Devon (England) -- Antiquities; Devon (England) -- History
_From a Painting by T. Stothard, R.A._] [_Engraved by George Noble._
THE LANDING OF WILLIAM III. AT TORBAY.
]
THE LANDING OF THE PRINCE OF
ORANGE AT BRIXHAM, 1688.
BY THE LATE T. W. WINDEATT.
The landing of the Prince of Orange—the Prince who "saved England"—on
the shores of Devon in 1688, must always be a matter of interest. The
subject has been dealt with by Macaulay and other historians with more
or less detail. I certainly should not, therefore, have ventured on the
subject myself had it not been for the fact of having had placed in my
hands, through the courtesy of Mr. J. B. Davidson, of Secktor, a
somewhat rare pamphlet, containing many interesting facts not noted in
the papers referred to by Mr. Pengelly, and from my being the repository
of some local anecdotes worth preserving.
The pamphlet I have referred to is entitled, “An Exact Diary of the late
Expedition of His Illustrious Highness The Prince of Orange (now King of
Great Britain), from his Palace at the Hague to his Landing at Torbay,
and from thence to his arrival at Whitehall. Giving a particular account
of all that happened and every Day’s March. By a Minister Chaplain in
the Army.” It consists of seventy-three pages, was printed for Richard
Baldwin, near the Black Bull, in the Old Bailey, in 1689, licensed April
23rd, 1689. It is dedicated to the Earls of Bedford and Portland,
Viscount Sidney of Sheppy, and Sir John Maynard, one of the Lords
Commissioners of the Great Seal; and from the Dedication it appears that
the writer was one “John Whittle.”
This Sir John Maynard was at this time Recorder for this borough, and
member for the borough during the Long Parliament. He was a very able
lawyer, and at this time near ninety. It is related of him that when he
came “with the men of the law” to welcome the Prince, the latter took
notice of his great age, and said that he had outlived all the men of
the law of his time. Whereupon Maynard replied, he had like to have
outlived the law itself if his Highness had not come over.
That this pamphlet is genuine, and was written by an English clergyman
who accompanied the expedition throughout, there is strong internal
evidence; and Macaulay cites it as one of the authorities for several of
his statements with reference to the expedition, though he does not
quote largely from it.
In this diary or, more strictly, narrative, which enters more fully into
particulars than the other pamphlets, Mr. Whittle gives a graphic
account of the arrangements for, and the departure of, the expedition,
the storm which sent it back again, its refitting, second departure, and
safe (if not miraculous) arrival in Torbay, of all of which the writer
was evidently an eye-witness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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