Sources for Chartism: Hovell on 1842

Chartism stood helpless when the combination of Whigs and Tories had thrown out of Parliament the National Petition of 1842. The autocrat of Chartism [Feargus O’Connor] had staked everything on a false move. Once more “moral force” had failed to convince the representatives of the middle-class electorate. Once more there only remained the trial of “physical force.” But, however much he might bluster, O’Connor was neither willing nor able to fall back upon the alternative policy of the hot-bloods whom he had so often denounced. And O’Connor still dominated the movement to such an extent that a course of action of which he disapproved was condemned to futility. Hence the tameness with which organised Chartism bore the destruction of its hopes. Hence the weakness and incoherence of the measures by which the stalwarts of the party strove to maintain the Chartist cause after the failure of the Petition. Hence, too, their eagerness to adopt as their own any passing wave of discontent and claim the storm as the result of their own agitation.

The collapse of the Petition was followed by a few protests, much violent language in the Northern Star, and a few public meetings, notably in Lancashire, where the speaking was even more unrestrained than were the leading articles of the Chartist organ. A notable instance of these assemblies was the great gathering held on Enfield Moor, near Blackburn, on Sunday, June 5^th. Its business was “to consider the next steps to be taken to obtain the People’s Charter.” Marsden of Bolton put before the crowd the fatuous proposal that the people should collect arms and march in their thousands on Buckingham Palace. “If the Queen refuses our just demands, we shall know what to do with our weapons.” But nothing came of this or any other similar manifestations of Chartist statesmanship. It looked as if the leaders could no longer carry on an effective agitation.

The outbreak of a widespread strike in August added a real element of seriousness to the situation in the North. Here again Lancashire was the storm-centre, but the strike movement broke out simultaneously in other districts, ranging from Glasgow and Tyneside to the Midlands, where the colliers in the Potteries and in the South Staffordshire coal-field went out. It is very doubtful whether the strike had much directly to do with Chartism. Its immediate cause was a threatened reduction of wages, which was answered by the workmen in the Lancashire mills drawing the plugs so as to make work impossible. For this reason the operatives’ resistance to the employers’ action was called in Lancashire the Plug Plot.

Whatever the origin of the strike, the Chartist leaders eagerly made capital out of it. They attributed the proposed reduction to the malice of the Anti-Corn Law manufacturers, anxious to drive the people to desperation, and thus foment disturbances that would paralyse the action of the Protectionist Government. In a few days the country was ablaze from the Ribble to the confines of Birmingham. At a great meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire strikers on Mottram Moor on August 7^th it was resolved that “all labour should cease until the People’s Charter became the law of the land.” A similar resolution was passed at Manchester and in nearly all the great towns of Lancashire. On August 15^th, the same resolution was passed at a meeting on Crown Bank at Hanley, at which Thomas Cooper presided. Despite his exhortations to observe peace and order, serious rioting broke out.

The Chartists’ leaders now gathered together at Manchester, where the Executive Council of the National Charter Association was joined by delegates from the Manchester and West Riding areas. It first assembled on August 12^th, but members came in by slow degrees. It met in Schofield’s chapel[1] and was dignified by the Northern Star with the name of a conference. In this McDouall took the lead, and was not displaced from it even when O’Connor, Campbell the Secretary, and Thomas Cooper, hot from his stormy experiences in the Potteries, joined the gathering. Cooper has left a vivid account of his escape from Hanley by night and of his vacillation between his desire to stay with his comrades in the Potteries and his wish to be in Manchester, where he rightly felt the real control of the movement lay. He trudged along the dark roads from Hanley to Crewe, a prey to various tumultuous and conflicting thoughts. But he was sustained by the noble confidence that O’Connor would be at Manchester and would tell everybody what to do. At Crewe he took the train and found Campbell the Secretary in it. Campbell, now resident in London, was anxious to be back in his old home and see how things were going there. As soon as “the city of long chimneys” came in sight and every chimney was beheld smokeless, Campbell’s face changed, and with an oath he said, “Not a single mill at work! Something must come out of this and something serious too!”

