What did British military recruitment look like in the Scottish highlands in the 18th century? Specifically, how did the consequences of Jacobite Rebellions impact highlander's willingness to serve/the British ability to garner interest in military service?

by Ghost_of_Thucydides

In looking at every major conflict involving Britain in the 18th century, we find a number of Scottish soldiers and regiments also participating. Many Scots made their fame and fortune fighting in North America and Europe, specifically in the Seven Years War and the American Revolution. But these conflicts, specifically the Seven Years War, fell within the short timeframe following the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. We also see how the Dressing Act of 1746 made traditional highland dress illegal and how the historical record reveals a long stream of repression of gaelic culture. The Highland Clearances, too, were beginning in the mid-18th century and began to collapse traditional clan society. Did this progressive dissociation with the clan system encourge or discourage military service in the British army? The Dressing Act also included an exception making it legal for highlanders to wear traditional dress in a military context. How did this come into play? What sort of strategies did the British use to raise highland regiments or to promote individual service in the British army?

FunkyPlaid

This is a very insightful barrage of questions, and while I am tempted to try to answer them in detail, I would instead like to recommend a handful of top-notch works that comprehensively address these issues far better than I could hope to do. I would consider all of these absolutely indispensable for the purposes of your interest as stated above:

  • Allan Macinnes, C**lanship, Commerce and the House of Stuart, 1603-1788
  • Christopher Whatley, Scottish Society 1707-1830: Beyond Jacobitism, Towards Industrialisation
  • A.J. Youngson, After the Forty-Five: The Economic Impact on the Scottish Highlands
  • Andrew Mackillop, More Fruitful than the Soil: Army, Empire and the Scottish Highlands 1715-1815
  • Robert Clyde, From Rebel to Hero: The Image of the Highlander 1745-1830
  • Victoria Henshaw, Scotland and the British Army, 1700-1750: Defending the Union

You might also wish to have a look at forthcoming work by Nicola Martin on British imperialism in the Scottish Highlands and North America after Culloden.

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A couple of thoughts in addendum:

  • Have a close look at the words of the 1746 Dress Act. There has been some recent work done by Jenn Scott and others analyzing both the wording and ramifications of that temporary law. Other recent articles of interest on the subject are from the Scottish Tartans Authority and Jo Watson.
  • We must consider if the Clearances (which happened both within and outwith the Highlands) were the primary cause of 'cultural collapse' or whether the clan system was already threatened earlier in the eighteenth century between Jacobite risings. A good trawl through both Macinnes and Mackillop above should collectively address that question pretty thoroughly, or at least offer some insights. Some say it was the cultural 'genocide' aimed at the Highlands after Culloden that did the most damage, bolstered by widespread forfeitures and the abolition of heritable jurisdictions. Others lean toward it being caused by the natural modernization and improvement toward which some chiefs and other landowners were already headed (Cameron of Lochiel, for example).
  • A very important point (and complex irony) which emerges from your questions is how Britain implemented Highland regiments into their cause of empire even directly after Culloden, while at the same time 'civilizing' what was considered by many to be a rogue element in British society. Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, is often served up as a prime example of how tepid Jacobitism could be transmogrified into heroic nationalism – especially with so many opportunities for military engagement in the New World and on the Continent.
  • It is also worth weighing whether the British government in the eighteenth century necessarily equated Highlanders with Jacobitism, despite the national and international composition of the rebel army in 1745-6 and its attempts to unify under a 'tartan mask'. After all, powerful elites like Duncan Forbes of Culloden and John Campbell, Lord Loudoun, were ultra-patriotic Highlanders who distinguished themselves as heroes of the British nation both during and well after the Forty-five. What does this also tell us about the variability or even speciousness of Jacobitism-as-nationalism in the eighteenth century? Were Whig and Hanoverian lawmakers in favor of the Union any less patriotic than the conservative Jacobite supporters of an ancient, Divine Right monarchy? Was dissolution of the Union really a priority for most Jacobites in 1745 as opposed to 1715, when it was still a very fresh issue?
  • You will read much more from Mackillop, but the issue of recruiting on both sides was a fascinating one in the middle of the century. Many communities in the Highlands were quite reluctant to send men into battle and thereby away from farms and crops, regardless of for whom they were fighting. The Jacobite army, which had the relative luxury of spending most of its time on 'familiar' ground, faced massive waves of desertion after significant battles due to men bearing off to attend their homesteads. Some scholars suggest they would always come back, but my own opinion is that it was an uphill battle all the way just to keep men in ranks – and their increasingly draconian recruitment tactics bear this out. I will spare you further analysis here, but you would be welcome to read my doctoral thesis for more on the motivation and the constituency of the Jacobite army.

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Wishing you continued luck in your historical search!

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With best wishes,

Dr Darren S. Layne

Creator and Curator, The Jacobite Database of 1745

(recently of the Institute for Scottish Historical Research, University of St Andrews)