20th April 1812: Delegate meeting of Manchester Executive Committee at Ardwick Green

The next General delegate meeting of the towns around Manchester took place on Monday 20th April. The disarray that was displayed in the convening of the meeting was reflected in what occurred later at the meeting itself, and against the backdrop of widespread & escalating disorder in the North West. It would also herald the beginning of the end of the system that had been maintained up until that point by the committees of trades. We know about the meeting because of two sources: the weaver, Humphrey Yarwood, and Colonel Fletcher's spy, 'B' alias John Bent.

John Buckley Booth, of the Manchester Secret Committee, felt that it was not safe for him to attend at the original intended Venue, the King's Arms at Oldfield Lane, Salford. He suggested to another Secret Committee member, George Royles, that delegates should be directed to the Shakespeare at Ardwick Green and deputised him to go to the King's Arms and direct people there. Yarwood said that Royles did not stay long enough to direct all the delegates, and several who had arrived at the public house a 3.00 p.m. did not know where the meeting was. One of them, the treasurer of the Spinners committee called Burslem, took some delegates with him to Yarwood's house to make enquiries, who directed them to assemble at the Plough in New Islington for 4.00 p.m. where he would meet them and inform them where to finally go.

Meanwhile, according to Bent, Buckley Booth had convened some of the delegates at a public house in John Street, Ancoats before adjourning to the 'Place & Park' in New Islington. They were proceeding to business when the pub was entered by a party of Special Constables & some Scots Greys, who proceeded to clear the room. It's likely that they moved onto the Prince Regent's Arms in Ancoats, as that is where Yarwood caught up with them later in his efforts to find out the final meeting place.

When the meeting was eventually convened at the Shakespeare later that evening, Buckley Booth was surprised at the numbers of delegates present. Bent reported to Colonel Fletcher that delegates came from Saddleworth, Ashton-under-Lyne, Newton, Droylsden, Hollinwood, Stockport, Withington, Northenden, Stretford, Urmston, Eccles, Worsley & Astley Green. Yarwood heard that delegates were also present from Stalybridge and even Huddersfield. It is notable that that there was no delegate from Bolton that night, something that Bent pointed our to Colonel Fletcher in his report. Bent was not to know that the Bolton delegates to the previous meeting, John Stones and Waddington, had been traversing the countryside around Bolton and Atherton in the early hours of that morning.

The meeting set to business, and elected Bent as treasurer. Colonel Fletcher's spy now had a firm foothold in the regional organisation, and presumably access to personal details of the delegates.

But Buckley Booth was dismayed that the town of Manchester itself could not raise enough subscriptions to support it's own Committee, and proposed that the town should drop out of the association altogether. The meeting was to be rescheduled for just over a fortnight's time, 4th May at 11.00 a.m. in the Three Crowns at Failsworth, when subscriptions would be due. The proposal was to use the subscriptions to fund a delegate to travel to London. Following the disorder that had taken place in and around Manchester that day and the days before, there was an agreement to recommend that the people 'be peaceable' and that anyone involved in rioting would not be twisted-in.

A sign and countersign were agreed, and noted later by Bent in his report to Colonel Fletcher:

The sign to be admitted is: to clasp the forefinger of the right-hand into the right eye; the answer by the left in the same manner.

20th April 1812: Second day of serious rioting in Manchester

On Monday 20th April 1812, they was serious rioting in Manchester, only 2 days after a food riot in the Shudehill and New Cross area.

The Times reported that the areas around New Cross, Ancoats and Knott Mill were the site for much of the rioting, with the crowd carrying away meal, flour and potatoes.

The proceedings had actually begun as early as 9.00 a.m., where a woman was seen to be stopping potato carts and encouraging a crowd to take all the produce. The same woman then unscrewed the side so that the load tipped out over the road, and helped herself to as many as she could carry in her apron before running away. Many others then followed her example. Subsequently, many of the shops in the area were shut, particularly around Oldham Street.

The rioting continued throughout the day and into the late afternoon. As well as plain expropriation, auto-reduction was much in evidence. A crowd of 200 people persuaded a Mr Lomas to sell his stock of provisions at a loss. By 2.00 p.m., the same woman who had been foremost amongst the rioters earlier in the day was stopping butter carts and horses bringing milk into town, and demanding they auto-reduce their prices: they were offered 1 shilling per pound for butter and 2d per quart for milk and told that if they did not like these prices, the produce would simply be taken. Threatened with a constable, the women retorted she would have him hanged if he dared to intervene. At Miles Platting, a meal cart on it's way to Oldham was overturned, and the contents carried away.

At 5.30 p.m. on Deansgate a shopkeeper called John Holland saw a large crowd proceeding up the street. He ran into his shop and shut the door, locking and bolting it for good measure. He and his family stood with their backs against the door, whilst the crowd gathered outside and demanded that he open up. As the anger increased at Holland's refusal to obey them, a man from the crowd began to kick the door with greater and greater force. another man came up with a piece of wood and before long the door yielded to their collected blows, with the windows being smashed in concert. The crowd now descended on the shop, and threw all of the provisions outside, taking away and distributing 2 tubs of potatoes from the front. Holland then attempted to close the shutters on the outside of the shop, but was severely beaten by the crowd. The military and constables eventually arrived to disperse the crowd, but only after the shop had been emptied of it's contents. Holland later estimated the loss of stock to be between £7-8.

The Riot Act was eventually read, and military dispersed the crowds, eventually arresting 5 women and 3 men.

[1st] February 1812: Letter to Mr. Kirkby, Ancoats

Mr Kirkby
Cotton Master at
Candis his factory
Ancoats

Sir,

We begin with the Language of the Prophets of old, in saying, that your Destruction is at Hand, and why? because we the Cotton Spinners of this Town, have been the means of raising you from the Dunghill, to Independency; & now you with others, have employed so many of the Female Sex, that we, and our little ones, are starving for want of Bread; and if you are determined to persevere, you may expect something destructive immediately—

So we conclude with a Reform or Death

The same has also been recd by
Mr Pollard
“—Jas Kennedy
“—McConnoll & Co