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The Anti-Jacobite Intelligence System of the English Ministers, 1715–1715*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Paul S. Fritz
Paul S. Fritz
Affiliation:
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
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Extract

Following the Atterbury plot of 1722 the earl of Orrery, one of the prominent English Jacobites, told James III that they must bend all their efforts ‘to lull the Government asleep and make them believe there are no further thoughts of designs against them’. Their efforts were never to be realized, for to the English government ministerial idleness where Jacobites were concerned was a luxury it felt it could not afford. By 1716 the government had been made too well aware of the threat this group presented to its position. Reversal could only be avoided through close vigilance and the early detection of plot and conspiracy. Their earlier experiences of attempted plots, near assassinations, foreign aid, open rebellion, and the inability to gauge the movement's strength, created in the ministers between 1715 and 1745 an almost pathological fear of a Stuart restoration. It was never to subside but only to increase with each passing year, reaching its climax during the administration of Robert Walpole. Dissatisfaction with the existing system under the Hanoverians and the presence of an alternative choice on the continent were two facts that could not be overlooked. Jacobitism as a rallying cry for the disaffected in England, Ireland, and Scodand was an obvious reality. Each ministry, in varying degrees, pursued what appeared to it to be the hideous, all-pervasive force of Jacobitism – a force that seemed to assume infinite proportions the less visible it was to the eye. Jacobites must be hunted out, their secrets penetrated, their plans squashed. The best evidence of this pre-occupation of the government with fear of a Stuart restoration lies in an examination of its methods of securing intelligence through the post office, the employment of spies, and personal interviews with the Jacobites themselves.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 1973 , pp. 265 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

1 The Royal Archives. Windsor Casde. Stuart Papers 70/46. Orrery to James III, 15 Nov. 1723. I wish to thank Her Majesty the queen for permission to quote this manuscript.

2 Report from the Secret Committee on the Post Office Together with Appendix. (Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 5 Aug. 1844.) Parliamentary Papers, Session 1844, XIV, 8.

3 Robinson, Howard, The British Post Office. A History (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1948), pp. 119–20. Robinson notes that during the Popish Plots of the 1670s postal officials had been given instructions to send the letters of suspects to the government. It even considered the correspondence of Coleman, secretary to the duke of York, sufficient evidence for conviction.Google Scholar

4 Act, 9 Anne, c. 10. (Printed in the Report from the Secret Committee on the Post Office, 1844, p. 106.)

5 P.R.O., SP 35/23, fo. 171. John Lefebure to -, 26 Sept. 1720.

6 P.R.O., SP 35/11, fo. 24. Thomas Wells to -, 24 Jan. 1718.

7 These are scattered throughout the State Papers, Domestic. For examples, see P.R.O., SP 35/12, fos. 377, 382; SP 35/16, fo. 273; SP 35/31, fos. 106, no, 301; SP 35/42, fo. 173; SP 36/21, fos. 130–1; SP 36/37, fos. 61–2.

8 P.R.O., SP 35/31. Warrant to Edward Carteret and Galfridus Walpole, 23 Apr. 1722.

9 P.R.O., SP 35/62, to. 289. Warrant of 31 Aug. 1726.

10 P.R.O., SP 36/23, fo. 195.

11 B.M. Add. MSS 32,731, fo. 8.

12 B.M. Add. MSS 27,732, fo. 49. Quoted in Turner, Edward Raymond, ‘The Secrecy of the Post’, English Historical Review, XXXIII, 321.Google Scholar

13 Report from the Secret Committee on the Post Office, 1844, p. 8.Google Scholar

14 P.R.O., SP 36/19, fo. 238.

15 A Further Report from the Committee of Secrecy. Appointed to Enquire into the Conduct of Robert, Earl of Or ford; During the Last Ten Years of His Being First Commissioner of the Treasury, and Chancellor and Under-Treasurer of His Majestie's Exchequer (Delivered the 30th of June, 1742), London, 1742.

