The Jacobites

The Jacobite’s had made their last open attempt to recover the throne in 1745 and political unrest continued for some time in differing degrees. There were stables of dragoons in the town, intermittently occupied, and even up to 1758, when our story begins. The Councillors were required not only to subscribe to the “oath of allegiance” to His Majesty King George the Second but also to take the “oath of abjuration” of the Stewart dynasty, represented in the person of the Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie, who died in France in 1788. It is clear, however, from their Address presented to the Hanoverian King George after the defeat of the clans at Cullodon that the Magistrates and Councillors of the Royal Burgh of Dunbar had no sympathy for the “rebells” or the Stewart cause.