The conference speedily resolved that the strikers should be exhorted to remain out until the Charter became law. To procure this end, McDouall issued on behalf of the Executive a fierce manifesto appealing to the God of battles and declaring in favour of a general strike as the best weapon for winning the Charter. But divided counsels now once more rent asunder the party and made all decisive action hopeless. Even in the delegates’ meeting it had been necessary to negative an amendment denying any connection between the existing strike and Chartism. At Ashton-under-Lyne the strikers declared that they had no concern with any political questions.

The fatal blow came from O’Connor, to whom simple men like Thomas Cooper had gone as to an oracle for guidance. Even in the Convention his puppets had supported dilatory tactics. In a few days O’Connor fiercely attacked McDouall in the Northern Star, for “breathing a wild strain of recklessness most dangerous to the cause.” Good Chartists were advised to retire from a hopeless contest, reserving their energies for some later season when their organisation should have been perfected. The strike, far from being a weapon of Chartism, was a crafty device of the mill-owners of the Anti-Corn Law League to reduce wages and divert men’s minds from the Charter.

Riots and disturbances further complicated the situation. Cooper had fled from the burning houses of Hanley and the fusillade of soldiers shooting men dead in the streets. Now the trouble spread northwards into Lancashire and the West Riding. Shops were looted, gas-works attacked, trains were stopped, two policemen were killed in the streets of Manchester. Troops were rapidly poured into the disaffected districts. There were over two thousand soldiers with six pieces of artillery in Manchester alone. At Preston and Blackburn the soldiers fired on the crowd; Halifax was attacked by a mob from Todmorden. Widespread alarm was created, but there is little evidence that the disorders were really dangerous. O’Connor strongly urged peaceable methods in a public letter. “Let us,” he said, “set an example to the world of what moral power is capable of effecting.” His violent pacifism was largely attributed to lack of personal courage.

The vigorous action of the Government soon re-established order. Then came the turn of the leaders to pay the penalty. The panic-stricken authorities put into gaol both those who had advocated rebellion and those who had spoken strongly for peaceful methods. O’Connor himself was apprehended in London, while William Hill, the editor of the Northern Star, was taken into custody at Leeds. Cooper was arrested soon after his return home to Leicester. But there was long delay before the trials were concluded, and many were released on bail, among them Cooper and O’Connor. The most guilty of all, McDouall, evaded, by escape to France, the consequences of his firebrand manifesto. In the course of September the strike wore itself out. The workmen went back to the mills and coal-mines without any assurances as to their future wages. The economic situation was as black as was the course of politics. With a falling market, with employers at their wits’ end how to sell their products, there was no chance of a successful strike. The appeal from the Commons to the people had proved a sorry failure. Once more the Chartists had mismanaged their opportunities through divided counsels and conflicting ideals.

The discomfited remnant that was still free fiercely quarrelled over the apportionment of the blame for the recent failure. There was a strong outcry against the old Executive. It was denounced for insolence, despotism, slackness, wastefulness, and malversation. A warm welcome was given to a proposal of Cooper’s that the Association should receive a new constitution which dispensed with a paid Executive. As a result of an investigation at a delegates’ meeting towards the end of the year, the Executive either resigned or was suspended.

McDouall was made the scapegoat of the failure. He it was who had given the worst shock to the credit of Chartism. How many tracts might have been published and distributed with the money lavished upon McDouall. In great disgust the exile renounced his membership of the Association. However, he came back to England in 1844, and at once made a bid for restitution. His first plan was to drive home the old attack on O’Connor by an attempt to set up a separate Chartist organisation for Scotland independent of the English society. At the same time he denounced O’Connor for his ungenerous exploitation of his pecuniary obligations to him in the hope of binding him to him and gagging him. It was O’Connor, too, who had advised him to run away in 1842 in order to throw upon him the whole responsibility for the Plug Riots. Both accusations are only too credible, but no trust can be given to McDouall’s statements. His veracity and good faith are more than disputable, and his constant change of policy was at least as much due to self-interest as to instability. He was one of the least attractive as well as most violent of the Chartist champions. It is startling after all this to find that in 1844 O’Connor was welcoming McDouall back to the orthodox fold and that the Glasgow Chartists raised the chief difficulties in the way of the ostentatiously repentant sinner. There was no finality in the loves and hates of men of the calibre of O’Connor and McDouall.