16 Ibid. p. 131; Ellis, Kenneth, The Post Office in the Eighteenth Century: A Study in Administrative History (London, 1958), pp. 65–74. The Report of the Secret Committee of 1742 (p. 112) listed the staff of each and their salaries as follows:Google Scholar

17 A Further Report from the Committee of Secrecy … (1742), p. 132.Google Scholar

18 Lefebure also had the services of Anthony Corbiére, one of the decipherers. Ellis, The Post Office…, says Corbière's role was that of decipherer from 1719–43 (app. 1, p. 129). During the Atterbury plot, however, he was helping out in the secret office in the copying of letters. See C (H) MSS, III, 69/5. I am indebted to the marquess of Cholmondeley for permission to use and quote from these papers.

19 A Further Report from the Committee of Secrecy … (1742), p. 131.Google Scholar

20 Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (London, 1824 [Scott's Edition]), pp. 70–1.Google Scholar

21 For examples, see B.M. Add. MSS 32,256 (the Deciphers of Diplomatic Papers). Among them are many codes used by the Jacobites, e.g. fos. 50–1 (the pretender's Cipher); fos. 106–7 (Cipher of Lord Mar and Grange).

22 Cassan, Stephen Hyde, Lives of the Bishops of Bath and Wells. From the Earliest to the Present Period (London, 1829), II, 166–8.Google Scholar

23 P.R.O., SP 35/8, fo. 268. Edward Willes to -, 20 Apr. 1717.

24 P.R.O., SP 35/9, fos. 223, 227; Coxe, William, Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford (London, 1798), II, 113–14.Google Scholar

25 P.R.O., SP 35/8, fo. 268.

26 H.M.C., Polwarth, I, 193, 214 and passim. Robethon informed Lord Polwarth in early March that Görtz and Gyllenborg had used a French cipher ‘peculiar to them’ (pp. 187–8).Google Scholar

27 B.M. Add. MSS 32,256, fos. 50–1, 106–7.

28 He often sent Jacobite ciphers to the earl of Stair. E.g. P.R.O., SP 78/163, fo. 22.

29 P.R.O., SP 36/22, fos. 53–4.

30 Cassan, Stephen Hyde, Lives of the Bishops …, p. 166.Google Scholar

31 P.R.O., SP 36/18; SP 36/20, fo. 227.

32 See Ellis, , The Post Office …, app., p. 129. There were two other decipherers as well - Frederick Ashfield and John Lampe. The latter succeeded Ashfield in 1729.Google Scholar

33 Report from the Secret Committee on the Post Office, 1844, app. LXXIX, pp. 107–8.

34 Ibid. app. LXXX, pp. 108–9.

35 Ibid. app. LXXIX, p. 108.

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38 Arch.Aff.Etr.Corr.Pol.Angl., vol. 323, fo. 252; P.R.O., SP 35/17, fos. 20–6.

39 Coxe, , Walpole…, II, 221.Google Scholar

40 P.R.O., SP 35/28, fo. 61.

41 B.M. Add. MSS 32,686, fo. 232.

42 B.M. Add. MSS 32,686, fo. 224.

43 P.R.O., SP 35/31, fo. 345.

44 C (H) MSS, Domestic, III, 69/1–13; H.M.C., Townshend, p. 190.Google Scholar

45 P.R.O., SP 35/31, fos. 324, 325.

46 C (H) MSS. The intercepted letters of Morice are scattered throughout the correspondence. Some of them were intercepted on leaving London and some were passed on to Horace Walpole at Paris by Sempill, Walpole's spy.

47 B.M. Add. MSS 32,258–32,365. Herein are contained the deciphers and dispatches passing between foreign governments and their ministers in England. In this period the government regularly intercepted mails going to and from ministers of France, Prussia, Saxony-and-Poland, Sweden, Russia, and Spain.

48 P.R.O., SP 107+ (109 volumes of intercepted correspondence from 1726–66).

49 P.R.O., SP 35/32, fo. 27.

50 Ellis, Kenneth, The Post Office …, p. 74.Google Scholar

51 B.M., Stowe 230, fo. 97.

52 P.R.O., SP 84/255, fo. 188; Arch.Aff.Etr.Corr.Pol.Angl., vol. 291, fo. 73.

53 H.M.C., Polwarth, I, 360.Google Scholar

54 Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh. GD 135/141/9. Henry Davenant to Stair, 2 Mar. 1717.

