66-678: The Atterbury Plot was a conspiracy led by Francis Atterbury , Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster , aimed at the restoration of the House of Stuart to the throne of Great Britain . It came some years after the unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1715 and Jacobite rising of 1719 , at a time when the Whig government of the new Hanoverian king was deeply unpopular. Apart from Atterbury, other conspirators included Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery , Lord North and Grey , Sir Henry Goring , Christopher Layer , John Plunket , and George Kelly . The Plot
132-631: A prebend in Exeter Cathedral . The lower house of Convocation voted him thanks for his services; the University of Oxford made him a Doctor of Divinity (D.D.); and in 1704, soon after the accession of Queen Anne , he was promoted to the Deanery of Carlisle Cathedral . In 1710, the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell produced a formidable explosion of High Church fanaticism. At such a moment Atterbury could not fail to be conspicuous. His inordinate zeal for
198-452: A French double agent who was being questioned about his treasonable activities, attempted to assassinate Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford , against whom he had a personal grudge for drastically cutting his allowance, by stabbing him with a penknife (how he managed to get into the Council room with a weapon remains a mystery). Harley was wounded, but not seriously, due largely to the fact that he
264-607: A better man, to the last protesting his innocence with a singular disingenuousness. After a short stay at Brussels he went to Paris, and became the leading man among the Jacobite refugees there. He was invited to Rome by the Pretender, but Atterbury felt that a bishop of the Church of England would be out of place in Rome, and declined the invitation. During some months, however, he seemed to be high in
330-519: A bill of pains and penalties. In 1723 such a bill passed the Commons depriving him of his spiritual dignities, banishing him for life, and forbidding any British subject to hold intercourse with him except by the royal permission. In the Lords the contest was sharp, but the bill finally passed by eighty-three votes to forty-three. Atterbury took leave of those whom he loved with a dignity and tenderness worthy of
396-577: A coup d'état to take place early in May. The French said they had refused permission for the Duke of Ormonde to march a force across France to a channel port and they had also moved their Irish Brigade away from Dunkirk . Sunderland's papers were seized, and a letter of thanks addressed to him by the Pretender came to light. In England, insufficient money had been collected by the Jacobites to provide enough arms to support
462-589: A coup d'état which involved the capture of the Hanoverian royal family and the proclamation of the Pretender as James III. Events of 1720, notably the Bubble Act and the collapse of the South Sea Company , left the pro-Hanoverian Whig government in disarray and deeply unpopular with the many ruling class investors who had lost heavily. Atterbury seized the moment to conspire with the exiled John Erskine , who at
528-540: A personage of much importance in the crisis brought about by the death of Queen Anne and, during the last years of Queen Anne, Ormonde almost certainly had Jacobite leanings and corresponded with the Jacobite Court including his cousin, Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye , who kept barrels of gunpowder at Kilkenny Castle . King George I on his accession to the throne in August 1714 instituted extensive changes and excluded
594-603: A proposed insurrection. The Court was interested to have evidence that the Pretender and his wife had acted as godparents to Layer's daughter, when they were represented at a christening in Chelsea by the proxies Lord North and Grey and the Duchess of Ormonde . After a trial lasting eighteen hours, the jury unanimously found Layer guilty of high treason . On 27 November 1722, he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered , but execution
660-782: A pupil, Charles Boyle , in the Examination of Dr. Bentley's Dissertations on the Epistles of Phalaris , an attack (1698) on the Whig scholar Richard Bentley , arising out of Bentley's impugnment of the genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris . He was figured by Swift in the Battle of the Books as the Apollo who directed the fight, and was, no doubt, largely the author of Boyle's essay. Bentley spent two years in preparing his famous reply, which proved not only that
726-470: A rising, leading Mar (writing in March 1722) to comment on hearing this that Goring, "though a honest, stout, man, had not showed himself very fit for things of this kind." Walpole's agents began the search for evidence against the leading suspects of Jacobitism , but they found little. Despite this, Walpole gave orders for several men to be arrested: Arran , Strafford , Orrery, North and Grey, Goring, Atterbury,
