The Making of a Radical: The Case of James Burgh

1979 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla H. Hay
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Source Book ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Radical Reform ◽  
Parish Church ◽  
Magnum Opus ◽  
William Robertson ◽  
George Iii

During the decade before the American Revolution, the dissenting schoolmaster, James Burgh, became one of England's foremost propagandists for radical reform. All of the recent works on English radicalism and the ideological origins of the American Revolution recognize the important place of Burgh's magnum opus, the Political Disquisitions, in these movements. Burgh himself, however, has remained a shadowy figure. The process whereby he became a radical has not been explored; important nuances of his political philosophy are unknown; the scope of his radical actions are insufficiently appreciated; and the extent of his influence has not been fully evaluated. In short, there exist some rather incredible gaps in our understanding of the author of a work uniformly agreed to be the “standard source book for reform propagandists in the 1780's,” and “perhaps the most important political treatise which appeared in England in the first half of the reign of George III.” More importantly, in rectifying this situation it becomes obvious that Burgh's career raises some important questions about the character and development of late eighteenth-century English radicalism and suggests the need to qualify or modify certain current perceptions of that movement.One of eleven children, Burgh was born in late 1714 in the rural Scottish community of Madderty, Perthshire. His father Andrew was minister of the parish Church of Scotland. His mother Margaret was an aunt of the famous Scottish historian William Robertson. Although almost nothing is known of James's youth, his writing indicates that his childhood was happy and the force of his parents' example was considerable.

GEORGE III AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

History ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 70 (228) ◽  
pp. 16-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. D. G. THOMAS
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
George Iii

Resisting Independence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brad A. Jones
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
New York City ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Port Cities ◽  
British Atlantic ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Close Study ◽  
New Nation

This book maps the loyal British Atlantic's reaction to the American Revolution. Through close study of four important British Atlantic port cities — New York City; Kingston, Jamaica; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Glasgow, Scotland — the book argues that the revolution helped trigger a new understanding of loyalty to the Crown and empire. The book reimagines loyalism as a shared transatlantic ideology, no less committed to ideas of liberty and freedom than the American cause and not limited to the inhabitants of the thirteen American colonies. The book reminds readers that the American Revolution was as much a story of loyalty as it was of rebellion. Loyal Britons faced a daunting task — to refute an American Patriot cause that sought to dismantle their nation's claim to a free and prosperous Protestant empire. For the inhabitants of these four cities, rejecting American independence thus required a rethinking of the beliefs and ideals that framed their loyalty to the Crown and previously drew together Britain's vast Atlantic empire. The book describes the formation and spread of this new transatlantic ideology of loyalism. Loyal subjects in North America and across the Atlantic viewed the American Revolution as a dangerous and violent social rebellion and emerged from twenty years of conflict more devoted to a balanced, representative British monarchy and, crucially, more determined to defend their rights as British subjects. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, as their former countrymen struggled to build a new nation, these loyal Britons remained convinced of the strength and resilience of their nation and empire and their place within it.

Notes towards a Franco-American Mediterranean “From Below”

Rough Waters ◽  
2010 ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Nathan Perl-Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Cultural Exchange

This chapter explores the day-to-day lives and interactions of seamen and maritime crew within Franco-American shipping at the end of the eighteenth century. It analyses what it considers ‘culturally substantive’ relationships between crew-members, where friendship, language-exchange, and working knowledge of each other's’ maritime and naval systems developed between French and American seamen during the American Revolution and the Franco-American Alliance of 1778. These results come from the study of diplomatic and military records. It clarifies that maritime labour facilitated cultural exchange, and that to view this period as either Atlantic or Mediterranean is too narrow a specification for such an intermingled period of history.

