Edmund Clavering

Edmund Clavering was part of the Jacobite garrison left at Carlisle after the Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s first visit there and at the end of November he was one of about 40 hussars who rode south to join the main army which was still heading towards London.

Clavering and his comrades rode through Penrith and on to Lowther Hall, a few miles to the north-east of Ullswater in the Lake District, home of the hated Hanoverian Viscount Lonsdale. The viscount was not at home, being actively engaged in tracking the movements of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his army.

The Jacobite hussars forced their way into the house and ordered dinner from Lord Lonsdale’s servants. A message, however, had been sent back to Penrith. A group of “brave stout young men” attacked the Jacobites. It turned into a shambolic rout and Clavering and several of his companions were captured.

Carlisle still being in the hands of the Jacobites, the prisoners were delivered to the army and then taken cross-country to York Castle. Their arrival on 10 December 1745 was reported by the local paper, the York Courant. Taken “regaling themselves at Lowther Hall, the seat of Lord Lonsdale in Westmorland”, the newspaper also mentions that Clavering had been wounded in the ensuing skirmish.

Sometime towards the end of December Elizabeth Grant was admitted to York Castle as a prisoner. Edmund seems to have taken one look at her and decided she was for him. His feelings were not immediately reciprocated, not surprising if Elizabeth had just lost her first husband to a violent death at the Battle of Clifton Moor.

In a document dated 24 March 1746 both Edmund Clavering and Elizabeth Grant are listed as being state prisoners detained in York Castle for high treason. The Government solicitors soon realised that bringing all the Jacobite prisoners to trial would be impossible. There were too many of them. A system of lotting was introduced. Only every twentieth man would go for trial, the rest would throw themselves on the mercy of the King and plead for transportation to the colonies instead.

Certain people had to be tried, either because of their military or social position, or because of their activities during the rebellion. Edmund Clavering was in this group. Edmund’s behaviour in prison also went against him. He was described as “insolent” and a note against his name on one list has the cryptic comment “deserves to be hanged”.

In June 1746 Edmund married Elizabeth Grant. They didn’t ask anyone for permission. They were both Catholics and were imprisoned in York Castle with several priests of that faith. One of these men - John Rivet, also known as Monox Hervey - agreed to marry them . He agreed to the marriage “in order to prevent sin”. Edmund and Elizabeth had become lovers long before the wedding took place on 9 June 1746.

Their wedded bliss was to be short lived. Edmund, along with George Hamilton and 75 others was tried in October 1746. Only five were acquitted, 70 were found guilty, 22 of them being sentenced to death. Although Edmund’s elder brother and other relatives sent in petitions for a reprieve or a commuting of the sentence to transportation, others thought he “deserved to be hanged”.

Spencer Cowper, the Dean of Durham, and a relative of the Clavering family, callously declined to help. In the event a reprieve was granted, but it arrived too late. The Dean was unconcerned. “By what his relations say of him here, he is no great loss, he having been half a mad-man as well as a whole rebel”.

Edmund Clavering was hanged on York Knavesmire on Saturday 1 November 1746, along with George Hamilton of Redhouse and eight others. His dying speech, printed up and thrown to the crowd, was a defiant one. He loftily forgave the “Elector of Hanover, who this day cuts my thread of life”, condemned the Hanoverians for the slaughter made at Culloden and blessed his lawful king, King James III.

There was no mention of his new wife, but dying declarations very seldom included personal details. They were last political statements. There was evident distaste for the carrying out of the sentence. The bodies were not quartered but merely scored to indicate the procedure. The whole affair, was “conducted throughout with the utmost decency”. Two hearses were ready to receive the bodies of Edmund Clavering, George Hamilton and another gentleman. The coffins for the other men were taken back to the castle on carts or the sledges on which they had been dragged to the gallows.The bodies were buried in a mass grave behind the castle.