James Edgar (Jacobite)
James Edgar (13 July 1688 – October 1762) was a Scottish Jacobite solider and official.[2]
Biography
Edgar was born in Keithock, Forfarshire, the fifth of seven sons of David Edgar, a farmer, and his second wife, Elizabeth Guthrie.[2]
In the Jacobite rising of 1715, Edgar was among the first to rally to the raising of the Jacobite standard at Braemar by the Earl of Mar. After the defeat of the rising, he escaped Scotland in disguise and joined the exiled Jacobite court, first at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and then in Rome from 1716. He never returned to Scotland. From 1728, he was employed by James Francis Edward Stuart as his private secretary, being chiefly responsible for co-ordinating intelligence reports for the Jacobite cause. He also served as Secretary of State. Edgar managed to remain impartial and uninvolved in the constant power struggles among the Jacobite supporters at court, thereby maintaining the trust of the Old Pretender.[2]
References
- ^ "James Edgar, 1688–1762". nationalgalleries.org. National Galleries Scotland.
- ^ a b c "Edgar, James". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65470. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)