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#1732847607222792-472: A trial where he was considered one of the major managers of the plot, his agent stated Goring had attempted to enlist a gang of one thousand brandy smugglers to assist the projected invasion. This led to some government action against such smuggling. Layer was arrested and lodged with Atterbury in the Tower, his clerks were placed under surveillance, and his wife was arrested and brought to London from Dover . He
858-586: A vindication of himself against John Oldmixon , who had accused him of having, in concert with other Christ Church men, garbled the new edition of Clarendon 's History of the Rebellion . He was not one of the editors of the History , and had never seen it until it was printed. Atterbury died, aged 68, on 22 February 1732. His body was brought to England, and interred in Westminster Abbey . In his papers now kept at
924-588: A week later. On 23 April 1712 he left Harwich for Rotterdam to lead the British troops taking part in the war. Once there he allowed himself to be made the tool of the Tory ministry, whose policy was to carry on the war in the Netherlands while giving secret orders to Ormonde to take no active part in supporting their allies under Prince Eugene . In July 1712 Ormonde advised Prince Eugene that he could no longer support
990-508: Is not improbable that he would have been raised to the archbishopric of Canterbury . The more splendid his prospects the more reason he had to dread the accession of a family which was well known to be partial to the Whigs, and there is every reason to believe that he was one of those politicians who hoped that they might be able, during the life of Anne, to prepare matters in such a way that at her death there might be little difficulty in setting aside
1056-466: The Act of Settlement and placing James Francis Edward Stuart on the throne. Queen Anne's sudden death confounded the projects of these conspirators, and, whatever Atterbury's previous views may have been, he acquiesced in what he could not prevent, took the oaths to the House of Hanover , and did his best to ingratiate himself with the royal family. But his servility was requited with cold contempt; he became
1122-505: The Butler dynasty , was Old English and descended from Theobald Walter , who had been appointed Chief Butler of Ireland by King Henry II in 1177. James's mother was Dutch. She descended from a cadet branch of the House of Nassau . Both parents were Protestant. They married on 17 November 1659. They had eleven children. He was educated in France and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford . On
1188-565: The Jacobite rising of 1715 , during which the rebels had shouted "High church and Ormond", he was impeached for high treason by Lord Stanhope on 21 June 1715. He might have avoided the impending storm of parliamentary prosecution, if he had remained in England and stood trial but instead he chose to flee to France in August 1715 and initially stayed in Paris with Lord Bolingbroke . On 20 August 1715 he
1254-561: The Nine Years' War and, having been promoted to major-general , he fought at the Battle of Steenkerque in August 1692 and the Battle of Landen in July 1693, where he was taken prisoner by the French and then exchanged for the Duke of Berwick , James II's illegitimate son. He was promoted to lieutenant-general in 1694. After the accession of Queen Anne in March 1702, he became commander of
1320-654: The Reformation , a reply to Obadiah Walker , who, when elected master of University College, Oxford , in 1676, had printed in a press set up by him there an attack on the Reformation written by Abraham Woodhead . Atterbury's treatise, though highly praised by Bishop Gilbert Burnet , was more distinguished for the vigour of his rhetoric than the soundness of his arguments, and the Papists accused him of treason , and of having, by implication, called King James " Judas ". After
1386-803: The Tower of London , the Bank of England , the Royal Mint , and other government buildings in Westminster and the City of London , to capture the Hanoverian royal family, and to kill other key men. English Tories were to summon their men, secure their counties, and march on London, while volunteers from the Irish Brigade of the French Army were to land in England to join them. Layer returned to London with assurances of royal favour from
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#17328476072221452-457: The " Glorious Revolution ", Atterbury readily swore fealty to the new government. He had taken holy orders in 1687, preached occasionally in London with an eloquence which raised his reputation, and was soon appointed one of the royal chaplains. He ordinarily lived at Oxford, where he was the chief adviser and assistant of Henry Aldrich , under whom Christ Church was a stronghold of Toryism. He inspired
