The problem with Uncle Frank

July 30th, if you follow the Julian calendar, or August 10th, for those on the Gregorian version, is the anniversary of the hanging, drawing and quartering of the Jacobite Col Francis Towneley, together with some of the other officers of his Manchester Regiment, at Kennington in London in 1746.

There is an updated biography of the somewhat flamboyant Towneley, who always stood to the fore when a town was occupied and King James III proclaimed in that heady march to Derby, which can be seen at Francis Towneley

The Manchester Regiment itself is described, including its membership, at Manchester Regiment (Jacobite)

In 2014 The Guardian published an article by 

Katharine Grant, the Colonel’s great great great great great niece about the Towneley family’s relic of Francis - his head, which after his execution was initially placed above Temple Bar in London. It is worth noting that when, four years later, in 1750, Prince Charles Edward paid his extraordinary visit to London he stayed just around the corner in Essex Street off The Strand and he must have seen it on its pike with that of at least one other victim of 1746. Her article, which goes on to give an insight into the world of such recusant families rather in the style of Nancy Mitford, can be read at Uncle Frank's severed head