JACOBITES, the name given after the revolution of i688 to the adherents, first of the exiled English king James II., then of his descendants, and after the extinction of the latter in 1807, of the descendants of Charles I., i.e., of the exiled house of Stuart (Lat. Jacobus, James).
The history of the Jacobites, culminating in the risings of 1715 and 1745, is part of the general history of England, and especially of Scotland; there were also many Jacobites in Ire land. They were recruited largely, but not solely, from among the Roman Catholics, and the Protestants among them were often identical with the Non-Jurors. Owing to variety of causes Jacobitism began to lose ground after the accession of George I.; and the suppression of the revolt of 1715 and the total failure of "the '45" marked its end as a serious political force. But as a sentiment it remained for some time longer. In 1750, during a strike of coal workers at Elswick, James III. was proclaimed king; and in Manchester a Jacobite rendezvous known as "John Shaw's Club" lasted from 1735 to 1892; North Wales was another Jacobite centre. Jacobite traditions also lingered among the great families of the Scottish Highlands. Until the accession of King Edward VII. finger-bowls were not placed upon the royal dinner table, because in former times those who secretly sympathized with the Jacobites were in the habit of drinking to the king over the water. Sentimental Jacobitism was practically extinguished
during the World War by the fact that the "rightful king" was Prince Rupert (Rupprecht) of Bavaria.
Upon the death of Henry Stuart, Cardinal York, the last of James II.'s descendants, in 1807, the rightful occupant of the British throne according to legitimist principles was to be found among the descendants of Henrietta, daughter of Charles I., who married Philip I., duke of Orleans. The table of succession runs as follows: See James Hogg, The Jacobite Relics of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1819 21) ; Historical Papers relating to the Jacobite Period, edited by j. Allardyce (Aberdeen, 1895-96) ; F. W. Head, The Fallen Stuarts 0900 ; de Ruvigny, The Jacobite Peerage (Edinburgh, 1904). The chief collections of Jacobite poems are: Charles Mackay's Jacobite Songs and Ballads of Scotland, 1688-1746, with Appendix of Modern Jacobite Songs 0860 ; English Jacobite Ballads, edited by A. B. Grosart from the Towneley manuscripts (1877) ; and G. S. Macquoid's Jacobite Songs and Ballads (1888).