1518-480: The "notorious Jacobite" Lord North and Grey , met some fellow plotters regularly at an inn in Stratford-le-Bow , and by the summer of 1721 had succeeded in recruiting some soldiers at Romford and Leytonstone . He then travelled to Rome, where he met the Pretender to reveal the details of a plot. Layer stated that he represented a large number of influential Jacobites, who proposed to recruit old soldiers to seize
1584-491: The British throne in 1719, but his fleet was disbanded by a storm in the Bay of Biscay . In 1732 he moved to Avignon , where he was seen in 1733 by the writer, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu . Ormonde died at Avignon in exile on 16 November 1745, but his body was brought back to London and buried in Westminster Abbey on 22 May 1746. On 20 July 1682 he, then called Lord Ossory, married Lady Anne Hyde, daughter of Laurence Hyde , who
1650-457: The Convocation, of which the lower house was overwhelmingly Tory, met after a gap of ten years. Atterbury threw himself with characteristic energy into the controversy, publishing a series of treatises. Many regarded him as the most intrepid champion that had ever defended the rights of the clergy against the oligarchy of Erastian prelates . In 1701 he became Archdeacon of Totnes and received
1716-567: The Duke of Mar's agent George Kelly, and Christopher Layer. Atterbury, who had long been an opponent of Walpole, was named as a conspirator by Mar and was arrested on 24 August 1722, to be charged with treason. He and Orrery were imprisoned in the Tower of London . On 17 October the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended. Goring, meanwhile, avoided arrest and had fled the country on 23 August; he remained in France until his death in 1731. In his absence, at
1782-513: The English to stand up for their country against the aliens who had come from beyond the seas to allegedly oppress and plunder her, critics have detected his style. When the rebellion of 1715 broke out, he refused to sign the paper in which the bishops of the province of Canterbury declared their attachment to the Protestant accession, and in 1717, after having been long in indirect communication with
1848-488: The Jacobite court was the Duke of Mar , and who had been the Pretender's Secretary of State. The aim of the conspirators was a new Jacobite rising, to coincide with the general election expected in 1722 , this date being foreseen because by the Septennial Act of 1716 parliament was enabled to sit for seven years after the election of 1715 . Sir Henry Goring , who was himself standing (unsuccessfully as turned out) in
1914-456: The Library of Westminster, he desired to be buried "as far from kings and politicians as may be." Thus he is buried next to a 21st-century tourist information booth kiosk. The black slab is simple, indicating his name, birth and death dates; the inscription is now considerably worn. Of his wife, Katherine Osborn, whom he married while at Oxford, little is known; but between him and his daughter there
1980-569: The Pretender. The plot collapsed in England in the spring of 1722, at the time of the death of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland , who a year before had been forced to resign as First Lord of the Treasury . He died on 19 April, when the Duke of Orleans , Regent of France, made it known to Carteret , Robert Walpole 's Secretary of State for the Southern Department , that the Jacobites had asked him to send three thousand men in support of
2046-613: The Tories from royal favour. Ormonde was stripped of his posts as Captain-General, as colonel of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards and as Commander in Chief of the Forces with the first two posts going to the Duke of Marlborough and the role of Commander-in-Chief going to the Earl of Stair . On 19 November 1714 Ormonde was instead made a member of the reconstituted Privy Council of Ireland . Accused of supporting
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2112-462: The body to which he belonged and his rare talents for agitation and for controversy were again displayed. He took a chief part in framing that artful and eloquent speech which Sacheverell made at the bar of the House of Lords, and which presents a singular contrast to the absurd and scurrilous sermon which had very unwisely been honoured with impeachment . During the troubled and anxious months which followed
2178-524: The crown and for giving a reward of £10,000 for his apprehension, should he attempt to land in Ireland. But the same parliament passed an act on 24 June 1721, to enable his brother Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran , to purchase his estate, which he accordingly did. Ormonde subsequently moved to Spain where he held discussions with Cardinal Alberoni . He later took part in a Spanish and Jacobite plan to invade England and put James Francis Edward Stuart on
