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Critical Security Studies
in the Digital Age
Social Media and Security
Joseph Downing
New Security Challenges
Series Editor
George Christou, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
The last decade has demonstrated that threats to security vary greatly in
their causes and manifestations and that they invite interest and demand
responses from the social sciences, civil society, and a very broad policy
community. In the past, the avoidance of war was the primary objective,
but with the end of the Cold War the retention of military defence as
the centrepiece of international security agenda became untenable. There
has been, therefore, a significant shift in emphasis away from traditional
approaches to security to a new agenda that talks of the softer side of secu-
rity, in terms of human security, economic security, and environmental
security. The topical New Security Challenges series reflects this pressing
political and research agenda.
For an informal discussion for a book in the series, please contact the
series editor George Christou (G.Christou@warwick.ac.uk), or Palgrave
editor Alina Yurova (alina.yurova@palgrave-usa.com).
This book series is indexed by Scopus.
Joseph Downing
Critical Security
Studies in the Digital
Age
Social Media and Security
Joseph Downing
Senior Lecturer of International
Relations and Politics
Department of Politics, History
and International Relations
Aston University
Birmingham, UK
Visiting Fellow
European Institute
London School of Economics
and Political Science
London, UK
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgements
This book owes the most to the two data science specialist that were
instrumental in producing the data analysis for some of the examples in
this book. To Wasim Ahmed and Richard Dron, this book owes a huge
debt of gratitude. Also, from a theoretical and conceptual perspective,
Jennifer Jackson-Preece was key in introducing me to the critical security
literature and has been positive and encouraging throughout my academic
career thus far. Additionally, Estelle E. Brun provided significant coding
support and very mature scholarly reflections on some of the examples in
this book.
v
Contents
vii
viii CONTENTS
Index 261
CHAPTER 1
the much broader social context in which it is only one part of the much
larger political jigsaw of the early twenty-first century.
However, essentialisation of social media does not stop at discussions
of its posited unstoppable capacity for social and political transforma-
tion. Rather, “social media” is used unproblematically as if it describes
a unitary entity with clear and unidirectional implications. However, this
catch all term homogenises an incredibly bewildering array of technolo-
gies, platforms and communication technologies with significantly varying
and multifaceted possibilities for human use, interaction and subversion.
Indeed, there is a lot to be said for abandoning the term “social media” as
essentialising and homogenising to the point of uselessness. For example,
to lumber telegram, a smart phone app used for private communication
under the same umbrella term as YouTube and Twitter seems extremely
reductivist.
Another common folie in the discussion of communications tech-
nologies is presenting them in ahistorical terms. The communications
“revolution” of social media, opening up new avenues for those at the
“bottom” to contest the political agenda of those at the “top” is arguably
not as new, or as revolutionary as it seems. Indeed, the possibilities
afforded by technology for challenging those in authority was not some-
thing lost on those seeking to disrupt political, religious and social order
since with technology since antiquity (Reuter, 2019).
However analogue this may sound, the “digitalisation” of communi-
cation technologies and how these have sent ripples through the political
and social order is also something not unique to the adoption of the smart
phone. Indeed, there is a much longer historical relationship between
media, security and international relations. The revolutionary Islamist
messages carried on the cassette tapes of the Iranian revolution, Alge-
rian FLN and Egyptian Muslim brotherhood changed the political field
of North Africa and the Middle East, ushering in a dark and sinister
era of conspiratorial anti-systemic politics that shook the foundations of
authoritarian regimes long before anyone could conceive the possibilities
of tweeting about the Arab spring. Indeed, the deposed Shah of Iran
and the bloodied and battered regime of ex-freedom fighters in Algiers
saw first-hand the devastating consequences of how long-neglected struc-
tural social grievances could be given new life and meanings through
communications technologies.
1 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA AND CRITICAL … 3
As such, the early critical work done in the discursive turn by the Copen-
hagen school (Buzan et al., 1997) which broke open the security studies
discipline has been widely critiqued for a poorly defined sense of inter-
disciplinarity and a “methodological elitism” (Stanley & Jackson, 2016)
that focuses too much on the speech of dominant actors (McDonald,
2008, p. 563). An important intervention here can be found in the calls
to include a range of disciplinary approaches into security studies, such
as the tools of sociology and criminology (Bigo & McCluskey, 2018).
