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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2016
The eighteenth century abounds with colourful, eccentric figures, some famous and others known by but few readers. Sir John Dalrymple of Cranston, was such a person, curious in his interests and controversial in his activities even for his time. Historians of modern Roman Catholicism have long recognized that he played a part in the negotiations which led to the English Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1778, but they have mentioned him only in passing. Their sketchy references to his role usually derive in one way or another from Fr. James Stother’s account of the abortive negotiations for Scottish relief, which paralleled the more successful discussions on behalf of English and Irish Catholics. Stother’s chronicle, published over a century ago, remains by far the most extensive account of Sir John’s activities in print, although it is itself brief and discreet. Advancing projects for Catholic relief required caution at the very least, and the project for the Scots, beyond this, demanded secrecy, in so far as relief in the northern kingdom involved concessions to Catholics in return for their encouragement of troop enlistment in the controversial American war. Concealment by Sir John and his associates of the role he played at the time has led to neglect of that role by historians ever since.
1 Brief references to Dalrymple occur in Challoner, v. 2, p. 183, ff.; John, Paul De Castro, The Gordon Riots (1926), pp. 5–6 Google Scholar; Paul Levack, A., ‘Edmund Burke, His Friends and the Dawn of Catholic Emancipation,’ The Catholic Historical Review, v. 37 (1952), p. 399 Google Scholar; Christopher, Hibbert, King Mob, The Story of Lord George Gordon and the London Riots of 1780 (1958), pp. 35, 42, 49 Google Scholar; George, Scott-Moncrieff, The Mirror and the Cross: Scotland and the Catholic Faith (1960), p. 124 Google Scholar; and Peter, Anson, Underground Catholicism in Scotland 1622–1878 (1970), p. 177.Google Scholar
2 See Stothert in Abbreviations above.
3 Sir John Dalrymple’s great-grandmother was a daughter of Sir James Dundas, of Arniston, and his son, the fifth baronet, married a grand-daughter of the Rt. Hon. Robert Dundas, of Arniston, Lord President of the Scottish Court of Session. The Lord Advocate was a son of the Lord President and therefore uncle by marriage to Sir John’s son and heir. The fifth baronet succeeded a distant cousin in the peerage. See the Complete Baronetage, George E. Cokayne, ed. (1900–1909), v. 4, pp. 379–381. For the lands Sir John and his wife were heirs to in 1771 see entries under Sir William Dalrymple and Thomas Hamilton-Magill in A Directory of Land Ownership in Scotland, c. 1770, Loretta Timperley, ed., Scottish Record Society, N.S., v. 5 (1976), pp. 227, 229, 232.
4 [John, Dalrymple], The Appeal of Reason to the People of England, on the Present State of Parties in the Nation (1763), pp. 13–17, 24–26.Google Scholar
5 Memoirs, pp. vii–ix. This volume and a precursor volume of 1771 went through five eighteenth-century editions. The work flattered Dr. Johnson’s Tory sympathies and he praised its scholarship while criticizing its high-flown style. Its fame helps explain why Boswell and Johnson called on Sir John on their Scottish travels in 1773 despite their expectation that Dalrymple would not be a congenial host. The visit, predictably, was a disaster, conversation descending to a squabble over Lady Dalrymple’s dinner menu. See James Boswell, Bosweli’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson. LL.D. I773, Frederick A. Pottle and Charles H. Bennett, eds., new ed. with additional notes by Frederick A. Pottle (1961), pp. 350–351, 390–391, and James Boswell, Boswell for the Defence 1769–1774, William K. Wimsatt and Frederick A. Pottle, eds. (1959), p. 159.
6 Memorializing Germain after his death Dalrymple remarked ‘He was always good to me’, Memoirs, Appendix I, pt. I, p. 3. Dalrymple is often cited as the author of A Reply to Lieutenant General Burgoyne’s Letter to the Constituents (1779), a defence of Germain and the administration.
7 North’s immediate administration and its other office-holding supporters included many Scotsmen and Englishmen with Scottish connections. At this time most of them favoured a forward military policy. They were led by Germain, a veteran of the ‘Forty-Five, whose mother was Scottish, and they included Henry Dundas, Alexander Wedderburn and Lord Mansfield, all Scotsmen. The Secretary of State for the Northern Department, Lord Suffolk, whose responsibility included Scotland, also acted with them. (For a detailed account of ministerial and party politics surrounding Roman Catholic relief projects and troop recruitment, see Robert Kent Donovan, The Military Origins of the Roman Catholic Relief Program of 1778’ in a forthcoming issue of The Historical Journal.)
