A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



them : for such a service we were well enough equipped.' * It should be 

 remembered that the militia made up only a small portion of the posse of 

 the county, though perhaps that body was little better armed or trained 

 than the general concourse which assembled at the sheriff's summons. 

 None of these men had ever faced an enemy before. Two-thirds of 

 them, as one of them afterwards related, were armed with scythes, bill- 

 hooks and pitchforks : the remainder with rusty spears, swords and 

 muskets which had laid peaceably in the chimney since the righting days 

 of Oliver Cromwell. 2 Bishop Nicolson, who had every opportunity of 

 gauging the political sympathies of the two counties, has cleared them 

 of leanings to the cause of the pretender. Writing to Archbishop Wake 

 on 1 6 September 1716, he said that along the Western Marches they pre- 

 tended to an universal fealty and allegiance to King George. In speaking 

 of the Scottish prisoners sent to Carlisle for trial after the battle of 

 Sheriffmuir, it did not concern him to know why they had been sent 

 to Cumberland, but he was willing to believe that it was the unsullied 

 reputation of the county which had brought that burdensome honour 

 upon it. 3 Nobody of consequence joined the rebels as they advanced 

 through the two counties. Dacre of Lanercost, who had promised to raise 

 forty men, had been ' taken with a fortunate fever,' which hindered his 

 purpose and saved his estates. It is possible that some of the servants 

 of the papists in prison at Carlisle had marched to Preston, but the 

 number was insignificant. 4 The great mass of the people appears to 

 have been apathetic ; to the last an invasion was not anticipated ; for 

 many years the training of the militia had been neglected ; the men 

 who assembled at Penrith had no military experience, no arms, no 

 discipline. 



The disgraceful flight of the county forces at Penrith was not 

 sufficient to open the eyes of the central government to the inefficiency 

 of the militia and posse comitatus as a line of national defence. There 

 is no evidence that special attention was given to the training and 

 arming of the rural soldiery after the rebellion was quelled and the 

 immediate danger over. The old system was allowed to continue, and 

 the country soon settled down in a sense of security as if nothing had 

 occurred. But in the next generation there was to be a rude awakening: 

 once again history would repeat itself. The rebellion of 1715 brought 

 little credit to the bravery and manly qualities of the people of 

 Cumberland, nor was the county destined to retrieve its sullied reputa- 

 tion in the subsequent events of 1745. The government, alarmed by 

 the defeat of Sir John Cope at Preston Pans, despatched Colonel 



1 Letters to Ralph Thoresby, ii. 319-20. 



* Literary Remains of Thomas Sanderson, pp. 9-22. The poet claims that the events of the day 

 were related to him ' by one who had a share in its glory.' 



3 Ellis, Original Letters, first series, iii. 364-5. Twenty-one letters from the bishop to the primate 

 have been printed in this series. Several of them are of considerable interest on the trial of the Scottish 

 prisoners in 1716 and their treatment during their imprisonment in Carlisle Castle. Among the records 

 of the corporation there are some interesting entries on the same subject. 



4 Patten, History of the Late Rebellion, pp. 84-5. 



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