IMG_6946.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbkDNoP2jxrSfsg8PfT0F0NG65RM067BGrclofyMuInkjMCl_C3qkcHQYemtJlWikSecl7OseolmMgc5Pg5WTsd51bX6S1FSpI6l1gny930lk_Qe-ujzV8-H_Sdy1nJx6r5IjpxqJ74ISp6fvq6KCrogQaq9k4mrwpEXVOaA4iJL68KTGLx6qP/s16000/IMG_6946.JPEG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVCmFOaY_v3_cN39rtQPB1KouQCRgm__qAEDfS4Gtx9Fav15z-W8gENvkUZwLJcj5NTbYUMAdv5W8WEOvF72smgTuUMgIHvXcmGh41zKGWNwuFwBt4eBoYz4EEgGaYvGemipFeUu1R0o_i6rT-i7zkszpWMfcwXbIz4PfxbAUbwpepTLIeRVm/s640/IMG_6958.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVCmFOaY_v3_cN39rtQPB1KouQCRgm__qAEDfS4Gtx9Fav15z-W8gENvkUZwLJcj5NTbYUMAdv5W8WEOvF72smgTuUMgIHvXcmGh41zKGWNwuFwBt4eBoYz4EEgGaYvGemipFeUu1R0o_i6rT-i7zkszpWMfcwXbIz4PfxbAUbwpepTLIeRVm/s16000/IMG_6958.JPEG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2oTs_9AS8Iw53UtvUxsaYvv2_2e-Vxb8IXm57up71pdwJz5oHdQoZeXcYUjW5PNFqdTEErqo7X18qVug_mbeIf-MyxUvSQhYhowaVbbCODu1VoNUe_qEd6S28XmPm69-3WNwYvNOz1sLPEZi0HcOXdVYoeMj9GcuRu7Pj7WE8mfGkERjvxzaj/s640/IMG_6889.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2oTs_9AS8Iw53UtvUxsaYvv2_2e-Vxb8IXm57up71pdwJz5oHdQoZeXcYUjW5PNFqdTEErqo7X18qVug_mbeIf-MyxUvSQhYhowaVbbCODu1VoNUe_qEd6S28XmPm69-3WNwYvNOz1sLPEZi0HcOXdVYoeMj9GcuRu7Pj7WE8mfGkERjvxzaj/s16000/IMG_6889.JPEG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6ZCvwq-xlY_G3MDEXDtPhud4OnqqiaRQZtWZjgrSuKmsKJBbnhnUghTKnX7sJMQzyyqqcXSdro3fGEUL14moHUzU30JazWSTYgEX7u31nUhPRRA6jnwitHs_03Bmb6R3ZOMsv0Z3hIbvYDyLn5JB7MMHpvXuG3M_WhiHl6ljYZ-L-TChGT76/s853/IMG_6959.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6ZCvwq-xlY_G3MDEXDtPhud4OnqqiaRQZtWZjgrSuKmsKJBbnhnUghTKnX7sJMQzyyqqcXSdro3fGEUL14moHUzU30JazWSTYgEX7u31nUhPRRA6jnwitHs_03Bmb6R3ZOMsv0Z3hIbvYDyLn5JB7MMHpvXuG3M_WhiHl6ljYZ-L-TChGT76/s16000/IMG_6959.JPEG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCkMWsQfunZCqx7bvsk8rvBjTpjm53HiNWVIt-BHpyTRyz8Em9motidO3JBQKBFBXS6kpz-QBDVWNfz9AJml9KR4uwKN8ysfaEbQTlDGSOT9CQvq0x0ncRovNM1bDLAR-u25S1-02wk5Y6zDKVOV4X60jKzdj4mcVVbwQOjd4OkPF1DWIwB8Jb/s640/IMG_6873.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCkMWsQfunZCqx7bvsk8rvBjTpjm53HiNWVIt-BHpyTRyz8Em9motidO3JBQKBFBXS6kpz-QBDVWNfz9AJml9KR4uwKN8ysfaEbQTlDGSOT9CQvq0x0ncRovNM1bDLAR-u25S1-02wk5Y6zDKVOV4X60jKzdj4mcVVbwQOjd4OkPF1DWIwB8Jb/s16000/IMG_6873.JPEG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A round table, fit for an aspiring King to hold his first Parliament.<br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF5rItnye-hVdrnsBhFCAgQWNd5j1avT_YHlu48FTuiGabCJ7vWFQ8PPSj9lniT5QDrDPc1LbMrVC4EG0tL_ET0jMgyYQtvk8GbGdb6x1HId80yfIeTmSDO-1kYGGAIxTeCzA3rMDQRbw_hV4cvuhvBYLrQuKFM9-bWpv0rUY6MSI4QuhxxkFq/s640/IMG_6874.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF5rItnye-hVdrnsBhFCAgQWNd5j1avT_YHlu48FTuiGabCJ7vWFQ8PPSj9lniT5QDrDPc1LbMrVC4EG0tL_ET0jMgyYQtvk8GbGdb6x1HId80yfIeTmSDO-1kYGGAIxTeCzA3rMDQRbw_hV4cvuhvBYLrQuKFM9-bWpv0rUY6MSI4QuhxxkFq/s16000/IMG_6874.JPEG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ4iSKf1Ip2ECoVRrBqNYXEpl9gDGT9Y6aEYRWfwK8odzYwRBXi0852qhVovrVkGtBbI45z5a1d6hesytuQ_FaThUzpeXNIPHST2lxibPirpJmkO9vYFfDIRneaCtmIuNBOii87FidYvtEdgPR6p_mDnfgY6_Y5oPgFMgrE9y-KWMrwOakqwZr/s853/IMG_6841.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ4iSKf1Ip2ECoVRrBqNYXEpl9gDGT9Y6aEYRWfwK8odzYwRBXi0852qhVovrVkGtBbI45z5a1d6hesytuQ_FaThUzpeXNIPHST2lxibPirpJmkO9vYFfDIRneaCtmIuNBOii87FidYvtEdgPR6p_mDnfgY6_Y5oPgFMgrE9y-KWMrwOakqwZr/s16000/IMG_6841.JPEG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVP3Yy6lQJxVIxIWju5lnUybJCrYuBbatAAN7qWiwQGKw8HkdEEMGW0kZqGjtxNh3kxrXr94OjHFUPzTKrSPwdA99jC1r8fzDsnCE-Tyjz0SwKy4LZihG63TosR8_qdwI-YSflBwap_WZRx4mt1UtAcU8F8pcrCI7OH83totuy97CmWRCojMYp/s853/IMG_6847.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVP3Yy6lQJxVIxIWju5lnUybJCrYuBbatAAN7qWiwQGKw8HkdEEMGW0kZqGjtxNh3kxrXr94OjHFUPzTKrSPwdA99jC1r8fzDsnCE-Tyjz0SwKy4LZihG63TosR8_qdwI-YSflBwap_WZRx4mt1UtAcU8F8pcrCI7OH83totuy97CmWRCojMYp/s16000/IMG_6847.JPEG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Below: Michael Barone's book, connecting 1688 and 1776, also made the trip with me.<br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTrngf6EztL-N-g1I-Ec8-_yUlwyYKet7PVMHENzXOYpaaEhFvveQDtrAOPdAeWFsdxSGYk6LIjTLoVFqhMB2cFeBxiWgcxClEeMCtAqlcCl_uW75kjcTRmKTT5f-GJelm7Z_hF6FLWru5olNY7Sr9HtOdO3l1Znmtg_aQDbiYwX27heBq464/s640/IMG_6994.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTrngf6EztL-N-g1I-Ec8-_yUlwyYKet7PVMHENzXOYpaaEhFvveQDtrAOPdAeWFsdxSGYk6LIjTLoVFqhMB2cFeBxiWgcxClEeMCtAqlcCl_uW75kjcTRmKTT5f-GJelm7Z_hF6FLWru5olNY7Sr9HtOdO3l1Znmtg_aQDbiYwX27heBq464/s16000/IMG_6994.JPEG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Below: Sir Edward Seymour's Berry Pomeroy Castle today, <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/berry-pomeroy-castle/">owned by English Heritage</a>.<br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpmT6Kgqxs-ue5DeVKhu_WWqGrr3hKFhv3Fix5iyzJqq41EpOKdhGUJZgeKZUmmppEZ2NdfHTYVUmNZorjb-qAvD7F0t5YJTKaEVVm2JCqUnnDXROtncayLUmw5lvj19XTQn7dbVQK-wVlOdqrp-YP9PBSFx6LXXhYJJZd64sWhKHCcd6-KnGO/s640/IMG_6979.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpmT6Kgqxs-ue5DeVKhu_WWqGrr3hKFhv3Fix5iyzJqq41EpOKdhGUJZgeKZUmmppEZ2NdfHTYVUmNZorjb-qAvD7F0t5YJTKaEVVm2JCqUnnDXROtncayLUmw5lvj19XTQn7dbVQK-wVlOdqrp-YP9PBSFx6LXXhYJJZd64sWhKHCcd6-KnGO/s16000/IMG_6979.JPEG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><br /></div></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-56176804133406540062024-03-06T18:08:00.003+00:002024-03-06T18:08:46.180+00:00Another set of 'Resolves' - The Tryon Association/Resolves - Lincoln County, North Carolina, 14 August 1775<p><i>(this is from Historyman on LinkedIn)</i><br /><br />The Tryon Association/Resolves was yet another document of the sentiments of the people prior to the Declaration of Independence. On August 14, 1775, the leading men in present-day Lincoln county, NC, penned a decree and signed their names at hazard to themselves and their fortunes.</p><p><b>An Association.</b><br />The unprecedented, barbarous and bloody actions committed by the British Troops on our American Brethren near Boston on the 19th of April & 20th of May last, together with the Hostile operations & Traiterous Designs now Carrying on by the Tools of Ministerial Vengeance & Despotism for the Subjugating all British America, suggest to us the painful necessity of having recourse to Arms for the preservation of those Rights & Liberties which the principles of our Constitution and the Laws of God, Nature, and Nations have made it our duty to defend.</p><p>We therefore, the Subscribers Freeholders & Inhabitants of Tryon County, do hereby faithfully unite ourselves under the most sacred ties of Religion, Honor & Love to Our Country, firmly to Resist force by force in defence of our Natural Freedom & Constitutional Rights against all Invasions, & at the same time do solemnly engage to take up Arms and Risque our lives and fortunes in maintaining the Freedom of our Country, whenever the Wisdom & Council of the Continental Congress or our Provincial Convention shall Declare it necessary, & this Engagement we will continue in and hold sacred ’till a Reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain and America on Constitutional principles which we most ardently desire. And we do firmly agree to hold all such persons Inimical to the liberties of America, who shall refuse to subscribe to this Association.</p><p>Resolved, that we will Continue to profess all Loyalty and attachment to our Sovereign Lord King George the Third, His Crown & Dignity, so long as he secures to us those Rights and Liberties which the principles of Our Constitution require.</p><p>Resolved, and we do Impower every Captain or other Officer in their Respective Companies to raise sufficient force in order to detain and secure all powder and Lead that may be removing or about to be Removed out of the County; and that they do prevent any of such powder and Lead from being sold or disposed of for private uses; but to be under the direction of this Committee until the Delegates shall return from the provincial Convention; Provided nevertheless that this Resolution is not meant to hinder any persons Inhabitants of other County’s from Carrying powder and Lead through this County to their respective abodes unless there is just Cause to suspect that they Intend such Powder and Lead for Injurious purposes; ...</p><p>*Minutes of the Proceedings of Committee Tryon County 1775,” State Archives of North Carolina. A comprehensive study is Kathy Gunter Sullivan, Tryon County Documents 1769-1779: A North Carolina County (Forest City, North Carolina: Genealogical Society of Old Tryon County, 2000).</p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-49853929571474009532024-02-20T00:03:00.009+00:002024-02-20T00:55:18.797+00:00Declaration of Independence - Part One: "Every Man is Born Free" (1644) = "All Men are Created Equal" (1776)<p>It's well established, but little-known today, that in the 13 Colonies of America (during their decade of activism and protest from the Stamp Act of 1765 through to the summer of 1776), what the colonists sought were their <b>full British liberties, but not independence</b>. When the Crown rejected those demands, independence was the necessary last resort for the colonists to secure their liberties. </p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1uzSxJWF-zKvB6YFpINpWV55eS_aTCRfWUGHzYkyTQMmVgXTcrDE0xFJEZHoy-Jg8UqtxbIkhqLpHNZ53KwDGCQN1nn-uxdW6X-m1XgMyBjP_xJ4ZBF5OLAwdKHacyQJF1RzLmIR2JunmGxWTovKppcegjz6DmT7L_4gxGBFhJjrimNqlIZRG/s320/Wills-and-books.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="320" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1uzSxJWF-zKvB6YFpINpWV55eS_aTCRfWUGHzYkyTQMmVgXTcrDE0xFJEZHoy-Jg8UqtxbIkhqLpHNZ53KwDGCQN1nn-uxdW6X-m1XgMyBjP_xJ4ZBF5OLAwdKHacyQJF1RzLmIR2JunmGxWTovKppcegjz6DmT7L_4gxGBFhJjrimNqlIZRG/w260-h169/Wills-and-books.jpg" width="260" /></a></b></div>In<b> Professor Garry Wills</b>' landmark 1978 book <i>Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence</i> he says that independence was only eventually agreed by all of the representatives of the colonies on the 2 July 1776. The book is a brilliant phrase-by-phrase analysis of the language in the 1776 <i>Declaration of Independence</i>, the story of its development, and of the literary influences which shaped the thinking of 33 year old <b>Thomas Jefferson</b>. Jefferson wasn't the sole author of the <i>Declaration</i> - there was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Five">Committee of Five </a>- but he is credited with being the key figure among them.<p></p><p>It takes many streams to form a river, and as Wills shows, the <i>Declaration </i>can be seen as the confluence of a wide range of classical thought.</p><p>It's not a purely Scottish / Scotch-Irish / Ulster-Scots document (but the many preceeding, regional, <i>Resolves</i> and <i>Resolutions</i> from across the 13 Colonies are). Of the three names printed on the first edition, two were Ulster-born - <b>Charles Thomson</b> and <b>John Dunlap</b>. But the Scotch-Irish / Ulster-Scots, of all of the British Isles immigrant groups in the 1700s, brought with them a 'lived experience' which made them uniquely equipped to insist upon liberty, before loyalty. They had been, literally, scarred by the Siege of Derry, and were instilled with philosophical fortitude. As my old slogan says, they were <i>Mined in Scotland, Forged in Ulster, Exported Worldwide.</i></p><p>So, I'm piecing together a brief outline of the Scottish and Ulster-Scots philosophical strain - not just airy-fairy hypothetical cerebral concepts, but from actual documents which had already been written down at previous key moments of conflict between the Crown and the People.<br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDr1Wc16rOcL54FQyaUDls7UcN4_HM6IIi3DwmpKTQW7DlwRYJqrHTRl8mMkNPHLUlLT6An9Nr344vhrP83sEM72WoZ3DLl9Hws535n51Amf3j_F_PVBltn0p4J7nqjGFOAif8a9ZweY4Ytgvdg5Z6OFTOLQiIw7ww5rtzXdpkIRcuLEh37UjP/s640/Buchanan%20640%20copy.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="640" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDr1Wc16rOcL54FQyaUDls7UcN4_HM6IIi3DwmpKTQW7DlwRYJqrHTRl8mMkNPHLUlLT6An9Nr344vhrP83sEM72WoZ3DLl9Hws535n51Amf3j_F_PVBltn0p4J7nqjGFOAif8a9ZweY4Ytgvdg5Z6OFTOLQiIw7ww5rtzXdpkIRcuLEh37UjP/w676-h358/Buchanan%20640%20copy.jpg" width="676" /></a></div><p><b><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /><br /><br />• 1579: GEORGE BUCHANAN</b><br />There had long been a tension between the reach of the Crown and the rights of the people, and two centuries before the <i>Declaration of Independence</i> that tension was a central theme of the <b><span>Scottish Reformation</span></b>. John Knox and Andrew Melville confronted Scottish monarchs, at risk of their lives.