Julia Brannan's Blog, page 4

Having just published The Eccentric’s Tale: Harriet, I’m aware that some of my readers, although they may enjoy reading the book, might find it difficult to believe that such a […]

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  In Pursuit of Princes I mention the names of two people who actually did work at Newgate Prison at the time, Richard Jones and Mr Twyford. Richard Jones was the keeper of Newgate in the 1740s. The keepers of Newgate were amongst the most hated people in the country and for good reason. In the mediaeval days of the prison, two sheriffs were elected annually. If you were elected you were unlikely to refuse the post – if you did you would be fined £100 if you were the first to decline, and if you were the second, all […]

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  Newgate prison features more than once in the Jacobite Chronicles, and for centuries was a big landmark of London, with a horrendous reputation and feared by many. Daniel Defoe called it ‘an emblem of Hell itself,’ and New York adopted the name Newgate for one of its early prisons. A number of famous (or rather infamous) people were held here, and it certainly deserves a blog article!   The actual name of Newgate arises from a mistake, as it was believed until excavations in the twentieth century that the mediaeval gatehouse which served as the first prison was actually […]

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  In 2004 when I started researching for my Jacobite Chronicles series (although I had no idea it would actually be a series then, and was just aiming to write one novel), I spent a week in Manchester at the beautiful central library, reading newspapers and researching information on 18th century Manchester, with special interest in its role in the Jacobite rising. Whilst doing that I discovered that, following the collapse of the ’45, the officers of the Manchester Regiment were treated with particular severity, but that three of them managed to escape from prison and therefore avoid the traitors’ […]

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  In early November 1745 the Manchester militia was raised, with the intention of it protecting the town from the Jacobite army led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart, which was by now in England and heading south. The exact route the army would take wasn’t known, but the militia had been in arms for about two weeks, when on 26th November news arrived that the Jacobites were at Preston, just two days march away. This seems to have created a panic in Manchester, with a number of people fleeing the town, including prisoners, who were released from jail to do […]

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  In the Jacobite Chronicles I set part of the action in the city of Manchester and the surrounding area. There are a few reasons why I chose this town as the birthplace of the Cunningham family, some personal, some historical. The personal reasons are that I lived in Manchester for many years, and knew both the town and the surrounding areas reasonably well, and I thought it would be easier to write convincingly about a familiar place. It was also one of the first personal touches I put in the books. But there were sound historical reasons too. Manchester […]

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  In my last post I dealt with the first part of the ’45 and Lord George Murray’s part in it, along with the split in the leadership caused by the incompatible personalities of Lord George and Prince Charles. The army had hardly crossed into England before Lord George resigned his commission as Lieutenant-General. He did this because Prince Charles allowed the other army commander, the Duke of Perth to negotiate the surrender of Carlisle. If this sounds at first to be a case of resentment at another leader being favoured over him, it wasn’t.  The Duke of Perth was […]

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  In July 1745 Prince Charles landed in Scotland, raised his standard at Glenfinnan in August, and headed south with his growing army. Lord George Murray, along with a lot of other men, joined the prince’s army at Perth, and became the Lieutenant-Commander of the Jacobite forces. This action sent shock waves through Scotland, because Lord George was a respected military leader,  and caused a good number of people who were wavering to believe that the Jacobites could at least drive the Hanoverians out of Scotland. Before I talk about his actions in the campaign, I need to talk about […]

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  I wanted to let you all know that Book One of the Jacobite Chronicles, Mask of Duplicity is now available on Amazon, Audible and on iTunes as an audiobook, narrated by the wonderful Rosalyn Landor and Will M Watt. They’ve done a fabulous job of bringing book one of the Jacobite Chronicles to life and I’m so proud of it! You can listen to a sample and buy it using the links below. If you’re in the US or UK and decide to join Audible for the first time to buy my book, PLEASE do it using the USA […]

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  Last year when visiting Scotland I ended up quite by chance visiting Blair Castle, which was the ancestral home of one of the most pivotal characters in the 1745 Jacobite Rising, Lord George Murray. Lord George Murray was one of the Atholl Murray (and Stewart) family. His ancestor Sir John Stewart of Balvenie was a loyal half-brother to King James II of Scotland, and was rewarded for his services with the Earldom of Atholl in 1457. The family then lived as quietly as it was possible for Scottish nobles to live, until the 5th Earl died without a son […]

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