Imprisoned Petticoats: Data from the Prison Records of the Jacobite Rising of 1745

Abstract

Women of the Jacobite Rising of 1745 significantly contributed to the military power of the Jacobite army. Their participation with the legal system reveals important information about women’s place before the law in eighteenth-century Britain. Women of the period were able and willing to engage in Jacobite intrigue with a lessened degree of danger from capital punishment which made them important to the Jacobite movement by allowing them to assist with escape attempts, military recruitment, and espionage without the danger from judicial repercussions that their male counterparts could face. They proved to be a significant force for the Jacobite political movement, and the hopes of the Stuart claimants would not have lasted as long without the significant support received from the female demographic in eighteenth-century Britain.