</p><p>The publication of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Bible">Geneva Bible in 1560</a> included marginal notes, which, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/08/books/books-of-the-times-the-word-of-god-written-by-committee.html">around 400 times</a>, informed its readers that the word <i>king </i>can be translated as <i>tyrant</i>. The Bible is packed with kings and rulers who were precisely that, so all that the Geneva translators were doing was emphasising the point. Over and over and over again.</p><p>Back in 1579, in his <i>De Jure Regni: The Rights of the Crown in Scotland, </i>the 73 year old Scot<i> </i><b>George<i> </i>Buchanan</b> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Buchanan">Wikipedia here</a>) defined the limits of the monarchy. This was radical stuff in that he was the highly-educated personal tutor of both <b>Mary Queen of Scots</b> and also her young son and future King, <b>James</b>. Buchanan asserted that a monarch only reigns with the consent of the people. So, 'loyalty' is always conditional in that it is based upon a two-way bond. A 'social contract'. A <i>covenant</i>. One translation from Buchanan's original Latin puts it like this –</p><p></p><blockquote>"... the people, from whom he derived his power, should have the liberty of prescribing its bounds; and I require that he should exercise over the people only those rights which he has received from their hands."</blockquote><p></p><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/samuelrutherford00gilm/page/178/mode/2up?q=%22kings+to+their+account%22">Or, as this book explains</a> –</p><p></p><blockquote>"... the Scottish people have always retained the right of calling bad kings to their account. In virtue of their relation to the law, the people may deal with the king who breaks it. There is one law for king and private citizen. If the king refuse to submit to a trial, force may be applied, as in that case he has broken his compact with the people and become a tyrant."</blockquote><p>It's impossible to understate Buchanan's influence. He was a major figure in Scottish society - not only for his roles with the Scottish Royal family, but also as a Principal of one of the colleges at St Andrews University, and also Moderator of the Church of Scotland.</p><p>.............</p><p>These <b>Crown v People</b> issues simmered away for decades, and reached boiling points when various kings interfered in how the people wanted to operate their local churches, resulting in <i>The King's Confession</i> of 1581, and the two national momentous declarations of <i>Scotland's National Covenant </i>of 1638 and the <i>Solemn League and Covenant</i> of 1643. These two covenants had Ulster fingerprints on them, and were circulated and signed at public events in Ulster too.</p><p>In the heat of these times, in 1644 a Scottish Episcopalian bishop, <b>John Maxwell</b> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maxwell_(bishop)#:~:text=John%20Maxwell%20(1591%E2%80%931647),Ireland%20as%20Archbishop%20of%20Tuam.">Wikipedia here</a> - who was from Kirkcudbright, was a graduate of St Andrews University, and who held various clerical positions in Ireland) published <i>Sacro-Sancta Begum Majestas, or the Sacred and Divine Right, and Prerogative of Kings </i>(<a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A50351.0001.001?view=toc#:~:text=Title%3A-,Sacro%2Dsancta%20regum%20majestas%2C%20or%2C%20The%20sacred%20and%20royal,by%20discussing%20of%20five%20questions.">online here</a>). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42vs52aKFymYhRL-3OV4oAmkJ9G1uGKQBjGiRHIGb7b6EZnSODDg3dMYWS5npVpOZZeA_nf9dzV56O1R-DZWnfE7GfKupcC9BR-TRuls-7fzGnWTYjZOgEzzYauzQbHIbT9yXV8ronomoVyI2Ppbo71sIQgXzok1Gv11DOkg-0yJHl_w5Ljfa/s640/Rutherford%20640%20copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42vs52aKFymYhRL-3OV4oAmkJ9G1uGKQBjGiRHIGb7b6EZnSODDg3dMYWS5npVpOZZeA_nf9dzV56O1R-DZWnfE7GfKupcC9BR-TRuls-7fzGnWTYjZOgEzzYauzQbHIbT9yXV8ronomoVyI2Ppbo71sIQgXzok1Gv11DOkg-0yJHl_w5Ljfa/s16000/Rutherford%20640%20copy.jpg" /></a></div><p><b><br />• 1644: SAMUEL RUTHERFORD</b><br />In response to this, 44 year old <b>Rev Samuel Rutherford </b>went to print. He was a Scottish Presbyterian who had been minister of the tiny rural hamlet of Anwoth between Kirkcudbright and Dumfries, close to Bishop Maxwell's birthplace.</p><p>Rutherford had already tangled with the King and bishops, and had been sent to Aberdeen for six months exile, during which he was banned from preaching. Soon after, Rutherford's impressive intellect saw him appointed Professor at John Maxwell's alma mater of St Andrews University; around this time Rutherford married for a second time – a widow called Joan McMath/Montgomery, who had lived among fellow Scots settlers near Newtownards in County Down for a while. </p><p>Rutherford's reply to Maxwell was the momentous 1644 book <i>Lex Rex, </i>the format of which was 44 questions followed by detailed answers to each. In it, Rutherford pulled no punches. He specifically named Bishop John Maxwell and invoked the memory of George Buchanan: <i>"Buchanan and Mr Melvin were doctors of divinity; and could have taught such an ass as John Maxwell... Buchanan knew the </i><i>power of the Scottish parliament better than this ignorant statist".</i></p><p>Rutherford had worked on <i>Lex Rex</i> when he had been in London taking part in the Westminster Assembly. He asked <b>Rev Robert Blair</b>, formerly<b> </b>of Bangor, to review and critique the manuscript. Blair told him to not waste his energy on it, and to stick to theology.</p><p>Rutherford had it published anyway. <i>Lex Rex</i> developed the arguments that Buchanan had laid out 65 years before, back in 1579. It included this statement –</p><p></p><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;"><blockquote>EVERY MAN IS BORN FREE</blockquote></span></b></blockquote><p></p><p>Another response to Maxwell written by Rutherford was subtitled <i>A plea for the peoples rights </i>(<a href="https://westminsterassembly.org/primary-source/the-preeminence-of-the-election-of-kings-or-a-plea-for-the-peoples-rights/">see here</a>). Rutherford had shaken the kingdom and was accused of treason.</p><p>A new King, <b>Charles II</b>, came to the throne in May 1660. Almost immediately he began arresting his opponents. On 19 September 1660, a royal proclamation was published against <i>Lex Rex</i> for <i>'laying the foundation and seeds of rebellion'</i>, and a one month deadline was issued for anyone who owned a copy to deliver it to <b>Robert Dalgliesh</b>, the King's solicitor. Anyone who retained a copy would be<i> 'esteemed enemies of the King, and punished accordingly'.</i></p><p>Copies of <i>Lex Rex</i> were publicly burned at the market cross in Edinburgh, at the gate of the New College of St Andrews University, in London and at Oxford University. </p><p>Rutherford was charged with high treason. Soldiers were sent to his home to arrest him, only to find him already on his death bed - his message to them was <i>‘I have got a summons already from a superior Judge’.</i> </p><p>Rutherford died of natural causes on 29 March 1661, before he could be put on trial. His grave is at St Andrews. Two months later, royal-decreed public executions began in Edinburgh, commencing with the beheading of the Marquess of Argyll at Edinburgh's Grassmarket. This began the 27 years known as <b>'The Killing Times'.</b></p><p></p><p>In 1664 the state banned Buchanan's writings too – by then <i>De Jure Regni </i>had been translated into English by <b>Rev John Crookshanks</b> of Raphoe in Donegal. Crookshanks would be killed on the slopes of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rullion_Green">Pentland Hills outside Edinburgh in 1666</a>.</p><p>................</p><p>Many of Rutherford's writings are known to have made their way to New England in America, because he corresponded directly with people on that side of the Atlantic who were grappling with similar issues over there, such as <b>Cotton Mather</b>. Rutherford was also aware of the 1636 voyage of <i>Eagle Wing</i> from County Down to Massachusetts, and wrote to the minister of Holywood in County Down, <b>Rev Robert Cunningham</b>, that <i>“if I saw a call for New England, I too would follow it”</i>. Rutherford didn't cross the Atlantic, but his ideas did.</p><p><span style="color: red;">Rutherford's 1644 statement – <b>"Every Man is Born Free"</b> – is almost identical to a part of the <i>Declaration of Independence</i>'s opening sentence in 1776, <b>"All Men are Created Equal"</b>.</span></p><p>• <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/07/02/origins-of-the-declaration-of-independence-samuel-rutherfords-lex-rex/">Here is a 2016 article</a> by David Kopel in the<i> Washington Post: </i>'Origins of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Rutherford’s ‘Lex, Rex’<br /><br /><i>• Part Two to follow soon.....</i></p><p><br /></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-42860538222946638812024-02-18T01:00:00.001+00:002024-02-18T01:00:00.140+00:00Hello to my new readers - if you are real humans<p>Since December 2023, visitor figures and page views here have <i>skyrocketed</i> - have a look at the page views counter on the left for the stats for the past 30 days. At time of writing this post there have been over 500,000 page views in the last month. I'm not sure what to make of this – either I have been hacked in some way, am subject to a prank which is hitting me with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack#:~:text=A%20distributed%20denial%2Dof%2Dservice%20(DDoS)%20attack%20occurs,of%20hosts%20infected%20with%20malware.">some kind of DDOS</a>, or I'm an actual overnight online sensation. If the stats are genuine, then may I welcome you all and I hope that there's something here that's of interest. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzLe67jsr6uAC8Yad5emMpbRQN7OjtTHPwp8R1vR-diU8xKBG99ZsiipJ093bznDRUoXbDiww14l8vRCzy0JnAu8rVnyFR3cnRxePQZ0RLJqmWXwPrU65gcElPvQsrLbTGI9vZH56UbnvEXEFd_kQyE2x9kuv7Y3CHEUp8Uvk6GZcb8_3DWozL" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzLe67jsr6uAC8Yad5emMpbRQN7OjtTHPwp8R1vR-diU8xKBG99ZsiipJ093bznDRUoXbDiww14l8vRCzy0JnAu8rVnyFR3cnRxePQZ0RLJqmWXwPrU65gcElPvQsrLbTGI9vZH56UbnvEXEFd_kQyE2x9kuv7Y3CHEUp8Uvk6GZcb8_3DWozL=s16000" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-55443502442252445522024-02-17T14:50:00.006+00:002024-02-18T00:16:16.219+00:00CS Lewis: "We all, therefore, need the old books" /// King Josiah, Hilkiah the High Priest, and re-finding the original Book.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE40Q2n5KE06s6Th6IrkMUVDoJVXak9n9okuz2gT7_VzSka4PBl8LzXLcBmZRJnJCbA-tSo6Ft6rW-m9WmZ2-dJvtGAoSyPToxpbBG1u6LUNDj7cEQUkyzXnQgvmYKsVXsSZwKOmX5BoQMnS6y5WkiaSEicoKsT4EB2oredGp9QXqYj754k22w/s640/josiah-hears-the-word-of-the-law-2-kings-chapter-xxii-verses-10-11-FJR9AD.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE40Q2n5KE06s6Th6IrkMUVDoJVXak9n9okuz2gT7_VzSka4PBl8LzXLcBmZRJnJCbA-tSo6Ft6rW-m9WmZ2-dJvtGAoSyPToxpbBG1u6LUNDj7cEQUkyzXnQgvmYKsVXsSZwKOmX5BoQMnS6y5WkiaSEicoKsT4EB2oredGp9QXqYj754k22w/s16000/josiah-hears-the-word-of-the-law-2-kings-chapter-xxii-verses-10-11-FJR9AD.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSXugKTZURu_zaynsbVzZCg3hNgkdbovcY7X6rUEDU_FLQNyws9H0i5-1cgF0iU3sFP7024b1CSGJ7hpLGKnIU1ILk9lp4kKblHqwe4j-dySJ-dN3gIXjtMICuWUmTscc8ojjVrv9FFK42SatcZw8Uxl5ThbhehzAv6l5JLsurVa5G-TLd3RKA/s601/mw56774.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="442" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSXugKTZURu_zaynsbVzZCg3hNgkdbovcY7X6rUEDU_FLQNyws9H0i5-1cgF0iU3sFP7024b1CSGJ7hpLGKnIU1ILk9lp4kKblHqwe4j-dySJ-dN3gIXjtMICuWUmTscc8ojjVrv9FFK42SatcZw8Uxl5ThbhehzAv6l5JLsurVa5G-TLd3RKA/w181-h245/mw56774.jpg" width="181" /></a></div>World renowned Belfast-born author <b>C.S. Lewis</b> (shown left) was of Scottish County Down Hamilton ancestry on his mother’s side. He described his tutor <b>William Kirkpatrick</b> as an ‘Ulster Scot’. Lewis wrote an article in 1944 entitled <i>‘On Reading Old Books’:</i> </div><p></p><p></p><blockquote>“Every age has its own outlook… We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books”.</blockquote><p></p><p>I used this quote in the <a href="https://www.rte.ie/history/2024/0206/1430711-irish-without-scots-within-the-complex-history-of-ulster-scot/?fbclid=IwAR3BBiP87jH32wnd4Lu8uyHnsjEhWok5U_BPlNs5OKD92eMfzvtKwhWW6pc">article that RTE published recently</a>. Stepping out of our own era enables us to see different, sometimes forgotten, realities.</p><p>...................</p><p>This is of course what the 16th century theological Reformation was essentially about - a return to the original texts, and a rejection of the traditionalism which had been grafted onto them. </p><p>It is human nature to forget, and to add. An example of the necessity of recovery can be found in the Old Testament, in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+22&version=ESV">2 Kings 22</a> and also <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Chronicles%2034&version=ESV">2 Chronicles 34</a>.