The letters provide us with a rare insider’s opinion of how the 1707 union might be received at the heart of government and throughout the country
The Privy Council Project, discussed on page 45, will offer an exciting new window onto Scottish politics during the tumultuous reigns of William and Mary and Queen Anne, culminating in the Union of 1707. Where the privy council’s own records present the public face of this period, what happened behind closed doors is vividly illuminated in the correspondence of James Ogilvy, 1st earl of Seafield (1663-1730), two volumes of which have been published by the Society.