6 May 1800: A bread riot at Leeds market, during Napoleon’s blockade of Britain, and following a harvest failure in 1799
John Mayhall. 1860. The Annals and History of Leeds, and Other Places in the County of York. Leeds: Joseph Johnson. Get it:
.Unedited excerpt
The excerpt in the book is shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.
On May 6th, the Leeds market was disturbed by a great riot, caused by the high price of wheat, which in July rose from 42s. to 50s. per load of three bushels, or from 14s. to 16s. 8d. per bushel.
Comment
Comment
Fitzwilliam fixed it – mine-owner, so colliers involved? https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS34741934/TTDA?u=leedscl&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=dba25ac0
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0078172X.2021.2008316
Crump has a quote, & see the sketchy letter at the top of the page:
“On Tuesday last, Benjn Willans was committed by our Magistrates to the House of Correction at Wakefield, for heading a mob with an oaten cake upon a stick, and exciting them to riot; and at the same time Samuel Atack was committed to York castle, for having, with a number of other persons, continued in a state of riot within this Borough, for upwards of one hour after the riot act had been read”—Leeds Intelligencer, May 12, 1800 (Crump 1931)
J.W. Stanley has access to the Leeds Intelligencer:
On 6 May 1800 at Leeds, ‘Colliers from some of the Neighbouring Collieries’ along with other members of the labouring poor, were led into the market by a collier from Hunslet named Samuel Atack93 and rioted over the high price of provisions.94 Samuel Atack was apprehended on the evidence of local innkeeper Joseph Broadbent and sent to York Castle because he, and several others, had ‘continued in a state of riot within this Borough, for upwards of one hour after the riot act had been read’.95 Following the disorder, John Beckett issued a proclamation on behalf of the Mayor of Leeds which stated that the Magistrates were ‘determined to preserve the Peace, and to do what lies in their Power to protect the Farmers and Others attending this Market’, and warned those who had shown intent to riot, that a ‘a STRONG MILITARY FORCE will be ready to resist them; and if any fatal Effects ensue (however the Magistrates may lament it) they will, after this Notice, hold themselves blameless’. ‘Tumults and Riots’, he declared, would only ‘increase the Evil’ of hunger. This was followed by another proclamation by Lucas Nicholson, the town clerk, who warned against further disorder, what he termed ‘the Suggestions of ill-designed Persons’ whose intent it was to ‘seduce the Unwary to Acts of Violence and Outrage’. He advised the poor to ‘humbly submit to the Dispensation of Providence’ and declared it his intention to suppress any further tumults:
Painful indeed would it be to those, to whom the Preservation of Peace in this Borough is committed, if they should find themselves under the Necessity of using any other Means for preserving Public Tranquillity, than the Mild means of Reason and Persuasion, but they must excuse the Duty committed to them, however painful; and after this friendly Warning, the Consequences, however lamentable, can only be imputed to those who act in Defiance of the Laws of their Country. 96
Atack was, however, subsequently acquitted.97 The participation of colliers in the Leeds food riot re-emphasises the intimacy between work, wages, protest, and living standards. Colliery owners had reduced wages and/or laid men off, trade unionism was ineffective because of the slack trade, so colliers from the from the Leeds area rioted over the high price of food which had eroded their standard of living.
The baked-grain-product-on-a-stick turns up again at a potential bread riot in Sheffield in 1816.
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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.
- Bread (8) W/G ·
- Civil disorder (3) W/G ·
- French Revolutionary Wars (8) W/G ·
- Hunger (9) W/G ·
- Inflation (5) W/G ·
- 📌Leeds (249) W/G ·
- Riot (22) W/G ·
- Wheat (14) W/G ·
Comment
Comment
Fitzwilliam fixed it – mine-owner, so colliers involved? https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS34741934/TTDA?u=leedscl&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=dba25ac0
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0078172X.2021.2008316
Crump has a quote, & see the sketchy letter at the top of the page:
“On Tuesday last, Benjn Willans was committed by our Magistrates to the House of Correction at Wakefield, for heading a mob with an oaten cake upon a stick, and exciting them to riot; and at the same time Samuel Atack was committed to York castle, for having, with a number of other persons, continued in a state of riot within this Borough, for upwards of one hour after the riot act had been read”—Leeds Intelligencer, May 12, 1800 (Crump 1931)
J.W. Stanley has access to the Leeds Intelligencer:
On 6 May 1800 at Leeds, ‘Colliers from some of the Neighbouring Collieries’ along with other members of the labouring poor, were led into the market by a collier from Hunslet named Samuel Atack93 and rioted over the high price of provisions.94 Samuel Atack was apprehended on the evidence of local innkeeper Joseph Broadbent and sent to York Castle because he, and several others, had ‘continued in a state of riot within this Borough, for upwards of one hour after the riot act had been read’.95 Following the disorder, John Beckett issued a proclamation on behalf of the Mayor of Leeds which stated that the Magistrates were ‘determined to preserve the Peace, and to do what lies in their Power to protect the Farmers and Others attending this Market’, and warned those who had shown intent to riot, that a ‘a STRONG MILITARY FORCE will be ready to resist them; and if any fatal Effects ensue (however the Magistrates may lament it) they will, after this Notice, hold themselves blameless’. ‘Tumults and Riots’, he declared, would only ‘increase the Evil’ of hunger. This was followed by another proclamation by Lucas Nicholson, the town clerk, who warned against further disorder, what he termed ‘the Suggestions of ill-designed Persons’ whose intent it was to ‘seduce the Unwary to Acts of Violence and Outrage’. He advised the poor to ‘humbly submit to the Dispensation of Providence’ and declared it his intention to suppress any further tumults:
Painful indeed would it be to those, to whom the Preservation of Peace in this Borough is committed, if they should find themselves under the Necessity of using any other Means for preserving Public Tranquillity, than the Mild means of Reason and Persuasion, but they must excuse the Duty committed to them, however painful; and after this friendly Warning, the Consequences, however lamentable, can only be imputed to those who act in Defiance of the Laws of their Country. 96
Atack was, however, subsequently acquitted.97 The participation of colliers in the Leeds food riot re-emphasises the intimacy between work, wages, protest, and living standards. Colliery owners had reduced wages and/or laid men off, trade unionism was ineffective because of the slack trade, so colliers from the from the Leeds area rioted over the high price of food which had eroded their standard of living.