</p><p><b>Josiah</b> became King of Judah around 630BC as a boy of just 8 years old. He was the first 'good' King after two very bad ones. Under his reign, he began a country-wide project of removing all sorts of pagan stuff. In the city, the religious life in the temple of Jerusalem trundled along for 18 years pretty much as it had been doing for generations before.</p><p>By this stage Josiah was just 26 - even though this scene is often depicted in Bible story books with him looking like an ancient Gandalf type character (see the two examples with this post). People have big ambitions at 26, so he commenced repair work on the temple building, during which <b>Hilkiah</b>, the High Priest, discovered the long-lost original 'Book of the Law' of Moses. It had been lost for an unthinkable 600 years, yet religious practices had continued without being able to refer to it as the benchmark. And so those practices had become distorted. Their Bible was lost for 600 years - lost within their own religious system.</p><p>The book was brought to King Josiah, and was read aloud to him. In hearing its words, he realised that their national religiosity and tradition had departed very far away from what it was originally meant to be. </p><p>Josiah then instituted a complete national Reformation, a return to the original, and smashing up every remnant of the things they had invented for themselves.</p><p>• Josiah was a direct ancestor of Jesus, as shown in Jesus' genealogy in Matthew chapter 1.</p><p>...................</p><p>The lesson for us all is that things we assume, having been passed down to us, <i>might be wrong</i>. They might be centuries old, and feel important, but they might be totally wrong.</p><p>Seek the old books. Dig up the original sources. Smash what needs to be smashed. Restore what needs to be restored. Reform what you need to reform. <i>Semper Reformanda</i>.</p><p>...................</p><p>• Here is <a href="https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/book-grieved-josiah">a summary of the story</a> from the Ligonier website, whose late <b>Dr RC Sproul</b> was of Donegal ancestry. </p><p>• <a href="https://tabletalkmagazine.com/posts/finding-what-hilkiah-found-recovering-gods-word-in-our-lives-2019-06/">Here it is again</a>, from <i>Tabletalk Magazine</i>.</p><p>• Engraving below <a href="https://digitalcollections.vicu.utoronto.ca/RS/pages/view.php?ref=15016&k=#">from this website</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQzskEx3RZtWBxYVJ48OGBAC3kPu6hF148rKPXFSk-WvMdu8S8vdgGcahr3N1FjZyXGIWIqbP1CB42bclCGnSWvzEopM046qT2VISSRyLWjzZX1ZsmbKhlFYe070KXVZAiS2I4C0FzzW2YIWZscqGP3uCv1ZcEAJmlHeAM1ESWbI_ABe8NZI_N/s1036/RS15016_blake_no741_pg153-hpr%20640.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1036" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQzskEx3RZtWBxYVJ48OGBAC3kPu6hF148rKPXFSk-WvMdu8S8vdgGcahr3N1FjZyXGIWIqbP1CB42bclCGnSWvzEopM046qT2VISSRyLWjzZX1ZsmbKhlFYe070KXVZAiS2I4C0FzzW2YIWZscqGP3uCv1ZcEAJmlHeAM1ESWbI_ABe8NZI_N/s16000/RS15016_blake_no741_pg153-hpr%20640.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O95Tg1VL4zk?si=MAEcoZlbEs8mLJKT" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-86967663971742950602024-02-13T23:32:00.009+00:002024-02-14T12:12:26.973+00:0013 February 1689, the Bill of Rights of William III and Mary II<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcZGI0nnWmuA7LeNcEl-V_3t-xue06FD9RvrSL3JIXAbwLChTCCOVanDbiI8XjpQdxSm05wL8jalVutm-8EtFGCrIE-xZGHxRVRO-hA46yJRJy4J9aCZejKVe5z440tzWxErvBUxSmbu7nHMBXc2ZjQLPHfsP1gOSVKha4GrS3u2SJFJ3vp4yw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="640" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcZGI0nnWmuA7LeNcEl-V_3t-xue06FD9RvrSL3JIXAbwLChTCCOVanDbiI8XjpQdxSm05wL8jalVutm-8EtFGCrIE-xZGHxRVRO-hA46yJRJy4J9aCZejKVe5z440tzWxErvBUxSmbu7nHMBXc2ZjQLPHfsP1gOSVKha4GrS3u2SJFJ3vp4yw=w640-h460" width="640" /></a></div><br />335 years ago today, 13 February, was when the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/WillandMarSess2/1/2/introduction">1689 Bill of Rights</a> came before the new <b>King William III</b> and <b>Queen Mary II</b>, two months ahead of their formal Coronation. It was a huge statement on their part, overturning many aspects of the previous monarch's oppression of the people.<div><br /></div><div>There were 13 'grievances' of the reign of the previous King James II, and 13 subsequent 'clauses' to address those grievances. From our perspective, it's not a perfect list. From their perspective it was <i>enough</i>. Among these rights was one <a href="https://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2024/01/st-peters-church-tiverton-devon-bloody.html">which I mentioned in a recent post here</a> and which came up in conversation with some friends last week:<p></p><p><i><b></b></i></p><blockquote><i><b>Right to petition.</b><br />That it is the Right of the Subjects to petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are Illegall.</i></blockquote><p></p><p>Thanks to that Bill of Rights, subjects were given the right to complain about the state, to the state, and it was against the law for them be prosecuted for such complaints. The previous King James II had his opponents rounded up and slaughtered in public (<a href="https://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2024/01/before-billy-bastard-dutchman-who-tried.html">see another recent post here about the 'Bloody Assizes' in south west England</a>).</p><p>In our era, should that principle <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68248799">be applied to this recent news story</a>? If I only approve of free speech <i>for those I agree with</i>, then I don't approve of free speech.</p><p>I don't read much <i>Troubles</i> era material, as I am fortunate enough to not have had direct experience of those dark years, even though many of my friends tragically did. However, a while ago I was recommended <b>Owen Dudley Edwards</b>'s 1970 book <i>Sins of Our Fathers: Background to Crisis in Northern Ireland</i>, which I have dipped in to. There is a fascinating section in which he quotes <b>William Johnston MP</b> of Ballykilbeg on 'freedom of assembly':</p><p></p><blockquote><p>"Protestantism does not consist in doing injustice to our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. ... I stand for justice for the Protestants and for the removal of injustice from the Roman Catholics of Ireland". (1868)</p><p>"The man who calls himself a Protestant and attacks a peaceable Roman Catholic procession is doing as much as lies in him to destroy the liberties of his fellow Protestants". (1869)</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Check out <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Johnston_%28Irish_politician%29">William Johnston's Wikipedia here</a> – he went to prison for freedom of assembly, and was an early campaigner for women's 'suffrage' to get the vote.</p>King William III and Queen Mary II set the template for America – their 1688-91 Declaration, Revolution, Bill of Rights, and War against the previous King, would all be echoed in 1776-1783 across the Atlantic in the 13 Colonies.<div><br /></div><div><i>What does liberty look like today? </i><br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhivxsruOLW0bo6Wut4hNJ28gBt6vh-uPTXt27kZ2QPe7rwC3tOBrFIWjd6nLdPAq99wmurhSDtdx6A6FaajYuWo6iyNNNRcRJ52zv_De7Iy70tJsVRvi3gCgGscdeb1FWKMV8v8t4K4PkMILNUDFoJWk7UKlG_sAfqkkFR4dkJB9UInzEXNdmI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhivxsruOLW0bo6Wut4hNJ28gBt6vh-uPTXt27kZ2QPe7rwC3tOBrFIWjd6nLdPAq99wmurhSDtdx6A6FaajYuWo6iyNNNRcRJ52zv_De7Iy70tJsVRvi3gCgGscdeb1FWKMV8v8t4K4PkMILNUDFoJWk7UKlG_sAfqkkFR4dkJB9UInzEXNdmI=w640-h640" width="640" /></a><br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWYsSm7e9qjBv5A97ez9zWfCSRiKKPjWb_s6xBMbuWBBHCTSZWleUaL56Aq7bP46OrLuwzcL9JJ1CzYOX3-9Ff3bEujYWvzo-ToKdm6NRBotC9APms4QOTjG7sxdQ68vgLZtyy3RIisT0oqnw4m-JjtkoIOob39ayuHLaTEmzIcDtm5OiRO_pt" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWYsSm7e9qjBv5A97ez9zWfCSRiKKPjWb_s6xBMbuWBBHCTSZWleUaL56Aq7bP46OrLuwzcL9JJ1CzYOX3-9Ff3bEujYWvzo-ToKdm6NRBotC9APms4QOTjG7sxdQ68vgLZtyy3RIisT0oqnw4m-JjtkoIOob39ayuHLaTEmzIcDtm5OiRO_pt=s16000" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><div><br /></div></div></div></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-77161940710695475162024-02-08T19:04:00.006+00:002024-02-08T19:06:08.433+00:00Everything we know is wrong - the first two designs of the Tricolour<p>One for my <b>RTE </b>viewing friends. The Tricolour of Ireland that we are all familiar with seeing isn't the first design, and it's not even the second design. </p><p>Away back last October, two former Ireland rugby internationals, <b>Andrew Trimble</b> and <b>Barry Murphy</b>, came round to our house for a long chat about all sorts of cultural - NOT political - stuff, and some of that conversation has made the final edit for a TV programme which will be shown on RTE next Monday night, timed to coincide with the Six Nations.</p><p>The flags segment was the most visual part of the conversation, and TV is a visual medium. So, RTE asked me to write an article a few days ago, <a href="https://www.rte.ie/history/2024/0206/1430711-irish-without-scots-within-the-complex-history-of-ulster-scot/?fbclid=IwAR3BBiP87jH32wnd4Lu8uyHnsjEhWok5U_BPlNs5OKD92eMfzvtKwhWW6pc">which they have posted on their website here</a>, with some stills from that particular bit.</p><p><i>'Andrew Trimble: For Ulster & Ireland'</i> is on RTE One next Monday 12 Feb at 9.35pm.<br />Made by NPE Media.<br />Funded by the Northern Ireland Screen Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund.<br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCSntD1Wx-0naJNPH7CDB_HQBkxDu_CmIOzOjfcoEuLb91gIsSRAxxz60DIYDzijMJaK_4mOdY5q1CRc7Df1O14f7XVFKY_5kso5yQAe7bkZ5RiYyaS9Y3Y5Euk5Y04h5CJCvwuSV_roRikOJIgswWMmnHcdviIOaDTB0n-sIXi_Pk-QWT6OSZ/s640/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-06%20at%2020.44.07%20(3).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCSntD1Wx-0naJNPH7CDB_HQBkxDu_CmIOzOjfcoEuLb91gIsSRAxxz60DIYDzijMJaK_4mOdY5q1CRc7Df1O14f7XVFKY_5kso5yQAe7bkZ5RiYyaS9Y3Y5Euk5Y04h5CJCvwuSV_roRikOJIgswWMmnHcdviIOaDTB0n-sIXi_Pk-QWT6OSZ/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-06%20at%2020.44.07%20(3).png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkGDN1ePEiBIqtEmB2O6ArfriKBt8sTyzeSYfDmRvIUSoNNkNCo6mOYH1XJ5q5A1ISumPAZs6mia8wxXoMHUM652cXGcSSu8ZsQO5IfEJ8h47baUt1NOYjKlaSp1Pv35Avqbo4LrWcdPwuUjlsjEVifypuK4p5640r6XoR1AgaLS4qoDoz6DNR/s640/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-06%20at%2020.45.25%20(3).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkGDN1ePEiBIqtEmB2O6ArfriKBt8sTyzeSYfDmRvIUSoNNkNCo6mOYH1XJ5q5A1ISumPAZs6mia8wxXoMHUM652cXGcSSu8ZsQO5IfEJ8h47baUt1NOYjKlaSp1Pv35Avqbo4LrWcdPwuUjlsjEVifypuK4p5640r6XoR1AgaLS4qoDoz6DNR/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-06%20at%2020.45.25%20(3).png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPJdQ5JG9Jyc3gPD1RjLC6knQEA9GV91FJixLR1YWfSbeSqL5wZ-nVRJJ20R99HxdapJ1b2dyAHZh4_Ia9DjLHZboTBmhfyaidqobsHtckpuxcu8XZoMp1_aqprc2_6Sr54khRJQ6YJ7HxGsvALDILDQapB2k9_zUKAD03KbZZjfxnQr9Ifbzy/s640/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-06%20at%2020.44.11%20(3).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPJdQ5JG9Jyc3gPD1RjLC6knQEA9GV91FJixLR1YWfSbeSqL5wZ-nVRJJ20R99HxdapJ1b2dyAHZh4_Ia9DjLHZboTBmhfyaidqobsHtckpuxcu8XZoMp1_aqprc2_6Sr54khRJQ6YJ7HxGsvALDILDQapB2k9_zUKAD03KbZZjfxnQr9Ifbzy/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-06%20at%2020.44.11%20(3).png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-31551285337794301992024-02-06T00:37:00.000+00:002024-02-06T00:37:06.818+00:00The 1850 Tricolour of Ireland – coming soon....<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghkXq6lwhbyCFkr13kFw56OrKvU0150BvWdKOW_m0b6xgGa7LX92kevE-ep6BVaTShavYOvr_gTih92vGN5vSSoinoQDHm2FalClggx8hyJz1pROcv332GuJOFGIo24UsaYmSfxWfNr5Xzvk4NKUCFRN2IDUOKHdf4phZ_cD5h5cn9Cytc9XJo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghkXq6lwhbyCFkr13kFw56OrKvU0150BvWdKOW_m0b6xgGa7LX92kevE-ep6BVaTShavYOvr_gTih92vGN5vSSoinoQDHm2FalClggx8hyJz1pROcv332GuJOFGIo24UsaYmSfxWfNr5Xzvk4NKUCFRN2IDUOKHdf4phZ_cD5h5cn9Cytc9XJo=s16000" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-13970596712621890802024-02-05T00:31:00.001+00:002024-02-06T00:35:46.973+00:00Alan Rickman - The Power of Stories<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9GVUF_LLhQX1t9wFNhb2-_03r8nP9QBolUFexe3hdB1JSF0Ma7Xubt3Lx31JOXriZS21Wno6bWX2YyvwqqQQvjKAqN4I4-SNlJVjopEqK6NhoKRHT4lUNHue_cIDMc78XvuK_yyNEURS_qE-w47njFrJ9Ge731vPXKGwpzDm-2OKWU1wtGmhZ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9GVUF_LLhQX1t9wFNhb2-_03r8nP9QBolUFexe3hdB1JSF0Ma7Xubt3Lx31JOXriZS21Wno6bWX2YyvwqqQQvjKAqN4I4-SNlJVjopEqK6NhoKRHT4lUNHue_cIDMc78XvuK_yyNEURS_qE-w47njFrJ9Ge731vPXKGwpzDm-2OKWU1wtGmhZ=s16000" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-37496287681560989862024-02-04T22:50:00.006+00:002024-02-04T23:02:50.098+00:00The Scotch-Irish community Resolves and Resolutions, 1774-1776<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx-TC_Y1A3jT9Y59GuFeacrv62DUzGnXq012C1ul9XHeTD_cNgELt3YIRim89aYUlWsH2mRcoDRiQLQIh7Is-3EzfbwSUWvoJj4DgjYLiBtnFGSt_GJhkfj33bokRnBD-m2OWpwqhUv0-sUlhevmNCi4znm5BU3aNKpvYn3AIUYFS5tsAD89dl/s640/IMG_5961.