Though its prospects were increasingly unhopeful the Complete Suffrage agitation was not yet dead. At Sturge’s suggestion a new attempt was made to bridge over the gulf between Suffragists and Chartists, which was found impossible to traverse at the Birmingham Conference. With this object a second Conference met on December 27^th, 1842, also at Birmingham. Sturge once more presided over a gathering which included representatives of both parties. The Suffragists were now willing to accept the Chartist programme, but they were as inveterate as ever against the use of the Chartist name. To the old Chartists the Charter was a sacred thing which it was a point of honour to maintain. Harney thus puts their attitude:

“Give up the Charter! The Charter for which O’Connor and hundreds of brave men were dungeoned in felons’ cells, the Charter for which John Frost was doomed to a life of heart-withering woe! . . . What, to suit the whim, to please the caprice, or to serve the selfish ends of mouthing priests, political traffickers, sugar-weighing, tape-measuring shopocrats. Never! By the memories of the illustrious dead, by the sufferings of widows and the tears of orphans he would adjure them to stand by the Charter.”

The Conference was carefully packed by the O’Connorites, but there was more than O’Connorism behind the pious enthusiasm that clung to the party tradition. Nor can the Sturgeites be acquitted of recourse to astute tactics to outwit their opponents. Knowing that they were likely to be in a minority, they got two lawyers in London to draft a new Bill of Rights which they laid before the conference in such a way that they burked all discussion of the Charter in its old form. The New Bill of Rights embodied all the “six points” of the Charter, but the old Chartists bitterly resented the tactics which gave priority to this new-fangled scheme. Lovett came out of his retirement to move that the Charter and not the Bill of Rights should be the basis of the movement. He sternly reproached the Sturgeites for their lack of faith. O’Connor himself seconded Lovett’s proposal and strove, though with little effect, to conciliate with his blandishments the stubborn spirit of his old adversary. But even their momentary agreement on a common policy united for the time the old Chartist forces. In the hot debate that followed, the doctrinaire tactlessness of the Sturgeite leaders added fuel to the flames of Chartist wrath. “We will espouse your principles, but we will not have your leaders,” said Lawrence Heyworth, the most offensive of the Sturgeite orators. Years afterwards Thomas Cooper voiced the general Chartist feeling when he declared “there was no attempt to bring about a union--no effort for conciliation--no generous offer of the right hand of fellowship. We soon found that it was determined to keep the poor Chartists at arm’s length.”

In the end Lovett’s resolution was carried by more than two to one. Thereupon Sturge and his friends retired, and the Conference broke up into two antagonistic sections, neither of which could accomplish anything that mattered. The failure practically put an end to the Complete Suffrage Movement, which was soon submerged in the general current of Radicalism. No doubt the dispute in the form in which it arose was one of words rather than things, but it was no mere question of words that brought Chartists of all sorts into a momentary forgetfulness of their ancient feuds to resist the attempt to wipe out the history of their sect. The split of the Conference arose from the essential incompatibility of the smug ideals of the respectable middle-class Radical, and the vague aspirations of the angry hot-headed workman, bitterly resenting the sufferings of his grievous lot and especially intolerant of the employing class from which Sturge and his friends came. The gulf between the Complete Suffragist and the Chartist is symbolised in the extreme contrast between the journalism of the Nonconformist and that of the Northern Star.

The Birmingham failure was another triumph for O’Connor. He had dragged even Lovett into his wake and could now pose more than ever as the one practical leader of Chartism. It was to little purpose that Lovett, shocked at the result of his momentary reappearance on the same platform as his enemy, withdrew, with his friend Parry, from the O’Connorite Conference. The remnant went to a smaller room and finished up their business to their own liking. If Chartism henceforth meant O’Connorism, it was because O’Connor, with all his faults, could upon occasion give a lead, and still more because, lead or no lead, it was O’Connor only whom the average Chartist would follow.