Perhaps the most extreme articulation of this has been found in the
vernacular school of security studies which advocates a theoretical “empti-
ness” (Jarvis, 2019, p. 110) which “allows for greater fidelity to the
diversity of everyday stories” (Jarvis, 2019, p. 110). However, while this
is important, it is not only in the everyday that this finds resonance, but
in a range of contexts. This leads onto the second key take home message
of this book.
important because this sets the scene for a larger discussion, and theme
within this book, about the diversity of social media platforms and the
need to nuance what constitutes “social media” in any given context that
we are analysing. Indeed, a key insight is that “both method and method-
ology are instrumental in identifying what counts for research” (Aradau,
Coward et al., 2015, p. 59) and it is important to make a case as to
why social media deserves greater attention from critical security scholars.
Indeed, “doing it right” in terms of research ethics in social media is far
from settled and straightforward and how we both sample and analyse
social media for insights into security requires reflection.
It is important to consider the limitations of social media research,
especially in light of some of the key commitments of critical security
studies. If we are to make even the thinnest claim about discursive eman-
cipation, it is important to understand how the demographics of social
media are extremely skewed and unrepresentative. The digital divide both
between the global North and South, and indeed even within particular
societies, massively complicates notions that the globally “oppressed” can
use digital media as a liberation technology because frankly they often do
not have access to it.
This chapter then moves on to offer some initial reflections on
operationalising methods for social media research in terms of some
methodological notes on approaches used to produce some of the conclu-
sions to come in later chapters of this book. This includes some reflections
on social network analysis, netnography and aspects of discursive methods
that not only can be used by security researchers when considering
questions of social media, but also inform the empirical chapters to come.
Chapter 4 forms the first chapter that seeks to bring in specific empirics
into questions of critical security and social media through questions of
terrorism. “Terrorism” and indeed the post-9/11 “war on terror” have
been key features of the post-Cold War security landscape (Council of
Councils, 2021). More recently, the emergence of ISIS and the Charlie
Hebdo and Bataclan concert hall attacks in Paris have once again cata-
pulted “terrorism” into the public eye (Titley et al., 2017). Critical
terrorism studies has emerged into this context to bring the construc-
tivist orientation offered by critical security studies to understand how
terrorism is not only a set of objective security occurrences, but also a
social construct that should be studied away from the “problem-solving”
concerns of classical terrorism studies (Herring, 2008; Jackson et al.,
2007; Richard Jackson, 2007). This opens up not only the ability to
14 J. DOWNING
social media to the fore as a key area where identity concerns are created,
contested and discussed. These include #BlackLivesMatter and the quest
for greater social justice (Mourão & Brown, 2022), as well as the specifics
of the various groups that seek to articulate particular notions of what an
Islamic identity means in a political context such as ISIS (Awan, 2017).
Examples are presented here of how identities are contested and re-
constructed in a range of arenas in the social media context. There is the
example of the emergence of the hashtag #JeSuisAhmed in the context
of the Charlie Hebdo attacks (Arceneaux, 2018) which co-occurs with,
and sits alongside, discourses which support and contest #JeSuisCharlie.
Here, narratives emerge in a range of ways that re-construct both Ahmed,
and by extention French Muslims as defenders of the nation and as
important aspects of state security. A range of discourses and symbols are
deployed on social media that construct Ahmed as an important defender
of the freedom of speech upon which the French republic is founded,
and comments seek to nuance questions of where Muslims stand vis-à-
vis terrorism in France by discussing how a Muslim dies as a police offer
attempting to protect French values. The second example is a comparison
of the globalisation of Muslim identity debates in the wake of security
situations in the UK. Both the Grenfell tower fire and the Manchester
Arena bombing resulted in significant social media activity.