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx-TC_Y1A3jT9Y59GuFeacrv62DUzGnXq012C1ul9XHeTD_cNgELt3YIRim89aYUlWsH2mRcoDRiQLQIh7Is-3EzfbwSUWvoJj4DgjYLiBtnFGSt_GJhkfj33bokRnBD-m2OWpwqhUv0-sUlhevmNCi4znm5BU3aNKpvYn3AIUYFS5tsAD89dl/s16000/IMG_5961.jpg" /></a></div><p><br />Here's a broad calendar of the many <i>Resolves</i> and <i>Resolutions</i> which were issued, by largely Ulster-Scots / Scotch-Irish communities, charting a course from the Boston Tea Party of 16 December 1773 to the Declaration of Independence of 4 July 1776. (Many others were passed in communities which were not substantially Scotch-Irish, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangetown_Resolutions">such as at Orangetown in New York</a>).</p><p>31 January 1774<br /><b>Colrain Resolves, MA</b><br />Short film launched last week, see previous post.</p><p><span style="color: red;">MARCH 1774<br /><b>BOSTON PORT ACT</b><br />London government passes law to blockade Boston harbour.</span></p><p>21 May 1774<br /><b>Chestertown Resolves, MD</b></p><p><span style="color: red;">1 JUNE 1774</span><br style="color: red;" /><b style="color: red;">BOSTON PORT BLOCKADE BEGINS</b></p><p>June 1774<br /><b>Sons of Liberty ‘Solemn League and Covenant’.</b><br />(Westford and Concord Massachusetts versions still exist).</p><p>4 June 1774<br /><b>Hanover Resolves, PA</b></p><p>10 June 1774<br /><b>Middletown Resolves, PA</b></p><p>26 June 1774<br /><b>Lebanon Resolves, PA</b></p><p>9 July 1774<br /><b>Lancaster Resolves, PA</b></p><p>12 July 1774<br /><b>Carlisle Resolves, PA</b><br />Venue, Carlisle Presbyterian Church, still exists.<br />Signatories include Ulster-born James Smith who signed the Declaration of Independence.</p><p>13 July 1774<br /><b>Chester Resolves, PA</b></p><p>18 July 1774<br /><b>Fairfax Resolves, VA</b></p><p>9 September 1774<br /><b>Suffolk Resolves, MA </b></p><p><span style="color: red;">14 OCTOBER 1774<br /><b>DECLARATION AND RESOLVES OF THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, PHILADELPHIA</b></span></p><p>20 January 1775<br /><b>Fincastle Resolutions, VA</b><br />Rev Charles Cummings log cabin still exists.</p><p>22 February 1775<br /><b>Staunton Instructions aka Augusta Resolves, VA</b><br />Museum of American Frontier Culture, with an Ulster farmstead, is at Staunton.</p><p><span style="color: red;">19 APRIL 1775<br /><b>WAR BEGINS AT LEXINGTON OUTSIDE BOSTON</b></span></p><p>16 May 1775<br /><b>Hanna’s Town Resolves, PA</b><br />Colonel John Proctor unfurled the first ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ flag.<br />See images above of 1975 publications.</p><p>20 May 1775<br /><b>Mecklenburg Declaration, Charlotte, NC</b></p><p>12 June 1775<br /><b>Virginia Declaration, Williamsburg, VA</b></p><p>12 April 1776<br /><b>Halifax Resolves, NC</b><br />One of the signatories was William Thompson from County Down.</p><p><span style="color: red;">4 JULY 1776<br /><b>DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE PRINTED, </b><b>PHILADELPHIA</b><br />Ulstermen Charles Thomson & John Dunlap named on the printed edition.</span></p><div>....................</div><div><br /></div><div>Multiple events were taking place in and around these documents, by major Ulster-Scots / Scotch-Irish personalities. As a basic chronology of local community written resistance it's pretty impressive.</div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-14980745130600778002024-01-31T11:43:00.019+00:002024-02-08T23:10:14.726+00:00'The Colrain Resolves, 31 January 1774' - short film released today. <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4MMHocTrS0ZrcMmfkH16nDa0QVhWffmriAO0G5UfXDATdW0htP_B3rPeIW0-J_On1SyVd8TmP9jB4jx6d0AKW3Tlp_H7qmN7ozTOlQOT4gzQAEMwBaRaXvZoBrODnas5XlM5bdYLhgbY0FblPkM80cuJT3bt8qFxS6CNeKGDQzJiTQV8VTZtx/s640/Colrain%20Movie%20Title%205%20640.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4MMHocTrS0ZrcMmfkH16nDa0QVhWffmriAO0G5UfXDATdW0htP_B3rPeIW0-J_On1SyVd8TmP9jB4jx6d0AKW3Tlp_H7qmN7ozTOlQOT4gzQAEMwBaRaXvZoBrODnas5XlM5bdYLhgbY0FblPkM80cuJT3bt8qFxS6CNeKGDQzJiTQV8VTZtx/s16000/Colrain%20Movie%20Title%205%20640.jpg" /></a></p><p>On this day 250 years ago, the Scotch-Irish community of Colrain in western Massachusetts committed their post-Boston Tea Party resolves to paper. I was delighted to be involved in this new short film, made by <b>Blue Eagle Productions</b> for the <b>Ulster-Scots Agency</b>. The film is below – to see the shorter 2 minute trailer, head over to t<a href="https://www.facebook.com/UlsterScotsAgency/videos/588557783468523/">he Agency's Facebook page here</a>.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JXbQTUuCNx8?si=okT4DbK7E6esa6Dn" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">The narrative for the film is closely based on the 1885 book <i>The Early Settlers of Colrain, Massachusetts</i>, by <b>Charles H McClellan</b> - <a href="https://archive.org/details/earlysettlersofc00mccle/page/n5/mode/2up">online here</a>. All of the characters in the film are from McClellan's book, with some additional biographical information of each person from other sources too.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The film tells just one small, hyper-local, but important, story. From 1774-76 there were dozens of similar communities across the 13 colonies who produced their own equivalents of these <i>Resolves</i> too.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Far away from the usual 'greatest hits' approach of familiar celebrity Americans – like the multiple Ulster-American Presidents, or the <i>Born Fighting</i> approach of war heroes and battles – there is a much deeper and emotive tale of the grassroots Scotch-Irish population. Unwelcome, marginalised and pushed to the edges of society, and far away from formal influence and power, they stood their ground and shaped the new nation. <b>Values</b> and <b>ideas</b> sustained them. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />The people of 1776 were the heirs of 1688 – the Prince of Orange's <i>Declaration</i>, Revolution, and <i>Bill of Rights</i> which ended a tyrannical monarchy in Great Britain and Ireland, became their American triple template. The people of Colrain might have thought "We did it before. We can do it again".</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The values that these Scotch-Irish communities lived for <b>transcended the limitations of ancestry and ethnicity</b>. They became the values and rights aspired to by <b>all </b>Americans. The <a href="https://america250.org/">America 250</a> website is here.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>• “He who has a <i>why</i> to live for can bear almost any <i>how</i>.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche</div></div><br /></div><br />Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-66540357346421035772024-01-29T00:22:00.001+00:002024-01-29T10:47:12.203+00:00Hugh Miller Thompson (1830-1902), Bishop of Mississippi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"I have always been proud to call myself an Ulsterman, proud that I am a born Derryman, a son of the men that starved and prayed and fought, but never surrendered."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Hugh Miller Thompson,</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Bishop of Mississippi,</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1889<br /><br />(quoted from the first edition of the <i>Proceedings of the Scotch-Irish Society of America</i>, <a href="https://archive.org/details/scotchirishiname00scotiala/page/16/mode/2up?view=theater&q=mccook">online here</a>)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpiRbsFd4Mo4BUAcGbDYxZug2qAuFDE1WOkrx4wOO7HwIELoLGy17_s-XvwNHnKN0LABIQx1iinUe5y3t88xvrtGdEaFMuyXLXebzIk3DllOT7pYbPWpSnvWGgoMBDqRxNDpEdTYZStzVo_26wUixd5uwkY5VxhYmUtxgAnMOQREZdDnigtPI0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="294" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpiRbsFd4Mo4BUAcGbDYxZug2qAuFDE1WOkrx4wOO7HwIELoLGy17_s-XvwNHnKN0LABIQx1iinUe5y3t88xvrtGdEaFMuyXLXebzIk3DllOT7pYbPWpSnvWGgoMBDqRxNDpEdTYZStzVo_26wUixd5uwkY5VxhYmUtxgAnMOQREZdDnigtPI0=w496-h640" width="496" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-66155689993194519812024-01-28T10:16:00.005+00:002024-01-28T20:58:58.701+00:00The Presbyterian General Synod in pre-Revolution America - "it was the only organisation which embraced all the colonies" / "the grandest conception of civil liberty that the human race was ever blessed with"<p>So said <b>Rev John H. Bryson</b> (1831-1897) of First Presbyterian Church, Huntsville, Alabama (minister there from 1880–1897) in his address to the Fourth Congress of the <b>Scotch Irish Society of America</b> in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1891. In our secularising age it is easy to forget the social cohesion that church structures provided. </p><p></p><blockquote>"This distribution of the Scotch-Irish over the whole country made it possible for them to exert a most powerful influence when the occasion should arise. So soon as they were settled down in their new homes they organised themselves into Churches and Presbyteries (for they were Presbyterians), and in 1717 a General Synod was founded.<b> By 1770, this delegated Synod was the most powerful religious organisation in the country. Indeed, it was the only organisation which embraced all the colonies. </b>The ministry were an able body of men, graduates of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton."</blockquote><p></p><p>Bryson had seen a lot in his lifetime. He was a minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, as was his father <b>Rev Henry Bryson </b>(1799–1874).<b> </b>John had been born in Fayetteville, Tennessee, in 1831 and in 1854 became minister of Hopewell in Maury County, Tennessee. He was a chaplain to the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Here's a portrait, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.southernpresbyt00pres/?sp=202&r=-1.581,-0.062,4.161,1.819,0">from this book</a>, which is also in the <i>Proceedings and Addresses of the Fifth Congress</i>. He died in 1897 in Shelbyville, Tennessee.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq7EKRaoBGMdy2rWvOpNh3-JSEocAqKtSOtabSRWB1J4IhqbXpOhuahb7GAOZk-9sDhyphenhyphenosUGaXKz336lfCFd6rs41by4QlGPv655c1YtduDecSEZh9nuKY0E9uU-OFMFoKrX4J6zk3kWxOaIQKgaFZLdQJg7H_mXznEBmmntUT8KuhOnbgfzTA/s857/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-28%20at%2000.39.27%20(3).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="857" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq7EKRaoBGMdy2rWvOpNh3-JSEocAqKtSOtabSRWB1J4IhqbXpOhuahb7GAOZk-9sDhyphenhyphenosUGaXKz336lfCFd6rs41by4QlGPv655c1YtduDecSEZh9nuKY0E9uU-OFMFoKrX4J6zk3kWxOaIQKgaFZLdQJg7H_mXznEBmmntUT8KuhOnbgfzTA/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-28%20at%2000.39.27%20(3).png" /></a></div><br /><p>Here is an article from <i>The Anderson Intelligencer</i>, Anderson, South Carolina, 7 June 1888, some 23 years after the Civil War –<br /><br /></p><blockquote><p><b>The Blue and the Grey.</b></p><p>Many persons in South Carolina will remember the Rev. Dr. Bryson who was several years pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Columbia. Dr. Bryson was during the war chaplain in chief of the Confederate army of Tennessee. He was in Philadelphia during the recent Centennial Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. <i>The Philadelphia Times</i> last week says: </p></blockquote><blockquote><p>"At the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, 37th and Chesnut, the Rev. J. H. Bryson, of Alabama, ex moderator of the Southern General Assembly, preached an eloquent sermon to a crowded congregation. In alluding to his presence there that morning, Dr. Bryson said that but a few minutes before the commencement of the service he had learned that pastor, the <b>Rev. Dr. McCook</b>, had been a chaplain to the Union forces during the late war, while he had been chaplain to the Confederate forces. He alluded to several incidents of that bloody feud, and then turning to the pastor, in a voice trembling with emotion offered the band of peace and friendship, and in the presence of the congregation, who rose as a body, the two clergymen shook hands and blessed each other. It was an impressive incident and many of the congregation were visibly affected by it."