2244-551: The death of his father on 30 July 1680 he became Baron Butler in the English peerage and the 7th Earl of Ossory in the Irish Peerage. He obtained command of a cavalry regiment in Ireland in 1683, and having received an appointment at court on the accession of James II , he served against the Duke of Monmouth at the Battle of Sedgemoor in July 1685. Having succeeded his grandfather as 2nd Duke of Ormonde on 21 July 1688, he
2310-511: The decision of parliament rather than through prosecution in a court. The evidence offered to parliament consisted chiefly of a spaniel named Harlequin, a present from the Pretender, and some letters found in a lavatory, leading to suspicions that Atterbury was the victim of a Whig conspiracy. However, in May 1723 the Pains and Penalties Bill aimed at him was approved by the Commons and by the Lords , where
2376-519: The discovery of the plot for the capture of the royal family and the proclamation of "King James III", Atterbury was arrested with the other chief malcontents, and in 1722 committed to the Tower of London , where he remained in close confinement during some months. He had carried on his correspondence with the exiled family so cautiously that the circumstantial proofs of his guilt, though sufficient to produce entire moral conviction, were not sufficient to justify legal conviction. He could be reached only by
2442-596: The dismissal of the Duke of Marlborough , Ormonde was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Forces and colonel of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards on 4 January 1712 and Captain-General on 26 February 1712. In the Irish Parliament Ormonde and the majority of peers supported the Tory interest. He played a dramatic role at the notorious meeting of the Privy Council on 8 March 1711 when Antoine de Guiscard ,
2508-574: The election as MP for his old seat of Steyning in Sussex, wrote to the Pretender on 20 March 1721 a letter in which he put forward a plan for a restoration of the Stuart monarchy with the assistance of an invasion by Irish exile troops commanded by the Duke of Ormonde from Spain and Lieutenant-General Dillon from France. Christopher Layer , a barrister of the Middle Temple and an agent and legal advisor to
2574-558: The exiled family, he began to correspond directly with James Francis Edward Stuart. Recent findings from the State Papers at Kew have established that Atterbury was the 'Grand Prelate' of the Jacobite Order of Toboso in England. (The Order of Toboso was a Jacobite fraternity named in honour of Dulcinea del Toboso , the imaginary amour of Don Quixote . Both Charles Edward Stuart and Henry Benedict Stuart were members). In 1721, on
2640-521: The family of the Pretender, and when the Jacobite rising of 1715 appeared, he refused to sign a declaration in which other bishops attached themselves to the Protestant accession. In 1717 hundreds of Jacobites arrested at the time of the Rising were released from prison by the Act of Grace and Pardon , and Atterbury began to correspond directly with James Francis Edward Stuart . He was later accused of plotting
2706-558: The forces of William of Orange, by whom he was made colonel of the Queen's Troop of Horse Guards on 20 April 1689. He accompanied William in his Irish campaign , debarking with him in Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690 and commanded this troop at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. In February 1691 he became Lord Lieutenant of Somerset . He served on the continent under William of Orange during
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2772-522: The good graces of James. The correspondence between the master and the servant was constant. Atterbury's merits were warmly acknowledged, his advice was respectfully received, and he was, as Bolingbroke had been before him, the prime minister of a king without a kingdom. He soon, however, perceived that his counsels were disregarded, if not distrusted. His proud spirit was deeply wounded. In 1728 he left Paris, occupied his residence at Montpellier , gave up politics, and devoted himself entirely to letters. In
2838-714: The land forces co-operating with Sir George Rooke in Spain, where he fought in the Battle of Cádiz in August 1702 and the Battle of Vigo Bay in October 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). Having been made a Privy Councillor , Ormonde succeeded Lord Rochester as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1703. In 1704 he leased and rebuilt a property that became known as Ormonde Lodge in Richmond outside London . Following
2904-483: The letters ascribed to Phalaris were spurious, but that all Atterbury's wit and eloquence were a cloak for an audacious pretence at scholarship . Atterbury was soon occupied in a dispute about matters still more important and exciting. High Church and Low Church divided the nation. The majority of the clergy were on the High Church side; the majority of King William's bishops were inclined to latitudinarianism . In 1701
