Effects of a Jacobite Restoration on the North American colonies

How would Great Britain's north american colonies react to a restoration of the jacobites to the kingdom's throne, and how would the new jacobite monarchy react to the colonies? Could the hanoverians end up fleeing to North America and claiming the throne from there? Would the jacobites decide to intervene militarily in the region, perhaps in the form of a naval invasion? What are the effects on catholics living in the colonies?
I posit two scenarios: one where the jacobites are restored in the period between 1708 (when the french and spanish planned an invasion of England alongside the jacobites but didn't do it) and 1715, and another when they are restored in the period of the Austrian Succession War (France's planned invasion in 1744 and the jacobite uprising of 1745).
 

raharris1973

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Could the hanoverians end up fleeing to North America and claiming the throne from there?

No - they wouldn't. Hanover in the HRE is much closer than America and offers a greater chance for a comeback to Britain, and has more trained soldiers for them to defend themselves and counterattack with than America does. And its closer to potential allies.
 
I'd like to see more discussion of the effects on America on preventing or curtailing the Hanoverian dynasty and the eighteenth century Whig ascendancy.

After 1715, British governments adopted a policy of "benign neglect" towards the colonies. It got to the point where the handful of crown officials in the colonies were having their salaries paid by the colonial assemblies, if they were actually at their posts at all. This means that the attempts in the 1760s to turn the colonies into less of an expenditure sink were probably doomed from the start, the colonies were already effectively independent and what the British were really doing was trying to re-establish a control that had not been in effect for decades.

It was quite a contrast with the Spanish and French colonies.

James II had made a start of establish actual control by London, so preventing the Glorious Revolution in the first place would be huge. A Jacobite restoration does not have as big an impact, and it depends on how it comes out (for example to the Stuart pretenders convert to Anglicanism?). But you would get a Tory government which would have a big effect. Look what happened when George III ended the Whig ascendancy IOTL.
 

raharris1973

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I am going to amend my initial post somewhat.

I think in the 1710s and 1740s Hanover is still the destination of choice for Hanoverians in exile. But America will be a relevant piece of the political chessboard for both the Stuarts and the Hanovers.

The Hanovers might send over a Prince, Princess or Royal relative to the Americas to try to keep the colonies loyal to them. Just a spare mind you, never the heir.

The American colonies, or at least New England, might not fall in line easily with the Stuart Restoration, and could become a de facto republic, nominally loyal to the Hanoverian pretender to the British throne.

i don't think, especially in the 1740s scenario, that the Stuarts can successfully make the colonies accept more direct control.
 
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