8 Thomas Somerville, My Own Life and Times 1741–1814, ed. by ‘W.L’ (1861), p. 116. In this cause célèbre Dalrymple and Alexander Wedderburn defended the Rev. John Home, who had incurred censure for writing a theatrical play, Douglas, produced in 1756–1757. See Francis Espinasse, ‘John Home (1722–1803),’ The Dictionary of National Biography, Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds. (1908–), v. 9, pp. 1130–1131.
9 The Statistical Account of Scotland…, John Sinclair, ed., v. 16 (1795), pp. 53–54, reports that by the 1790’s half the population had become Associate Synod Burghers and states that the building of the established church was in ruins.
10 [Dalrymple], Appeal of Reason, passim; Piers Mackesy, The War for America, 1775–1783 (1964), pp. 315, n. 3, and 373; Memoirs, Appendix I, pp. 3–24, Appendix II, pp. 49–50 (The appendices of this work contain political proposals not directly related to the subject of the history itself.); Sir John Dalrymple, Address to the Inhabitants of England, upon the Interest They Have in the Distillery Laws (1786); Sir John Dalrymple, The Question Considered, Whether Wool Should Be Exported… (1781); H. M. C. Sackville, v. 1, p. 281, v. 2, pp. 153–154; Historical Manuscripts Commission, 14th Report, Appendix, part 10, Manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth, v. 2, p. 150; Stothert, p. 144; Alan Valentine, The British Establishment: An Eighteenth-Century Biographical Dictionary (1970), v. 1, p. 234.
11 Sir John Dalrymple, ‘Thoughts on instructions to the American Commissioners,’ H. M. C. Sackville, v. 2, pp. 101–104. Sir John here asserts that he was the first to suggest a peace commission to treat with the revolutionary colonists.
12 Boswell, , Boswell’s Journal, pp. 350–351 Google Scholar.
13 Sir John Dalrymple, ‘Reflections on the Military Preparations which are making at present in Scotland,’ The Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement (Edinburgh), 25 January 1778. For Dalrymple’s efforts on behalf of his brothers see Scots Magazine, January, 1778; Three Letters, Letter I, pp. 2–24, Letters II and III, pp. 1–69; Dalrymple to Barrington, 5 January 1778: W.O. 1/996, fo. 327; Mr. de Grey to Matthew Lewis, 17 June 1778: W. O. 1/996, fo. 539; Dalrymple to Lord North, 25 June 1778: C.O. 1/155, fos. 301–302.
14 John, Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century… (1812), v. 2, p. 514.Google Scholar
15 [Dalrymple, Sir John], The Address of the People of Great Britain to the Inhabitants of America (1775), p. 6.Google Scholar See also pp. 1–2 for his aspersions on French Catholics in Canada.
16 Memoirs, Appendix II, pp. 22–23.
17 Robert, Brendan McDowell, Ireland in the Age of Imperialism and Revolution 1760–1801 (1979), pp. 186ffGoogle Scholar. for loyal testimonials of Irish Catholic spokesmen during the American War.
18 Mackesy, , War for America, pp. 334–336 Google Scholar; Haarman, Albert W., ‘The Jamaica Volunteer Corps, 1779–1781.’ Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, v. 49, no. 200 (Winter, 1971), pp. 249–250.Google Scholar
19 The date of these discussions can be extrapolated from remarks in Three Letters, Letter I, p. 2; Letters II and III, pp. 63–64.
20 Memoirs, Appendix II, pp. 48–50.
21 The Irish Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1778 (17 and 18 George III, cap. 49) allowed Catholics to take leases of land for up to 999 years and it repealed a law which had permitted a Catholic’s eldest son, if Protestant, to take title to his father’s lands. Dalrymple’s correspondence with Germain, a supporter of Irish relief, about the gavelkind laws there probably had to do with this measure. See H. M. C. Sackville, v. 1, p. 281.
22 Limerick Catholics raised funds to augment enlistment bounties; and the clergy of Killala, it was reported, offered to raise 500 soldiers. Finn’s Leinster Journal, 19 August and 25 August 1779. There is no indication whether the troops were to be Catholic or Protestant.
