The Luddite John Hill is lost to us again, just as we thought we'd found him

'JH' - but not John Hill - the enigmatic gravestone at Greetland

Back in March, I wrote about how research by local historian Andrew Howson and myself had led us to contact Greetland Methodist Church officials to try to ensure that they looked into whether the remains of a Luddite hanged at York, John Hill, were buried in a plot there which was marked marked with an enigmatic gravestone (see picture above) bearing his initials.

This was only possible because the graveyard was being cleared in preparation for development on the site. Andrew's research into church records, combined with my publication of documents on this website, made it clear that Hill was buried at Greetland on 20th January 1813, within 4 days of his execution, and that the famous Methodist Thomas Jackson had signed the burial records, despite claims in Jackson's own biography that he prevented Luddite burials from taking place there.

Officials at Greetland Methodist Church, in particular Geoff Butler, took this research seriously, and applied for licenses to exhume the 'JH' grave plot, with archaeologists undertaking the excavation and other experts being employed to determine if the remains had injuries consistent with hanging.

In the meantime, Andrew and I determined that Hill's wife and child had died and been buried at Greetland within only a few years of Hill himself - on 16th April 1816 & 28th July 1816 respectively. Further research from Andrew determined the names that the patriarchal style of the burial records omitted - Hill's wife was originally called Susannah Fleeming, and had married Hill on Christmas Day 1810, and had died aged 26, while their daughter, Ann, was born 6 months before the Luddite uprisings in the West Riding on 28th September 1811 and died aged only 5.

There was therefore a very real prospect that Susannah and Ann had been buried with John, in the same plot.

So it was with much disappointment that I was informed by Geoff Butler yesterday that the remains found in the 'JH' plot at Greetland did not match what we had hoped would be found: instead, the grave contained the remains of a man and a woman aged over 60 years of age, and the remains of a small child up to 1 year of age.

Where is John Hill? Well, we know that he is buried somewhere in the graveyard at Greetland, but clearly not in a marked plot. The 'JH' gravestone was the only plot with a headstone that was a likely candidate. The church's own recording of the gravestones do not yield evidence that any other graves may contain John and his family. It's possible that his remains may be uncovered as work progresses on the wider site, and Geoff Butler has given me assurances that those doing the work will be alert to any remains uncovered. We can only hope that the remains of John, Susannah and Ann are located in this way.

The likelihood of a burial in an unmarked plot fits in with the fact that the latter day Methodist church was acutely embarrassed that members of its congregation were in any way connected with Luddism and the disturbances in the West Riding. In this way, Thomas Jackson wrote in his biography six decades after the burial of Hill that he had prevented the burial of Luddites (read the extract after the 'read more' link below). Strangely, Dr John Hargreaves is quoted in an article in the Yorkshire Post today saying that it's possible that Jackson's vain lies are the truth, despite the documentary evidence & primary sources that he has seen - found by amateur historians - that prove Hill's burial at Greetland & the fact that Jackson knew this had taken place.

Happily, Geoff Butler has confirmed that the current Methodist Church at Greetland is keen to remember John Hill in a more permanent way on the site, even if his remains can never be found.

Saved from destruction - the last resting place of the Luddite John Hill - and plans for his re-burial!

A view of Greetland Methodist Chapel, and graveyard, from Google Street View

It's now more than a year since I wrote this blog about the last resting places of the 14 Luddites hanged at York in January 1813. At that time, it was not at all clear if it would be possible to learn where any of the burials were located, despite clues in the primary sources - at least not without extensive & time-consuming research.

Fourteen months ago, we quoted a letter from the military commander in the area of Elland, a Lieutenant Cooper, who reported that the Luddite John Hill had been buried at 'in the neighbourhood of Elland' within a few days of his execution at York. Cooper reported that the local parson had refused to read the service over  the burial, and that this had caused some ill-feeling amongst those gathered. Cooper intimated however, that this atmosphere was nowhere near as poisonous as that of previous burials, like that of Samuel Hartley at Halifax, which had almost turned into a riot.

Since then, with the research conducted by one particular reader of this website, a local historian and genealogist Andrew Howson, the last resting place of John Hill has been located for certain at the graveyard of Greetland Methodist Chapel, near Halifax. Andrew had located the burial register of the Chapel in both the national archive and the west yorkshire archive, and it  showed that a 27 year-old man from North Dean called John Hill was buried there on 20th January 1813.

Unfortunately, the research was made particularly urgent when Andrew discovered that the graveyard was due to be built upon - and most of the burials obliterated - by a housing development. There were plans to remove a limited number of burials from the graveyard, and re-inter them in a memorial garden in another local church. But of John Hill, there was no information (despite a previous press release by the church which had been published acknowledging that 'Luddites' were buried there).

Officials at the church proved difficult to contact initially, perhaps because they had been told by a well-known local academic that no Luddites were buried at Greetland. The academic based this statement on comments in the biography of a Thomas Jackson, the local parson at the time, that he had actively prevented burials of Luddites at Greetland. Fortunately, our presentation of the primary sources indicating the truth to the church does seem to have won out over a secondary source containing the bitter lies of a member of the church hierarchy written decades after the event. The modern church officials confirmed the name and date of the burial in another version of the register, and that there was a small headstone marked 'JH' as well.

The latest news is that, after our intervention, the Church intends to exhume the remains of John Hill and re-inter them at the memorial garden, and also preserve the headstone  on this site.

As far as we're concerned, the icing on the cake would be for there to be a plaque remembering John Hill accompanying the re-burial - and perhaps his name attached to any new road on the development, as with 'John Booth Close' at Roberttown.

NB - for the latest news on John Hill's grave, read this blog post.