A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



murdered Englishmen ' loudly calling amidst the piteous cries of the 

 widow and the fatherless for a legal vengeance,' condemned the wretched 

 rebels in frenzied rhetoric and committed them to divine mercy, with 

 the profane assurance ' that they may penitently suffer in this, as not to 

 suffer infinitely more in the next world.' 1 Little need be said of the 

 individual indictments. The trial of Thomas Cappock, commonly called 

 the mock bishop of Carlisle, lasted six hours, while the culprit, who 

 appeared at the bar in gown and cassock, skilfully pleaded for his life.* 

 Pleading was of little avail, for very few were acquitted. When the 

 prisoners were brought up for sentence it is said that Cappock 

 endeavoured to cheer his fellows by bidding them to be of good courage, 

 for ' they should not be tried by a Cumberland jury in the next world.' 

 Of those sent to trial, ninety-one were sentenced to death. At the 

 conclusion of the assize the judges released ' the gentlemen of Carlisle 

 who were confined there without any questions asked them,' 3 those no 

 doubt who had been arrested by the Duke of Cumberland on the 

 recapture of the city. The work of execution was not long delayed ; 

 nine, including ' Thomas Cappock the Pretender's bishop,' suffered at 

 Carlisle on Saturday, 1 8 October ; nine at Brampton on the following 

 Tuesday ; and on the same day nine at Penrith. 4 By way of com- 

 memorating the surrender of Carlisle to the rebel forces on 1 5 November, 

 eleven more victims, including Sir Archibald Primrose of Dunipace, 

 were selected to grace the first anniversary. All those unfortunate men 

 are said to have behaved on the scaffold with great firmness. The last 

 act of this bloody drama is summed up in an order of Quarter Sessions, 

 when the justices of the peace voted a fee to 'Henry Holstead, sexton 

 of St. Mary's, for sixteen graves for the Rebells who dyed at Carlisle.' 6 

 Among the more enduring results of the rebellion was the military 

 road, as it is commonly called, which was now projected between 

 Carlisle and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It is said that General Wade, who 

 had found difficulty in 1745 in moving his troops from one side of the 

 country to the other, had recommended an improvement of the com- 

 munication between the two towns as soon as the nation had settled 

 down. A petition was sent to the House of Commons from the 

 districts most interested that the road should be made at the public 

 expense. 8 Power to carry out the scheme was ultimately given to 

 certain local commissioners by the Act 24 George II. The new road, 

 made in 1751-8, followed to a large extent the course of the old Roman 



1 This amazing sermon was printed in 1747 under the title of ' Loyalty recommended on proper 

 principles.' The sentiments of the audience may be judged from those of the pulpit. The sermon at 

 York on 21 August, to which the judges had just listened, was of a similar character. 



" Gentleman's Magazine (1746), xvi. 494-5. It is stated here that Cappock ' left a good benefice to 

 follow the rebels, and was made by the young Pretender Bishop of Carlisle.' 



3 Ibid. 555. 



4 Ibid. 557, 610. The accounts of the numbers executed at these places often differ. 



6 The above account of the rebellion in 1745 is founded, unless otherwise stated, on the letters and 

 papers collected by Mr. G. G. Mounsey in his Authentic Account of the Occupation of Carlisle in 1745 by 

 Prince Charles Edward Stuart, published in 1846. 



6 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. (Lord Carlisle's MSS.), xv. App.vi. 204. Lord Lonsdale's letter is dated 

 19 July 1750. 



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