2970-427: The most factious and pertinacious of all the opponents of the government. In the House of Lords his oratory, lucid, pointed, lively and set off with every grace of pronunciation and of gesture, aroused the attention and admiration even of a hostile majority. Some of the most remarkable protests which appear in the journals of the peers were drawn up by him; and, in some of the bitterest of those pamphlets which called on
3036-418: The prosecution of Henry Sacheverell led to an explosion of High Church fanaticism, and Atterbury helped Sacheverell with his defence, then became an active pamphleteer against the Whig ministry. When the ministry changed, rewards came to him. Queen Anne chose him as her chief adviser in church matters, and in August 1711 she appointed him Dean of Christ Church, Oxford , a strongly Tory college. In 1713 he
3102-432: The queen, who had selected him as her chief adviser in ecclesiastical matters, appointed him Dean of Christ Church on the death of his old friend and patron Aldrich. At Oxford he was as conspicuous a failure as he had been at Carlisle, and it was said by his enemies that he was made a bishop because he was so bad a dean. Under his administration, Christ Church was in confusion, scandalous altercations took place, and there
3168-599: The siege of Quesnoy and that he was withdrawing the British troops from the action and instead intended to take possession of Dunkirk . The Dutch were so exasperated at the withdrawal of the British troops that they closed the towns of Bouchain on Douai to British access, despite the fact that they had plenty of stores and medical facilities available. Ormonde took possession of Ghent and Bruges as well as Dunkirk, in order to ensure his troops were adequately provided for. On 15 April 1713 he became Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk . Ormonde's position as Captain-General made him
3234-416: The sixth year of his exile he had so severe an illness that his daughter, Mrs Morice, herself very ill, determined to run all risks that she might see him once more. He met her at Toulouse , she received the last rites from him, and died that night. Atterbury survived the shock of his daughter's death, and returned to Paris and to the service of the Pretender. In the ninth year of his banishment he published
3300-507: The trial, Atterbury was among the most active of those pamphleteers who inflamed the nation against the Whig ministry and the Whig parliament. When the ministry changed and the parliament was dissolved, rewards were showered upon him. The lower house of Convocation elected him prolocutor , in which capacity he drew up, in 1711, the often-cited Representation of the State of Religion ; and in August 1711,
3366-466: The voting was eighty-three votes for and forty-three against, being finally enacted on 15 May, two days before the execution of Layer. On 18 June, Atterbury went into exile in France. Orrery remained in the Tower for six months, after which he was given bail. There was insufficient evidence to proceed against him. Among the other conspirators, John Plunkett and George Kelly were also arrested and were punished by being deprived of their estates. Lord Stafford
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#17328476072223432-447: Was attainted , his estate forfeited, and honours extinguished. The Earl Marshal was instructed to remove the names and armorial bearings of Ormonde and Bolingbroke from the list of peers and Ormonde's banner as Knight of the Garter was taken down in St George's Chapel . On 20 June 1716, the Parliament of Ireland passed an act extinguishing the regalities and liberties of the county palatine of Tipperary; for vesting his estate in
3498-405: Was accused of treason and went into exile after the Jacobite rising of 1715 . James was born on 29 April 1665 at Dublin Castle . He was the second but eldest surviving son of Thomas Butler by his wife Emilia van Nassau-Beverweerd . His father was known as Lord Ossory. He was heir apparent of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond but predeceased him and so never became duke. His father's family,
3564-471: Was affection. His fondness for John Milton was such as to many Tories seemed a crime; and he was the close friend of Joseph Addison . He lived on friendly terms with Jonathan Swift , John Arbuthnot and John Gay . With Matthew Prior he had a close intimacy. Alexander Pope found in Atterbury an admirer, adviser, and editor as requested. James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde , KG (1665–1745)
3630-414: Was an English man of letters , politician and bishop . A High Church Tory and Jacobite , he gained patronage under Queen Anne , but was mistrusted by the Hanoverian Whig ministries, and banished for communicating with the Old Pretender in the Atterbury Plot . He was a noted wit and a gifted preacher. He was born at Middleton, Milton Keynes , in Buckinghamshire , where his father was rector . He