23 For Dalrymple recruiting his tenants see Dalrymple to North, 25 June 1778: C.O. 1/155, fos. 301–302.
24 Hay to Bishop James Grant, 7 April 1778: quoted in Stothert, pp. 140–141. The purchase of land in the spring, 1777, for a larger chapel in Edinburgh points to encouragement of the Catholics, perhaps by Dalrymple. See Miller to Suffolk, 4 February 1779, S.P. 54/47.
25 Hay to Dalrymple, 12 February 1778: quoted in Stothert, pp. 144–145; Hay to Dalrymple, 16 February 1778: Hay MSS.
26 For Burke’s interest in Irish relief see Maurice, O’Connell, Irish Politics and Social Conflict in the Age of the American Revolution (1965), pp. 107–108.Google Scholar Both Burke and Lord Rockingham opposed further troop levies. Frank, O’Gorman, The Rise of Party in England. The Rockingham Whigs 1760–82 (1975), p. 365 Google Scholar; McDowell, Ireland, pp. 244–245.
27 Challoner, v. 2, p. 194.
28 Challoner, v. 2, pp. 192–193, 198. Sir John’s Three Letters, an attack on Barrington, prompted his lordship to propose a duel which Dalrymple declined. See James Boswell, Boswell, Laird of Auchinleck 1778–1782, Joseph W. Reed and Frederick A. Pottle eds. (1977), pp. 419–420.
29 For Dundas’ advice to Hay see Stothert, p. 147. Government and opposition appear to have viewed Irish relief as paramount in 1778, but Irish politicians would not act for Catholics there unless government first relieved some English Catholic disabilities. See O’Connell, , Irish Politics, pp. 108–110.Google Scholar
30 The English Act (18 George III, cap. 60) removed the penalties against saying Mass, teaching school and acquiring land.
31 ‘Instructions for the Deputies of the Catholics in the Highlands to the General meeting to be held at Edinburgh, etc.’ ‘Minutes of the Opinion of the Meeting at Edinburgh, Sept. 10, 1778,’ Hay MSS.
32 Stothert, p. 157.
33 Dalrymple to Germain, 25 December 1778: H. M. C. Sackville, v. 2, p. 120. Sir John here asked if his brother Samuel could serve in the Scottish Catholic corps. See also Dalrymple to Lord Linton, 8 Jan. 1778: Hay MSS, and Dalrymple to Barrington, 5 January 1779: W.O. 1/966, fos. 327 f.
34 Lord Weymouth to the Lord Justice Clerk, 8 February 1779; Weymouth to General Oughton, 8 February 1779; Weymouth to General Morris, 8 February 1779; Thomas Miller to Weymouth, 12 February 1779; S.P. 54/47, fos, 219, 223, 225. The proclamation is in ibid., fo. 227 (enclosure).
35 Burke probably helped draft the Scottish and English Catholics’ address to the Throne in April, 1778, but thereafter he concentrated on the Irish relief measure. He opened correspondence with the Scots and their anti-Catholic critics only in April 1779. See Edmund Burke, The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Thomas W. Copeland et al., eds. (1958–), v. 4, pp. 62–64, 83–84, 99–105; v. 10, p. 137.
36 Dalrymple to Linton, 15 Feb. 1779; Hay MSS; Dr, Alexander Geddes to John Reid, n.d.: ibid. For news of the actual compensation see Alexander Drummond to Hay, 30 March 1779: ibid.
37 The literary style of the anonymous ‘Letter to the King,’ Scots Magazine, January, 1778, points to Dalrymple’s authorship. See also Three Letters, Letters II and III, pp. 63–64, which were published in the autumn, 1778.
38 Bishop Geddes to the Abbé Grant, 2 May 1780: Hay MSS. Government finally turned down the proffered Scottish Catholic corps in the spring, 1779. See Hay to [Weymouth], 1 May 1779: P.R.O., S.P. 54/45, fos. 767–768.
39 The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1791 (31 George III, cap. 32, sec, 23) excluded the Scots, but that of 1793 (33 George III, cap. 44) gave them the rights granted by the English Act of 1778, except that permitting school-teaching.
40 Dalrymple, Sir John, Advantages of Public Washing Houses, in or near Great Towns… [1802?]Google Scholar.
41 John, Dalrymple, An Essay towards a General History of Feudal Property in Great Britain… (1757).Google Scholar This work went through four editions by 1759.
