Jacobite Works of Art

The Four Peers Ring

7 October 2024

Colin Fraser

Originally sold in our inaugural 2015 Jacobite, Stuart & Scottish Applied Arts auction Graham of Airth Four Peers Ring still ranks among the most important pieces of Jacobite works of art sold.

The Four Peers Ring is perhaps one of the most iconic and romantic examples of Jacobite jewellery and contemporary relic. While relic normally denotes a fragment or part of a revered place, person or object these important rings were created at a contemporary moment as a commemorative memorial for the peers and high ranking officers who gave the greatest sacrifice for the cause they so staunchly upheld: the Earl of Kilmarnock, Lord Balmerino, Earl Derwentwater and Lord Lovat.

The execution of these men was not only a defining moment in the aftermath of the uprising and Jacobite history but shows the fear and recrimination of the Scots and the Clans which the Hanoverian dynasty dealt after the defeat of Culloden. The aftermath of the battle was not the only recrimination for the nation, the butchery on the field of battle, the humiliation of the Prince and Stuarts, and the seizing of lands and titles from those involved was not enough. A public face had to be put to the defeat and in the absence of a Stuart the closest thing were his most trusted and closest advisors and supporters.

Those who had not fled and were captured were dealt varied treatments but those of the ‘Four Peers’ no doubt the harshest.

Jacobite & Scottish Works of Art

Explore our Edinburgh-based department, specialists & forthcoming auctions

The Four Peers

BIOGRAPHY

Arthur Elphinstone, 6th Lord Balmerino & 3rd Lord Coupar

Scottish 1688 - 1746

BIOGRAPHY

Charles Radcliffe, 5th Earl of Derwentwater

Scottish 1693 - 1746

BIOGRAPHY

Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat

Scottish 1667 - 1747

BIOGRAPHY

William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock

Scottish 1705 - 1746

This important ring is one of only five recorded examples, one surfacing since the auction. Of the five recorded only two are in private hands.

Three others are known to survive within institutional collections: one at the National Museums Scotland (H.NJ 154) and two within the British Museum (1418 and 1490, the latter Ex Sir A. W. Franks Collection). Although unmarked, it has long been considered within the Jacobite families who owned these rings that they originated from Oliphant of Gask family and were presented to surviving and staunch Jacobite families for their work and effort within the cause.

The Ring's Provenance

It has long been considered that these rings were commissioned from Ebenezer Oliphant, Goldsmith in Edinburgh, by Lord Francis Oliphant of Gask. While not proven, a more likely candidate cannot be considered. Ebenezer Oliphant’s place within the Jacobite establishment, as brother of the Laird of Gask, cousin to Laurence Oliphant, Goldsmith and Aide de Campe to Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and his own place as renowned Jacobite Goldsmith all make him the likely, if not the only, candidate.

Indeed, the production of such rings supporting the Jacobites would have been a very dangerous offence and so close to the defeat at Culloden could only have been made by the staunchest of supporters. It is not surprising that the ring is unmarked as any 18th century hallmarked (or bearing a maker’s mark alone) Scottish jewellery is highly unusual. Also advertising the maker of such a piece, if it were found by Hanoverian supporters, would surely have guaranteed problems and re-crimination for the craftsmen.

The Oliphants had been key supporters of the Stuart claim and had been vocal opposition to the Act of Union in 1707. They had been with King James in the uprising of 1715 and played an active role in support, funding and propaganda for the ’45. The 10th Lord escaped after Culloden to Sweden and latterly lived in France. He bought his amnesty in 1763 and returned to Scotland but did not stop his staunch and open Jacobite support.

The original owner of this example of ‘The Four Peers Ring’ could not have been closer to the uprising and its aftermath, John Graham of Airth being not only a supporter but self-proclaimed defender of the Jacobite’s after the defeat in 1715.

James Graham worked on behalf of the Peers and other captives at their trials in 1716 trying to provide some defence for the prisoners and while his duty seemed destined to fail, with the full weight of Hanoverian monarchy and hierarchy against him the case he fought was considered a victory. Although appealing for leniency, and not the death penalty, was obviously his goal the likelihood of winning such terms was minimal.

SOLD IN 2015

The Four Peers Ring

The Manchester Regiment

The men immortalised on the shank of the ring show the variety of classes, regiments and geographical origins of the officers fighting under Prince Charles. This group of men were somewhat overlooked on their executions after those of the Peers whose involvement was even more political. The executions were staged in three batches, all commemorated on the shank.

The Manchester Regiment was formed during the end November 1745 as a regiment of foot under the command of Francis Towneley. In response to the advancing Jacobite army and success they had seen, they joined Prince Charles’ army marching south to Derby on 1st December. However, they were almost immediately forced to retreat to Carlisle. Their support of the Jacobite cause would ultimately lead to execution or transportation for many of the regiment.

The regiment had been started by a deserter from the Hanoverian troops who had been captured at Gladsmuir. He began recruitment in the city and, although reports vary, his successes were obvious, enlisting around 180 men (some reports suggesting upwards of 600, one as few as 30). This success was hardly guaranteed as he arrived in Manchester with only his mistress and drummer as support, some reports suggesting the whole affair was against superior’s orders and one of his own invention. The process, official or otherwise, in the number of 30 or 600 must have been a sight.

