Subverting Scotland's Past: Scottish Whig Historians and the Creation of an Anglo-British Identity 1689-1830

337 Pages·1993·9.19 MB·English

by  Colin Kidd

In the age of the Scottish Enlightenment the long-cherished
myths of the ancient Scottish constitution crumbled under
intellectual bombardment. Such were the troubled politics of
Scotland's existing institutions, including the Kirk and her
distinctive legal system, that these bodies were unable to
generate an alternative historical ideology to fill the vacuum.
From the first appearance of cracks in the edifice during
the crisis years of the 1690s and the Union debates, to the
eventual failure of mythmakers such as James Macpherson
(the discoverer of Ossian) and Sir Walter Scott to rebuild
a credible national mythistoire from the ruins, Colin Kidd
explores the effects of changes in the historical culture of
eighteenth-century Scotland on the long-term development
of the nation's identity. He traces the ideological failures and
false starts in Scottish historiography which were later to
inhibit the development of a vigorous Scottish national
movement comparable to the romantic nationalisms of nine-
teenth-century Europe. He also shows how the failure in the
aftermath of the Union of 1707 to fuse English and Scottish
whig historical ideologies in a genuine British whiggism was
to pose long-term problems for full British ideological
integration.

SUBVERTING SCOTLAND'S PAST

SUBVERTING
SCOTLAND'S PAST
Scottish whig historians and the creation of an
Anglo-British identity, i68g-c. 1830
COLIN KIDD
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Cambridge University Press 1993
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1993
First paperback edition 2002
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Kidd, Colin.
Subverting Scotland's past: Scottish whig historians and the
creation of an Anglo-British identity, 1689-c. 1830 / Colin Kidd.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0 521 43484 X
1. Scotland - Historiography. 2. National characteristics,
Scottish - Historiography. 3. Scotland - Intellectual life - 18th
century. 4. Whig Party (Great Britain) - History.
5. Historiography - Scotland - History. 6. Nationalism - Scotland -
History. I. Title.
DA759.K53 1993
941.r0072-dc20 92-46708 CIP
ISBN 0 521 43484 X hardback
ISBN 0 52152019 3 paperback
Contents
Preface page ix
List of abbreviations xi
Glossary xii
1 Introduction i
2 Prologue: national identity in late medieval and
early modern Scotland 12
I THE END OF THE TRADITION 31
3 History, national identity and the Union of 1707 33
4 Presbyterian historiography in the age of Wodrow 51
5 Scottish whig historiography, 1707-c 1750 70
II DISENCHANTMENT 97
6 The decline of the ancient Scottish constitution 101
Father Thomas Innes 101
Sociological whiggism 107
Comparisons 123
7 Faultlines in Scotland's unusable past 129
Parliament 130
Scots law 144
The nobility 165
8 Presbyterianism and whig historiography in the
age of Robertson 185
9 The Scottish construction of Anglo-British identity 205
vii
viii Contents
III CRITICAL RENEWAL 217
10 Enlightened reconstructions: the routes of
James Macpherson and Gilbert Stuart 219
11 History and national identity in the age of Scott 247
12 Conclusion 268
Bibliography 281
Index 316
Preface
This book is not consciously written on the basis of either a
nationalist or unionist agenda. It is however addressed to both
nationalists and unionists in the hope that an investigation of whig
culture in the first century of British incorporating union might
go some way towards explaining the origins of the problematic
identity of modern Scots - a majority of whom seem to be less than
completely comfortable either as Scottish or as British nationalists.
Despite the proper aspiration to academic objectivity, this project
has been, inescapably, an act of piety towards the world in which
I grew up - the decent, hospitable and genuinely democratic
culture of south-west Scotland.
I could not possibly have begun research on this project without
the generous assistance of many individuals and institutions in
getting me to the starting line: the Rev. Andrew McPhail and many
friends at Wallace town; George Spence and the staff at Newton
Park; Roy Chapman, and the Governors and staff of Glasgow
Academy, whose far-sighted bursary scheme made so much
possible; Neil McKendrick, the rest of the Caius history team, and
my other supervisors at Cambridge; the trustees of Harvard
University's Choate Fund; and, above all, my parents for their
great sacrifices.
This book began life as an Oxford D.Phil, thesis, and has been
supported throughout by the generosity of the Warden and
Fellows of All Souls College. My supervisor, John Robertson, has
set a fine example of the highest standards of the historical
profession, not only in terms of intellectual rigour and eloquent
presentation, but also in the spheres of scholarly ethics and good
manners. My D.Phil. Examiners, Lord Dacre and Professor T. C.
Smout, made a number of useful suggestions, notably about party
terminology and Scots law. I should also like to thank the reader
IX