Transcribed from the 1862 R. Mason edition ,
DAVID MORGAN,
THE WELSH JACOBITE;
ACONTRIBUTION TO
THE HISTORY OF JACOBITISM
IN WALES.
BY
WILLIAM LLEWELLIN, F.G.S., F.G.H.S.,
&c., &c., &c.
Reprintedfrom the “Cambrian Journal,” 1861.
TENBY:
PRINTED BY R. MASON, HIGH STREET.
1862.
p. 3DAVIDMORGAN,
THE WELSH JACOBITE.
“Although my lands are fair and wide,
Its here no longer I must bide;
Yet my last hoof, and horn, and hide,
I’ll gieto bonnie Charlie.“Although my heart is unco sair,
And lies fu’ lowly in its lair,
Yet the last drap of blude that’s there,
I’ll giefor bonnie Charlie.”Jacobite Ballad.
One of the most romantic andspirit-stirring episodes in English History is that presented tous by the last effort of the partisans of the expelled House ofStuart to place the representative of the exiled family on thethrone of his ancestors.
The Rebellion of 1745 has been acknowledged universally tohave been remarkable for the interesting incidents, and romanticadventures, to which it gave rise; and the annals of history donot furnish examples of greater personal sacrifices, more exaltedheroism, and chivalrous devotion, than were exhibited during thatmomentous struggle.
p. 4In thesepeaceful times, and blessed with institutions that afford thefullest security for the preservation of our civil and religiousliberties, it is difficult to conceive the stormy struggles towhich the country was subjected, in the efforts of ourforefathers, amid contending factions, to secure and maintain theliberties which we now enjoy, and to hand them down to usunimpaired. Still more difficult is it to realize the fact,that very little more than a century has passed since thiscountry was the scene of a fierce civil war, in which members ofthe same family were arrayed against each other in hostileconflict, and, during the progress of which, and of the ruthlessand vindictive executions that followed it, the bravest blood ofBritain,—that of the devoted, though mistaken, adherents ofthe Stuarts,—was poured out like water on their nativesoil.
The circumstances out of which this great conflict originatedmay be thus briefly detailed. The continued infraction ofthe laws by a systematic indifference to every principle oflegality, the violation of the liberties of the people, thebrutal cruelty and senseless obstinacy, the persistentdetermination to deprive the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churchesof their rights and privileges, and to restore the domination ofthe Roman Catholic Church, which characterized the proceedings ofJames II. during his short and most unhappy reign, completelyalienated the affections of his subjects, and eventually led thebest and greatest men of the country to seek the aid