The failure of this last effort at conciliation was the more tragic since it was quickly followed by the conclusion of the long-drawn-out trials of the Chartists, accused of complicity in the abortive revolt of the summer of 1842. Some of the accused persons, notably Cooper and O’Connor, were still on bail at the Conference and went back to meet their fate. Their cases were dealt with by special commissions which had most to do in Staffordshire and Lancashire. The Staffordshire commission had got to work as early as October, and had in all 274 cases brought before it. Thomas Cooper was the most conspicuous of the prisoners it dealt with. Acquitted on one count, he was released on bail before being arraigned on another charge. He finally received a sentence of two years’ imprisonment, which he spent in Stafford Gaol. In prison he wrote his Purgatory of Suicides, a poetical idealisation of the Chartist programme, which won for him substantial literary recognition. Most of the Staffordshire sentences were much more severe than that of Cooper, fifty-four being condemned to long periods of transportation. In Lancashire and Cheshire the special commission was presided over by Lord Abinger, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, whose indiscreet language gave occasion for a futile attack on him by the Radicals in Parliament. But the actual trials do not seem to have been unfairly conducted, and the victims were much less numerous than in Staffordshire. O’Connor was found guilty, but his conviction, with that of others, was overruled on technical grounds. His good fortune in escaping scot-free, while other Chartist leaders languished in gaol or in exile, still further increased his hold over the party. It was another reason why O’Connorism henceforth meant Chartism...

Mark Hovell, The Chartist Movement, 2^nd ed., Manchester University Press, 1918; 1925; re-print edition, 1963, pages 259-67.

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[1] James Schofield was the leader of the ‘Church Chartists’ in Manchester.

Sources for Chartism: Frank Peel on 1842

Trade in 1842, the year of the plug riots, was worse than ever, and the sufferings of the working classes throughout Yorkshire and Lancashire were very great. It was hoped that as summer came on matters might improve, but they grew gradually worse, and at the beginning of August the distress was at its height. The corn laws were then in full operation, and the ports being closed the people throughout the country were starving. In the north it was reported that a fourth part of the population was dying of famine. At Stockport, half the masters had failed and five thousand work-people were walking the streets, nor were they much better in any of the towns in Lancashire. The Chartist movement had gathered much strength during the past year, and the working classes in all the large towns were in a state of great discontent and disaffection. The masses of the people were still persuaded that the “People’s Charter” would enable them to secure higher wages and better food, and that for that very reason the “aristocrats,” against whom they inveighed so furiously would not grant it. Another immense petition in favour of the charter was presented in the House of Commons in May, and great meetings were of almost nightly occurrence in all the large towns of Yorkshire. At Leeds the pauper stone heaps now amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand tons, and the guardians offered 6s weekly for doing nothing rather than 7s 6d for stone breaking. Poor rates swelled to with dismay the heavy drain on their resources. Towards the end of June a meeting of tradesmen and shopkeepers was held in the Bradford courthouse, “to enable them publicly to make known the unparalleled distress which prevailed, and the decay of trade consequent thereon, and to adopt such measures relative thereto as might be deemed advisable with a view to avert impending ruin.

Disturbances of an extraordinary character and on a large scale took place in Lancashire, which speedily assumed an alarming character. They commenced at Stalybridge. On Sunday, August 7^th, a large meeting was held at Mottram Moor, which was attended by eight or ten thousand people. The disturbances originated in this way. Some of the manufacturers of Stalybridge finding, as they stated, that others in the vicinity were paying lower wages than they were gave notice of a reduction. The workmen consented at one mill at the expiration of the notice to take the lower price. At another place, however, they refused to submit to the change. The workpeople of the firm last mentioned waited upon their employers, Bayley Brothers, and spake roughly on the proposed reduction, on which one of the masters said if they took the matter up in that spirit they had better play until they thought differently of it. On hearing this the deputation set up a loud shout, when all hands left the mill, without waiting for any formal answer to the demands of their representatives. Proceeding to the different mills in the town, the workpeople nearly all turned out and joined them, and their number soon swelled to more than 5,000, of whom one-third were females. Day by day they extended their march and emboldened by their numbers they determined to put an end to all work until their political demands were met. In accordance with this resolve they stopped all the collieries, and insisted upon men of all trades participating in the general holiday. Finding that all were not willing to join in the mad enterprise, they did not hesitate to overawe and coerce them, and procuring a number of formidable bludgeons, they tried to intimidate any workman who resisted them. Proceeding to the print works of Thomas Hoyle and Son, who had made themselves very obnoxious, they spoiled a great many of their goods, and then went on to Ashton, where they were joined by fresh crowds. An immense meeting was held there, when the passions of the mob were inflamed by the fiery oratory of reckless demagogues. They next proceeded to Oldham and Manchester, where, however, they found the military drawn up to check their excesses. As the mob did not at once commit depredations the military were withdrawn, but a scene of pillage and disorder soon followed, the chief sufferers being the provision dealers and bakers. The military again marched out and fourteen of the ringleaders were taken into custody. At Birley’s Mill a determined struggle took place. The rioters were first deluged with water, but as this did not compel them to disperse, some of the workpeople ascended the roof and threw pieces of iron, stones, and other missiles upon them. Many persons were very seriously hurt, and a young girl killed on the spot. From Lancashire the disaffection speedily spread into Yorkshire.