3696-425: Was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the third of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom of Ormond . Like his grandfather, the 1st Duke, he was raised as a Protestant , unlike his extended family who held to Roman Catholicism. He served in the campaign to put down the Monmouth Rebellion , in the Williamite War in Ireland , in the Nine Years' War and in the War of the Spanish Succession but
3762-411: Was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Garter on 28 September 1688. In 1688 he also became Chancellor of the University of Dublin and Chancellor of the University of Oxford . In January and February 1689 he voted against the motion to put William of Orange and Mary on the throne and against the motion to declare that James II had abdicated it. Nevertheless, he subsequently joined
3828-403: Was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford , where he became a tutor . In 1682, he published a translation of Absalom and Achitophel into Latin verse with neither the style nor the versification typical of the Augustan age . In English composition he met greater success; in 1687 he published An Answer to some Considerations, the Spirit of Martin Luther and the Original of
3894-423: Was later considered the greatest threat to the Hanoverians between the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745. It collapsed in 1722, when some of the conspirators were charged with treason . However, evidence was in short supply, and Atterbury himself escaped with removal from his Church of England positions and exile. Atterbury was a Tory and a leader of the High Church party in the Church of England . In 1710,
3960-414: Was less fortunate than most of the others arrested, as two women agreed to give evidence against him. His case was first heard at the Court of King's Bench on 31 October 1722, and a trial began on 21 November before the Lord Chief Justice, John Pratt . Among compromising papers found in the possession of Elizabeth Mason, a brothel-keeper, was one entitled Scheme , said to be in Layer's hand, which outlined
4026-423: Was promoted to become Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster Abbey , and if the Tories had remained in power he might have risen much higher, so he dreaded the Hanoverian accession planned by the Act of Settlement of 1701. The death of Queen Anne in 1714 was a setback for him. He took the oath of allegiance to George I , but he became an opponent of the new government. He was in indirect communication with
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#17328476072224092-439: Was reason to fear that the great Tory college would be ruined by the tyranny of the great Tory doctor. In 1713 he was removed to the bishopric of Rochester , which was then always united with the deanery of Westminster . Still higher dignities seemed to be before him, for though there were many able men on the episcopal bench, there was none who equalled or approached him in parliamentary talents. Had his party continued in power it
4158-531: Was several times delayed, in the hope of his giving information against others, which he refused to do. He was eventually executed at Tyburn on 17 May 1723. Atterbury's correspondence with the Jacobites in exile which could be found proved to have been so cautious that it was not judged to be enough to lead to his conviction. He was therefore the target of a Pains and Penalties Bill, with the aim of removing him from his church positions, banishing him for life, and forbidding British subjects to communicate with him, by
4224-625: Was suspected, but no action was taken against him, and he continued to play some part in public affairs. Lord North and Grey was known to be involved, but those who could have implicated him refused to do so. In January 1723, a secret parliamentary committee was established to investigate the Plot, and this reported in March of the same year. The Papists Act 1722 required landowners to take oaths of allegiance by Christmas Day, 1723; those who would not do so were obliged to register their estates and risked forfeiting them. Francis Atterbury Francis Atterbury (6 March 1663 – 22 February 1732)
4290-487: Was then Viscount Hyde of Kenilworth but became Earl of Rochester in November. The couple had a daughter, Mary, who died young in 1688. Following the death of his first wife (which is known to have caused him intense grief) in 1685, Ossory planned to marry again, in order to secure a male heir. He gained permission from the House of Lords for the arranging of a jointure for another marriage in May 1685, and in August of that year, he married Lady Mary Somerset , daughter of
4356-432: Was wearing a heavy gold brocade waistcoat , in which the knife got stuck. Several Councillors, including Ormonde, stabbed Guiscard in return. Guiscard implored Ormonde to finish the deed, but Ormonde replied that it was not for him to play the hangman. In any case, he had the sense to see that Guiscard must be kept alive at least long enough to be questioned, although as it turned out Guiscard's wounds were fatal and he died
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