Reformed Religion, Regime Change, Scottish Whigs and the Struggle for the ‘Soul’ of Scotland, c.1688 – c.1788

Abstract

This article responds to and is designed as a counterweight to recent work on political history in early-modern Scotland in which Jacobitism has been persuasively portrayed as a strongly supported movement over time rather than an episodic cause. Building upon recent research on the Union of 1707 which demonstrated the degree of principled and consistent support there was for closer union with England within a British polity, the paper seeks to show that there was a clearly identifiable ideological basis to anti-Jacobitism in Scotland. The term, however, is best understood as the Revolution or, even better, the Whig interest, not least as the principles upon which anti-Jacobitism were based pre-dated the Revolution of 1688–9 and the emergence of Jacobitism. The Revolution, it is argued, had many more supporters, and from a wider geographical area, than has generally been assumed in accounts which focus largely on the south west of Scotland. Support took various forms, ranging from prayer through public campaigning to the taking up of arms. It is also clear that support for Whig principles was not only long-standing but also grew over the period examined. What is underlined is that Scotland was a deeply fissured nation, the principal divide owing much but not everything to religion and differing perspectives on the nature of monarchical authority and the role of parliament.