55 Plumb, J. H., Sir Robert Walpole. The King's Minister (London, 1960), p. 41;Google ScholarPlumb, J. H., The Growth of Political Stability in England, 1675–1725 (London, 1967), pp. 169–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 Horn, D. B., The British Diplomatic Service, 1689–1789 (Oxford, 1961), pp. 277–8. Kenworthy received £200 p.a. + approximately £100 more for expenses. (See P.R.O., SP 88/21.)Google Scholar

57 P.R.O., SP 88/21, Poland. Fearing the government would consider this high he claimed ‘the charge must be proportioned to the performances of my agents’.

58 Ibid. Tilson to Kenworthy, 12 Feb. 1722–3.

59 Horn, D. B., The British Diplomatic Service …, p. 278. Due largely to his further pressures for money Kenworthy's commission was terminated in 1723.Google Scholar

60 Coxe, , Walpole …, II, 284.Google Scholar

61 Overvoorde, J. C., Geschiedenis van het Postwezen in Ncderland voor 7795 (Leyden, 1902), pp. 217–19.(I am indebted to Mr P. J. King, Lecturer in Dutch at the University of Cambridge, for the translation of the relevant sections of this book.)Google Scholar

62 Ibid. p. 217.

63 Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Vienna, Belgien DD. Abt. 136½, fo. 213. (In 1708 he had 18 offices to direct. The addition of 13 more was due to the reunion of the provinces of Namur and Luxembourg, cities of Rurmonde, Tournay, Ypres, Menin, and Furnes.)

64 Jaupain's letters to Walpole are scattered throughout the C (H) MSS correspondence. The Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv contains a good deal of Jaupain's correspondence for these years, but there is not even the slightest indication of his association with Walpole. His main reports are: Belgien DD. Abt. B. 94b; Belgien DD. Abt. 135 Belgien DD. Abt. 135; Belgien DD. Abt. 136a; Belgien DD.

65 P.R.O., SP 35/45. Walpole to Jaupain, 14 Oct. 1723.

66 Coxe, , Walpole …, II, 284.Google Scholar

67 Ibid. p. 284; B.M. Add. MSS 9,129. Horace Walpole to Walpole, 13/24 July 1725.

68 B.M., Add. MSS 32,686, fo. 330.

69 C (H) MSS 997. Jaupain to [Walpole], 1 Jan. 1724.

70 C (H) MSS 1064. Jaupain to [Walpole], 1 Jan. 1724.

71 C (H) MSS 1033, 1064, 1069, 1086, 1093, 1096.

72 C(H) MSS 1064. Jaupain to [Walpole], 1 Jan. 1724.

73 C(H)MSS 1093. Jaupain to [Walpole], 2 Feb. 1724.

74 P.R.O., SP 77/70. Jaupain to [Walpole], 16 Feb. 1724.

75 Beeching, H. C., Francis Atterbury (London, 1909), p. 309.Google Scholar

76 C (H) MSS P. 26, 18/1, ‘Mémcire Touchant le Sr. Jaupain’.

77 P.R.O., SP 35/45, f0. 231. Walpole to Jaupain, 14 Oct. 1723.

78 Charles Delafaye was one of the most highly trusted members of the English Government, especially in all matters involving Jacobites. When William Morice's papers were seized, following his father-in-law's death in 1732, Delafaye alone was entrusted to make a thorough search of them. Walpole placed the greatest of confidence in him. In 1718 he held the confidential post in the Secretary of State's Office and in 1719 was made secretary to the Lords Justices of the Regency during George I's trip to Hanover. He held this latter post again in June 1720. In 1728 he received a post as one of the Gentlemen Servers to George II. Little is known of the background of this person but it is possible that he was the son of Dr Delafaye, a London physician, who died 19 Mar. 1720. His wife's brother was Thomas Colborne. C (H) MSS 1193; Lee, W., Daniel Defoe, His Life and Recently Discovered Writings (London, 1869).Google Scholar