The Halifax Chartists were on the “qui vive” on Saturday, August 13^th, the leaders having received word that large detachments of turnouts were on their way from Lancashire. Groups of suspicious-looking people with bludgeons were seen entering the town. Evening came on, and about eight o’clock the bellman went round the town calling a public meeting to be held next morning at five o’clock. The gathering took place, and was well attended. About six o’clock, while Mr. Ben Rushton, a well known local democrat, was speaking, the special constables, who had been sworn in on the previous day, were seen approaching the gathering, headed by two magistrates, Mr. George Pollard and Mr. William Brigg, and were received with groans. Mr. Pollard at once rode in front of the platform and declared the meeting to be illegal. He advised that the proceedings should be immediately brought to an end, and that all should depart in quietness to their homes. Mr. Rushton attempted to resume his speech, but he was not allowed to do so by the special constables, and, eventually, the assembly formed into procession and perambulated the district. Ere they dispersed it was arranged that another gathering should take place early next morning.

On the afternoon of that same Sunday (August 14^th) a large gathering took place on Bradford Moor, under the presidency of George Bishop. Mr. Ibbotson, a well known news vendor, whose place of business was on the Bowling Green, addressed the gathering, which was estimated to number 10,000, and was followed by other speakers, stirring up the enthusiasm of the surging crowd, who received their treasonable utterances with wild cheering. The alarmed authorities summoned the chief inhabitants to meet the same evening at the Talbot Inn, when it was resolved that steps should be taken to put down the outbreak. Special constables were sworn in in large numbers, and troops were sent for from Leeds. Next morning another Chartist meeting was held in front of the Odd-Fellows’ Hall, Thornton Road, at the early hour of seven, when it was resolved that the people should never relinquish their demands until the Charter became the law of the land. The immense crowd then formed into military order, marched up Manchester Road towards Halifax, stopping at the mills on the way. The arrival of the Bradford contingent at Halifax was preceded by that of J. W. Hird, Esq., a magistrate, who announced to the startled authorities that thousands were on the way there that the rest of the Bradford magistrates and a troop of the 17^th Lancers were coming to the assistance of the Halifax authorities. As news had just been received in Halifax that a large body was also on the march from Todmorden, the alarmed authorities held at once a hurried consultation, and it was resolved to move the civil and military forces to New Bank, it being thought that the aim of the rioters would be to stop Messrs. Ackroyds’ and Messrs. Houghs’ mills. The cavalry, under the command of Captain Forrest, and a body of infantry, under Major Byrne, accordingly proceeded to the spot, and arrived at New Bank just as the rioters were seen coming over the brow of the hill. The first action of the lancers was to range themselves across the road in order to prevent the rioters from going further. Behind the cavalry were ranged the foot soldiers and the special constables. The rioters, pressed forward by the surging mass behind, came marching on until the two bodies met, but eventually the mob, seeing their way was effectually barred, got over the walls, ran across the fields, and formed again in Range Bank, where they encountered the Bradford contingent and joined forces, forming a compact mass of 25,000 men and women - for no inconsiderable number of the insurgents and women - and strange as it may seem the latter were really the more violent of the body. The mob thus reinforced proceeded down Crown Street towards North Bridge, and were met at the top of Park Street by the military and civil forces. Here the Riot Act was again read, but the magistrate who read it was jeered at by the crowd.