“The Great Part of It Was Stolen”

2021 ◽  
pp. 9-31
Author(s):  
Gary L. Steward
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Great Part ◽  
Political Resistance ◽  
John Adams ◽  
Made In

This chapter analyzes the justification of political resistance provided to the founding generation by Boston Congregationalist minister Jonathan Mayhew. Mayhew’s arguments made in 1750 influenced John Adams and a number who were active participants in the American Revolution. The source and context of Mayhew’s arguments is considered, first in light of eighteenth-century discussions in Britain, and then in light of the Protestant theological tradition. This chapter argues that Mayhew’s thought on the question of political resistance did not deviate from his inherited Protestant tradition. It is best understood as a renewed assertion of views found commonly within Reformed Protestantism, going back to at least the sixteenth century. Although Mayhew embraced unorthodox theology in other areas, he shared his views on political resistance with a number of more conservative clergymen who were united in their long-standing opposition to the claims of the Stuart absolutists.

Between Orthodoxy and Enlightenment

2019 ◽  
pp. 14-26
Author(s):  
Paul Helm
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Representative Selection ◽  
Adult Lives ◽  
The Church ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter is an attempt to gauge the theology of the Church of Scotland in the first half of the eighteenth century by considering a representative selection of theological writers of that period. Each of those considered—Thomas Blackwell, Robert Riccaltoun, and Thomas Halyburton—held parish ministries, two them for most of their adult lives, and two of them held chairs of theology. Distinct personalities, each upheld the position of the Westminster Standards con animo. Yet each reveal in their different ways an awareness of changes that the Enlightenment was bringing, calling for adaptation to the literary form of theology, or in its apologetic direction.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Carlton F.W. Larson
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
The Law

The Introduction opens with a vignette of James Wilson, prominent attorney and signer of the Declaration of Independence, fighting for his life against members of the Philadelphia militia in the “Fort Wilson” incident of 1779. It then turns to the primary themes of the book: treason and juries. Treason was a central issue of the American Revolution, shaping the early debates over the legality of British actions, the treatment of British adherents, and eventually the suppression of internal rebellions. Juries played a critical role in this process, and this book provides the most detailed analysis of eighteenth-century American jurors yet written. The book focuses on Pennsylvania, as this was the most critical jurisdiction for the law of treason.

Introduction: Fatal Ambition

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Weddle
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Family Home ◽  
George Iii ◽  
Young Wife

THE QUEEN’S HOUSE WAS modest as royal palaces went in eighteenth-century England. In 1761, King George III purchased the former country home of the Duke of Buckingham for his young wife, Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. This unpretentious retreat for the royal family—later expanded substantially—would one day be known as Buckingham Palace. A family home, only a few steps from St. James Palace, the official royal residence, the Queen’s House provided the king and queen with some respite from their official duties....

Music and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe: A Source Book

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 408
Author(s):  
Enrico Fubini ◽  
Wolfgang Freis ◽  
Lisa Gasbarrone ◽  
Michael Louis Leone
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Source Book

Review. Music and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe. A Source Book. Fubini, Enrico

1996 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-203
Author(s):  
S. WOLLENBERG
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Source Book

Anglo-Irish constitutional relations in the later eighteenth century

1964 ◽  
Vol 14 (53) ◽  
pp. 20-38
Author(s):  
J.C. Beckett
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
British History ◽  
Irish History ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
The People ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Basic Theme ◽  
History Of ◽  
George Iii

Few periods of Irish history have been more extensively written about than the later eighteenth century: a mere list of books and papers dealing with the Volunteer movement, ‘Grattan's parliament’, the insurrection of 1798 and the legislative union of 1800 would make up a moderate-sized volume. Most of these writings are concerned, directly or indirectly, with the constitutional relationship between Ireland and Great Britain. Indeed, it might be said that this relationship is the basic theme in the Irish history of the period, even for social and economic historians; and the pattern is so well-established that it may well seem rash to assume that it can be substantially modified, or even made significantly clearer, except, perhaps, by the production of new and hitherto unsuspected evidence. Yet there is something to be said for looking again at the whole subject on the basis of our existing knowledge, not simply, as Irish historians are inclined to do, from the standpoint of Ireland, nor yet as if events in Ireland were a mere appendage to British history, but rather, as Professor Butterfield has done for one brief period in his George III, Lord North and the people, to consider Anglo-Irish constitutional relations during the late eighteenth century as part of the general political history of the British Isles.

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