Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

On Wednesday night, information upon oath was given to the magistrates of this borough, of a conspiracy to destroy the machinery of certain mills in this town and neighbourhood, employed in the dressing of cloth, for this purpose the members of this confederacy was to assemble in a certain place to be agreed upon, and from thence to divide themselves into strong parties, and proceed to the work of destruction, provided with the proper implements for effecting their purpose. The magistrates upon receiving this information immediately assembled at the town clerk’s office, and having arranged their plans, proceeded in person immediately to carry them into into effect. Near the bridge, a number of persons were found assembled, many of them with their faces blacked, who dispersed on the appearance of the magistrates, seeking their safely in flight. One of these persons of the name of James Shaw was taken into custody by a magistrate, and on the following day he was examined before the magistrates at the Rotation Office, and committed to York Castle, under what is called the Black Act [draconian anti-poaching legislation passed in 1723, later greatly extended, repealed by Peel in 1823], charged with disguising his person, and having in his possession several offensive weapons, we believe a hammer and chisel. He was escorted to the castle by a party of the Scot’s Greys stationed in this town.

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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

Ned Ludd has a better piece, which gives times and Sheepscar as the destination, but I haven’t seen it – is it in the Intelligencer?

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Original

On Wednesday night, information upon oath was given to the Magistrates of this Borough, of a conspiracy to destroy the Machinery of certain Mills in this town and neighbourhood, employed in the dressing of Cloth, for this purpose the members of this confederacy was to assemble in a certain place to be agreed upon, and from thence to divide themselves into strong parties, and proceed to the work of destruction, provided with the proper implements for effecting their purpose. The Magistrates upon receiving this information immediately assembled at the Town Clerk’s Office, and having arranged their plans, proceeded in person immediately to carry them into into effect. Near the Bridge, a number of persons were found assembled, many of them with their faces blacked who dispersed on the appearance of the Magistrates, seeking their safely in flight, one of these persons of the name of James Shaw, was taken into custody by a Magistrate, and on the following day he was examined before the Magistrates at the Rotation office, and committed to York-Castle, under what is called the Blek Act charged with disguising his person, and having in his persession several offensive weapons, we believe a hammer and chissel; he was escorted to the Castle by a party of the Scot’s Greys stationed in this town.

220 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.

• Black Act 1723 (1) ·
• Blackface (5) ·
• Leeds Bridge (3) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Luddism (1811-17) (11), in Yorkshire's West Riding, a movement of croppers opposed to the use of shearing frames and gig mills to raise productivity in the finishing woollen cloth, involving machine-breaking, political radicalism, arms raids, and the administration of illegal oaths - brutally suppressed ·
• Magistrates’ court (England and Wales) (4) ·
• Peel, Robert (1788-1850) (7), Conservative statesman, Prime Minister 1834-35 and 1841-46, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1834-35, Home Secretary 1822-27 and 1828-30, seen as father of modern British policing owing to his founding of the Metropolitan Police, one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party ·
• Productivity-improving technologies (13) ·
• Productivity (13) ·
• Riot (22) ·
• Rotation Office (late 1700s-early 1800s) (2), building on New Market Street, named for the magistrates who attended in rotation to hear cases not meriting a jury trial, office relocated in 1813 to the new courthouse; building also used to host public meetings, bottom floor the original home of The Leeds Library ·
• Royal Scots Greys (1) ·
• Sheepscar (1) ·
• Textile manufacturing (59) ·
• 📌York Castle (36) ·

All tags.

Similar

• 17 February 1812: Leeds businessmen meeting at the magistrates court act against the authors of the first successful Luddite attack in Yorkshire, at the Oates, Wood, and Smithson works at Oatlands, Woodhouse Carr
• 4 January 1813: Alexander Thomson, Baron of the Exchequer, fires the Georgian state’s opening salvo in the great trial at York of Luddites from the West Riding
• 14 February 1818: 17 girls aged 9-18 die in a fire at Thomas Atkinson’s cotton mill at Colne Bridge (Huddersfield), but the counting house and warehouse are saved
• 11 April 1812: On a moonless night, “the army of General Ludd” attacks William Cartwright’s mill at Rawfolds (Cleckheaton) – later providing inspiration for Charlotte Brontë’s “Shirley”
• 13 January 1812: “My neighbours would think I was going to ruin if they could not smell my factory children half an hour after they had gone down the lane”
• 28 April 1812: Methodist Luddites fatally wound the textile manufacturer William Horsfall on his way home from Huddersfield market
• 10 November 1817: Though organised Luddism is in decline, a gig-mill burns on Hunslet Lane, Leeds
• 18 August 1812: Lady Ludd leads bread rioters through the streets of Leeds
• 11 January 1825: American comment on William Hirst of Leeds’s revolutionary and controversial labour-saving improvements to spinning and stubbing machines, patented today
• 7 April 1812: Sheffield cemetery builders and metal-workers riot on market day against potato price inflation