Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

We have been so alarmed and terrified here with the rebels in these parts these three or four weeks past, who have been continually marching towards and approaching so near as gave just occasion and fear they had a design against us, especially considering almost all other parts were guarded with the king’s soldiers, whereas these parts were left utterly naked and defenceless, besides a multitude, among whom some affirm two-thirds of the inhabitants, and the greatest part of the gentry, clergy, and leading persons dissatisfied, are ready to side with the rebels upon their appearance, some of whom were not afraid to declare as much, notwithstanding the engagements they are under by oaths of allegiance and fidelity lately taken to King George and his government, but at violating whereof they seemed not in the least to hesitate. By this you may assuredly judge what our apprehensions were, and how little capable any sensible person could be of diverting his thoughts from so imminent a danger. Now, by God’s gracious providence appearing for us in the defeat of the rebels at Preston our fears are in good measure dissipated, and our minds more composed, other common affairs may with more freedom and satisfaction be attended to.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

Cudworth dates the letter 19 October 1775, before the Battle of Preston. 19 November seems more probable.

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Original

[Letter to John Flamsteed from Horton, 19 November 1775]
[W]e have been so alarmed and terrified here with the rebels in these parts these three or four weeks past, who have been continually marching towards and approaching so near as gave just occasion and fear they had a design against us, especially considering almost all other parts were guarded with the King’s soldiers, whereas these parts were left utterly naked and defenceless, besides a multitude, amongst whom some affirm two-thirds of the inhabitants, and the greatest part of the gentry, clergy, and leading persons dissatisfied, are ready to side with the rebels upon their appearance, some of whom were not afraid to declare as much, notwithstanding the engagements they are under by oaths of allegiance and fidelity lately taken to King George and his Government, but at violating whereof they seemed not in the least to hesitate. By this you may assuredly judge what our apprehensions were, and how little capable any sensible person could be of diverting his thoughts from so imminent a danger. Now, by God’s gracious providence appearing for us in the defeat of the rebels at Preston (an account whereof you have had), our fears are in good measure dissipated, and our minds more composed, other common affairs may with more freedom and satisfaction be attended to.

225 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Battle of Preston (1715) (1) ·
• 📌Bradford (72) ·
• Flamsteed, John (1646-1719) (4), the first Astronomer Royal, prepared a 3,000-star catalogue, Catalogus Britannicus, and a star atlas called Atlas Coelestis, made the first recorded observations of Uranus, laid the foundation stone for the Royal Greenwich Observatory ·
• George I of Great Britain (3) ·
• House of Hanover (2) ·
• House of Stuart (1) ·
• Jacobite rising of 1715 (3), attempt by the Old Pretender to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts, lasting from the raising of the Jacobite standard in Aberdeenshire on 27 August to surrender at Preston on 14 November ·
• Jacobitism (3) ·
• Kingdom of Great Britain (2) ·
• 📌Little Horton (9) ·
• Northern England (8) ·
• Sharp, Abraham (1653-1742) (6), mathematician and astronomer, assistant of John Flamsteed ·
• West Riding of Yorkshire (147) ·

All tags.

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