Inculcating loyalty in the Highlands and beyond, c.1754-1784

The Jacobite rising of 1745–1746 saw several thousand Scots rebel against the British crown. Yet it also provided opportunities for Scots to demonstrate their loyalty to the crown. After the rising was over, a brutal pacification was accompanied by significant legislative and institutional changes which sought to inculcate long-term loyalty in the Highlands. Once again, numerous Scots participated in the framing and implementation of these changes, which eventually also provided an opportunity for the disloyal to enter the imperial fold. This article examines the roles of loyalist Scots during and after the rising. In doing so it demonstrates understandings of loyalty, neutrality, and disloyalty during this transformative period and illustrates the important role of Scots in inculcating loyalty in the Highlands. It argues that the experiences of Scots, and the British more generally, in this domestic setting influenced the British imperial state's attempts to actively craft loyalty elsewhere in the British Atlantic World, particularly in North America.