…After stopping Messrs. Haigh’s mill the crowd proceeded to Haley Hill, where they did the same at Mr. Dawson’s mill letting off the steam. They then went forwards to Messrs. Ackroyd’s mill where they stopped the works and turned the hands out. They forced the boiler plug, and, while this was being done, a party proceeded towards Booth Town to stop Atkinson’s silk mill, and another branched off into Mr. Ackroyd’s grounds for the purpose of letting off the reservoir.

At two o’clock in the afternoon, a meeting of ten to fifteen thousand people was held on Skircoat Moor, when resolutions were passed touching the “people’s rights,” and a deputation despatched to the Mayor to demand the release of the prisoners that had been captured by the authorities during the day’s “melees.” The women were very excited and were heard urging the men to attack the prisons in which the rioters were confined. Another gathering was held on Tuesday morning, and opened with singing and prayer, as was customary at most Chartist gatherings. The speakers were far more temperate in their language than on the day before. After the meeting they divided into hands and left for Greetland, Elland, Brighouse and other places to continue the work of stopping the mills. At Brighouse they seem to have first attacked Samuel Leppington’s mill at Brookfoot, where they drew the plugs; and from thence they proceeded to John Holland’s, Slead Syke; Perseverance Mill, and Victoria Mill (Rev. Benjamin Firth), Upper and Lower Mills; Robin Hood and Little John Mills, were all visited. At the latter place a local man, Joseph Baines, drew the cloughs in connection with the water wheel, and was tried at York for the offence afterwards, being sentenced to six months imprisonment. Thornhill Briggs Mill was also visited, and part of the crowd then went to Bailiffe Bridge and drew Holdsworth’s plugs. Several local ringleaders at Brighouse and Elland, who made themselves conspicuous, were afterwards punished, some, however, judiciously absented themselves until the storm had blown over.

The great pressure brought to bear on the Halifax authorities with respect to the prisoners, and the strong manifestations on their behalf, led them to think it would be better to remove them to safer quarters, and it was decided to convey them to Wakefield. For this purpose two omnibuses were procured, and six police officers being told off to escort the eighteen men in custody to Elland railway station, a band of eleven hussars accompanying them. Upon arriving at the bottom of Salterhebble hill the party encountered a large mob, who made way for the omnibuses, but sent a volley of stones after them. The soldiers, however, escaped without much injury, passing through Elland Wood in safety, and the prisoners were duly placed in the train. Upon returning, Mr. Brigg wisely resolved that the troops should proceed up the higher road by Exley to Salterhebble, as he feared another encounter with the mob in Elland Wood. In coming down Exley Bank the soldiers were observed by the mob, who rushed out of the wood in vast numbers. Mr. Brigg, who was a little in advance of the hussars, motioned them forward. This magistrate appears to have been a special object of attack, and the first stone that was thrown hit his horse a severe blow on the head. The soldiers galloped forward, but, when opposite the Elephant and Castle, they encountered the mob in force congregated on the rising ground. Scores were also on the tops of the houses. The mob had all large stones, and it was evident from the number that they must have accumulated them. These missiles they hurled with fearful violence upon the devoted soldiers in the road beneath. Mr. Brigg was hit in several places, his left arm being broken; his groom was hurt, and three of the hussars were unhorsed and taken prisoners. The soldiers fired upon their assailants, but the shots took little or no effect. Deeming that to continue the conflict would mean certain death, the hussars wisely retreated to a position on the brow of the hill, where they were joined by the remainder of the troop from Halifax, who had fortunately gone to meet them, expecting that their help would be required. Reinforcements were immediately sent for from Halifax, and the infantry with ten hundred special constables were shortly on their way to Salterhebble to disperse the mob. At another meeting held at Skircoat Moor, it was agreed to proceed to Haley Hill, which was now defended by the authorities, the entrance being protected by wool packs, &c. About four o’clock the turn-outs began to arrive, a large number of the malcontents being as usual, women. A shot was fired from the crowd at the military massed at the bottom of Haley Hill, and the bullet or slug struck one of the officers, but did him no great injury. Several stones were then thrown, whereupon the soldiers received orders to fire upon the mob, which they did, and several persons were wounded. The hussars also dashed up the hill at full speed and several sabre blows were administered to the flying crowd. The mob gave way, and then made for Bankfield, the residence of Mr. Ackroyd, but were met by a well directed fire from some defenders of the mansion, and about thirty persons were captured. After this the mob made no further headway in the town and on the day following order was restored.