“Within an hour of his arrival he began to beat up for recruits. The populace did not at first interrupt him, conceiving that the whole army was near the town…….they surrounded him in a tumultuous manner, with the intention of taking him prisoner. Dickson presented his blunderbuss, which was charged with slugs, threatening to blow out the brains of those who first dared to lay hands on himself or the two who accompanied him; and by turning around, continually, facing in all directions, and behaving like a lion, …….. those of the inhabitants of Manchester who were attached to the house of Stuart took arms, and flew to the assistance of Dickson, to rescue him from the fury of the mob; …… who dispersed the crowd in a very short time. He now triumphed in his turn, and putting himself at the head of his followers, proudly paraded, undisturbed, the whole day with his drummer, enlisting all who offered themselves……, ‘to each of whom a white cockade was given, and a bounty of five guineas promised."

There were nine officers from the Manchester Regiment executed on 30 July 1746. While many regiments, families and men felt the force of Hanoverian recrimination those laid down on the Manchester regiment were ferocious, a regiment of English men in the service of the Scots (as was seen by the Hanoverians) had to be punished. It is said, “This unit indeed was treated with a ferocity which indicated that its degree of culpability was held to be higher than that of any other in the Jacobite army”.

The Fallen

FT – Francis Towneley – immortalised with George Fletcher with their decapitated heads on a spike in an anonymous contemporary engraving.
AB – Andrew Blood
TD – Thomas Theodore Deacon
TS – Thomas Sydall
DM – David Morgan
JD – James Dawson
GF – George Fletcher
TC – Thomas Chadwick
JB – John Beswick

22nd August 1747

JN – James Nicolson who was an owner of a coffee house in Leith, and held a commission as Lieutenant in the Duke of Perth’s regiment. It was stated at his trial that he was an uncle of Donald McDonald.
D McD – Donald McDonald or McDonell was a Captain in Keppoch’s regiment.
WO – Walter Ogilvie was a Lieutenant in Lord Lewis of Gordon’s Regiment.

28th November 1746

JW – Sir John Wedderburn, Bart., of Blackness, was captured in arms at Culloden. He had also acted in the capacity of Collector of Excise for the Jacobites in Perthshire and Forfarshire. He appealed for mercy at the end without success.
JB – James Bradshaw was serving in Elcho’s Life Guards at the time he was captured, although he had originally been in the Manchester Regiment, which likely was the reason he was executed.
JH – Colonel John Hamilton raised a considerable number of men in the Gordon country, and was Governor of the Castle of Carlisle at the time of its surrender.
AL – Alexander Leith was a Captain in Glenbucket’s regiment. Although he was said to be old and infirm he was still executed.
AW – Andrew Wood was a shoemaker from Glasgow and Captain in Roy Stuart’s regiment. He made a speech on the scaffold stating that he raised a company at his own expense.

As with the sentences passed to other supporters, those for the above was amongst the most gruesome, not just paying the ultimate price but the nature in which it was carried out. The belief they had in their cause is seen in the final moments in Thomas Theodore Deacon's speech to the assembled crowd.

“I am come here to pay the last debt to nature, and I think myself happy in having an opportunity of dying in so just and so glorious a cause. The deluded and infatuated vulgar will no doubt brand my death with all the infamy that ignorance and prejudice can suggest. But the thinking few who have not quite forsaken their duty to God and their King, will I am persuaded look upon it as being little inferior to martyrdom itself, for I am just going to fall a sacrifice to the resentment and revenge of the Elector of Hanover and all those unhappy miscreants who have openly espoused the cause of a foreign German usurper and withdrawn their allegiance from their only rightful, lawful and native sovereign, King James the 3rd……”

However, such impassioned pleas and the work of the Jacobite lawyers could not save the Officers and the Newgate Calendar describes their final journey and final act for the Stuart cause.

“After the sentence of the law was passed, the convicts declared that they had acted according to the dictates of their consciences, and would again act the same parts, if they were put to trial. When the keeper informed them that the following day was ordered for their execution, they expressed a resignation to the will of God, embraced each other, and took an affectionate leave of their friends.
On the following morning they breakfasted together, and having conversed till near eleven o' clock, were conveyed from the New Gaol, Southwark, to Kennington Common, on three sledges. The gibbet was surrounded by a party of the guards, and a block; and a pile of faggots, were placed near it. The faggots were set on fire while the proper officers were removing the malefactors from the sledges.
After near an hour employed in acts of devotion, these unhappy men, having delivered to the sheriffs some papers, expressive of their political sentiments, then underwent the sentence of the law. They had not hung above five minutes, when Townley was cut down, being yet alive, and his body being placed on the block, the executioner chopped off his head with a cleaver. His heart and bowels were then taken out, and thrown into the fire; and the other parts being separately treated in the same manner, the executioner cried out "God save King George !"

The bodies were quartered and delivered to the keeper of the New Gaol, who buried them: the heads of some of the parties were sent to Carlisle and Manchester, where they were exposed; but those of Townley and Fletcher were fixed on Temple-Bar, where they remained many years, till they fell down.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR