Stone in Staffordshire was the point furthest south reached by Jacobite cavalry patrols during the advance to Derby in December 1745. Government militia in the West Midlands was in chaos — the regular army had been withdrawn north to intercept the Jacobites, leaving local areas unprotected. Jacobite cavalry scouts rode as far south as Stone seeking intelligence on government forces and testing the response of the English countryside. They found little organised resistance. The civilian reaction in the Midlands — neither enthusiastic support nor effective resistance — confirmed what the Jacobite leaders already suspected: English Jacobitism was a sentiment, not a movement capable of raising armies.
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