The social media activity in the wake of both events demonstrates
the way that security and identity debates become internationalised on
social media in a context of the contested nature of Muslim identity and
its broader place in the global context. The two examples also demon-
strate something that critical security studies needs to consider when
approaching questions of social media in what a notion of security elite
means in the social media context. Both users presented here become
important in the debates and in a sense could be considered “elites”, but
this is not only unpredictable, but also extremely fleeting and ephemeral.
As such, it is difficult to reproduce the notion of elites when it comes
to security speech on social media. While discussing the intersection of
British security concerns, and the role of Muslims within them, the debate
can become highly decontextualised. Thus these debates can, and often
do, become about the more general questions of Islam and terrorism, and
the nexus of identity and security on social media, resulting in discussions
that lack nuance and structure. Thus, while it can be argued that social
media makes security debates more diffuse, and can offer users an albeit
“thin” kind of discursive emancipation, as they can contribute, and even
18 J. DOWNING
become elite in debates about security and identity, this processes are
complex and multifaceted.
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CHAPTER 2
part of the call for the emancipation of broader areas of study as counting
as part of IR has been partially fulfilled.
It is in this broadening of the field that this book finds the Paris school
of security studies of particular interest. One key issue with the Paris
school if, however, is its inbuilt ambiguity. This goes as far as an overt
rejection of being referred to as a “Paris” approach, and the redefinition
away from the city itself to the “Political Anthropological Research for
International Sociology” (Didier Bigo & McCluskey, 2018). Here, they
seek to highlight that a “Paris” approach is much broader in terms of its
approaches, and cultural and geographical influences than either the city
of light or the broader Francophone world (Didier Bigo & McCluskey,
2018). The Paris school makes a bold claim, that it should not be consid-
ered a theoretical school or a particular line of thought per se, but rather
a “problematisation” (problématique) to enable the questioning of estab-
lished knowledge (Didier Bigo & McCluskey, 2018). Thus while it is
somewhat difficult to pin down the key tenants of a Paris school of secu-
ritisation, even being seemingly requested not to utter its very name, it
is however possible to take away a clear observation that is important
for the coming discussions in this book—the integration of a broader
range of data and approaches to the study of security. This is of upmost
importance, as the revolutionary nature of this assertion is easy to forget
given the progress that some aspects of international relations have made
through a greater dialogue with sociological concepts and theories. Thus,
discussing the Copenhagen (Buzan et al., 1997), Welsh (Wyn Jones,
1999) and the Paris schools (D. Bigo, 2008) is a vital step in bringing
out the synergies and contradictions between these different schools. A
key argument is that while they all have bases in both social construc-
tivism and critical theory, the various ways in which they apply them
have different implications for bringing a focus on CSS and social media
studies.
More specifically, given the discourse focused nature of the social
media landscape, and of many aspects of critical security studies, it is
of particular importance to begin to unpick synergies and contradictions
between notions of “security speak”. It is important, as many have argued
(Floyd, 2007) not to see various “schools” of CTS as discrete and isolated
entities—they owe each other and a far broader range of social theory
considerable intellectual debts. Thus, it is vital to consider the syner-
gies and contradictions between them, for example in the “hierarchical”
understandings of security speak in the Copenhagen school (Buzan et al.,
2 CONCEPTUALISING SOCIAL MEDIA AND CRITICAL … 27
of peace and security with shared benefits (Kant, 1795). Thus begins to
emerge notions of the democratic peace theory—where democracies are
unlikely to go to war due to the unpopularity of bloodshed within the
electorate (Kant, 1795). This was given further momentum in the post-
World War II state system, where it was noted that, while democracies do
fight wars, generally it is not with other democracies because of capitalist
ties, and thus the spread of capitalism and democracy globally could, if
not bring conflict to an end, dramatically minimalise it (Keohane & Jr,
1977). Within this, something else becomes a key feature of the inter-
national system as a result of the horrors of the European great wars
of World War I and World War II—international institutions, such as
the United Nations, which aim to foster cooperation that challenge the
realist understandings of states locked in an eternal struggle for power
and influence.
Constructivism emerged out of observations similar to liberalism about
the roles of institutions, norms and ideas in IR towards the end of the
twentieth century. Constructivism paid more attention directly to these
norms and ideas, such as democracy and human rights in an attempt to
add the role of these more diffuse concepts into the equation of how and
why states behave in the ways that they do in an anarchical international
system (Adler, 2012). However, it was met with a significant degree of
scepticism by mainstream international relations (Hopf, 1998) because of
its attempts to give a place to the more ambiguous role of norms and
ideas in shaping the behaviour of states in the international system. Thus
it stood accused of being more interested in “meta theory” than empirical
research (Adler, 2012). Constructivism in IR emerges from the broader
developments in social constructivism more broadly which is important to
understand in some detail given that this school of thought also greatly
informs critical security studies.
Social constructivism has a long and storied history in the social
sciences since it was coined by Berger and Luckman (1966). The concep-
tual underpinning of this school of thought contests that reality is socially
situated and that knowledge is constructed through interaction with social
stimuli in works such as the invention of tradition (Hobsbawm & Ranger,
1984). This is a conceptual tradition that is strongly rooted in the rela-
tional nature of social experience and that meaning is relational—i.e. it
emerges in interactions with individuals, or indeed in the international
system, other states, institutions and non-state actors. Thus while clearly
not primarily rooted in a materialist understanding of security espoused
2 CONCEPTUALISING SOCIAL MEDIA AND CRITICAL … 31
A key starting point here sits in questioning the primacy of the state
and the military in conceptualisations of security (Buzan et al., 1997,
p. 1). While acknowledging the issues with including “everything” under
the security rubric and thus rendering it imprecise and meaningless, the
Copenhagen school openly advocated the widening of notions of secu-
rity and taking security discussions to previously neglected arenas by the
narrow focus of orthodox security studies (Buzan et al., 1997, p. 1).
Here, they highlight an important aspect of global developments at the
time by juxtaposing the narrowing of the security agenda to the military
and nuclear obsessions of the Cold War era with the parallel “emerg-
ing” areas of environmental, economic, identity and transnational crime
concerns (Buzan et al., 1997, p. 2). The fact that these observations
appear archaic, self-evident and “old” are to a certain extent because of
the success of the Copenhagen agenda. Here, the security is more than
simply the “political” but rather:
Wal: Grosett.
II
Lieutenant-General Handasyde to Walter Grossett
By the Honble Roger Handasyde Esqr Lieutenant
General and Commander in Cheif of All His Majesty’s
Forces, in North Britain etc.
Whereas it has been found Injurious to His Majesty’s
Service that any Boats shou’d pass from Leith to Kinghorn
or from Kinghorn to Leith, These are therefore Requiring
All Magistrates, Justices of the Peace, Constables and
Others concerned to be Aiding and Assisting to you in
bringing all the Passage Boats and Yauls from Kinghorn
and all other places on the North Side of the Forth to the
Harbour of Leith where they are to be kept till His
Majesty’s Service shall allow of their being returned to
their Respective Ports.
Given under my hand at Edinburgh this 26th Novemr
1745.
R: Handasyde.
To Walter Grosett Esqr Collector of
His Majesty’s Customs.
III
Lieutenant-General Handasyde to Walter Grossett
By the Honble Roger Handasyd Esqr. Leutt General and
Commander in Chief of all His Majs Forces in North
Brittain.
Whereas it has been found Injurious to His Majesties
Service that any Boats should pass from the North or
South sides of the Forth or that any Vessells whatever
should be allowed to remain upon the North side of the
said River These are therefore requiring all Magistrats,
Justices of the Peace, Constables and others concerned
to be aiding and assisting to you in Stoping the said
passage and removeing all Boats and Vessells whatever
from the North to the South Side of the Forth from
Kinghorn to Stirling Bridge and in case of resistance or
refussall to Burn or otherwise Destroy such Boats and
Vessells as shall after due Intimation made be found upon
the North Side of the said River.
Given under my Hand at Edinburgh this 27th November
1745.
R: Handasyde.
To Walter Grosett Esqr, Collr of His
Majesties Customs at Alloa, and
one of His Majs Justices of ye
Peace.
