Now! Then! A bread riot at Leeds market, during Napoleon’s blockade of Britain, and following a harvest failure in 1799

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:

Excerpt

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.

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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

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

All this week in London consumer history, 1800: Bread rioters force the City’s Corn Exchange to close

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.

(Stanley 2020)

The baked-grain-product-on-a-stick turns up again at a potential bread riot in Sheffield in 1816.

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Original

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.

42 words.