</p></blockquote><p> </p><p></p><p>This encounter took place in the years when the concept for the <b>Scotch-Irish Society of America </b>was taking shape.<b> </b>The idea for the Society had been floated at the <b>Pan-Presbyterian Council</b> in Belfast on 4 July 1884, and the Society held its inaugural Congress at Columbia in Tennessee on 8-11 May 1889.</p><p>This same <b>Rev Dr Henry McCook</b> would soon be, along with Bryson, a leading figure in the Society. McCook was also the author of several historical volumes such as the 'Whiskey Rebellion' novel <i>The Latimers - A Tale of the Western Insurrection of 1794.</i></p><p>The Scotch-Irish Society of America was born a generation after the 1861-65 Civil War, where the nation sought narratives to bind up the remaining wounds of past conflict. Its membership and annual Congresses seem to have been almost equally organised on a North / South basis. A series of Presidents in the late 1800s and early 1900s asserted their own Ulster roots in speeches and books.</p><p>To some extent, Scotch-Irishness provided an 'Old World' story for the new generation in post-Civil War America. And the various forms of Presbyterianism were the bedrock.</p><p>............</p><p>At the Second Congress of the Scotch Irish Society of America, held in Pittsburgh in 1890, Bryson's address included these remarks –</p><p></p><blockquote><p>"... There is yet to be written for the American people — and when I say for the American people, I do not limit it to this country — but there is yet to be written for the American people a history that will thrill this world with its wonders, and wondrous thought at its grand and great conceptions, and it will lay bare the foundations of civil and religious liberty ...</p><p>The Scotch -Irish race is a people that have the strongest, that have the truest, that have the grandest conception of civil liberty that the human race was ever blessed with...</p><p>It was by reason of that long series of struggles through which our people were compelled to go when they came first to the American borders that they were taught and realised the infinite value of freedom...</p><p>In every nation and in every age that preceded us, the church and state were united, but it remained for the Scotch-Irish of America to say that they should be separated from one another...</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>Teach your children to love the blood that runs in their veins. Teach them to love its history ; to love its people..." </p><p></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-30846820739446487332024-01-24T00:38:00.005+00:002024-01-24T00:38:49.533+00:00The 'Newton Resolves', Massachusetts, 1774<p><br />On our visit to Boston we passed through Newton, a very beautiful residential suburb which looked to me like a movie set. I have found that, following the <b>Boston Tea Party</b> of 16 December 1773, the community of Newton issued a set of 'Resolves'. <a href="https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:8p58pt35s">Here is the manuscript</a> but it appears to be undated, and with no location specified, but evidently the people at <b>Digital Commonwealth</b> have seen fit to make an informed decision on both the place and the date. Below is the text, with two words italicised which I wasn't totally sure about from the handwriting.</p><p>Once again, these people are <b>not</b> yet appealing for independence, but their full British rights and liberties.</p><p>.............</p><p><b>Resolved</b> that the People of this Province, and as we conceive, of every other British Colony, are by their several Charters and other Institutions of Civil Government, Entitled to all the Rights and Liberties of the British Constitution which is Eminently Founded in Nature and has the Right of Nature so far as <i>consists(?)</i> with the original Design of Government which is the Good of the whole Community for its object. </p><p><b>Resolved</b> that it is an essential principle of the British Constitution adopted by our Fore Fathers in the Several Charters of this Province to be Governed only by such laws as are or shall be made by their own Consent in Person or by Representatives of their own free Election.</p><p><b>Resolved</b> that the acts of the British Parliament made to tax the Americans to which they have not and could not give their Consent are infractious of the Rights of the British Constitution, and of the Charter of this Province and Destructive of Freedom.</p><p><b>Resolved</b> that the acts of Parliament made in the Last Session empowering the East India Company to ship their teas to America Subject to a Duty for the purpose of Raising a Revenue appears to have been Designed to Confirm and establish the Grievance the Americans have so long and justly Complained of.</p><p><b>Resolved</b> that this town Do approve of the opposition to the landing the East India Companys teas made by the people of Boston and other other adjacent towns was manly and necessary that their endeavours to preserve the Said tea and Return it Safe to London was manly and just and that whoever obstructed and frustrated their Rational and Laudable Efforts Reduce the people to the necessity of Either Destroying the property of the East India Company or Suffer that to be the means of <i>Revisiting (?)</i> their slavery.</p><p><b>Resolved</b> that the use of tea while it is Subject to a Duty as aforesaid in the opinion of this town argues a total want of publick virtue and ought to Be condemned.</p><p><b>Resolved</b> that we the Subscribers of this town Carefully avoid Purchasing any kind of articles of Such Shopkeepers as do or hereafter shall practice the Selling of Tea while it remains Subject to a Duty imposed or is for the purpose of Raising a Revenue without the Consent the Representations of this Province in General Court assembled.</p><p><b>Resolved</b> that we will treat with the utmost Contempt all such people as shall attempt, abet, advise, Consent, or in any way whatsoever Design or endeavour the introducing into America or vending or selling any tea Charged with this Detestable Duty Looking upon them as inveterate Enemies of our Common Rights and Liberties . <br /><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghu-G_e4EMuBUV-yrc-b3WOUJwd5LD_fnadSQHcbypXGfvum2B501Eoz9DoX0kByc8R3uQHqK9-zbPoAuxPfGVv5vI8Z8CrBboRJ-BKAi-BXYkmgEVXwM46eBhFD1faYULSoT4gVWhpZ4lSbshyOsl3OW5yAu5guzolPuLtgfVqJ81sMYpNG-_" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghu-G_e4EMuBUV-yrc-b3WOUJwd5LD_fnadSQHcbypXGfvum2B501Eoz9DoX0kByc8R3uQHqK9-zbPoAuxPfGVv5vI8Z8CrBboRJ-BKAi-BXYkmgEVXwM46eBhFD1faYULSoT4gVWhpZ4lSbshyOsl3OW5yAu5guzolPuLtgfVqJ81sMYpNG-_=s16000" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p><div><br /></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-56752821643638345432024-01-22T00:06:00.007+00:002024-01-22T00:51:02.965+00:00Henry Thomson & Co Irish Whisky of Newry // LOL 1738 'The Cumberland True Blue' of Dublin, and the lodge members who served in the Great War<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCze1S39yhe_eeGbM2vLso1VWVAKDdKlsxgqv7kBa0xpiEzy0mO6gSne0qXbcWW2AUChp4qtjESXNZX6jBNGFC9C2Xdkixbz-a7rYcBIT6CI6ed_yxs1pPGFl-5QxJtUzTxEwr4-Rx70cI8FO0phwgOt3YhImxyOdrzu9EZ_Om9bW_G8qraLiN" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCze1S39yhe_eeGbM2vLso1VWVAKDdKlsxgqv7kBa0xpiEzy0mO6gSne0qXbcWW2AUChp4qtjESXNZX6jBNGFC9C2Xdkixbz-a7rYcBIT6CI6ed_yxs1pPGFl-5QxJtUzTxEwr4-Rx70cI8FO0phwgOt3YhImxyOdrzu9EZ_Om9bW_G8qraLiN=s16000" /></a></div><p><br />Following the booklet I published about the Newry whiskey millionaire <b>Henry Thomson</b> (<a href="https://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2022/07/henry-thomson-cos-old-irish-whisky.html">see previous post here</a>), just before Christmas I designed and had manufactured a large commemorative mirror in the style of the famous Victorian originals, and hung it on the wall at home. It's not pretending to be a fake repro, it's very obviously a modern recreation, an <i>homage</i>.</p><p>Henry was a member of <b>LOL 1738</b> in Dublin, and he died half way through the Great War. In the <b>Museum of Orange Heritage</b> they have the official Roll of Honour for the City of Dublin Grand Lodge. Henry's lodge is included in a list of the members who served, and died.</p><p></p><p>Here are photos. I've typed up the names and regiments for the benefit of the search engines, for anyone who is trying to trace these men.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUBUMUDPm9TKMZl_WwGmnPy0DeOTRj5hnjWtRVqFSOhj0bUpSAJF6gyyvvjMrV-GA30gQI7pXhiV1VskizueO-h707F4TH14DMHAu3wo_xl6uPkKhwRIBJOSco-PuwyOlkk0jZaGO_yk8yNTjYkpSGvSpuviStSkwMDwfwO1ReREb3XvHmPsSy" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUBUMUDPm9TKMZl_WwGmnPy0DeOTRj5hnjWtRVqFSOhj0bUpSAJF6gyyvvjMrV-GA30gQI7pXhiV1VskizueO-h707F4TH14DMHAu3wo_xl6uPkKhwRIBJOSco-PuwyOlkk0jZaGO_yk8yNTjYkpSGvSpuviStSkwMDwfwO1ReREb3XvHmPsSy=s16000" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuJHWVERbw-TUaZzczCvBZx6y05uxh_9liCv_cyrm3nBxXqpsgimLiruKDhZP4bNextPFzm9ZdAe2_6K3y80z5RSwOojPrjOlTgMMDQfls1LczRYGWqoELUBr-F7rKuVr__Ikoz7C4tGMJzckjX-fCK5RfjRJYpB4vuX3b-NvghKsDbxbs2B5d" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1252" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuJHWVERbw-TUaZzczCvBZx6y05uxh_9liCv_cyrm3nBxXqpsgimLiruKDhZP4bNextPFzm9ZdAe2_6K3y80z5RSwOojPrjOlTgMMDQfls1LczRYGWqoELUBr-F7rKuVr__Ikoz7C4tGMJzckjX-fCK5RfjRJYpB4vuX3b-NvghKsDbxbs2B5d=s16000" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhB9J2zXd_B6JXeqoDi6m8LSNFSD__iArYO60ca1IIM44StTw9tpftc9AaHFmFgY21FYQug3H5NQomYTA-Pgsu9X37vGf99vb5VbERCr90zz_DxN_CoBUngrPz-d-KEmkwhmQn_TLuI8mV7E-dpagmvKfonc8-hakdU0Jn2AoQoymYXcFZg-Pou" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhB9J2zXd_B6JXeqoDi6m8LSNFSD__iArYO60ca1IIM44StTw9tpftc9AaHFmFgY21FYQug3H5NQomYTA-Pgsu9X37vGf99vb5VbERCr90zz_DxN_CoBUngrPz-d-KEmkwhmQn_TLuI8mV7E-dpagmvKfonc8-hakdU0Jn2AoQoymYXcFZg-Pou=s16000" /></a></div><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3_2PrSmpDPI6UE1BwaE0NEtzvbgGrxvxYSFL6Hau7VlLX__ZEOA702LtMdus1QFApt5Hs7LTlg2o5rw1UEHTCz4d30HuuarvG0duKJ_QtTCDtxeT-hMc6EosNXm34C6qE0N6gwyBbqQ7HPkrn9tat2uEKZtkcDdY_a3EOqgiJSPiHJcxl7wa0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3_2PrSmpDPI6UE1BwaE0NEtzvbgGrxvxYSFL6Hau7VlLX__ZEOA702LtMdus1QFApt5Hs7LTlg2o5rw1UEHTCz4d30HuuarvG0duKJ_QtTCDtxeT-hMc6EosNXm34C6qE0N6gwyBbqQ7HPkrn9tat2uEKZtkcDdY_a3EOqgiJSPiHJcxl7wa0=s16000" /></a><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>George A. Bowen</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Private, Black Watch</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>G. W. Ebbs</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Sergeant, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>J Hutchinson<i><span style="color: red;"> (Killed in Action)</span></i></b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Private, Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>J Kirk</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Private, Canadian Expeditionary Force</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>T. Long</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Private, Royal Army Medical Corps</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>W. J. Lorromer</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Lieutenant, Royal Dublin Fusiliers</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>H. T. Maude</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Corporal, Royal Dublin Fusiliers</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>C. E. McCormack</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Private, Royal Army Medical Corps</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>H. C. McCormack</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>2nd Lieutenant, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>T. Poynter</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Able Bodied Royal Navy</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Alfred Ruddock</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Corporal, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>F. G. Smith</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Lieutenant, Royal Dublin Fusiliers</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>W. J Spray</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Private, Royal Dublin Fusiliers</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>J Stewart</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Private, Canadian Expeditionary Force</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>B. Todd <i><span style="color: red;">(Killed in Action)</span></i></b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Private, 2nd Grenadier Guards</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>W. A. Walsh<span style="color: red;"> <i>(Killed in Action)</i></span></b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Gunner, Royal Field Artillery</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>W. R. Walton</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Sapper, Royal Engineers</i></div></i><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>G. H. Woods</b></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Sergeant, Royal Garrison Artillery </i></div></i><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>.......................................................