Ah yes, I recognize that story from Duffy. In general a lot of people were trying to save Jacobites by using the patronage system and appealing to influential Whigs that they had some connection to, which in many cases was successful. So yeah, I don't think it's unreasonable for Keith to expect to be able to save Ewen that way.

Heee, I'm glad to see you're getting sucked into research reading. *g*