This article is about the Act of Grace and Free Pardon which freed Jacobites. For the Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates, see 1717–1718 Acts of Grace.
The act was passed by both houses of parliament in July 1717, the last enactment of the session.[1] It followed almost two years after the Jacobite rising of 1715, during and after which many Jacobites were taken prisoner. Those later convicted of treason were condemned to death, and some were executed, but by the Act most of the surviving Jacobite prisoners were freed and were permitted to settle either at home or overseas.[2]
Hundreds of Jacobites were freed by the act.[1] The more notable included the Earl of Carnwath, Lord Nairne, and Lord Widdrington, together with seventeen gentlemen awaiting execution in the Newgate and twenty-six in Carlisle Castle. Some two hundred men captured at the Battle of Preston were released at Chester, also all remaining prisoners held in the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling. The Act did not undo the effect of any attainders, and confiscated estates worth £48,000 a year in England and £30,000 a year in Scotland; the dispossessed owners were not restored of their property.[1]
There were some specific exceptions to the general pardon granted by the act: Matthew Prior and Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford, had been held in the Tower of London before the Rising of 1715, and Oxford's friend Lord Harcourt and his cousin Thomas Harley. All members of the Clan MacGregor were also excluded from the Act's benefits,[1] one of the targets of this last exclusion being the famous Rob Roy MacGregor.[2]Philip Henry Stanhope noted in the 1840s that "a modern reader is shocked to find excepted 'all and every person of the name and clan of Macgregor'".[1]
The passage of the act was marked by the issuing of a silver medal, also struck in bronze, engraved by John Croker, chief engraver to the Royal Mint.[3][4] On the obverse is the head of King George I, on the reverse is the winged figure of Clemency, who is standing, but leaning by her left elbow on a short stone pillar, surrounded by the words "CLEMENTIA AVGVSTI". In her left hand is an olive branch, while in her outstretched right hand she holds a caduceus, with which she touches the head of a fleeing snake, representing Rebellion. This image recalls the story of the caduceus of Mercury.[5]
James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, (1665–1745) was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the third of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom of Ormond. Like his grandfather, the 1st Duke, he was raised as a Protestant, unlike his extended family who held to Roman Catholicism. He served in the campaign to put down the Monmouth Rebellion, in the Williamite War in Ireland, in the Nine Years' War and in the War of the Spanish Succession but was accused of treason and went into exile after the Jacobite rising of 1715.
James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope was a British Army officer, politician, diplomat and peer who effectively served as Chief Minister between 1717 and 1721. He was also the last Chancellor of the Exchequer to sit in the House of Lords.
Field Marshal John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, 1st Duke of Greenwich,, styled Lord Lorne from 1680 to 1703, was a Scottish nobleman and senior commander in the British Army. He served on the continent in the Nine Years' War and fought at the Siege of Kaiserswerth during the War of the Spanish Succession. He then went on to serve as a brigade commander during the later battles of the War of the Spanish Succession, and was subsequently given command of all British forces in Spain at the instigation of the Harley Ministry. After conducting a successful evacuation of the troops from Spain, he became Commander-in-Chief, Scotland. During the Jacobite Rebellion, he led the government army against the Jacobite forces led by the Earl of Mar at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. Afterwards he served as Lord Steward and then Master-General of the Ordnance under the Walpole–Townshend Ministry.
Earl of Airlie is a title of the peerage in Scotland created on 2 April 1639 for James Ogilvy, 7th Lord Ogilvy of Airlie, along with the title "Lord Ogilvy of Alith and Lintrathen". The title "Lord Ogilvy of Airlie" was created on 28 April 1491.
Robert Roy MacGregor was a Jacobite Scottish outlaw, who later became a Scottish and Catholic folk hero.
The Battle of Preston was the final action of the Jacobite rising of 1715, an attempt to put James Francis Edward Stuart on the British throne in place of George I. After two days of street-fighting, the Jacobite commander Thomas Forster surrendered to government troops under General Charles Wills. It was arguably the last battle fought on English soil.
Clan Grant is a Highland Scottish clan, with one main branch, Grant of Grant, and several cadet branches, such as Grant of Glenmoriston.
John Erskine, 23rd and 6th Earl of Mar and 1st Duke of Mar KT, was a Scottish nobleman and a key figure in the Jacobite movement. He held the title of the 23rd Earl of Mar from the earldom's first creation and was the sixth earl in its seventh creation. Erskine, often remembered for his political adaptability, navigated the complex and shifting landscape of early 18th-century British politics.
Clan Sinclair is a Highland Scottish clan which holds the lands of Caithness, the Orkney Islands, and the Lothians. The chiefs of the clan were the Barons of Roslin and later the Earls of Orkney and Earls of Caithness.
William Mackenzie, 5th Earl of Seaforth, and 2nd titular Marquess of Seaforth, also known as Uilleam Dubh, or Black William, was a Scottish peer and head of Clan Mackenzie. Educated in France and brought up as a Roman Catholic, he was attainted for his part in the 1715 Jacobite Rising and also joined the 1719 Rising.
Clan Drummond is a Highland Scottish clan. The surname is rendered "Druimeanach" in modern Scottish Gaelic.
William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan, was a Scottish peer and Jacobite, who died at the Battle of Culloden.
James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater was an English peer who participated in the Jacobite rising of 1715 and was executed for treason.
Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord Fortrose was a Scottish politician and Chief of the Highland Clan Mackenzie.
The Jacobite rising of 1715 was the attempt by James Edward Stuart to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts.
Robert Rollo, 4th Lord Rollo was a Scottish nobleman and Jacobite.
William Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine was a Scottish nobleman and Jacobite who took part in the rebellions of 1715, 1719, and 1745.
William Murray, 2nd Lord Nairne was a Scottish peer and Jacobite who fought in the Rising of 1715, after which he was attainted and condemned to death for treason, but in 1717 he was indemnified and released.
John Croker, born in Saxony and known in his youth as Johann Crocker, was a master jeweller who migrated to London, where he became a medallist and engraved dies for English and later British coins and medals.
The Impeachment of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford was a legal process in the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1715 when the former First Minister Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford was impeached and sent to the Tower of London. Harley was accused of a number of crimes including high treason during his time in office, with charges particularly focusing on his role in the 1713 Peace of Utrecht which ended the War of the Spanish Succession.
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