Scottish Catholic Representations of Anti-Catholicism to ‘friends abroad and at London’ (1750-1779)

Résumé En

This paper will address the various ways in which Scottish Catholics represented Anti-Catholicism, focusing more particularly on two outbreaks of Anti-Catholicism – the campaign by MacDonald of Boisdale to convert his tenants to Protestantism on the island of South Uist in the early 1770s, which eventually led to the emigration of a great number of them to Prince Edward Island, and the anti-Catholic riots in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1779. It will look into how Scottish Catholics represented their situation to fellow Catholics in England and on the continent, but also, in the wake of the riots in Edinburgh and Glasgow, to Protestants, and especially to the British Parliament, and how their narrative depended on who they were trying to convince or draw support from (for instance Propaganda Fide, Spanish Catholics or the British parliament) and the aims they pursued (sympathy, financial help, recognition...). It will also seek to explore how, according to circumstances, Scottish Catholics put to the fore different parts of their identity (Scottish/British/Catholic).