79 P.R.O., SP 35/56, fo. 126. Jaupain to Delafaye, 22 June 1725.

80 C (H) MSS 1038. - to Walpole, 3 Dec. 1723.

81 C (H) MSS 1044, 1050, 1057, 1067, 1072, 1074.

82 C (H) MSS 1072. J. Macky to Walpole, 8 Jan. 1724.

83 Coxe, , Walpole …, II, 480–1; C (H) MSS 1250.Google Scholar

84 C(H)MSS 1250.

85 Ibid. 1250, 1251.

86 B.M. Add. MSS 32,687. Walpole to Newcastle, 29 Oct. 1725.

87 C (H) MSS 1023; Arch.Aff.Etr.Corr.Pol.Angl., vol. 323, fo. 134; Boyer, A., Political State of Great Britain (London, 1717), XIII, 44–85. The activities of Francia the Jew were of considerable importance to Walpole. After his acquittal on a charge of high treason he moved to Calais where it was suspected that he was aiding the Jacobites, especially by allowing his name to be used as a cover address for their correspondence. No doubt acting on information received via the post- master at Calais, the government ordered the interception of any letters to him in 1722. Francia also had accompanied Atterbury to Calais. See P.R.O., SP 35/43, fo. 431.Google Scholar

88 Dobrée, Bonamy (ed.), The Letters of Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (King's Printer Edition) (1932), p. 149.Google Scholar

89 No attempt is made here to outline the counter-espionage system with any view to even approaching completeness. The effort is to show the part certain major spies played for the English government in its quest for Jacobite intelligence.

90 McLachlan, Jean O., Trade and Peace with Old Spain, 1667–1750 (Cambridge, 1940), p. 212.Google Scholar

91 P.R.O., SP 35/25, fo. 290.

92 Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh. GD 135/141/5. Methuen to Stair, 12 Nov. 1716. 93 Ibid. Methuen to Stair, 15 Nov. 1716.

93 Their letters scattered throughout the Stair papers. See especially: GD 135/8; GD 135/12; GD 135/29.

95 P.R.O., SP 78/162, fo. 303.

96 Ibid. fo. 304.

97 P.R.O., SP 35/22, fo. 15.

98 Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh. GD 135/141/29 (n.d., O'Kelly to Stair).

99 Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh. GD 135/141/8. (Account of the Extraordinary Expences of John Earl of Stair.)

100 P.R.O., SP 84/256, fo. 205.

101 Ibid. fos. 61, 125.

102 B.M. Add. MSS 9,129, fos. 40–8.

103 Of the letters from spies preserved in the C (H) MSS Macky's are second only in number to those of John Sempill.

104 C(H) MSS 80 (Miscellaneous Petitions and Memorials), 311, (1) To the Right Honourable Robert Walpole Esq., First Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, Principal Secretary of State, and Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr. Macky Most Humbly Presents a Schedule of His Many and Long Services; 311, (2) A Short Abstract of Mr Macky's Services; Macky, John, Memoirs of the Secret Services of John Macky, Esq., During the Reigns of King William, Queen Anne, and King George I, published from his original manuscript; as attested by his son Spring Macky, Esq. (2nd edn, London, 1733), pp. v-xix.Google Scholar

105 C (H) MSS 1023. J. Macky to Walpole, 9 Sept. 1723.

106 B.M. Add. MSS 32,686, fo. 328. J. Macky to Walpole, 18 Sept. 1723. To further maintain the secretive nature of his work all mail was sent to him under cover of ‘Monsieur Le Bar’.

107 Coxe, , Walpole …, II, 284.Google Scholar

108 C (H) MSS 1023. J. Macky to Walpole, 9 Sept. 1723.

109 B.M. Add. MSS 32,686, fo. 328. J. Macky to [Walpole], 18 Sept. 1723.

110 Ibid. fo. 330. J. Macky to [Walpole], 21 Sept. 1723.

111 P.R.O., SP 77/70. In one letter he says he bought Mr Jaupain a beaver hat and his wife ‘a fine night gown and silk stockings’.

