29th September 1812: General Acland receives a report about a Luddite Captain at Honley

Holmfirth
29th Septr. 1812

Sir

In consequence of information received from Mr. Blyth, Constable of this place respecting a man of the name of Robt. Harling I beg to transmit the particulars to you, as follows.

Robert Harling of Quarmley Cliff lodges sometimes near Honley, he is about 30 years of age, 5 feet 8 or 9 inches high, lame in one of his hands, thin & rather of a fair complexion, has an effeminate voice, mostly carries a basket slung over his shoulders & goes about the country selling Spices, is believed to be at this time at Halifax, where he lodges a few nights at a time. Barrowclough has given information against him of being the Captain of the Party of Luddites that infested Holmfirth & that neighbourhood, there are four or five Warrants out against him in different Places, issued by Mr. Radcliffe & Mr. Scott, Magistrates some time since. Mr. Blyth and another Constable were out after him at Honley accompanied by four Soldiers of the West Norfolk the greater part of Saturday night last, but did not succeed in finding him, he had been there that day. Mr. Blyth is of opinion he might be apprehended if a Constable a stranger in the Country were sent after him to Halifax & neighbourhood.

I am [etc]
Robt. Sayer
Captn West Norfk. Ma

To
Major General Ackland

23rd July 1812: A badly-injured John Hinchliffe gives evidence to West Riding magistrates

At 11.30 a.m. on Thursday 23rd July 1812, two West Riding magistrates - Sir George Armitage and Joseph Scott - visited the badly wounded John Hinchliffe, who had been shot outside his house the night before.

He had been taken to the home of Constable Blythe at Holmfirth, and lay there in bed, in what was later described as a "dangerous state" - unsurprising since the shot from the pistol had destroyed his left eye and part of his face.

Hinchliffe was examined by the two magistrates, who took a deposition about what had occurred the night before . They also took further information from him which, unlike the deposition about the events, described events prior to the 22nd July. Hinchliffe stated that he had met a man called John Schofield junior some 9 or 10 weeks ago who tried to recruit him into a 'Society of Luds', and expounded upon plans for a rising in future. Hinchliffe had afterwards mentioned this meeting to the vicar of Holmfirth, William Keeling, and had next met Schofield at 6.00 a.m. on the 20th July when Schofield came to his house asking him who he had told: Schofield said Constable Blythe knew. Hinchliffe told him who he had talked to, which by now included 2 other men as well as Keeling. Schofield stated his fears about what would happen to him and asked Hinchliffe if he would repeat what he had told Keeling - Hinchliffe said that he would.

Lying in a gravely ill state, Hinchliffe believed that what had happened to him was a consequence of his speaking to the vicar of Holmfirth.

11th July 1812: 8 men arrested in Holmfirth

On Saturday night, 11th July 1812, eight men were arrested in Holmfirth and taken into custody. All of them were charged with "divers misdemeanours" in the West Riding of Yorkshire, including Abraham Armitage, Robert Fitton, George Beaumont, Benjamin Chadwick (alias Woodcock), John Taylor and Benjamin Hinchliffe of Holmfirth. Two other men were charged with additional offences: George Brookes of Holmfirth - charged with assaulting and threatening to kill the Officer of Excise of Holmfirth, and Samuel Haigh, formerly of Holmfirth, accused of conducting raids for arms in Holmfirth on 29th June 1812.

11th July 1812: General Maitland informs the Home Office of searches for Luddite arms in Holmfirth

Buxton 11th July 1812

My dear Sir

I have to acknowledge the receipt of Your’s of the 8th and 9th of July.

I request you will state to Lord Sidmouth, that every Exertion has been made, and is making, time being the point, upon which that of the 8th heats, and whenever authorized, I have already so disposed the Troops, that every thing in the Neighbourhood of Manchester, for the circumference, of 15, or 16 Miles, will be laid hold of, at the same time, and as soon as we have authority.

In respect to those Arms, we sent out Parties for, two Nights ago, it may be advisable, that you should be aware, if any discussion should take place, in Parliament upon that Head, of the current fact upon the occasion.—

The Prisoner, of whom you are aware, gave the Information, which is now before you, and I had a very long and satisfactory conversation with Mr. Hay on the Subject of under that Information, issuing Warrants for the Searching the Places stated therein.—

He seemed to have considered the Subject much, and stated his perfect readiness, to grant such Warrants, agreeing with me, that no time was to be lost upon the occasion. At the time however this conversation passed, though we generally knew the fact, of the Number of Depots being stated, we were ignorant of the Nature, and Discription of the Sites where they were.—

On the following Morning, when he went for the purpose of issuing the Warrants, and a detailed Account was produced by Mr. Ellison of Huddersfield if their Situation, it was discovered, they were all in the Field, and of course, it was held, but Warrants were not necessary, allowing what might be a trespass (though I am not aware of any having been felt) to take its course.

