From Glenfinnan to the Colonies: How the Jacobite Rising of 1745 Echoed Across the Atlantic

On August 19, 1745, a red silken banner was raised at Glenfinnan, a remote Highland village nestled at the head of Loch Shiel. With that gesture, Prince Charles Edward Stuart-known to history as "Bonnie Prince Charlie"-launched the Second Jacobite Rebellion, a dramatic attempt to reclaim the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. The moment marked the beginning of what would become one of the most romanticized and tragic uprisings in British history. But its consequences extended far beyond the moors of Scotland. The rebellion's failure reshaped the British Empire's internal dynamics and, in subtle but lasting ways, helped mold the social and political character of the future United States.

The Jacobite cause had simmered since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when the Catholic King James II was deposed in favor of his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange. Jacobites-named after the Latin form of James, "Jacobus"-believed in the divine right of kings and sought to restore the House of Stuart to the throne. The 1745 rising was the last and most ambitious of these efforts. Charles Edward Stuart landed in Scotland in July 1745 with only a handful of supporters, having failed to secure substantial French military backing. Despite initial reluctance from Highland clan chiefs, Charles's charisma and promises of foreign aid persuaded key leaders like Donald Cameron of Lochiel to join him. By the time the standard was raised at Glenfinnan, nearly 1,000 Highlanders had assembled, forming the nucleus of a rebel army.

The Jacobites quickly gained momentum. They captured Edinburgh and defeated government forces at the Battle of Prestonpans. By December, they had marched as far south as Derby, just 125 miles from London. But promised support from English Jacobites and a French invasion never materialized. Facing encirclement by government forces, the Jacobite army retreated to Scotland. After a brief resurgence at Falkirk, the rebellion met its end on April 16, 1746, at the Battle of Culloden. The government forces, led by the Duke of Cumberland, crushed the Jacobites in less than an hour. The aftermath was brutal: executions, mass imprisonments, and the systematic dismantling of Highland clan culture.

While the rebellion failed to restore the Stuarts, its consequences reverberated across the Atlantic. In the years following Culloden, many Jacobite sympathizers-especially Highland Scots-fled persecution and emigrated to the American colonies. Some had already begun arriving after the failed 1715 rising, but the post-1745 wave brought thousands more. Settling in places like North Carolina, New York, and Pennsylvania, these Scots brought with them a distinct cultural identity shaped by clan loyalty, resistance to centralized authority, and a deep sense of historical grievance.

Ironically, many of these immigrants would later side with the British Crown during the American Revolution. Despite their history of rebellion, Jacobites were monarchists at heart. They had fought not against monarchy itself, but for what they saw as the legitimate royal line. The idea of a republic was foreign to their worldview. As a result, many Scottish Highlanders in America became Loyalists, supporting King George III and opposing the Patriot cause. Others, however, especially Lowland Scots and descendants of earlier immigrants, embraced revolutionary ideals and fought for independence.

Beyond political allegiance, the Jacobite legacy influenced American military and cultural life. Highland regiments like the Black Watch and Fraser's Highlanders served in the French and Indian War and later in the Revolutionary War, fighting on both sides. Their distinctive dress-kilts, bonnets, and tartan-became symbols of martial valor and ethnic pride. Scottish traditions, including bagpipes and clan gatherings, took root in colonial society and remain part of American cultural heritage today.

The rebellion also indirectly shaped American ideas about liberty and resistance. The Jacobite struggle, though monarchist in nature, was a fight against imposed authority and cultural suppression. The British government's harsh response-banning tartan, disarming Highlanders, and abolishing hereditary jurisdictions-was seen by many as an overreach. These actions contributed to a broader narrative of British tyranny that resonated with American colonists in the decades leading up to 1776.

Even the Declaration of Independence bears traces of Scottish influence. The 1320 Declaration of Arbroath, a medieval Scottish assertion of sovereignty, inspired some of the language and ideas found in Jefferson's document. Several signers of the Declaration were of Scottish descent, and the spirit of resistance to unjust rule-central to both the Jacobite cause and the American Revolution-formed a common thread.

Today, Glenfinnan stands as a monument to a failed rebellion, but also to a legacy that crossed oceans. The tower erected in 1815 to commemorate the raising of the Jacobite standard was funded in part by wealth from Jamaican slave plantations-a reminder of the complex intersections between empire, rebellion, and migration. The statue atop the tower, an unnamed Highlander, gazes across Loch Shiel, a silent witness to history.

In the end, the Jacobite Rising of 1745 was more than a dynastic struggle. It was a flashpoint in the transformation of Britain and its colonies-a moment when loyalty, identity, and resistance collided. Its echoes can still be heard in the cultural fabric of the United States, where the descendants of rebels and loyalists alike helped shape a new nation.