George Hamilton of Redhouse 

The skirmish at Clifton Moor, Cumbria, took place between the Government and Jacobite armies on 18 December 1745. With the commander of the Government forces, the Duke of Cumberland, being aware of the Jacobite presence in Derby and reports of there being three armies massing to attack, Prince Charles Edward Stuart (the Young Pretender) decided to retreat north back towards Scotland.

Charles began his retreat from Derby on 6 December 1745. The weather was very bad, however the army made good time in the march northwards. Clifton Moor was a good defensive place to stop and the Jacobite rear guard of around 1000 men attempted to delay the Duke of Cumberland’s forces in order to allow the rest of the Jacobite army to escape to the relative safety of Scotland.

Casualties on both sides were light. Two Jacobite prisoners were taken however, Thomas Ogden of The Manchester Regiment and George Hamilton of Redhouse, a Captain in Baggot’s Hussars. Hamilton was wounded in the engagement. Hamilton was made prisoner by one of Cumberland’s hussars. A small box belonging to him had been left in the house where he had lodged before the skirmish. In the box were found two Commissions from the Young Pretender to him, one as Captain in Baggot’s Hussars and the other as Deputy Quarter-master General.

Perhaps more damning was a copy of the form of oath to be taken by those who enlisted in the Rebel army, whereby they swore to be true to the Pretender and his Successors, and abjured King George. These, and other papers found in the box were sent to the Duke of Newcastle.

Hamilton was sent to York Castle, where the Archbishop of York, Thomas Herring, stated that instructions were given that Hamilton “was to be civilly treated”. He was given a room of his own in the recently built Debtors’ Prison. Hamilton’s wounds were treated by Margaret Simpson, another prisoner at York. She is referred to in official records as “Captain Hamilton’s Lady”, although it is unclear whether she was married to or was the mistress of Hamilton.

Hamilton obviously had influential friends outside the prison. The reverend Richard Horn of Marske, in a letter states that Captain Hamilton “came dressed in a very gentle manner”. There are also accounts of George and Mrs Simpson entertaining guests to meals, with coffee, chocolate and other luxuries.

At his trial in October 1746, Hamilton had a solicitor and counsel assigned to him. The Prosecution stated he drew his sword, after the battle of Prestonpans, in the Canongate Church, where several of the King's soldiers were confined, and said if they did not "list he would cut them to pieces, and those that were Irish, it was a reflection on Ireland if they wouldn't."

No doubt this helped to seal his doom. Mr. James Johnston, writer in Edinburgh, sent a memorial on his behalf, in which instances of his humanity were shown. "He behaved with great moderation, and particularly when the deponent happened to be living with his uncle, a surgeon in Prestonpans, when the battle happened to be fought there. Mr. Hamilton was seen taking the most tender care of the wounded of his Majesty's army. That he spirited on the deponent, and he, at his intercession, did the like to the surgeon, his uncle, to be assisting to them. That Mr. Hamilton supplied them with necessaries for dressing their wounds; and when some proposed to give drams to the wounded men, Mr. Hamilton directed that they should get water gruel, because he saw that would be the most effectual means of preserving them from fevering. That Dr. Dundas, who came afterwards to visit the wounded, approved of what Mr. Hamilton had done.‟

The evidence produced that he had actually tended the English wounded, was rebutted by the judges and he was sentenced to death.

Hamilton was one of ten men to be hanged at the Tyburn on York’s Knavesmire on Saturday 1 November 1746. Following the hanging his head was removed and placed in a box and sent to Carlisle for display there. His body was buried along with the other men hanged, in a massed grave behind the Castle buildings.

Around 1867, excavators digging a drain behind the Castle found the grave containing the bodies of twenty men who had been hanged at York on 1 November and 8 November 1746.