IV
The Commissioners of Customs to Walter Grossett
Mr. Grosett.
Inclosed We send You for Your Government and
Direction, a Copy of a Letter from the Lord Justice Clerk
and General Guest Commander in Chief of His Majestys
Forces in Scotland, Containing an order and Instructions
for bringing over all Ships, Vessels, Boats and Yoals of all
sorts and sizes lying in the Harbours and Creeks betwixt
Stirling Bridge and St Andrews inclusive on the North side
of the Frith with their Apparel and Furniture, and for laying
them up in the several Harbours therein Specified on the
South side of the Frith, and in the Execution of these
Directions and Instructions, all Officers whatsoever under
Our direction, are to give You their utmost assistance
when required so to do, as they will answer the Contrary
at their Peril, and You are particularly to apply to the
respective Officers in the several Ports and Precincts for
their Aid and Information. The General having given
proper orders to the Captain of the Milford Man of war to
concur and assist You in this Servise, You are to meet and
Concert with him proper measures for the Effectual
Execution thereof. We are,
Your Loving Friends,
Co: Campbell.
Alex Arbuthnott.
Rd. Somers.
Customho Edinbr
8th Decemr 1745. }
Collr Alloa.
Enclosure to No. IV.
Edinbr Decemr 9th 1745.
Gentlemen—We think it absolutely necessary for the
Good and Service of the Government at this Conjuncture,
that all the Ships, Vessels, Boats and Yoals of all sorts and
Sizes, with their Apparel and Furniture, in all Harbours and
Creeks etc. betwixt Stirling Bridge and St Andrews
inclusive on the North side of the Frith of Forth, be brought
over and Moord in the several Harbours of Dunbar, Leith,
Queensferry and Borrowstoness, and these on the South
side of the said River, betwixt Cramond and Eymouth be
Carried to Leith and Dunbar, as the Persons to be
Employed by You in the Execution hereof, shall Judge to
be most Conveneint, all to remain in these respective
Harbours untill further orders; We therefore earnestly
recommend it to You as proper Judges, to Nominate and
Appoint such of Your Officers under Your Direction and
Government to Execute our Orders as You shall think
most fit to be Employed for the doing of so necessary a
Duty, And as some former Orders of this Nature have not
been observed and obeyed so punctually as Directed for
want of other proper Assistance, We do therefore hereby
direct and ordain all Magistrates of Burghs Justices of the
Peace, Constables etc. within the respective bounds
aforesaid, laying aside all Excuses whatsoever, to be
aiding and assisting to the Person or Persons that are
possessed of Copys hereof, and of Your Instructions given
by You to them, as they will be answerable upon their
highest Peril; and in Case any of the Proprietors or others
Concerned in said Ships etc. as abovementd shall not
forthwith Comply with these Our orders, Then the Persons
so Employed are hereby ordained to burn and Destroy the
same, where any objections or refusals are made to obey
and Comply herewith, and the aforesaid Copys hereof
with your Instructions as above, shall be to them a
Sufficient Warrant for destroying of the above Ships etc.
not doubting of Your Compliance and Concurrence, We
are,
And: Fletcher.
Sign’d
{ Jos: Guest.
N.B.—Buys Boat who has been often Employed in
transporting of Rebels frequently, should be burnt out of
hand.
Honble Commrs of the Customs Edr.
V
Lieutenant-General Guest to Walter Grossett
Edenburgh December the 15th 1745.
Sr,—I agree to your hiring the Borrowstness Ship at
the Rate you mention, provided the owners dont insist on
my Insuring her from the Enemy, for that I cant consent to
—if they comply, you’l immediatly station her at Higgins
Nook, and Nicol at Carse’s Nook, or wherever they can be
best placed for His Majestys Service. You’l give them
positive Derections to be very carefull, in watching both
sides the River, and sending immediat Intelligence to the
Ld Justice Clerk, on discovering any Motions of the
Enemy.
You’l consider the Ship is not ensured now, and is in as
much, or more danger than when employd by his Majesty.
—I am Sr your most Obedt humble Servant,
Jos: Guest.
