The Imprisonment of the Rebels
Immediately after the surrender at Preston, the Jacobites were split up. The Lords were secured in the most commodious houses of the town, whilst the Scottish officers and gentry were divided into three parties and put under guard at The Mitre, the White Bull and the Windmill.
Worst off were the highlanders and common men, who were stripped to their shirts and herded into an unheated Church where they were kept for a month. Half-starved and desperately cold, they were driven to ripping the linings from the pews in order to create makeshift clothing for themselves. Many of the lesser gentry were later imprisoned in Lancaster, Liverpool and Chester, from where several escaped.
The most important prisoners were taken to London, where they arrived on 9 December in a dejected state, pinioned, and with their hands tied. At Highgate they were welcomed by an abusive crowd shouting, 'Down with the Pretender and Long Live King George!' The Lords were taken to the Tower, and Forster and seventy of the gentry to Newgate; the remainder of the prisoners were sent to the Fleet.