The Declaration of Arbroath: Georgian Editions, Libraries and Readers, and Scotland’s ‘Radical War’ of 1820

Abstract

This paper explores an aspect of the legacy of the Declaration of Arbroath and expands upon earlier research into tensions surrounding the commemorations in 1814 of the battle of Bannockburn. It considers the evidence for connections between those radical artisans and their leaders who attempted to rouse popular insurrection in 1820, Scotland’s so-called ‘radical war’, and Bruce’s now-celebrated missive to the papacy of 6 April 1320, five centuries before. Did the armed workers moving on Carron Shore Iron Foundry on 5 April 1820, routed by troops at Bonnymuir, seek to coincide with the Declaration’s anniversary? To what extent was the radicals’ own declaration, the Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland, influenced by the text of 1320? If so, did this represent a continuation, a renewal or a debut for the Declaration as an inspiration for popular political participation in modern times? A survey of the holdings of early working-class subscription, circulation and public libraries in central Scotland c. 1790– c. 1830 can be made to identify both known and previously unnoticed published works which reproduced, translated and/or discussed the Declaration, as well as any radicalised readers. This reveals public awareness of Arbroath in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to have been potentially far more widespread than hitherto recognised by historians, if still marginal as a catalyst to political agitation.