TheAtterbury Plot was a conspiracy led byFrancis Atterbury,Bishop of Rochester andDean of Westminster, aimed at the restoration of theHouse of Stuart to the throne ofGreat Britain. It came some years after the unsuccessfulJacobite rising of 1715 andJacobite rising of 1719, at a time when theWhig government of the newHanoverian king was deeply unpopular.
Apart from Atterbury, other conspirators includedCharles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery,Lord North and Grey,Sir Henry Goring,Christopher Layer,John Plunket, andGeorge Kelly.
The Plot was later considered the greatest threat to the Hanoverians between theJacobite risings of 1715 and 1745.[1] It collapsed in 1722, when some of the conspirators were charged withtreason. However, evidence was in short supply, and Atterbury himself escaped with removal from hisChurch of England positions and exile.
Atterbury was aTory and a leader of theHigh Church party in theChurch of England. In 1710, the prosecution ofHenry Sacheverell led to an explosion of High Church fanaticism, and Atterbury helped Sacheverell with his defence, then became an active pamphleteer against theWhig 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 himDean ofChrist Church, Oxford, a strongly Tory college. In 1713 he was promoted to becomeBishop of Rochester and Dean ofWestminster Abbey, and if the Tories had remained in power he might have risen much higher, so he dreaded theHanoverian accession planned by theAct of Settlement 1701. The death of Queen Anne in 1714 was a setback for him. He took the oath of allegiance toGeorge I, but he became an opponent of the new government. He was in indirect communication with the family of the Pretender, and when theJacobite 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 theAct of Grace and Pardon, and Atterbury began to correspond directly withJames Francis Edward Stuart. He was later accused of plotting a coup d'état which involved the capture of the Hanoverian royal family and the proclamation of the Pretender as James III.[2]
Events of 1720, notably theBubble Act and the collapse of theSouth Sea Company, left the pro-Hanoverian Whig government in disarray and deeply unpopular with the manyruling class investors who had lost heavily. Atterbury seized the moment to conspire with the exiledJohn Erskine, whoat the Jacobite court was theDuke of Mar, and who had been the Pretender's Secretary of State.[3]
The aim of the conspirators was a new Jacobite rising, to coincide with thegeneral election expected in 1722, this date being foreseen because, by theSeptennial Act 1716, Parliament was enabled to sit for seven years after theelection of 1715.[3]
Sir Henry Goring, who was himself standing (unsuccessfully as turned out) in the election as MP for his old seat ofSteyning 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 theDuke of Ormonde from Spain and Lieutenant-General Dillon from France.[4]
Christopher Layer, abarrister of theMiddle Temple and an agent and legal advisor to the "notorious Jacobite"Lord North and Grey,[5] met some fellow plotters regularly at an inn inStratford-le-Bow, and by the summer of 1721 had succeeded in recruiting some soldiers atRomford andLeytonstone. 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 theTower of London, theBank of England, theRoyal Mint, and other government buildings inWestminster and theCity 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 theIrish Brigade of the French Army were to land in England to join them. Layer returned to London with assurances of royal favour from the Pretender.[6]
The plot collapsed in England in the spring of 1722, at the time of the death ofCharles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, who a year before had been forced to resign asFirst Lord of the Treasury. He died on 19 April, when theDuke of Orleans, Regent of France, made it known toCarteret,Robert Walpole'sSecretary of State for the Southern Department, that the Jacobites had asked him to send three thousand men in support of a coup d'état to take place early in May. The French said they had refused permission for theDuke of Ormonde to march a force across France to a channel port and they had also moved their Irish Brigade away fromDunkirk.[7] Sunderland's papers were seized, and a letter of thanks addressed to him by the Pretender came to light.[8]
In England, insufficient money had been collected by the Jacobites to provide enough arms to support 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."[4]
Walpole's agents began the search for evidence against the leading suspects ofJacobitism, but they found little. Despite this, Walpole gave orders for several men to be arrested:Arran,Strafford, Orrery, North and Grey, Goring, Atterbury, 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.[8][9] He and Orrery were imprisoned in theTower of London. On 17 October theHabeas Corpus Act was suspended.[10]
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 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 thousandbrandysmugglers to assist the projected invasion. This led to some government action against such smuggling.[4]
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 fromDover. He was less fortunate than most of the others arrested, as two women agreed to give evidence against him. His case was first heard at theCourt 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 entitledScheme, said to be in Layer's hand, which outlined a proposed insurrection. The Court was interested to have evidence that thePretender and his wife had acted as godparents to Layer's daughter, when they were represented at a christening inChelsea by the proxies Lord North and Grey and theDuchess of Ormonde.[6] After a trial lasting eighteen hours, the jury unanimously found Layer guilty ofhigh treason. On 27 November 1722, he was sentenced to behanged, drawn, and quartered, but execution was several times delayed, in the hope of his giving information against others, which he refused to do. He was eventually executed atTyburn on 17 May 1723.[6]
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 the decision of parliament rather than through prosecution in a court.[2][11] The evidence offered to parliament consisted chiefly of aspaniel 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.[12] However, in May 1723 the Pains and Penalties Bill aimed at him was approved by theCommons and by theLords, where 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.[2][11] Orrery remained in the Tower for six months, after which he was given bail. There was insufficient evidence to proceed against him.[13]
Among the other conspirators, John Plunkett and George Kelly were also arrested and were punished by being deprived of their estates.[14] Lord Stafford 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.[15]
In January 1723, a secret parliamentary committee was established to investigate the Plot, and this reported in March of the same year. ThePapists 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.[16]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "Layer, Christopher".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.Plots and conspiracies (List) | |
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See also:  Coup d'état | |