James Edgar (Jacobite)

[2] After the defeat of the rising, he escaped Scotland in disguise and joined the exiled Jacobites, first in Avignon by late 1716 and then in Rome by 1717.

By the later 1720s he had assumed increased responsibility for correspondence into and out of the Jacobite court, often composing the bulk of a letter's content while James attached a signature and occasionally added a few comments.

From 1728, he was employed by James Francis Edward Stuart as his private secretary, being chiefly responsible for co-ordinating intelligence reports for the Jacobite cause.

Edgar managed to remain impartial and uninvolved in the constant power struggles among the Jacobite supporters at court, thereby maintaining the trust of the Old Pretender and, increasingly, his son Charles Edward Stuart.

[2] From 1732, Edgar assumed many of the responsibilities of the Pretender's Secretary of State, amid growing factionalism and infighting in the exiled court.