The baked-grain-product-on-a-stick turns up again at a potential bread riot in Sheffield in 1816.
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Similar
15 October 1838: Apologies from “imprisoned” Huddersfield workers are read to the great Chartist rally on Peep Green (Hartshead Moor), accusing middle-class radicals of betrayal
Comment
Comment
Via Roy Wiles (Wiles 1965).
Events
“Sunday last” is 25 August, but Fawcett managed to get in by 11 September:
On Wednesday last Mr. Fawcett for the first time performed Divine Service in the chapel of Holbeck, but was escorted to and from the chapel by a party of Dragoons, who kept guard at the doors during the service. Notwithstanding this precaution, some evil-disposed people found means to break the windows and throw a brickbat at Mr. Fawcett while he was in the reading- desk. The Sunday following he went through the service unmolested. And on Sunday last he preached a most excellent sermon, 46th verse of 13th chapter of Acts… The same night some prophane sacrilegious villains broke into the chapel and besmeared the seats with human excrements.
On 22 September he was able to conduct a reduced Sunday service in peace:
On Sunday last the Rev. Mr. Fawcett was received and behav’d to by his congregation at Holbeck with great decency… One of Mr. F.’s friends admitted their favourite preacher to his pulpit in the town-by this means the tumultuous part of the people were mostly drawn away from Holbeck, and the curate left at liberty to perform his duty amongst the peaceable and well-disposed inhabitants of the chapelry.
However, on 22 October we read that
In the night between the 16th and 17th inst., the windows of the chapel of Holbeck were again broken. No wonder, when Holbeck contains such a nest of vermin whom neither the laws of God or man can confine within the bounds of decency, etc.
For which John Robinson, a “Houlbecker,” was in November sentenced to be whipped and to pay a fine of £5 (Griffith Wright 1895).
In the summer of the following year he published his first Sunday’s sermon and and his resignation letter. I think that in the following Fawcett is quoting things actually said to him:
A man might oftentimes, by due Care and Watchfulness, perhaps very safely defeat the Schemes, and discourage the Practices of the private Pilferer; and yet, whenever this is done, it is commonly suspected to be done rather for the Preservation of his own Property, than out of a pure Regard to the Public-good: But when he is attack’d in his house, or upon the road by open Plunderers, and requir’d to deliver, or suffer himself to be rifl’d of what he is possess’d of, with some one of these dreadful Alternatives, of having his Brains immediately blown out,” or their hands “wash’d in his hearts Blood,” or “having bis “Entrails pull’d out at his Mouth,” or “being “buried alive,” it will Then surely be accounted highly Romantic in him to reject their demands, out of a Pretence to prevent the bad Influence of their Example; and he will be generally suspected of giving a Proof of his Fool-hardiness or his Avarice, rather than of his public Spirit, by such a Refusal.
In the resignation letter he says that he
perform’d the Duty of the Curacy for near Three Months after he gain’d Admission into the Chapel, and this too, rather to prepare a Say for the peaceable Reception of any other Person whom the Patron shou’d think proper to nominate, that out of any Prospect of reconciling the People to himself.
Fawcett declines to attribute responsibility (“Who the Incendiaries were, the Sufferer neither Pretends to Know, nor Desires to be Inform’d”). He also explicitly excuses the lord of the manor, who at this juncture I take to be Lord Irwin (aka Henry Ingram, 7th Viscount of Irvine) rather than the Whiggish Scholey family, as well as other leading citizens (Fawcett 1755).
Was Fawcett a lousy preacher, or was the mob’s alternative, whoever he was, utterly adorable? Was there a Whiggish or Radical element at work? Was there some element of revenge for Samuel Kirshaw’s victory over James Scott in the struggle from 1745-51 for the vicarage of Leeds (Taylor 1865)? Perhaps you know.
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