</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><br /></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-85244241259682291962024-01-21T15:53:00.010+00:002024-01-21T19:10:57.939+00:00St Peter's Church, Tiverton, Devon - the 'Bloody Assizes' of 1685 - and Freedom of Speech<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXIe4OIbRimngynRTSMGAxtYEev3GvsWGGQUoe3IN6WnzNiw8fVx4LPfvZZPKcWHxb4LfqfLtKz8ReBRrDHdFYbxGzbp-sv52OV3c02dtY-LzCFestigZggUOPkrhGPd-kvnkDAUGFM4yNrK4W5XCKTK1OGOkVnKIbt75m1p2OPUU9Roh_qku3" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXIe4OIbRimngynRTSMGAxtYEev3GvsWGGQUoe3IN6WnzNiw8fVx4LPfvZZPKcWHxb4LfqfLtKz8ReBRrDHdFYbxGzbp-sv52OV3c02dtY-LzCFestigZggUOPkrhGPd-kvnkDAUGFM4yNrK4W5XCKTK1OGOkVnKIbt75m1p2OPUU9Roh_qku3=s16000" /></a></div><br /></div><p></p><p>This is <a href="https://www.stpeterstiverton.org.uk/st-peter/history/">St Peter's Church, Tiverton</a>. It has been a place of worship since the 11th Century; the current building is largely the result of restorations and improvements from the mid 1800s.</p><p>Tiverton is 13 miles north of Exeter, and was one of the places where the body parts of the hundreds of people who were executed were displayed in autumn 1685 for having supported the failed rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth (see previous post here). </p><p></p><blockquote><p>"... Hangings were followed by the gruesome business of drawing and quartering: entrails were removed from the hanged corpse and burnt, and the corpse was they beheaded and quartered, the head and limbs being boiled in salt and then tarred for preservation. Finally these remains were set up for public view in towns and villages of the county ...</p><p>The remains were still on poles at Tiverton more than three years later when a troop of cavalry, bringing news of <b>the landing of the Prince of Orange</b> at Torbay in November 1688, took them down and buried them outside the little south door of St Peter's church ..."</p></blockquote><p></p><p> – from <i>The Monmouth Rebellion- a Guide to the Rebellion and the Bloody Assizes</i> by Robert Dunning (1984).</p><p><br />At Exeter, 500 names appeared on a list of those merely <b>suspected </b>of treason. 28 were tried as having been actual rebels. A further 12 were tried for having used <b>seditious words</b><i> </i>and were hanged at Honiton, Ottery St Mary, Colyton and Axminster. <b>For using words</b><i>.</i></p><p>This is why freedom of speech always has been, and always will be, the benchmark for personal and communal liberty. Just over three years later, in the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/WillandMarSess2/1/2/introduction">Bill of Rights of 1689</a>, enshrined in law by William of Orange and his co-monarch Queen Mary II as their very first Act of legislation, was the right to complain to the King –</p><p></p><blockquote><b>Right to petition.</b><br />That it is the Right of the Subjects to petition the King, and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are Illegall.</blockquote><p></p><div><b>Freedom to criticise. To 'speak truth to power'. Freedom of speech.<br /><br /></b></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimQB5dj7R18ZupetO_RqW6UQOXiAmYoldKA8Mfn3WHMcCH9ijAQH7nt_ggzUvegroDieQXcam7N8y7WGC4oPig286Kvn70nWMST7T9JRXmF07gHLUW-C_QiiAwnDmeaOKQfe5qfJ_0BB5pDT1mUDB388lBVBrB9BcSwd0tJaAZCP475E_f9hIN" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimQB5dj7R18ZupetO_RqW6UQOXiAmYoldKA8Mfn3WHMcCH9ijAQH7nt_ggzUvegroDieQXcam7N8y7WGC4oPig286Kvn70nWMST7T9JRXmF07gHLUW-C_QiiAwnDmeaOKQfe5qfJ_0BB5pDT1mUDB388lBVBrB9BcSwd0tJaAZCP475E_f9hIN=s16000" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-52277392321499867562024-01-19T08:36:00.001+00:002024-01-19T08:36:22.337+00:00Scotch-Irish in Boston - the 'Church of the Presbyterian Strangers' in Federal Street (illustration from 1812)<p><br />Illustration from <a href="https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:3f463c486">DigitalCommonwealth Massachusetts Collections Online</a>, captioned 'View of the Presbyterian Meeting House, formerly standing in Federal Street, Boston'. This is the congregation which had been founded in 1720-ish with Rev John Moorhead of Newtownards as its first minister.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEir535X-TJh4CaDsieOgxOthGWzwLaSclIGTxIOC9UvcMFP2xXJ-HtLJttqKk_QxL2J1tFlVLSkn0gTcp_dMyS6CPrgympBJyHcggePEsRwcxSe5cKr1wafC2E9U7oFp0a2Cyhmb7VxSFortyje9LqFbWWzAM9YPe61IEutlTJa2VeG3htem98u" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="477" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEir535X-TJh4CaDsieOgxOthGWzwLaSclIGTxIOC9UvcMFP2xXJ-HtLJttqKk_QxL2J1tFlVLSkn0gTcp_dMyS6CPrgympBJyHcggePEsRwcxSe5cKr1wafC2E9U7oFp0a2Cyhmb7VxSFortyje9LqFbWWzAM9YPe61IEutlTJa2VeG3htem98u=s16000" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-89164124883628299622024-01-15T14:14:00.258+00:002024-01-17T23:51:53.531+00:00Before Billy // the 'bastard' Dutchman who tried to take King James II's Crown: 1685 and the 'Bloody Assizes'<p><b>Intro: </b>In the <b>Constantijn Huygens Jr</b> <a href="https://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2024/01/june-1690-constantijn-huygens-jr.html">diary I posted about recently</a>, there's an account of the public reaction to the arrival of 'King Billy' in the south west of England in 1688. At Newton Abbot, where William Prince of Orange's <i>Declaration</i> was first read aloud (<a href="https://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2023/12/evident-happiness-and-liberty-did-first.html">previous post here</a>), the people were simultaneously joyful and fearful. Why?</p><p>Because in the very same region just over three years earlier in May 1685 another Dutch-born soldier hero had already tried to overthrow King James II, but failed. The reprisals were horrific. 1300 people rounded up - hundreds publicly hanged, drawn and quartered by King James II's rigged courts and the royal army, their remains and body parts displayed as grotesque warnings to their surviving families and neighbours.</p><p>Huygens recorded that the people said <i>'If this should fail, we are all undone' They told me about the invasion of Monmouth, when many people were hanged in Plymouth and elsewhere'. </i>They had lived through it before. </p><p><i>...........</i></p><p>The 'bastard' Dutchman in 1685 was <b>James Scott Fitzroy Crofts</b>, the eldest of at least 14 illegitimate children of the previous king, <b>Charles II. </b>James's mother was <b>Lucy Walter. </b>Charles had gone to Holland to hang out with his sister <b>Mary</b> and met Lucy when he was there. Some claimed that they had actually married, and that the marriage contract had been hidden in a long-lost 'black box'. James was born in Rotterdam in 1649 and raised in Paris by the <b>Crofts </b>family.</p><p><i>"Mr Crofts the King's Bastard" </i>was how he was described by another diarist, <b>Samuel Pepys</b>. The full reference is this – <i>"Here I also saw Madam Castlemaine, and, which pleased me most, Mr. Crofts, the King’s bastard, a most pretty spark of about 15 years old, who, I perceive, do hang much upon my Lady Castlemaine, and is always with her; and, I hear, the Queens both of them are mighty kind to him".</i> Here is a 1929 biography which adopted that as its title.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDE8FtZWHrqMT6ODj0KOOMAXmZ9TlQelJBKRiyXFIxXj1JrDHMb5t0RrrVuPa6u1yNQLijUTHFwpbzsebqXWJHUUXFQmASPHgqH9phhe6JK4ZhxNn7GeRxXlSh4CvQ-hmunM8MbokRLmHLDIHeNUmqPz2NiRqJ7bcJDaj6sWsjI4MUs1jx7qLu/s640/IMG_5363.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDE8FtZWHrqMT6ODj0KOOMAXmZ9TlQelJBKRiyXFIxXj1JrDHMb5t0RrrVuPa6u1yNQLijUTHFwpbzsebqXWJHUUXFQmASPHgqH9phhe6JK4ZhxNn7GeRxXlSh4CvQ-hmunM8MbokRLmHLDIHeNUmqPz2NiRqJ7bcJDaj6sWsjI4MUs1jx7qLu/s16000/IMG_5363.jpeg" /></a></div><p><br />He became a celebrated military man on the continent and had the title <b>Duke of Monmouth</b>. He had even been heroically depicted on a white horse. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Scott,_1st_Duke_of_Monmouth#/media/File:James_Scott,_Duke_of_Monmouth_and_Buccleuch_by_Jan_van_Wyck.jpg">Look familiar</a>? <br /><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9rhzLvQpvYn_-If-A7-45S8Cy-vw4azR6ta1WE5KSXKreAA72koyyNG8Jl6VOoqgHyxcM7KrR51GJmsmJUb-jBCVAACp2XOqiqa7x1JzkRKwzbG7FZo92uw-8DW_8kPwAOdoRKWs5jUB7oTxl6my-njKybYopJNsYKgOxFk4C0xGUXG_4YIPI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9rhzLvQpvYn_-If-A7-45S8Cy-vw4azR6ta1WE5KSXKreAA72koyyNG8Jl6VOoqgHyxcM7KrR51GJmsmJUb-jBCVAACp2XOqiqa7x1JzkRKwzbG7FZo92uw-8DW_8kPwAOdoRKWs5jUB7oTxl6my-njKybYopJNsYKgOxFk4C0xGUXG_4YIPI=s16000" /></a></div><br />He was sent to Scotland to defeat the Covenanters at Bothwell Brig in 1679 - and he had probably been invited to do so by his uncle <b>James</b>, the Duke of York, whose regime there was encapsulated in his statement that <i>“there would never be peace in the country until the whole south of Scotland had been turned into a hunting field”</i> – not hunting deer or grouse, but Covenanter Presbyterians, during 'The Killing Times'.<div><br /></div><div>King Charles II* died in 1685, with no legitimate heir. Even though the Duke of Monmouth was an illegitimate son, he had ambitions and reckoned that he should be next in line for the crown - and not his uncle James the Duke of York. In actual fact, Monmouth had been accused of trying to assassinate them both whilst they were travelling back together from Newmarket racecourse in the '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye_House_Plot">Rye House Plot' of 1683</a>.<p></p><p>A vacant throne. Two ambitious Dukes. One crown.</p><p>................</p><p>The dead King's brother moved first and was crowned on 23 April 1685.</p><p>The dead King's illegitimate son, Monmouth, was in Holland. He sailed from Amsterdam with three ships and around 300 men, and landed at Lyme Regis in Dorset on 11 June 1685 - the location today is called <a href="https://lovelymeregis.co.uk/beaches/monmouthbeach">Monmouth Beach</a>, a fossil hunters haven. According to the biography above, these ships bore blue ensign banners with the slogan <b>'Pro Religione et Libertate' </b>(<a href="https://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2023/11/england-or-not-banner-slogan-of-william.html">yes THAT slogan again</a>), and Monmouth published a declaration - its full title <i>"Declaration for the defence and vindication of the protestant religion and of the laws, rights and privileges of England from the invasion made upon them, and for delivering the Kingdom from the usurpation and tyranny of us by the name of James, Duke of York". </i>It had probably been written by Scottish minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ferguson_(minister)">Robert Ferguson</a>.</p><p>So, Monmouth declared his uncle to be<i> 'the present usurper, James, Duke of York'</i> and <i>himself</i> to be the <i>rightful</i> king, and there was even a coronation among his supporters outside the White Hart Inn in Taunton on 20 June 1685. But on 6 July his small force <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sedgemoor">was crushed at Sedgemoor near Bristol</a> and he was arrested two days later. He was publicly beheaded in London on 15 July. It took quite a few chops. Grisly stuff. Jump to 6min on the video below: <br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EyHkFIX6Z0o?si=KuDqaafC308DMwtT" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p><p>................</p><p>Even worse were the merciless reprisals across Dorset, Devon and Somerset. King James II started to round up hundreds of his opponents, exactly as he had done in Scotland with the Covenanters when he was the Duke of York. In Scotland, James made a point of being present for the torture sessions -</p><p></p><blockquote>"he not only came to Council when the torture was to be inflicted, but watched the agonies of the sufferers with that sort of interest and complacency with which men observe a curious experiment in science."