The Lancashire turn-outs commenced operations in the Huddersfield district by stopping two manufactories at Milnes Bridge. They met with a slight resistance at Armitage Bros’. Mill; and one still more determined at Starkey’s at Longroyd Bridge, the gates being closed against them, but they had to be opened or soon would have been broken down by the enraged mob who congregated round them. At Folly Hall, a very extensive factory, the workpeople, being apprized of the approach of the rioters, left the mill to avoid any collision. At places where the mob encountered any opposition they threatened to return next day, when, if they found the mills running, they would pull them down. The first halt they made in the town was at Joseph Schofield’s Scribbling Mill in New-street, where, meeting with some resistance, they drew the plug and let out the water. The crowd then divided, parties proceeding to Paddock, Marsh, &c., the main body next visiting Lockwood’s factory in Upperhead Row. Thence they proceeded through the town to the factories of Messrs. Roberts and Mr. W. Brook. At the latter place Mr. Brook hesitated to turn his workpeople out, and endeavoured to reason with the mob, but they refused to listen to him, threw him While this was progressing, other parties proceeded down into the engine house, and drew the boiler plug to every mill in the neighbourhood, stopping them all. A meeting was then held at Back Green. The speakers were chiefly Lancashire men, and their utterances were resolute and determined. After the meeting, a raid was made upon many of the shops and houses for eatables. Mr. Brook, a magistrate, attempted to harangue the people at a meeting on Back Green, but the crowd refused to disperse and would not listen to him. The streets were by this time filled with people. In front of the George Hotel the mob was especially demonstrative, brandishing their bludgeons, and shouting and gesticulating wildly. Here some of the leaders were captured by the military, and taken into the inn. Rescue was attempted, but the result was that several others of the more prominent mob leaders were taken into custody. At this time the Market Place, New-street, Kirkgate, and Westgate presented one dense mass of human beings, and the aspect of affairs was very threatening. The military were commanded to clear the streets, and an awful scene took place as the trumpets sounded and the lancers dashed into the crowd, cutting down or riding over all who stood in their way. The crowd, thus assailed, ran in all possible directions, screaming dreadfully in their terror. Every street and corner was soon speedily cleared, the mob rushing wildly into the open country to escape the soldiers and by eight o’clock on Monday evening the town was comparatively quiet.

…By this time all the towns and villages in Yorkshire were in a state of great excitement and confusion. On Tuesday, the 16^th of August, a considerable mob entered Cleckheaton, and met with much opposition from the people at work in the mills. They succeeded in stopping one mill, and then went on to the works of Mr. George Anderton. Here they were gallantly opposed by the workmen within the mill, who with the assistance of a large number of the inhabitants drove them out of the mill yard, and pelted them with stones, until they finally expelled them from the town. On the same day mob law was put in force at Dewsbury. A large meeting was held at the Market Cross at six o’clock in the evening, after which a procession was formed, and the crowd proceeded to Batley Carr, Batley, Birstall, Littletown, and Heckmondwike. They tapped all the boilers on the way and turned out all the hands, after which another meeting was held at the Cross, at which it was stated that thirty-six boilers had been “let off.” The Dewsbury shops were closed as soon as word came that the rioters were returning, and the public-houses closed at six o’clock. Next morning another gathering took place after which the mob marched through Earlsheaton, and Horbury Bridge, coming back by way of Thornhill Lees. They had some time to wait at the colliery of Joshua Ingham, Esquire, to get out the men and horses before they tapped the boilers. Here a field of turnips belonging to the Rev. Henry Torr, the rector, was nearly stripped of its produce. Another meeting was held at the Cross on their return and it was arranged that the next muster should be held at Birstall. The shops were again closed although it was market day. The men, who were all armed, went from house to house begging, and in many instances, if refused and only women happened to be in the house, force was resorted to. The magistrates, J. B. Greenwood and John Hague, Esquires, attended from early in the morning till late at night to swear in special constables, and many hundreds from Dewsbury, Batley and Heckmondwike offered their services.

