The Jacobites and the Supernatural (The Northumbrian Magazine Feb/March 2011).

Bringing together the fascinating and troubled world of Jacobite history and its often bizarre association with paranormal beliefs, several tales in the book are, not surprisingly, set in Northumberland, home of James Radcliffe of Dislton, the 3rd Earl of Derwentwater.

The Radcliffes, the most prominent Catholic family in the North, played a leading role in both the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745. James was captured at the Battle of Preston, and on the day he was beheaded in London was said that corn ground at Dislton Mill was tinged with gore and the Devil’s Water – which run through Dilston – ran with blood.

Among many tales of witchcraft, spirits, psychic powers and curses, another Northumbrian legend recorded involves Sir John Fenwick of Wallington, who was involved in a plot to assassinate the Protestant King William III in 1696.

Fenwick was executed and William of Orange confiscated his prize racehorse White Sorrell. Six years later, when the horse stumbled over a molehill, the monarch was unseated and suffered injuries from which he later died. This, the Jacobites believed, was the horse taking revenge on behalf of its old master.