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The Act of Union of 1707 abolished the English and Scottish Parliaments and created a single Parliament of Great Britain. It also confirmed the Protestant Hanoverian succession to the throne, further embittering the Jacobites. Risings in 1708 and 1715 failed. Then in 1745 Charles Edward Stuart - Bonnie Prince Charlie - arrived in Scotland to lead a Jacobite rising. After initial successes his young ambition was shattered in the slaughter at the battle of Culloden.
This was a time of agricultural change. The Highland Clearances, driven partly for economic gain but also out of revenge for Highland support of the Jacobite cause, changed the countryside and drove many Scots across the Atlantic in search of opportunity and escape.