</blockquote><p></p><p>Nobles could pay a fine to get off, however the 'lower orders' suffered violent death or exile to a place where they were likely to die. The rigged court proceedings were overseen by five judges led by <b>Lord Chief Justice</b> <b>George Jeffreys</b>, and were known as the <b>'Bloody Assizes'.</b></p><p>Symbolically, one of the places where he set up shop for his pop-up courtroom was at the White Hart Inn in Taunton where Monmouth's coronation had taken place. The pub sign-board was taken down and 'rebels' were hanged on it:</p><p></p><blockquote>"... The sign-board of the inn where they took up their abode, in Taunton, swung on hinges between two posts, exhibiting on its face a white hart. These posts, after removing the sign, he made to support a gallows, and on it he hung victim after victim, calling their struggles, when in the agony of death,dancing, and mockingly ordering suitable music for such an exercise. </blockquote><blockquote>One of the rebels, being known to feel more than ordinary affection for his leader, the duke, was suspended by the neck, and when his struggles became indicative of the last agony, he was barbarously cut down and mocked with a show of mercy, then, when a little recovered, again hung up; then cut down a second time, and asked if he repented going to fight against the king? Firmly and bravely he replied, "No!" Then followed immediately the final drop. Several were hanged and quartered, others, beside that, seethed in pitch..."</blockquote><p></p><p>Stats vary, but not by much. 1300 people were found guilty of treason, in mass court hearings - 500 people in two days at Taunton, 540 in one day at the town of Wells. 800 sent to the plantations of Barbados where the life expectancy of Europeans was measured in months. Some say that King James II's wife, <b>Mary of Modena</b>, made a profit from shipping them off. 320 people were publicly hanged at various towns and villages across the region, with disembowelled quartered bodies and pickled heads put on display.</p><p></p><blockquote>"... Jeffreys made all the West an Aceldama ('field of blood'); some places quite depopulated and nothing to be seen in them but forsaken walls, unlucky gibbets and ghostly carcasses. The trees were loaden almost as thick with quarters as leaves; the houses and steeples covered as close with heads as at other times with crows or ravens. Nothing could be liker hell than all those parts; nothing so like the devil as he. Caldrons hissing, carcasses boiling, pitch and tar sparkling and glowing, blood and limbs boiling and tearing and mangling, and he the great director of all ..." (from 'A New Martyrology' by John Tutchin, 1689)</blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekr_xL_CDnwv8h3YXFcUS25mD8H8B-KYvnu_sq4YjaQdGBpb93a0ay0PERIaTYDA1XQ3_YqM20MJ9L6GNObBxY7SMZIOZNjDgm_2SbuSkllFAM6Y3nGFR1Yd0LQk4-yJCovO3FN63vY6JFiGFKY0NHvT0Bj_iFkXZasMFWU2cDP2x8J1ZCyQ2/s1012/2997907-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1012" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekr_xL_CDnwv8h3YXFcUS25mD8H8B-KYvnu_sq4YjaQdGBpb93a0ay0PERIaTYDA1XQ3_YqM20MJ9L6GNObBxY7SMZIOZNjDgm_2SbuSkllFAM6Y3nGFR1Yd0LQk4-yJCovO3FN63vY6JFiGFKY0NHvT0Bj_iFkXZasMFWU2cDP2x8J1ZCyQ2/s16000/2997907-2.jpg" /></a></div><p>Here is Jeffreys' written instruction to the <b>Sheriff of Somerset</b> on 16 November 1685:</p><p></p><blockquote>"These are, therefore, to will and require of you, immediately on sight hereof, to erect a gallows in the most public place to hang the said traitors on, and that you provide halters to hang them with, a sufficient number of faggots to bum the bowells, and a furnace or cauldron to boil their heads and quarters, and salt to boil them with, half a bushell to each traitor, and tar to tar them with, and a sufficient number of spears and poles to fix and place their heads and quarters, and that you warn the owners of four oxen to be ready with dray and wain, and the said four oxen, at the time hereafter mentioned for execution, and you yourselves, together with a guard of forty able men at the least, to be present by eight o'clock of the morning to be aiding and assisting me or my deputy to see the said rebels executed. You are also to provide an axe and a cleaver for the quartering the said rebels."</blockquote><p></p><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/bookaxecontaini00pulmgoog/page/272/mode/2up?q=aceldama">That quote is from this book</a>. The first was the 71 year old widow <b>Alice Lisle</b> who was thought to have harboured fugitives, she was sentenced to be burned at the stake but was instead beheaded, on 2 September 1685, at the Old Market House in Winchester. Among her final words were these –</p><p></p><blockquote>I dye in expectation of the pardon of all my sins, and of acceptance with God the Father, by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, he being the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes</blockquote><p> <br />A group of young girls were scooped up - known as the <b>Taunton Virgins</b> - who had greeted Monmouth and gifted him with an embroidered banner. One of them was just 8 years old when she died in custody. </p><p></p><p><b>Daniel Defoe</b> was a supporter of Monmouth, but he escaped arrest by hiding in a graveyard, behind a gravestone of a man called <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>, which inspired the famous novel which was eventually published in 1719.</p><p>The executions continued to the end of 1685. Many of those executed had their biographies and final words published in the years that followed, <a href="https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_a-new-martyrology-_tutchin-john_1693/mode/2up">as a body of 'martyrology' booklets and pamphlets</a>. This 1929 book has a chapter entitled '<a href="https://archive.org/details/bloodyassize0000parr/page/232/mode/2up?q=monmouth+rebellion">The Reign of Terror</a>', an appalling summary of these events</p><p>With all of this going on, across the channel in France, King James II's cousin, <b>Louis XIV</b> of France, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes#:~:text=The%20Edict%20of%20Nantes%20(French,nation%2C%20which%20was%20predominantly%20Catholic.">revoked the religious tolerance of the Edict of Nantes and unleashed hell on the Huguenots</a>...</p><p><br />• A primary source, <i>The Western Martyrology or Bloody Assizes</i> <a href="https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=8HILAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PP8&hl=en">is online here</a>.<br />• <a href="https://warwalks.com/bloody-assizes/executions-in-the-bloody-assizes/">This website is an excellent resource</a>, listing all of the executions.<br />• <a href="https://archive.org/details/TheBloodyAssizes/page/n215/mode/2up">This book names all of those executed</a>.</p><p>................</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zRVZEG47Py4TePoIM0akyYUtADO6THS-cjaDjhIiHNOTBTk9Fd6LZG4pp3jcdzBuQKXUBn7iQ-A20iIo4THDPJ5pVOxPyFTSFn0In-U5T_Zbr2-PIMwr3CsYjH6sJdGboqaXJDCF22yzcdzw0_yl6CeK_DbwkLCVkY1AoUN6fFyY0u9IzuYP/s640/s-l1600.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zRVZEG47Py4TePoIM0akyYUtADO6THS-cjaDjhIiHNOTBTk9Fd6LZG4pp3jcdzBuQKXUBn7iQ-A20iIo4THDPJ5pVOxPyFTSFn0In-U5T_Zbr2-PIMwr3CsYjH6sJdGboqaXJDCF22yzcdzw0_yl6CeK_DbwkLCVkY1AoUN6fFyY0u9IzuYP/s16000/s-l1600.jpg" /></a><br /><br /></div><p><b>1685 becomes 1688</b><br />The utter barbarity of these events showed Europe that whoever might be thinking about deposing King James II in future was going to need unprecedented military might, a network of high level political influence, and massive public support. King James II's nephew had failed to do the job, with just three ships and very little resources.</p><p>Three years later, King James II's son-in-law, <b>William Prince of Orange</b>, would almost follow Monmouth's template, but he would bring the biggest invasion force England had ever seen - 450 ships, a vast army twice as big as the Spanish Armada. He also sailed from Holland, landed further along the same coastline, and under the same slogan.</p><p>As the people of Newton Abbot said to Huygens when William arrived in their town – <i>'If this should fail, we are all undone'.<br /></i><br />I'll be back in Devon soon. More to discover.</p><p></p><blockquote>"... The execution of Monmouth had this of good, that it left his cause in the hands of William of Orange, a far more worthy champion, and towards the end of 1088, the career of James II., as King of England, was closing fast ..." - <a href="https://archive.org/details/lymeregisvetrosp00wank/page/n127/mode/2up">from this book</a></blockquote><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0cX-Tl5cqnB8TJfszsa4KpArR6QUf_1SpLjcL96M67lgYo5rIPHsTYFj1brrFu8qG4ClF-vOrQytc0BYJ6phHc1Pa9p4kaCPu6Y58sdZpfzYNH6H_Gz5S8BEIZBirujss83StTVX9FU5jPL8czEiB0IoVYmLongTTOAf5GVqDjhCheiHVNwRg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0cX-Tl5cqnB8TJfszsa4KpArR6QUf_1SpLjcL96M67lgYo5rIPHsTYFj1brrFu8qG4ClF-vOrQytc0BYJ6phHc1Pa9p4kaCPu6Y58sdZpfzYNH6H_Gz5S8BEIZBirujss83StTVX9FU5jPL8czEiB0IoVYmLongTTOAf5GVqDjhCheiHVNwRg=s16000" /></a></div><br />................<p></p><p>PS: (Of course this often all gets reduced to the usual shorthand of being a Protestant v Catholic thing, but some say that <b>King James II</b>, and his cousin <b>Louis XIV</b> of France, weren't <i>technically</i> Catholic at all - they were both in fact <b>Gallican [</b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallicanism">Wikipedia here</a>] because they wanted to be independent from the authority of the Pope. Which is why William of Orange had such <a href="https://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2023/06/williams-catholic-allies-grand-alliance.html">extensive support from mainstream Catholic Europe</a>.)</p><p>................</p><p>* <b>King Charles II</b>'s actions in Scotland against the Coventanter Presbyterians are well known. In England, his 'Act of Uniformity' ejected an astonishing 2,000 Puritan ministers from the Church of England, and the package of laws known as 'The Clarendon Code' saw almost 15,000 non-conformists imprisoned between 1660-85. See John Coffey's book <i>Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England</i>, 1588–1689.</p></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-77523318029505373892024-01-12T15:36:00.004+00:002024-01-12T15:37:09.750+00:00Aaron Lewis 'Let's Go Fishing' // Henry B Lewis and the 1850 'History of Blandford' in Western Massachusetts<p>So, having mentioned western Massachusetts singer-songwriter <b>Aaron Lewis</b> here recently, just today he released this new track. A language warning for those who need it, and some thinly-veiled satire too for those who are informed. Back in 1850 a man with the same surname, <b>Henry B Lewis</b>, was Secretary of Blandford Literary Association, <a href="https://archive.org/details/addressdelivered01gibb/page/n7/mode/2up?q=+%22scotch-irish%22">who published this booklet</a>, which included this reference –</p><p><b>"The first settlers of this town were called "Scotch Irish," ... their ancestors migrated from Scotland to Ireland ... deprived of civil and religious freedom, their descendants fled to this country and settled in Hopkinton (now Sutbury). Thence they removed to Blandford..."</b></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Iao0M9A49Q?si=Irep_mlTfMTiUtV0" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/allxx9EzoxU?si=w058npXQGazo3vp1" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-84162379299667412282024-01-11T23:30:00.001+00:002024-01-13T00:06:56.027+00:00Boston to Belfast and Londonderry – World War 2 and the Allied navies<p>One of the things with history is that it's <i>stupid</i> to focus on one era, say 250 years ago at the American Revolution, and <i>pretend</i> that those same circumstances still apply today, and that <i>nothing else happened in between</i>.</p><p>Yes, the 'son of Ulster' <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Knox">Henry Knox</a> forced the British Army to its<a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/british-evacuate-boston"> 'Evacuation of Boston'</a> on St Patrick's Day in 1776.</p><p>But in <b>Boston Common</b> today, there is a 1945 plaque expressing the thanks of the Royal Navy for the assistance of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Navy_Yard">Boston Navy Yard</a> and the people of Boston for their <i>'hospitality and friendship'</i> in the Battle of the Atlantic in World War 2 in defeating the evils of Nazi Germany - many of those Boston-built ships came to Belfast and Londonderry in preparation for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_landings">D-Day on 6 June 1944</a>. </p><p>A joint stand for liberty.