Thesis Overview

Gallanan Buidhe Fodharais (The Yellow-haired Youths of Phoness)
The resilience, resourcefulness, and agency of Jacobite Gaels, 1746–1763: a social network analysis approach

Abstract
This thesis is a comprehensive examination of the social and economic circumstances of Jacobite Gaels from the aftermath of Culloden in 1746 to the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763. Traditional historiography for this period has invariably reinforced the narratives of defeat, despondency, and victimhood that litter representations of Jacobite Gaels following the failure of the Forty-Five. Whilst scholars have begun to challenge these pervasive notions in recent decades, their studies have primarily focused on the Rising’s immediate aftermath, along with large-scale Highland military service in the Seven Years’ War a decade later. Sustained analysis across the breadth of the post-Culloden decade has generally been neglected.

Adopting an innovative core analytical approach, that of an historical network research framework coupled with social network analysis methodology, this thesis explores the embedded webs of connectivity across the spectrum of Gaelic Highland society on a local, national, and international level. With a primary focus on lesser-known and understudied figures from the Jacobite Gàidhealtachd, it examines their ability to adapt to the adverse circumstances they faced in the post-Culloden decade; their utilisation of available resources to overcome these difficulties; and the degree of personal influence and control they retained as they navigated these challenges.

This narrative-led interpretation of the collective circumstances of Jacobite Gaels in the seventeen years following Culloden not only offers new insights into their integration within the Gaelic, British, European, and imperial worlds, but greatly weaken conventional depictions of passivity and loss, demonstrating the resilience, resourcefulness, and widespread agency of Jacobite Gaels.

Acknowledgements
I would not have even dreamt of attempting this project were it not for the tremendous support of my supervisors, Dr Jim MacPherson, Dr Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart, and Dr Mairi MacPherson. I am also very grateful to so many people across the University of the Highlands (UHI) who have so kindly offered valuable guidance and feedback.