General Wade & Bath March 14th

General Wade Died March 14th 1748

General Wade was one of the generals who saved Britain from the Jacobite threat in the 18th Century. He is one of those people that, as a Course Director for Road Scholar, you have never heard of but soon become an important part of your tour. At first, you use the guidebooks for your information. Then drop their name in the tour sounding authoritative for the next 20 years. But you have no real idea who they are are. General Wade is a typical example.  I first heard of him in Bath, as the owner of the rather wonderful early 18th Century town house in Bath, pictured above.  The house sits opposite the Georgian entry to the famous Roman Baths.  Most Georgian buildings in Bath are Palladian, Classical Revival architecture as influenced by Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). First implemented, in Bath by John Wood, but followed by most 18th/19th and many 20th Century architects.

General Wade’s House is wonderfully not Palladian.  It displays its classical influence by the pilasters between the windows and the swags above. But it doesn’t have the solidity of the Palladian style.  It is special because it illustrates a type that has largely disappeared in Bath, and indeed around the country. It was built around 1700 and is a Grade 1 listed.

General Wade & Bath

General Wade, I would tell people, was the MP for Bath (after 1722, retaining the seat for 25 years). He was a field-Marshall in charge of the defences of the area during the Jacobite Revolt of 1715.  However, his part in my tour was to introduce the story of one of the three men who made Bath famous in the 18th Century. The first of these men was Ralph Allen, Post Master. At the beginning of the Jacobite Revolt, he opened letters between known rebels. He found out where the armaments were stored, and provided the information to General Wade. Wade became famous by preventing an uprising in the West Country.  His daughter married Ralph Allen.

Ralph Allen

Allen made a small fortune as Post Master by implementing so-called ‘cross posts’. The original postal system sent posts from the regions to London to be sent out to the destination region. Allen realised he could make a lot of money linking regional centres directly and not going via London. Rising in society and in wealth, he reinvested his profits in the purchase of the limestone quarries above Bath.

Being a great entrepreneur he used a gravity railway (this is in the 18th Century remember!) to bring the stone down cheaply from the quarry. He also invested in a canal scheme to reduce transport costs for his highly prized limestone. It could now be transported and used in the bigger town of Bristol. He thereby made his stone cheaper, and increased potential customers.

He worked with visionary architect, John Wood, who used his stone to design amazing buildings in the Palladian style. This made Bath stone fashionable. Reducing costs while increasing demand at the same time. The third of the people who made Bath famous was Beau Nash. He was known as the ‘King of Bath’. He made Bath a cultured centre of entertainment. But more about him and his girlfriend on another occasion!

General Wade and the Jacobites

So, I used General Wade to point out a missing era of architecture in Bath. But also as a way into the story of the three men who surfed the wave of Bath’s amazing growth. They, it is said, made it the most fashionable place to visit in Britain.

I next came across the name of General Wade, when I began to take groups along Hadrian’s wall. We were travelling on the military way. Running south of the wall, it was built by General Wade in the 18th Century. It roughly follows the Roman Military Way. Wade built 240 miles of military roads and 30 bridges. A further encounter with Wade, came when a particularly erudite Boat captain told us about the road that runs North alongside Loch Lomond. This was another military road built by Wade. Now, I do not know the names of any other General famous for building military roads. So this man was clearly something special. In Scotland, he essentially put in the military framework that was used to subdue the Highlanders in the Jacobite Wars. I thought I should know more about him. Hence, this post!

General Wade: Military Career

He began his military career in 1690 when he was commissioned into the Earl of Bath’s regiment. This led to a stellar military career, including fighting under the great General Marlborough. Wade was made a Brigadier General in 1708. After his success in keeping the West Country secure he was made Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Forces, Castles, Forts, and Barracks in North Britain. The term ‘North Britain’ was used following the union of England and Scotland. For a while Scotland was known as North Britain.

He became a Field Marshall in 1743 in the War of the Austrian Succession. In the ’45 (Jacobite Revolt), he based his strategy on concentrating his forces on Newcastle. But Bonnie Prince Charlie, outfoxed him by taking the West Coast route out of Scotland via Carlisle into Lancashire. The Scots got as far south as Derby. Then retreated as the hoped for support from English Jacobites, nor the French invasion, materialised. Wade resigned from his command in 1745 and was replaced by Prince William, Duke of Cumberland. Cumberland was known as the Butcher of Culloden. The 1745 Jacobite Rebellion is known in Scottish Gaelic: as the Bliadhna Theàrlaich, [ˈpliən̪ˠə ˈhjaːrˠl̪ˠɪç], or ‘The Year of Charles’). (to read about Bonny Prince Charlie’s Sword, Stone of Scone read my post here stone-of-destiny-on-display-in-perth

General Wade’s Road and the Sycamore Tree

In 1746 Wade helped plan the East West road by Hadrian’s Wall to prevent in future any invasion of Britain. It allowed troops to travel from one side of Scotland to the other quickly. He died before construction was begun. He can’t therefore be entirely blamed for the destruction of parts of Hadrian’s Wall by the building of the road. (Click here to see my post on piece-of-hadrians-wall-found.

The road is still in use today. It was used by many people to see the famous Sycamore Tree, in Sycamore Gap, before it was brutally chopped down.

‘Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, both from Cumbria, are charged with causing £622,191 worth of criminal damage to the famous Northumberland tree‘. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg0dyk9mvno. Their trial is in April, and of course, they may be innocent.

For more on Wade see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wade

First published 2024, revised 2025