VI
Walter Grossett to the Commissioners of Customs
Hond. Sirs,—In Obedience to your directions of the
8th Instant Inclosing an Order and Warrand from Lord
Justice Clerk and General Guest Commander in chief of
the Forces in Scotland, for bringing over all Ships,
Vessells and Boats, lying in any of the Harbours or
Creeks, betwixt Stirling and S: Andrews on the North side
of the Firth, to the Harbours therein specified on the south
side thereof, and for Burning or destroying the ships and
Vessells etc., of such of the Proprieters thereof as should
refuse to comply with these Orders; I have with the
assistance of the Kings Boats at Queensferry and
Borristounness, and two Boats Crews belonging to the
Happy Janet stationed off Queensferry, removed,
disabled, or destroyed, all Boats and Vessells that lay
betwixt Stirling and Aberdour. But as the doing of this,
would not have hinder the Rebell Army from geting a
Cross the River, while Boats and Vessells were allowed to
remain at the severall Creeks in Carron Water, and at
Hargens Nuik Airth, and Elphingstone, and other Creeks
on the south side of the Forth betwixt Borristounness and
Stirling; I therefore proceeded to these places, and
prevailed with severall of the Proprieters of Boats and
Vessells there, to remove them from thence, but as some
of them refused to comply, by reason of their not being
included in the Order and Warrand above mentioned, I am
therefore Humbly of Opinion, that Lord Justice Clerk and
General Guest should be applyed to, for a Warrand for the
removing or destroying of them. And as there are at this
time at Alloa, a considerable quantity of Deals and Learge
Loggs of Wood, of 30 or 40 feet in Length, of which Floots
may not only easely be made, for the Transporting of Men,
Horses etc.; from the one side of the River to the other,
but upon which Flooting Batteries may be reased, to move
from place to place, to play upon such of His Majesties
Forces or others, who may be employed in Defending the
Banks of the River, to prevent the Landing of the Rebells.
It is therefore Humbly submitted, how far it may be thought
proper at this Juncture, to have these Deals and Loggs
removed from Alloa. If this is approven off, what I would
propose as the easiest method of removing them, would
be to put them on Board of Vessells, to ly at
Borristounness till the danger is over. With this view I
spook to several shipmasters of my acquaintance, (who I
knew to be good Whiggs and well wishers to the common
Cause) on Tuesday last at Borristounness, and who at my
request, readily agreed to take them on Board their
Vessells, upon their only being paid the Charges they
should be put to in going to Alloa to Load and unload
them. All which is Humbly Submitted by Hon: Sirs Your
Hors Most Obedt Huml Servt
Wat: Grosett.
Edinburgh 16th Decr 1745.
Endorsements.
16th Decr 1745.
Mr. Grosett to wait upon the Justice Clerk and Genl
Guest with this Lre. and to Report their Opinion.
W. H. for the Secry.
The Board approve Mr. Grosetts Conduct and Zeal in
this whole Affair and his proposal is agreed to if the Lord
Justice Clerk and Genl Guest think proper.
W. H. for the Secretary.
VII
The Commissioners of Customs to Walter Grossett,
forwarding approval of Lord Justice Clerk and General
Guest
Edinburgh 16th Decr 1745.
We approve of Mr. Grosetts Conduct and proposalls
and desire the Board of Customs may give him the proper
directions for puting the same in Execution and for which
end a proper Warrant shall be granted by us.
And Fletcher.
Jos: Guest.
Mr. Grosett
Having considered the above Approbation of the Lord
Justice Clerk and General Guest, We heartily agree with
the same and direct you to proceed accordingly, having
first obtained their Warrant for the purposes as mentioned
in Your Letter of this date.
Co: Campbell.
Alexr Arbuthnott.
Rd. Somers.
Custom Ho Edinburgh
16th December 1745.
VIII
The Lord Justice Clerk to Walter Grossett
(Holograph but not signed)
Pray forward the Inclosed, and get all Stirling shire in
Arms immediately, If Ld Home approves G. Blackney will
give arms—raise ye Hue and Cry—Cause the Sherriff
distribute ye papers yt comes wt ys bearer.
