Northumberland Yesterday and To-dayTerry, Jean F. (Jean Finlay)
History
Northumberland Yesterday and To-day
Terry, Jean F. (Jean Finlay)
Northumberland (England) -- Guidebooks; Northumberland (England) -- History
At Preston they barricaded the principal streets, and repulsed
General Willis; but the arrival of General Carpenter from Newcastle
changed the face of affairs. Young Derwentwater had fought
valiantly and worked arduously at the barricades, but Forster—whose
appointment as General had been made in the hope of attracting
other Protestant gentry to the Jacobite cause—offered to submit to
General Carpenter under certain conditions. Carpenter’s reply was a
demand for unconditional surrender, and the hopeless little
tragi-comedy was played out. The last scene took place on Tower
Hill three months later, when the gallant young Earl, then only
twenty-six years old, laid down the life which, after all, had been
spent in the service of others, with no selfish purpose in view,
and which was offered him, together with wealth and freedom, if he
would forsake his faith and throw aside his allegiance to the house
of Stuart. Refusing to purchase life at such a price, he was
condemned, and executed on Tower Hill on February 24th, 1716.
His brother Charles, who had been by his side throughout the
rising, had the good fortune to escape from Newgate Prison, and
passed most of his life abroad. Thirty years later, on his return
to take up arms on behalf of James’ son Charles—“bonnie Prince
Charlie”—when he also drew the sword in an attempt to regain the
throne of his fathers, Radcliffe was captured and beheaded. (For
account of a monument to the memory of these two brothers see in
previous chapter paragraph relating to Haydon Bridge.)
The story of General Forster’s escape from Newgate is told by Sir
Walter Besant, as all readers of his novel, “Dorothy Forster” know,
though the author has taken those minor liberties with unimportant
facts which are by common consent allowable in fiction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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