Under these circumstances it was, the Search was under, possibly unnecessary to mention, but still right you should know it.—

In respect to any Jealousies that exist, I can only say, that how ever teazing, they never shall alter my conduct, or derange my Temper in the smallest Degree. I stated it because from circumstances, I apprehended at the Moment, it might go some lengths, but whenever I found it had taken another direction, from a conversation I had, I waived entering into it, except in the instance of Ratcliffe whom I have not an Opportunity of seeing—

You will have heard from Hay, what he has very prudently done, relative to the Informant, and I am not still without hopes, for I do not totally dispair that some thing may be made out of him—

You are perfectly right in your supposition, which you will have found out before this, that Lloyd’s [Men] were the People that occasioned all the Nonsense in the Provincial Newspapers. You know him well and though extremely zealous, no reliance can be placed on his prudence, At the same time that Civil Zeal, is a Commodity of eminent price in this Market. If you look back to the Private Letter I wrote Lord Sidmouth on the 7th Inst You will find, I stated, I did not admire the hands they were in, and in a former letter, that I deplored, we could not try him, in a different way, than by bringing him before a Magistrate.—

The truth is, I was very anxious upon this Subject, but did not like to interfere myself, where the Magistrates wished to bring him up, but I believe Lloyd and the very Zealous Officer indeed, having no such Delicacy, went into him, and got out of him, all the Information we had.

In this state, I certainly did not like to interfere, nor did Mr. Hay, and we left them to their course, for it was soon found, they have made Promises, which would render it impossible in fairness, under any circumstances to make further use of the Man, than an Informant.

This is the correct State of the Case, and though we have failed in the Information, still it persuades me, from the whole complection of the thing, as strongly as I have ever stated it, that we nearly in truth know every thing that is to be known upon the Subject.—

I am [etc]
T Maitland
[To] John Beckett Esqr
Under Secretary of State
&c &c &c
London

3rd July 1812: John Lloyd arrests a Luddite in Yorkshire on the information of his spies

In the afternoon of Wednesday, 1st July 1812, a spy called Thomas Whitehead sent by the Solicitor, John Lloyd, into Yorkshire travelled back to his master at Stockport and informed him that he and his fellow spy, Joseph Taylor, had made contact with a Luddite in Holmfirth.

Lloyd wasted no time in taking a deposition, and then went to Manchester to get a warrant from the Magistrate William Robert Hay before heading into Yorkshire with General Maitland's Aide-de-Camp. They raised troops at Marsden, and after finding the alleged Luddite, a Corporal in the Upper Agbrigg Local Militia called Joseph Barrowclough, they arrested him in the early hours of the morning of Friday 3rd July, bringing him back into Lancashire for questioning at the New Bailey prison in Salford.

The Leeds Mercury and the Lancaster Gazette, both of the 11th July, printed Barrowclough's name. The Gazette  also carried an article from the Sheffield Mercury of the 4th July which, although many of the facts were wrong, suggested that someone was leaking information to the Press at a vry early stage:

On the 3d instant a Luddite of the name of Barrowclough, charged with the atrocious crime of twisting-in, was brought from the edge of Yorkshire to the New Bailey prison, Manchester, in a post-chaise, escorted by a party of dragoons.

The Sheffield Mercury of Saturday last furnishes us with the following information; probably the man in the preceding paragraph is the person alluded to:

“At a late hour last night we received highly important and very gratifying intelligence to every friend of peace and good order. It says that two Bow-street Officers have been in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield for nearly three weeks past, and that they had been Twisted-in, or in other words had taken the oath of the Luddites. By this means they have learned the proceedings and ways of those infatuated persons, and have obtained the knowledge of the depot where their arms were concealed. Warrants were yesterday (Friday) issued the apprehension of fifty of the ringleaders, and in the course of the day great number of them were taken into custody. The actual murderer of Mr. Horsfall was discovered in a house about eight miles from Huddersfield, and is committed to Lancaster Castle* to be tried for the said barbarous deed. He was seized yesterday morning about two o'clock, within the county of Lancaster. The Queen’s Bays were on duty during the whole of Thursday night and yesterday morning; and the Scotch Greys have arrived from Manchester to assist in this business. LET THE GUILTY FEAR AND TREMBLE.”

*This is not correct—Edit

Over the next few days, under the questioning of Lloyd and Hay, Barrowclough would go on to relate much of Luddite activities in Yorkshire.

29th June 1812: Arms raids in Holmfirth

At 1.00 a.m. on Monday 29th June 1812, Cookson Stephenson & his family were asleep in their beds when they were roused by a loud banging at the door. From the safety of his bedroom, Stephenson enquired who was there, and the reply came "General Ludd".

Stephenson decided to go down and open up - ten men, armed and in disguise, came in. A man who seemed to be their leader demanded Stephenson's pistols, but Stephenson could only give them one - he told them that the other was at the local Blacksmiths for repair. The men left, being very courteous to Stephenson.

But the arms raiding was not over with that night. The men did visit the Blacksmiths and obtained Stephenson's pistol. They also obtained 5 other weapons in the neighbourhood that night.