112 C (H) MSS 1067. J. Macky to Walpole, 3 Jan. 1724.

113 P.R.O., SP 77/70. J. Macky to [Walpole], 17 Nov. 1723.

114 C (H) MSS 1023. J. Macky to Walpole, 9 Sept. 1723.

115 The evidence for such a statement comes from numerous sources. E.g. in the examination of Johnson, alias Kelly, during the course of the proceedings in the Atterbury plot Carteret ‘blushed red as fire coals’ when Kelly claimed he had never drunk the pretender's health in public, ‘for the government's spies were as well known in Paris as in London’. P.R.O., SP 35/31, fo. 325. T.B. to -, 14 June 1722.

116 C (H) MSS 1135. de Rowell to Walpole, 9 June 1724.

117 Ibid. 1075. de Rowell to Walpole, 13 Jan. 1724.

118 Ibid. 1066. William Thomson to Walpole, 3 Feb. 1723–4.

119 Walpole had sought out a person named by Thomson who apparently did not exist.

120 P.R.O., SP 35/45, fo. 204. Walpole to Thomson, 10 Oct. 1723.

121 P.R.O., SP 35/46, fo. 130. Walpole to Thomson, 25 Nov. 1723.

122 C (H) MSS 1257. W. P. to Walpole, 1720–5.

123 C (H) MSS 1882. Sempill to William Morice, 24 Apr. 1732.

124 The Official Diary of Lieutenant General Adam Williamson: Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower of London, 1722-/1747 (ed. Fox, J. C.) (London: Camden Society, 3rd ser., 1912), pp. 248–50.Google Scholar

125 c (H) MSS 1157, Sempill to Horace Walpole, 5 Aug. 1724; 1292, Sempill to Horace Walpole, 27 Mar. 1726. There are also a number of his letters among the Newcastle papers. See Add. MSS 32,744, fos. 37, 203, 216–17, 277–8.

124 Some of which he reports appears as nonsense, e.g. in one letter he says that during the course of a conversation ‘there came out of the wall and run about the floor some pismires which he [Atterbury] desir'd I would destroy by putting my foot on them’. ‘I wish’, say he, ‘that you had the King's enemies and mine, the same way under your feet.’ C (H) MSS 1338. Sempill to Horace Walpole, 7 June 1726.

127 C (H) MSS 1180. Sempill to Horace Walpole, 3 Nov. 1724.

128 C (H) MSS 1215. Sempill to Horace Walpole, 4 June 1725.

129 Ibid. 1281. Sempill to Horace Walpole, 13 Feb. 1726.

130 Ibid. 1281.

131 Ibid. 1599. Sempill to Horace Walpole, 5 Mar. 1729.

132 Ibid. 1629. Sempill to Horace Walpole, 30 July 1729.

133 Ibid. 1180. Horace Walpole to Robert Walpole, 3 Nov. 1724.

134 Ibid. 1599. Sempill to Horace Walpole, 5 Mar. 1729.

135 Ibid. 1626. Sempill to Horace Walpole, 30 July 1729.

136 Waldegrave MSS (Chewton House). Box marked ‘Miscellaneous’. By 1738 he is still imploring him for money. So desperate had he become by this date that he wrote to another correspondent that he had sold the buckles from his shoes to buy the wherewithal to write to her.

137 Waldegrave MSS (Chewton House). Box marked ‘Letters From Mr. Tilson and the Brothers Walpole 1727–1740’. Walpole to Waldegrave, 10 Nov. 1732.

138 C (H) MSS 1883. J. Sempill to William Morice, 27 Apr. 1732.

139 Dorothy Mackay Quynn, ‘Phillipp von Stosch: Collector, Bibliophile, Spy, Thief (1611–1757)’, The Catholic Historical Review, XXVII, no. 3 (10. 1941), 332–44.Google Scholar

140 Wordsworth, C. (ed.), The Correspondence of Richard Bentley, D.D. Master of Trinity College, Cambridge (London, 1842), II, 636.Google Scholar

141 Monk, James Henry, The Life of Richard Bentley, D.D. (London, 1830), p. 589.Google Scholar For a different interpretation of the circumstances of this appointment, see Lewis, Lesly, Connoisseurs and Secret Agents in 18th Century Rome (London, 1961), p. 62.Google Scholar

142 P.R.O., SP 85/15, fo. 73; P.R.O., SP 85/16, fo. 397. His salary had been set at §400 p.a. and the increase was due to addition of §30 per quarter’ for postage of letters and other expenses’.