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeZzNHLuJNG15AJidhUc-oaDoO7Zd7qXizpIFG7NYpPOBD_cM5ZZUfQfwlXQlaz6jS4nddvRUQDvg9Zn-2bMn0lbKZjx7i8ouTEoVh_EvxfdBdpF0sQVj56I7obWg7IQpare3PraNb0qcy_TaUeALWdwzfoVMJsqAAep9TLnrPTjlVVx87Lb1C/s744/Royal_Navy_Plaque_on_the_Boston_Common%20640.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeZzNHLuJNG15AJidhUc-oaDoO7Zd7qXizpIFG7NYpPOBD_cM5ZZUfQfwlXQlaz6jS4nddvRUQDvg9Zn-2bMn0lbKZjx7i8ouTEoVh_EvxfdBdpF0sQVj56I7obWg7IQpare3PraNb0qcy_TaUeALWdwzfoVMJsqAAep9TLnrPTjlVVx87Lb1C/s16000/Royal_Navy_Plaque_on_the_Boston_Common%20640.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-71019937202840444622024-01-08T21:26:00.012+00:002024-01-09T16:54:59.538+00:00Ulster-Scots Presbyterians in pre-Revolution Boston & Massachusetts – Rev William McClenachan of Chelsea and Blandford<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjARiNhY2Zc7W_RoAqWs4RfTUQQrp-TwZzInmUtJ6YpgI_FRdPDXIhSTElYEyEHG4fspHA8yLUWB94jO08m1BNpwmoeaI341K2IMMtrK0jdOEJZjIGJhG-aSkKIVQmHxTC5UHUCm3lmI2jNoQBFKMdbJRrGv_O9bwUooi35OT-UGQUWnbYWdhBC/s640/Blandford-town-sign.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjARiNhY2Zc7W_RoAqWs4RfTUQQrp-TwZzInmUtJ6YpgI_FRdPDXIhSTElYEyEHG4fspHA8yLUWB94jO08m1BNpwmoeaI341K2IMMtrK0jdOEJZjIGJhG-aSkKIVQmHxTC5UHUCm3lmI2jNoQBFKMdbJRrGv_O9bwUooi35OT-UGQUWnbYWdhBC/s16000/Blandford-town-sign.png" /></a></div><br /><p>In the rural mountainous west of Massachusetts, close to the town of <b>Colrain</b>, is a settlement that's now called <b>Blandford </b>(named in 1741) but which was originally <b>New Glasgow, </b>or Glascow. The stories of this region were written up by <b>Sumner Gilbert Wood</b>, who wrote <i>Ulster Scots and Blandford Scouts</i> in 1928. I bought a copy of it from the late great Belfast bookdealer <b>Jack Gamble</b> about 30 years ago, but have never sat down to read it. What a treasure trove it turns out to be, <a href="https://archive.org/details/ulsterscotsbland00wood/page/n11/mode/2up">and is online here</a>.</p><p>Wood understands the great epic adventure, from Scotland to Ulster to the Siege of Derry to America:</p><p></p><blockquote>To Londonderry fled those people of the Bann waters who might be able to reach that city of refuge. Her heroic stand is the story of the fathers and mothers of the New Hampshire Londonderry, of Blandford, and of many another New England village. Nothing in all history surpasses it in heroism — not <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae">Thermopylae</a>, not <a href="https://history-maps.com/story/Hundred-Years-War/event/Siege-of-Rheims">Rheims</a>... I wish I might here display the roster of the men and women who, later climbing the hills of New Glasgow and building their log houses there, had been crowded behind the bulwarks of that famous “City of Refuge.”</blockquote><p></p><p>As context, <b>Murray Rothbard</b>, in his <i>Conceived in Liberty</i> (1979), probably <a href="https://electricscotland.com/history/america/new_england.htm">drawing upon this speech to the Scotch-Irish Society of America</a> by Prof A. L. Perry, says this:</p><p></p><blockquote>It might have been expected that the Ulster Scots would choose to settle in Calvinist New England, which was closest to them in religious conviction. But subtle religious differences meant a great deal to the Puritans, and they made the Presbyterians decidedly unwelcome. Indeed, one of the first groups of Ulster immigrants, several hundred strong, arrived at Boston in 1718 to face a decidedly hostile reception. Most were shunted off to Maine and ended in New Hampshire. </blockquote><blockquote>One group settled in the frontier town of Worcester, Massachusetts, but was promptly persecuted by the Puritans there. They were coerced into merging their Presbyterian church into the Puritan church and found themselves forced to pay tithes to support their persecutors. To the Presbyterians' petition for relief from the tax, the Worcester township denied their right to independence from the established Puritan church. When the Scots began to build their own church, the Puritans destroyed the building. The hapless Scots were thus forced to move to the more remote western frontier and there founded settlements at Warren and <b>Blandford</b>.</blockquote><p>............</p><p></p><p>New Glascow was formed around 1735, by Ulster-Scots families heading westwards and inland. Town meetings were held in 1742, and a Presbyterian congregation soon after, with a <b>John Caldwell </b>preaching to them. They sought permission from the Boston presbytery 'to send to Ireland for a minister'.</p><p>A series of candidates appeared and in 1744 the <b>Rev William McClenachan</b> (sometimes spelled as <b>McClenathan</b>) was accepted. He had been living in the Chelsea district of Boston and a few years earlier had married Ann Drummond who had been born in Tyrone. McClenachan was a tempestuous sort - changing denomination a few times in his life. He returned to Chelsea and <a href="https://archive.org/details/adocumentaryhis04wattgoog/page/254/mode/2up?q=%22william+mcclenachan%22">had a fairly checkered career</a>.</p><p>Boston's Presbyterians were pretty much solidly Ulster-Scots:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The Irish Presbytery is mentioned in the Colman MSS in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collection but its real name was the Presbytery of Boston and the date of its origin and its extinction are alike unknown Among its members were the <b>Rev John Moorhead</b> of Boston, <b>William Johnston</b> and <b>Davidson</b> of Londonderry, <b>William McClenaghan</b> of Blandford Massachusetts, <b>James Morton</b> of Coleraine, <b>Rutherford</b>, <b>Urquhart</b>,<b> John Harvey</b>, and <b>John Caldwell</b>. The <b>Rev Mr Lemercier</b> of the French church in Boston was also a member... The ordination of <b>David McGregoire</b> over the second congregation in Londonderry was accomplished with out the consent of the presbytery... (<a href="https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=5D9fAAAAcAAJ&rdid=book-5D9fAAAAcAAJ&rdot=1">from here</a>).</p></blockquote><p>The 'French meeting house' in Boston was a <b>Huguenot </b>congregation. As French <i>Calvinists</i>, and as descendants of those who had fled persecution by the French state, they found common interest with the Ulster-Scots Presbyterians in jointly opposing the imperial ambitions of France in North America.</p><p>This is an excellent example of where <i>liberty</i> is more important than <i>nationality</i>. The French monarchy and state had a vision for the nation which was narrow and exclusionary. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenots">By nationality, the Huguenots were French</a>, but culturally and religiously they were unwelcome within the French state, and so they were excluded and persecuted by the state. The <b>Faneuil</b> family, of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faneuil_Hall">the historic <b>Faneuil Hall</b> in Boston</a>, were refugee Huguenot emigrants from La Rochelle to Boston.</p><p>• <a href="https://archive.org/details/christianwarriou00mccl/page/n9/mode/2up">Here's a link to McClenachan's 1745 sermon</a> <i>The Christian Warrior</i>, which he preached on St Patrick's Day in the French meeting house and which was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pepperrell">dedicated to General William Pepperel</a> who led an attack on the French in Canada.</p><p>• <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blandford,_Massachusetts">Find out more about Blandford </a>on this Wikipedia page</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0LvfYQDDYt9PW2IDWZcvZXsc8S3JjkfiiVIn_y7xDdftu2N3zA_ZnsYW3OBPWjEhGJkpiC4mZ3GC5F6-QDRF6j91roDy2dnBGhmTa2O4RWI8rpAjgUN_Wr3UxrrNOwJSKExo4PyPr1WKqvNSlx4JG5eKM4XUqYh_dD6ZicFCMEHLgIhgHC5n6/s894/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-08%20at%2021.00.25%20(3).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0LvfYQDDYt9PW2IDWZcvZXsc8S3JjkfiiVIn_y7xDdftu2N3zA_ZnsYW3OBPWjEhGJkpiC4mZ3GC5F6-QDRF6j91roDy2dnBGhmTa2O4RWI8rpAjgUN_Wr3UxrrNOwJSKExo4PyPr1WKqvNSlx4JG5eKM4XUqYh_dD6ZicFCMEHLgIhgHC5n6/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-08%20at%2021.00.25%20(3).png" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-13324512432602553502024-01-07T23:21:00.001+00:002024-01-07T23:56:23.315+00:00The Battle of Alamance of 1771, by Marjoleine Kars - "the interplay of religion and rebellion"<p>This online introductory lecture for the <b>American Revolution Institute of the Society of Cincinatti </b>(<a href="https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/">website here</a>) is very interesting – by <b>Marjoleine Kars</b>, then of the University of Maryland and <a href="https://history.mit.edu/people/marjoleine-kars/">now of MIT</a>. She thinks beyond the usual assumptions of <i>"class conflict, paranoia, or farmer aspirations"</i>. At 12:00 she explains – <i>"the farmers quickly figured out that these backcountry elites were using their political offices to enrich themselves at the expense of the great majority of people". </i>And at 19:40 - <i>"I argue that Piedmont farmers found inspiration and justification for their political activism in 'Great Awakening' Protestantism".</i></p><p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LNvTxM4Ku9k?si=-qnRPGWEWs_MRlE3" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<br /></p><p>Her book on the subject, <i>Breaking Loose Together; The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina</i> was published in 2002 by the <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807849996/breaking-loose-together/">University of North Carolina Press</a>.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6C72Bnrf_UEBsFEzyw2fz06IWT9TJxrNlMqSKOrUmkFD38R5eJi01K_Ik4yZIABLrn9vAc8P_EXvlNV8-oIKt_W47ajOn3ShGDLIT4yllI79D7PDW9Gs-WG0v7ZvVzzaTRxQVL6VGowp9BTGkCOCr76FDL4B_yHnfplmwW6Eb6xVsBvG9LtIu" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="666" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6C72Bnrf_UEBsFEzyw2fz06IWT9TJxrNlMqSKOrUmkFD38R5eJi01K_Ik4yZIABLrn9vAc8P_EXvlNV8-oIKt_W47ajOn3ShGDLIT4yllI79D7PDW9Gs-WG0v7ZvVzzaTRxQVL6VGowp9BTGkCOCr76FDL4B_yHnfplmwW6Eb6xVsBvG9LtIu=s16000" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><div><br /></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13344062.post-14426485006331323342024-01-05T00:43:00.003+00:002024-01-05T01:27:52.679+00:00'Outlander' , the Battle of Alamance of 1771, and the independent Appalachian state of Franklin.<br />This is interesting video, but it's not sufficiently clear on the differences between Scotch-Irish and Scottish. The worldwide appeal of the <i>Outlander</i> series, as well as the <i>Yellowstone</i> pre-prequel series <i>1883</i>, shows that these frontier human stories have the potential to become award-winning global successes in the 21st century. But it's essential to get the history right. It begins here at 6:55. <i>More to follow about the 'Lost State of Franklin' soon...</i><br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5KtPg_E8SYQ?si=_fQLfuLrSTOk8xDT" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUbbmu4O-iRGMeMQFPGF6L-hkyYY1OwcmzMzIsu1DkzvqPxEkZ65egQ0sd_xrGdgar7t5s58SZXLDFGNiQZ_ugM9FN4T5T2NnwyPnYGyh-L5TJsHyiEJ9PRN4zBLe8T_X6MVjpRql3nZawHO6OMjxuMA9Q0UBwErE5h-Ye7iMqK7Ars7n_6lkR/s640/IMG_20200330_075948.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUbbmu4O-iRGMeMQFPGF6L-hkyYY1OwcmzMzIsu1DkzvqPxEkZ65egQ0sd_xrGdgar7t5s58SZXLDFGNiQZ_ugM9FN4T5T2NnwyPnYGyh-L5TJsHyiEJ9PRN4zBLe8T_X6MVjpRql3nZawHO6OMjxuMA9Q0UBwErE5h-Ye7iMqK7Ars7n_6lkR/s16000/IMG_20200330_075948.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjI8z1lLc_KLbuBZeznJLRQEyUapliJ7Ri-JvtopbGF6oyiKg_tFlzT2ZoCANTCl6lk8K2HDtC4KvzfZydczlY9rQi2rr5sofeU5W3ZbPL31yoLmebZM52F-GuTO5gYnSk7sHnss0xpkT1QM1vlZKKp_EIo45pTNqqWp2HmvP9fREIbpr7ZhXN/s300/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjI8z1lLc_KLbuBZeznJLRQEyUapliJ7Ri-JvtopbGF6oyiKg_tFlzT2ZoCANTCl6lk8K2HDtC4KvzfZydczlY9rQi2rr5sofeU5W3ZbPL31yoLmebZM52F-GuTO5gYnSk7sHnss0xpkT1QM1vlZKKp_EIo45pTNqqWp2HmvP9fREIbpr7ZhXN/w640-h358/images.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUi4h-zBR0YWQTBGMzvm0cucIq7A1fNPHdD5ElhsQadoQ-1iP1q7J0kK3cYU0TgOnn220XK7f6X7ozqrggUlGfxp1KeLydsHQ_iijvLF8ltjEcVEgXgO52ZNPERShf1aYPJ7Oav4gLgJTdNN5IIXvksL14a2GOfS7qJpPyk-4HvKqHDNP1uqst/s275/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUi4h-zBR0YWQTBGMzvm0cucIq7A1fNPHdD5ElhsQadoQ-1iP1q7J0kK3cYU0TgOnn220XK7f6X7ozqrggUlGfxp1KeLydsHQ_iijvLF8ltjEcVEgXgO52ZNPERShf1aYPJ7Oav4gLgJTdNN5IIXvksL14a2GOfS7qJpPyk-4HvKqHDNP1uqst/w640-h426/download.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div>Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12820251983224121718noreply@blogger.com0