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22 February 1865: Rioters besiege the Park Square, Leeds, home of surgeon and magistrate Henry Chorley, on the release from Armley Gaol of his dripping-thief cook Eliza Stafford

Times. 1865/02/23. Popular Vengeance. London. Get it:

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Excerpt

A vast crowd assembled about nine o’clock in the morning near the gaol in the expectation of giving a welcome to the liberated prisoner, but she had left at an earlier hour, and quietly went by railway to Scarborough, at which she has a daughter living. The crowd, after their disappointment, went to the front of Dr Chorley’s house, and one of them carried a long pole, at the top of which was fixed a doctor’s bottle and an old dripping-pan. A number of policemen were on duty to keep the crowd away, but they had a very difficult task to accomplish. About noon some person threw some stones at the windows of Mr Chorley’s house, upon which Mr Bell, the Leeds Chief Constable, ordered the police to clear the square, and as he was leading them on in that duty he fell to the ground and dislocated one of his shoulders, and sadly injured one of his arms. One of the mob was trampled upon and so much injured that he had to be removed to the General Infirmary. So great was the alarm created that the magistrates in the course of the afternoon telegraphed to York for military assistance, and to Bradford for a body of police. From York two troops of the 8th Hussars were immediately despatched by railway, and they reached Leeds about five o’clock, as did also a body of police from Bradford. Quiet had been restored at the time this account was despatched. We learn by telegraph that between seven and eight o’clock in the evening there was a crowd of from 1,500 to 2,000 persons assembled in front of the town hall, which is not far from Mr Chorley’s house, and they hooted and shouted and made other disorderly noises, but they were soon dispersed by a body of the police. Two or three persons have been taken into custody for being concerned in the disturbance.

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.

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Comment

Comment

David Thornton has some good detail, which I must hunt down, including this doggerel:

Now all you cooks and servant girls wot’s very fond of ‘tipping’
Don’t take your master’s scraps of fat and boil ’em down for dripping:
For if you do bear this in mind, the magistrates won’t fail
To try you in a private court and send you off to gaol.
(Thornton 2013)

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Original

POPULAR VENGEANCE
For the last three weeks there has been considerable excitement in Leeds, chiefly among the working classes of various grades, owing to a female servant having been sent to the borough gaol and imprisoned therein for one month for having purloined some 2lb. of dripping, or fat, the property of her master, Mr. Henry Chorley, surgeon, who is one of the magistrates of the borough. The name of the woman is Eliza Stafford, and she is about 50 years of age. She had lived for a few months with Mr. Chorley as cook, and when Mrs. Chorley charged her with purloining the dripping she claimed it as her perquisite, though she admitted she had said nothing about being allowed such a perquisite when she was engaged. The magistrates who adjudicated upon the case were the Mayor (Mr. Luccock) and Mr. Irwin, and, after they had heard the evidence of Mr. and Mrs. Chorley and other witnesses, and the prisoner’s defence, which was simply to the effect that she considered the dripping her perquisite, they committed her to prison for one month. For some reason or other the charge against the prisoner was not heard in the public court, but in one of the rooms at the Town-hall in which the magistrates occasionally transact business without the presence of the public. In a few days after the committal of the woman attention was called to the case, in a spirit of indignation, by one of the local papers, which is best known for its publication of sensational stories, and its indulgence in caricature sketches of local personages, and the public were further excited against Mr. Chorley by vast numbers of newsboys and others calling out for sale, at a halfpenny each, two or three sets of doggerel verses about the case. In every quarter of the town, too, the walls are chalked with such inscriptions as, “Dr. Chorley and his Dripping” “A Month’s Imprisonment for 2lb. of Dripping,” and many others to the like effect, and many with an utter disregard of orthography. Mr. Chorley himself was frequently mobbed in the streets, and was assailed with vituperative exclamations of a threatening character. Fuel was added to the flame by the publication of articles in two other weekly impressions of the local print referred to, and in two other like impressions of another Leeds journal which professes like the other to be a guide and instructor of the working classes. Large placards were posted throughout the town, calling upon the public to give Mrs. Stafford a joyous ovation when she came out of gaol, and subscriptions were entered into to present her with some testimonial. There had been some expectation that she would come out of gaol last Saturday, and some hundreds of persons, if not thousands, assembled to welcome her to liberty. However, they were doomed to disappointment, as her month’s imprisonment did not expire until yesterday. On Saturday afternoon a large crowd of men, women, and children assembled in front of Mr. Chorley’s residence in Park-square, Leeds, and not only shouted, groaned, and otherwise abused that gentleman, but threw snowballs and lumps of dirt at him. Mr. Chorley, who is a highly respectable man, and not less generous than he is bold, bore all this treatment with wonderful calmness, and endeavoured to calm the excited mob by addressing them, but they would not listen to what he had to say. Eventually, on the appearance of a small body of police, the mob dispersed, and nothing serious occurred until yesterday. A vast crowd assembled about 9 o’clock in the evening [actually morning] near the gaol in the expectation of giving a welcome to the liberated prisoner, but she had left at an earlier hour, and quietly went by railway to Scarborough, at which she has a daughter living. In this respect the woman showed good sense, preferring to avoid the questionable honours which a mob intended to confer upon her. The crowd, after their disappointment, went to the front of Dr. Chorley’s house, and one of them carried a long pole, at the top of which was fixed a doctor’s bottle and an old dripping-pan. A number of policemen were on duty to keep the crowd away, but they had a very difficult task to accomplish. About noon some person threw some stones at the windows of Mr. Chorley’s house, upon which Mr. Bell, the Leeds Chief Constable, ordered the police to clear the square, and as he was leading them on in that duty he fell to the ground and dislocated one of his shoulders, and sadly injured one of his arms. One of the mob was trampled upon and so much injured that he had to be removed to the General Infirmary. So great was the alarm created that the magistrates in the course of the afternoon telegraphed to York for military assistance, and to Bradford for a body of police. From York two troops of the 8th Hussars were immediately despatched by railway, and they reached Leeds about 5 o’clock, as did also a body of police from Bradford. Quiet had been restored at the time this account was despatched, and there was not much fear of any serious disturbances taking place in the evening, the stops taken by the magistrates being such as to keep the multitude from assembling to commit breaches of the peace. We learn by telegraph that between 7 and 8 o’clock in the evening there was a crowd of from 1,500 to 2,000 persons assembled in front of the Town-hall, which is not far from Mr. Chorley’s house, and they hooted and shouted and made other disorderly noises, but they were soon dispersed by a body of the police. Some one threw a stone at one of the latter, and inflicted a severe wound on one of his temples. He had immediately to have surgical assistance. Two or three persons have been taken into custody for being concerned in the disturbance.

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