Located on old North Road on the outskirts of Tuxford (the Old A1) stands a grade II listed monument which the engravement upon it reads-
‘HERE’
‘LYETH A REBEL’
‘1746’
The Rebels grave also known as The Rebels Stone is said to mark the burial place of a Scotsman who fell in the rebellion of 1745/46.
Local legend says that a group of Jacobite Rebels were being transported South to face trial and possible execution in London. Just south of Tuxford one of these men attempted to escape. The man jumped from the back of the cart in which he was travelling, he hit the ground with such force he broke his neck and died instantly.
Locals following the prisoners organised a rudimentary miltary funeral, and he was buried close to the spot in which he died. Its reported sometime later, a substantial monument was erected on the site.
It’s thought the local legend does not quote match the facts as many of the prisoners after the battle of Culloden was taken in the field and executed on the spot. Many leaders of the rebellion was taken to London but was held in places like Tilbury Fort, awaiting transportation to America.
So what links is there to the Jacobites? Well the answer may lie in the 1695 diary of the clergyman Oliver Heywood.
Oliver Heywood wrote that he witnessed the spirits of Papists and Jacobites at work in Nottinghamshire who during the year of 1695 was having regularly meetings of non jurats and jacobites proofing that jocobites were in the Nottinghamshire area, perhaps within his writing he was referring to Tuxford even though the grave dates 1746.
Its also important to mention that it was local tradition the Scottish drovers, whilst passing the stone, would remove a small piece as a suppose cure for toothache however was this just a cover story in order to pay respect to a fallen clansman?
Nobody will ever truly know who the man was or what he stood for, marking it as one of the mysterious graves I think I’ve ever came across….