143 de Brasses, Charles, Lettres Familières Ecrites d'ltalie en 1739 et 1740 (Paris, 1885), p. 259.Google Scholar

144 His letters are found in the P.R.O., SP 85/13-SP 85/16.

145 Lewis, , Connoisseurs and Secret Agents …, p. 54. Cardinal de Polignac was the first person proposed to the pope by the pretender for elevation to the cardinalate.Google Scholar

146 P.R.O., SP 85/15, fo. 190.

147 P.R.O., SP 85/15, fo. 212. Many of his letters which Walpole no doubt read with great care are simply running gossip.

148 Quynn, , ‘Phillipp von Stosch …’, p. 337.Google Scholar

149 For details of this incident, see Quynn, , ‘Baron Phillipp von Stosch …’, pp. 337–8;Google ScholarCharles, de Brasses, Lettres Familières …, p. 260.Google Scholar

150 Williams, Basil, ‘The Foreign Office of the First Two Georges’, Blackwoods Magazine, CLXXI (1907), 164.Google Scholar

151 B.M. Add. MSS 33,200, fo. 84. Newcasde to Walpole, 12 May 1726.

152 C(H)MSS 1761. Hay to Walpole, 31 Aug. 1730.

155 P.R.O., SP 36/5, fo. 193. Coalhurst to -, 15 Mar. 1728.

154 Several letters in the C (H) MSS are endorsed by Walpole with the name of the sender, e.g. 1977a. Sempill to Walpole, 9 May 1733.

155 P.R.O., SP 36/4. Walpole to Newcastle, 26 Nov. 1727.

156 Arch.Aff.Etr. Mémoires et Documents, vol. 76, fo. 79, Journal of the Negotiation of Mr Carte with Robert Walpole.

157 B.M., Stowe 251, fo. 56.

158 Arch.Aff.Etr. Mémoires et Documents, vol. 76, fos. 73–83, Journal of the Negotiation of Mr Carte with Robert Walpole.

159 P.R.O., SP 35/11, fo. 302.

160 P.R.O., SP 35/13, fo. 179.

161 P.R.O., SP 35/16, fo. 232.

162 P.R.O., SP 35/19, fo. 53.

163 P.R.O., SP 35/49, fo. 185.

164 P.R.O., SP 35/51, fo. 115.

165 Waldegrave MSS (Chewton House). Box marked ‘Letters From Mr. Tilson and the Brothers Walpole 1727–1740’. Walpole to Waldegrave, 10 Nov. 1733.

166 See Horn, D. B., The British Diplomatic Service, 1689–1789 (Oxford, 1961);Google ScholarHorn, D. B., Great Britain and Europe in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1967);Google ScholarThomson, Mark A., The Secretaries of State 1681–1782 (Oxford, 1932);Google ScholarEllis, Kenneth, ‘British Communications and Diplomacy in the Eighteenth Century’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XXI (1958), 159–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

167 Horn, D. B., The British Diplomatic Service, 1689–1789, p. 283.Google Scholar

168 Robertson, C. G., England Under the Hanoverians (15th edn, London, 1948), p. 45.Google Scholar

169 See, for example, Thomas, P. D. G., ‘Jacobitism in Wales’, Welsh History Review, vol. 1 (1961);Google ScholarHughes, E., North Country Life in the Eighteenth Century. The North East 1700–1750 (Oxford, 1952);Google ScholarSedgwick, R., The House of Commons, 1715–1754 (London, 1970), vol. 1;Google ScholarFoord, A. S., His Majesty's Opposition, 1714–1830 (Oxford, 1964).Google Scholar

170 This number is based on a count of the M.P.s listed in Sedgwick, Romney, The House of Commons, 1715–1754.Google Scholar

171 See Hertz, G. B., ‘England and the Ostend Company’, English Historical Review, vol. XXII (1907).CrossRefGoogle Scholar