Genealogy: Beyond the BMD: Serendipity Sunday - Looking for a Goldsmith, finding a Rebel

I was researching my ancestor’s eldest son Adam Tait, trying to find out more about his career as a goldsmith like his father. I went to google and typed:

adam tait goldsmith

... clicked on Books in the google menu, and this is what came up… what??

It is not the full book, only a sampling, but enough for me to learn that Trooper Adam Tait participated in the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland in 1745-46. I actually get quite a bit of Adam’s story. That was Book Three, leading me to find Book Two, which also mentions Adam Tait in quite a few of the pages.

At the end of his story in Book Three, is this paragraph...

Well, now I wanted to find this ring!! So back to googling…. and I found it on the National Museum website!

Adam cut his apprenticeship short to join the cause. So I wanted to learn more about the Jacobites, and what impassioned Adam that he would fight for Prince Charlie... and make a likeness of him on a ring. The final battle of the Jacobite Rebellion was the Battle of Culloden - the one depicted in "Dragonfly in Amber" of the Outlander series - and Adam was lucky to get away and flee to France.

His father, James Tait, was a witness in the trial of Archibald Steward Esq, the provost of Edinburgh, who was accused of neglect of duty and misbehavior in the execution of his office during the uprising of 1745. He was found guilty. The government forces hunted down anyone who was thought to have participated in the Jacobite Rebellion and many houses and castles were torched.

To find out more about the Jacobite Rebellion, the names of troops, the Battle of Culloden and the aftermath, check out the links below.