Now! Then! Methodist Luddites fatally wound the textile manufacturer William Horsfall on his way home from Huddersfield market

28 April 1812: Methodist Luddites fatally wound the textile manufacturer William Horsfall on his way home from Huddersfield market

Times. 1813/01/09. Murderers of Mr Horsfall. London. Get it:

Excerpt

Benjamin Walker, an accomplice, stated that the prisoners George Mellor and Thomas Smith worked with him at Wood’s, and in a conversation about the attack on Mr Cartwright’s mill, Mellor said there was no way to break the shears – but shoot the master. Mellor on the day Mr Horsfall was shot brought a loaded pistol and gave it to witness, and said he must go with him to shoot Mr Horsfall. The pistol was double-loaded. Witness and the three prisoners went to the plantation. Smith had a pistol which he showed to the witness. Smith and Walker went together, and got to the plantation first. Thorpe and Mellor came afterwards. Mellor ordered witness and Smith to fire if they (Mellor and Thorpe) missed Mr Horsfall. Witness did not fire, but heard Mellor say Mr Horsfall was coming, and soon after heard the report of a pistol. Witness was about 20 yards off, and they waited at this distance till the job was done. Witness and several others who were examined upon the trial, proved that the murder was well known among those twisted-in, and an oath was taken not to reveal it. The prisoners attempted to prove an alibi. The jury withdrew for about 25 minutes, and returned a verdict of guilty against all the prisoners. The trial commenced about nine o’clock and lasted till eight in the evening. The court was excessively crowded. The prisoners were ordered to be hanged on Friday.

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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

That all four were Methodists is from Sydney Smith (Holland 1855): “Conceive the horror of fourteen men hung yesterday! And yet it is difficult to blame the Judges for it, though it would be some relief to be able to blame them.”

Modern accounts generally follow the colourful but substantially fabricated version by (George) Walter Thornbury, first published by Dickens (Thornbury 1867/05/11) and then under his own name (Thornbury 1870). First among them was local lad Frank Peel – frequently given as a source for Thornbury’s attribution to Horsfall of a probably fictitious “desire to ride up to the saddle girths in Luddite blood” (Peel 1888) – but see also e.g. Georgina Hutchinson’s Under the Canopy of Heaven, Geoffrey Bindman in The New Law Journal, and Wessyman. (Susanna Berger is good on Thornbury’s ground-breaking but misleading biography of J.M.W. Turner (Berger 2013).)

Kevin Binfield quotes from a letter to Huddersfield magistrate Joseph Radcliffe from Colonel Thomas Norton describing the behaviour of Luddites hanged at York Castle during the first
two weeks of 1812:

You know how the three Murderers died, and the five Men for Rawfold’s Mill died precisely the same. The Chaplain told them it was his Duty to entreat them to confess. They were silent. He then told them he should take their Silence as confessions. They were still Silent on that Subject, but spoke Generally of their Sins. Thus in Fact tacitly allowing their Guilt as to the Offence they died for, but not doing so in Words…. Nor was one Word said by their People. (Binfield 2004)

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Original

MURDERERS OF MR. HORSFALL
York, Wednesday, Jan. 6
George Mellor, of Longroyd-bridge, cloth-dresser, aged 22; William Thorpe, of Huddersfield, 23; and Thomas Smith, of Huddersfield, 22; were indicted for the wilful murder of Mr. William Horsfall, of Marsden; merchant and manufacturer, at Lockwood, in the West Riding of the county of York, on Tuesday the 28th of April 1812.

It appeared from the evidence of John Armitage, who lives at Crossland Moor, and keeps a public-house there called the Warren House, that Mr. Horsfall had, on the 28th April, been at Huddersfield market, and on his return called at witness’s house about a quarter past 6 in the evening. He stopped at the door, got a glass of rum and water, treated two persons who were there, paid his reckoning, and rode away; – did not stop 20 minutes at witness’s, nor did be get off his horse. Between witness’s house and Marsden, there is a plantation belonging to Mr. Radcliffe, and about a quarter of a mile from the Warren House. About a quarter past seven o’clock, witness heard some children say, that Mr. Horsfall had been shot. Witness and the two persons whom the deceased had been treating, went out together, and found Mr. Horsfall about 20 or 30 yards below the plantation; sitting on the road-side, bleeding very much. They got him down to the Warren-house as soon as they could. Mr. Horsfall died there.

Henry Parr, another witness, said he was at Huddersfield on the 28th of April last; was upon the road between Huddersfield and Marsden, and after he had passed the Warren-house, heard the report of fire arms; saw a person riding before him; report seemed to come from Mr. Radcliffe’s plantation; saw smoke arising at the same time, and four persons were in the plantation in dark coloured clothes; the person who was before witness on horseback, after the report, fell down on the horse’s chine, and the horse turned round as quick as possible; this person, who it appears was Mr. Horsfall, raised himself by the horse’s main, and called out murder. As soon as he called out murder, one of the four own got on the wall with one hand and two feet, and called out “Have you got enough yet?” and he (Parr) set off” to Mr. Horsfall at full gallop. Mr. H. said “good man, you are a stranger to me, I’m shot,” and was then going to fall off his horse. Mr. Horsfall grew sick; witness took hold of his arm; blood began to flow from his side; Mr. H. desired witness to go to Mrs. Horsfall’s.

Bannister, a clothier, met Parr on the road golloping, who told witness that Mr. Horsfall was shot. Witness found Mr. H. on the road side very bloody.

Mr. Horton, surgeon, gave his testimony professionally — he extracted a ball from the deceased, and found several wounds in the deceased’s body, and had no doubt they were the cause of Mr. Horsfall’s death.

Benjamin Walker, an accomplice, stated that the prisoners, George Mellor, and Thomas Smith, worked with him at Wood’s; and in a conversation about the attack on Mr. Cartwrights mill, Mellor said there was no way to break the shears — but shoot the master. Mellor, on the day Mr. Horsfall was shot, brought a loaded pistol, and gave it to witness, and said he must go with him to shoot Mr. Horsfall. The pistol was double-loaded. Witness and the three prisoners went to the plantation. Smith had a pistol which he shewed to the witness. Smith and Walker went together, and got to the plantation first. Thorpe and Mellor came afterwards. Mellor ordered witness and Smith to fire, if they (Mellor and Thorpe) missed Mr. Horsfall; witness did not fire, but heard Mellor say Mr. Horsfall was coming, and soon after heard the report of a pistol; witness was about 20 yards off; they waited at this distance till the job was done. Witness and several others who were examined upon the trial, proved, that the murder was well known amongst those twisted-in, and an oath was taken not to reveal it.

The prisoners attempted to prove an alibi. The Jury withdrew for about twenty-five minutes, and returned a verdict of Guilty against all the prisoners. The trial commenced about nine o’clock and lasted till eight in the evening. The Court was excessively crowded. The prisoners were ordered to be hanged on Friday.

762 words.