Retford was more troubled during the Jacobite rising of 1745. Cornelius Brown records that in 1745 an army of 6,000 English and Hessian troops camped on Wheatley Hills and the soldiers marched through Retford and used East Retford (St Swithun's) church as a stable. This was the The Derbyshire Blues, which had been formed to protect Derby under the aegis of the Duke of Devonshire, but which retreated 50 miles to Retford when reports reached Derby that the Jacobites had a 9,000 strong army.