Go on and prosper.
Edr 19th Decr 1745.
I have paid none of the Expresses yt they may make
more hast but given every one two shills. wch is not to be
deducted out of yr hire if they make Speed.
IX
Lieutenant-General Guest to Walter Grossett
Joshua Guest Esqr Lieut. General and Commander in
Cheif of all His Majesty’s Forces, Castles, Forts and
Barracks in North Britain etc.
His Majesty’s Service Requiring that all Vessells and
Boats of whatever Size be instantly removed out of the
Harbours of Borrostouness, Queensferry, Leith or any
where else upon the South Coast of the Forth betwixt
Leith and Stirling, Those at Borrostouness and
Queensferry to the Road of Borrostouness or Such other
place or places as you shall think most for His Majesty’s
Service at this Juncture; those at Leith to the Road of
Leith or such other place as you shall judge most proper
for said Service; These are therefore Authorizing and
Empowering you to put the said order in Execution, and to
which purpose the Commanders of His Majesty’s Ships of
War or others employ’d in the Kings Service, are hereby
Required to give you their Utmost Assistance, as are all
Magistrates, Justices of the Peace, Constables, and all
other Persons, Civil or Military whom these may Concern.
A Copy hereof sign’d by you shall be a sufficient warrant
to any Person required or empower’d by you in the
Execution hereof as they will answer to the Contrary at
their highest Peril.
Given at Edinburgh the 21st day of Decemr 1745.
Jos: Guest.
To Walter Grosett Esqr Collector of
His Majesty’s Customs.
X
Lieutenant-General Guest’s Directions
Directions for the Master of the Boat that goes to
Borrostouness.
Edinburgh 22d Decem. 1745.
He is to sail directly for Borrostouness, lye out in the
Road of that place and send in his Boat or yawl, to
Collector Grosett who is there and get directions from him
how he is to dispose of his Cargo, part of which is to go to
Stirling Viz. the 9 pounders Cannon Ball, Spunges, etc.
The Pouder and small Cannon Ball is for the use of the
Jean of Alloa, and Pretty Janet, that are stationed near
that place or at Higgens Nuik. The Biscuit which is to be
taken in at Leith from Mr. Walker is to be disposed of at
Bosness as Mr. Grosett will direct. In case of any accident
of your not meeting with Mr. Grosett, I desire Cap. Knight
of the Happy Janet may forward im̅ ediately the 9 pound
Cannon Ball, Spunges etc. to Stirling, where General
Blakeney has present occasion for them.
Jos: Guest.
To the Master of the Boat Order’d to
sail for Borrostouness.
XI
Captain Knight R.N. to Walter Grossett
Sir,—Having Sent 7 pounds of powder, 20 Sheets fine
paper made in Cartridges and 15 pounds Musquet Shot to
be used, if occasion required it, by my people in
preventing the Rebells passage at Higgens-Nook, which I
understand you gaue to John Peirson Master of the Pretty
Jennett, I desire you will be pleased to procure an Order
from General Guest to me for supplying these Ordnance
Stores to him, with his Ricept to Alexander Wedderburn
Master of the Armed Vessel under my Command of the
Same, and to transmit both to me at this place with the
first opportunity.—I am Sir, Your very humble Servant,
Jno. Knight.
Happy Jennett Queensferry Road
22d December 1745.
Walter Grosett Esq. Collector of his
Majts Customs at Alloa.
XII
Lieutenant-General Guest to Walter Grossett
Joshua Guest Esqr Lieut. General and Commander in
Cheif of all His Majesty’s Forces, Castles, Forts and
Barracks in North Britain etc.
His Majesty’s Service Requiring that a number of
Vessells and Boats be hired for Transporting of His
Majesty’s Forces, These are therefore authorizing and
Empowering you to hire such a number of Vessells and
Boats and make such agreement with them as you shall
judge necessary at this Juncture, and I hereby oblige
myself to make good such agreement, for which this shall
be your Warrant. Given at Edinburgh this 22d December
1745.
Jos: Guest.
To Walter Grosett Esqr Collector of
His Majesty’s Customs.