Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

About 8 of the clock on Monday night a great cry and shout was made by several men in the street, crying, “Arms, arms, arms, horse, horse, horse, foot, foot, foot,” by the noise of which I was awakened (being then gone to bed by reason I had been up the night before on the watch with Mr. Mayor), and hearing this noise increase called for a candle, got on my boots, left my wife in tears and children asleep, could procure no certain intelligence in the street, all was in such confusion, only a general cry that the enemy was at hand and that Beeston was fired. I then went through the crowd, which was very great going down the street towards the bridge, armed with swords, pistols, scythes, forks and other weapons. I rode to the bridge, etc., where I met some returning, who satisfied me it was a false alarm, with which the consternation of the town was allayed, but I was scarce fallen asleep when on a sudden, about one or two of the clock, I was awakened again with the like cry of “arms.” This was occasioned by Mr. Watson, a young merchant (formerly apprentice with Mr Richard Green), who was come in all haste from Mr Green of Hightown with information that news came to them there that Halifax was on fire and that Huddersfield was burnt, which occasioned another very great consternation in the town, for which some more ground, Halifax beacon being really fired by the inhabitants to give the country notice of the supposed danger, from whence the general alarm that passed through the whole country arose.

Order the book

Subscribe to the free daily email

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

Something to say? Get in touch

Original

On Saturday, 15th December, 1688, an express was sent from York to Leeds with account that a party of Irish and Scots, lately disbanded, had burnt several towns, particularly Birmingham and Northampton, and were coming northward, whereupon strict watch and ward, horse and foot, of the most substantial householders in great numbers was kept in Leeds and all the country, the Papists were secured, particularly Mr Charles Killingbeck of Allerton Grange (hid in a neighbouring tenement), by Mr Nevile of Holbeck, captain of the guard that night. It was thought convenient this Sunday to send notes to be read in all the chapels to give notice to all masters of families with servants and all that were able to bear arms to come to Leeds by 10 o’clock the next morning, and to bring along with them scythes, forks or such weapons as they could procure, and accordingly I sent notes to the churches and chapels.

The next morning, being Monday 17th December, was an appearance of most of the parishioners of all ranks, the better sort (about 500) well accoutred with good horses, sword and pistols, the foot with swords, pikes, muskets, and others with scythes set lengthway upon shafts (a very dangerous weapon), at least 300, the rest of the foot or rabble with clubs, staves, etc., were computed to 5000, but most say six thousand men horse and foot in the … (illegible) … where we met, where we formed ourselves into a kind of body. Sir John Kay was colonel, Sir Michael Wentworth lieutenant-colonel, Mr. Nevile of Chevet major; and some troops of horse were framed the officers were:

The foot were framed into companies that I cannot enumerate.

About 8 of the clock on Monday night a great cry and shout was made by several men in the street, crying, “Arms, arms, arms, horse, horse, horse, foot, foot, foot,” by the noise of which I was awakened (being then gone to bed by reason I had been up the night before on the watch with Mr. Mayor), and hearing this noise increase called for a candle, got on my boots, left my wife in tears and children asleep, could procure no certain intelligence in the street, all was in such confusion, only a general cry that the enemy was at hand and that Beeston was fired. I then went through the crowd, which was very great going down the street towards the bridge, armed with swords, pistols, scythes, forks and other weapons. I rode to the bridge, etc., where I met some returning, who satisfied me it was a false alarm, with which the consternation of the town was allayed, but I was scarce fallen asleep when on a sudden, about one or two of the clock, I was awakened again with the like cry of “arms.” This was occasioned by Mr. Watson, a young merchant (formerly apprentice with Mr Richard Green), who was come in all haste from Mr Green of Hightown with information that news came to them there that Halifax was on fire and that Huddersfield was burnt, which occasioned another very great consternation in the town, for which some more ground, Halifax beacon being really fired by the inhabitants to give the country notice of the supposed danger, from whence the general alarm that passed through the whole country arose.

I will not presume to say, but the surmise was that the gentry who had appeared in several parts for the Prince of Orange had done it either with a design to draw the people in general to appear in arms as they had done, that all might be in the same circumstances with them, or else to see in how short a time and with what posture the kingdom would appear to defend themselves against Popery, and not a little probable to terrify that party.

[Then follows the story of Murgetroid the tailor and Mrs Skinner and her 3 servants, who left a great deal of plate in the midst of the room, 100 bag under the table, and fled with the children upon the servants’ backs to the woods near Kirkstall.]

757 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Beacon (3) ·
• Beeston, Leeds (6) ·
• Birmingham (8) ·
• Catholic Church (57) ·
• Glorious Revolution (7) ·
• 📌Halifax (43) ·
• Hightown, West Yorkshire (1) ·
• 📌Holbeck (9) ·
• 📌Huddersfield (29) ·
• Irish Catholics (10) ·
• James II (20) ·
• 📌Kirkstall (8) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Military of Scotland (4) ·
• Militia (5) ·
• Northampton (2) ·
• Scythe (3) ·
• West Riding of Yorkshire (147) ·
• William III (9) ·

All tags.

Similar

• 24 January 1680: Miners rob, murder and burn a pit-owning nonconformist minister and his mother and maid at Beeston (Leeds)
• 23 January 1643: Thomas Fairfax, the Rider of the White Horse, captures Leeds from the Beast with the help of Psalm 68
• 27 March 1690: At the première of an ode celebrating the “chief agents” of the Glorious Revolution – “the city and county of York” – London Yorkshiremen hear of domestic decline since Roman rule
• 25 June 1753: The Moravian Brethren of Fulneck, Pudsey, refuse to participate in the toll-bar riots
• 14 July 1663: Leeds borough returns for the hearth tax, designed to pay for the household of Charles II
• 27 June 1835: On the eve of municipal reform, the Leeds Mercury maps the self-electing clan that runs the Leeds corporation
• 17 December 1674: Michael Gilburn, a Halifax lawyer, terminates a drunken weekend in style
• 8 January 1844: Members of the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot stationed at Leeds riot against a graffito
• 12 December 1641: John Sugden causes panic in Bradford and Pudsey with news of the imminent arrival of genocidal Irish Catholics
• 1 December 1843: Unappetising conditions in the police cells and the old lock-up at Halifax