Ralph Standish and the Jacobite Rebellion
From Standish Wiki
| 1705
| 1715 | 1715
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When supporters of the Jacobite cause raised the standard of rebellion in Scotland in 1715 and marched South to place the son of James II on the throne newly occupied by George I, Ralph Standish rode with some of his tenants and servants to join the Scots army at Preston. There a battle took place; the Scots were defeated and surrendered and Ralph was taken prisoner and conveyed to London. As he passed through Wigan he was able to send a letter to his mother who was at Borwick Hall asking her to take his children there, as Lady Phillipa, his wife, had announced her intention of following him to London so that she could approach friends and relatives to use their influence on his behalf.
He was indicted as a "false traitor intending to subvert the good government of the country by exalting the person who took upon himself the title of James III and as one of those in warlike array at Preston on 12th November last". He was tried and found guilty in June 1716, although he pleaded not guilty, and was sentenced to death.
However, he was reprieved and released from Newgate Gaol, and his estates which had been seized and sold, were bought back. The Committee for Forfeited Estates had sold them to a Joseph Briscoe in April 1720, and he sold them to the Earl of Lichfield, John Austes and Nicholas Starkie. They made declarations on the 24th May - the day they bought them - to the Duke of Norfolk and to the Dowager Lady Petrie and were apparently acting on behalf of the Standish family.
Several claims to the estate were allowed by the Commissioners. One was by Alexander Standish, yeoman, who claimed a lease formerly granted to his brother Edward by William Standish, and later he left it to his sister Margaret Standish. This Alexander Standish was stated to be of St. Giles in the Fields.
