The Jacobite Database of 1745

As part of the fantastic Jacobite Nations workshop this past weekend, we were treated to a special viewing of some of University of Aberdeen Collections' gorgeous artifacts. Here I’m gingerly holding a pristine scroll butt pistol believed to be owned by Col John Roy Stuart during the ‘45. What a piece and what a privilege!

More updates from the weekend coming soon...

I'll be flying out to NE Scotland next weekend to present a paper at the University of Aberdeen's Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies for their fourth annual Jacobite Nations workshop alongside a cadre of phenomenal scholars with whom I share a particular interest. I'd been dreaming of a specifically digitally-focused forum for Jacobite Studies for decades and it's extremely heartening see Aberdeen stepping up to the plate. It's a perfect setting to discuss my work on The Jacobite Database of 1745 and have a chat about small and large projects that could potentially stem from what we've been building since 2004. Huge thanks to RIISS for their generosity in making this happen and for bringing me over to participate.

'Digitising the Jacobite Record with JDB1745: From Data Fiction to Datafication'

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/news-events/events/23571/

The plot thickens over at Bannockburn House Trust.

'Bullet' used in Bonnie Prince Charlie shooting attempt found in bed New evidence of an attempted assassination of the leader of the Jacobite rising has been uncovered at a country house in Stirling.

This past week marked the release and delivery of a pretty remarkable edited collection from Lisa, Gillebrìde, and W***y at University of Glasgow called Outlander and Scotland: Touchstones and Signposts. Published by Luath Press, the volume contains an incredible forty-four contributions from the first International Outlander Conference held at Glasgow in 2023 and represents an affordable, accessible tour-de-force of cultural connections between Diana Gabaldon's immensely popular franchise and an imperial tonne of scholarly research focused on Scotland.

I'm really thankful to have been included in the volume and to appear alongside so many talented and thoughtful folks. My chapter presents some valuable case studies from the Outlander series as a way to grasp the many natures and textures of historical Jacobitism as experienced on the ground by people who were there and whose voices are still very resonant in the archives. I think this gives us the opportunity to consider the Jacobite movement not only in terms of broad ideological concepts – or causes – but also of pragmatism and practicality; it lets us dive down into the weeds to think about what was really at stake for the individual and how those stakes informed their decisions to participate, abstain, or resist not just during the frenetic eight months of the '45 itself, but all through the full century of the Jacobite challenge both in Scotland and internationally.

There's SO much more, and all of it is only £14.99. If you read it, I hope you love it. Huge thanks to all who were involved in making it happen!

https://luath.co.uk/products/outlander-and-scotland

Today's task is calculating blackmail as percentages of assessed rent in western Stirlingshire just before the last Jacobite rising. What a way to create an economy out of thin air...until it almost inevitably backfired. Truly a rock and a hard place for both tenants and landlords.

Archaeologists recover hundreds of Jacobite projectiles in unexplored area of Culloden Archaeologists from the University of Glasgow and the National Trust for Scotland have recovered more than 100 projectiles, including lead musket balls and cannon shot, from Culloden Battlefield.

Nice to see Flora coming home, thanks to the West Highland Museum.

Highland museum to display Flora MacDonald portrait for first time A HIGHLAND museum at the heart of Jacobite history is celebrating two new additions to its collection as it marks a century since first opening its…

Yes, the great Christopher Duffy left a great deal of money to National Trust for Scotland, but even more valuable is his entire personal archive and research-in-progress, which the Trust currently holds and curates. We're still waiting to learn about how scholars and researchers might be able to access that material. Both personally and on behalf of the Jacobite Studies Trust, I've also been discussing with NTS the possibility of producing a collected volume of essays based on his unfinished research written by scholars with whom he worked and mentored.

Highly regarded historian leaves £1m to safeguard Culloden Battlefield Professor Christopher Duffy was a gentleman and a scholar.

An interesting record in one of Cumberland's order books from 11 May 1746, just a few weeks after Culloden. 5am rounds for troops to 'pluck heather for the tents', presumably to lay on top for insulation and protection from the rain. This is while the army was still encamped at Inverness, but later entries from cantonments around Fort Augustus feature similar orders and require troops to 'turn the heather' in order to dry it out.

Happy unexpected publication day for a chapter I’d written in a magnificent edited collection from Edinburgh University Press. So many remarkable contributions in here and I’m fortunate to be in such good company within.

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-shaping-jacobitism-1688-to-the-present.html