Archival accounts from the many prisons in both Scotland and England during the mid-18th century are remarkably grim. The horrid conditions were well-documented, both by those who were incarcerated and by those who held the keys. Virtually no significant repair, improvement or expansion was undertaken on British prisons between the two Jacobite risings in 1715 and 1745, yet the number of inmates who were jailed for treasonous activities or suspicion thereof doubled from one to the other. Making matters worse was the nature of this particular class of prisoners, who were seen by many government officials as traitors at best, and at worst, as in the case of some Jacobite Gaels, subhuman. Well over 3,500 prisoners were taken during and after the ’45, and this number represents only around 30 per cent of the total estimated strength of the Jacobite army 174546. But not all of these inmates
