Sir John Leveson-Gower and the Jacobean Uprisings

Description:Many of Sir John’s papers relate to Jacobite uprisings in the late seventeenth and early eighteen centuries.

Amongst these papers is a document entitled ‘Copies of the Letters taken from Ashton’. The document includes copies of a number of letters pledging loyalty to James II. These letters may be copies of the treasonous letters seized from the infamous Jacobite Conspirator John Ashton when he was captured attempting to cross to France in the late seventeenth century. Ashton was a very influencial Jacobite and was eventually killed for his traitorous actions against the Hanoverians.

The letters appear to have been written by various gentlemen perhaps with the intention that Ashton would pass them to James II. One letter states ‘the bearer of this will do me the justice to assure you, we are as full of duty, as unfeignedly & concernedly yours, as your self cou’d wish’. In another letter the author writes that he is ‘desirious to lay hold of any oppertunity I think safe to assure you of my service’.

A paper towards the end of the document describes the methods by which James II could be reinstated as the King of England. The author of the paper dismisses the notion of King James ‘making an intire Conquest of his People’, suggesting instead that the King ‘brings with him such a one only as is necessary for his own defence, and for the security of such of his Loyal Subjects’. The author further advocates ‘leaving all things which have been the occasion of jealousies, to the Determination of parliament’. He concludes stating that ‘the Kings profess’d Friends…will not want others, who will be glad of oppertunities to ingratiate themselves’.

A further paper outlines the ‘result of a conference between some Lords & Gentlemen Toryes and Whiggs, In which it was undertaken to prove the Possibility of Restoring King James by a French power, without endangering the protestant Religion and Civil Administration according to the Laws of this Kingdome’.

Sir John’s possession of the Ashton letters reflects the widespread concern over Jacobite rebellion during the first half of the eighteenth century.