On Thursday morning, all the factories and collieries round Dewsbury were stopped by a mob 5,000 strong. The same mob then visited Batley and stopped Bromley’s and Ellis and Sons’ mills, where they drew the plugs without any opposition. They then resolved to pay a second visit to Cleckheaton, to do the work they had been unable at their previous visit to accomplish, and strong parties were told off to stop the mills, collieries, etc., at Gomersal, Millbridge, and Heckmondwike. It does not appear that any opposition was offered at any of those places, and as the various mobs passed rapidly through the towns to rejoin the main body of their comrades at Cleckheaton their ranks were swelled by a large number of local chartists, who, deceived by the apparent impotence of the authorities, were persuaded that they were about to inaugurate a revolution…The first attack of the mob at Cleckheaton was on the mill of Mr. Sutcliffe Broadbent, where they were suffered to draw the plugs without any serious resistance being offered, and being joined by some of the other detachments, they proceeded in a body numbering some five or six thousand to St. Peg mill, and had withdrawn the plugs from two of the boilers when an alarm was raised that the soldiers were coming. As soon as it became known that the rioters were approaching Cleckheaton in strong force, the late Mr. Jas. Anderton, of Upper House, then a young man, rode, it is said, from Cleckheaton to Bradford in the incredibly short space of half an hour to fetch a troop of the Lancers then stationed there, but before they arrived a troop of the Yorkshire Hussars came from Leeds, where Prince George of Cambridge was acting against the insurgents. When the Yeomanry reached Cleckheaton they were joined by some hundreds of special constables, and then proceeded in a body to Peg Mill. The mob had, as we have stated, withdrawn the plugs from two of the boilers, and were proceeding to the third when they saw the soldiers defiling down the lane. Hastily massing themselves, those who were unarmed proceeded to pick up all the loose stones in the yard, while those who were armed with bludgeons, scythes, &c., were thrust to the front. The appearance of the rioters, as they somewhat unsteadily waited for the arrival of the troops, was certainly formidable, but the discipline of the little band who came to attack them more than counterbalanced the disadvantage of the great disparity of numbers. The leader of the friends of law and order called out for a halt as they neared the mob, and addressed to his men a few simple words of encouragement, appealing to their sense of duty to the throne and the peace of the realm. He then waited for the reading of the Riot Act. Before this could be done the mob advanced in disorderly fashion and threw pieces of dross at the compact mass before them, and several men were knocked senseless and bleeding from their horses.

The moment was critical, as the mob, taking advantage of the confusion occasioned, were advancing with stones in their hands once more, Clissett, who was in the front rank, excitedly waving his arms and crying, “Follow me, my brave boys!” when orders were given to fire. Though this and a second volley was fired in the air, the crowd fell back in disorder, and the Yeomanry, taking advantage of the confusion, rode rapidly upon them, flourishing their sabres over their heads and striking them with the flat sides. The special constables followed up the advantage thus gained and drove the rioters towards the beck, on reaching which they scattered in all directions, some crossing the stream and others rushing into a neighbouring corn field, where they hoped by lying flat to hide from their pursuers. In a few minutes about twenty or thirty were taken into custody, and all the fields and lanes in the neighbourhood were black with wild struggling masses of human beings trying to escape from the horsemen, who rode after them flourishing their weapons. The following is a list of those taken into custody:-Charles Leighton (18), farmer, Gomersal; Richard Thomson (26), clothier, Gomersal; Thomas Barber (22), collier Gomersal; David Walker (17), clothier, Batley Carr; Charles Brierley (32), machinist, Batley Carr; John Hey (18), collier, Hightown; Matthew Parkinson (30), dyer, Dewsbury; Josh. Holdroyd (20), raiser, Dewsbury; David Brooke (34), sawyer, Dewsbury; Joseph Farnhill (35), weaver, Dewsbury; W. Allport Bell, Dewsbury; Robert Waterson (16), no trade, Birstall; Matthew Mawson (26), collier, Birstall; J. Hodgkinson (30), weaver, Birstall; Samuel Newsome (14), clothier, Hanging Heaton; Josh. Blakeborough (39), weaver, Batley; Edward Exley (22), weaver, Earlsheaton; Wm. Wild (17), collier, Alverthorpe; and Matthew Castle, hawker, Bradford.

Frank Peel, The Risings of the Luddites, Chartists and Plug-Drawers, 4^th ed, Frank Cass & Co., 1968, pages 329-43.