15th April 1816: The death of Sir Simon Le Blanc

Sir Simon Le Blanc, as depicted by John Opie

At 2.00 a.m. on Monday 15th April 1816, the King's Bench Judge Sir Simon Le Blanc died at his house in Bedford Square, London after a short illness. He was 68 years of age.

Le Blanc had played an important part in trials during the Luddite disturbances. He was the judge at the 1812 York Lent Assizes, and acquitted the first person tried for Luddism anywhere.

In May of 1812, he presided over the Lancaster Special Commission with Baron Thomson, sentencing 8 people to death and 13 to transportation.

Most notoriously, in January 1813 he presided over the York Special Commission, sentencing 18 people to death and 6 to transportation. He denied the condemned any mercy from their death sentences.

Articles on this website concerning Le Blanc can be found here.

13th January 1813: Henry Hobhouse informs the Home Office that Judge Le Blanc has denied the condemned Luddites mercy

Private
& confidential

York
Jan. 13.

Dear Sir,

Mr. LeBlanc has communicated to Park that after a very attentive [illegible] of the Cases they can discover nothin sufficient Distinction to warrant any Mercy except in the single Instance mentd in my official Letter.

Not one of the Prisoners denied his Guilt, when called on to say whr he had any thing to urge agst the Sentence. Yet I understand that Blackburn the Atty is handg abt a Petition for Signatures stating their Innocence of those who are convicted for Cartwright’s Affair.

I have enough to do to employ me here till tomorrow, & moreover am extremely well to day. But I hope to see you on Saturday

Park means to call on you on Friday.

Yrs &c
H Hobhouse

[To] J Beckett Esq

10th January 1813: Henry Hobhouse writes to the Home Office about executions & pleas for mercy

Private & Confidential

York
Jan. 10. [1813]

Dear Sir,

Park has been with Mr. Justice LeBlanc, & conversed with him (in the absence of Baron Thomson) on the Subject of the Executions. He says it is probable that when they have attentively considered the Cases, & decided on the fittest Cases for Execution, they will order the Executions to take place at an early Period than usual (as they did at Lancaster), but not without allowing a sufficient Interval for the Convicts to make an application to the mercy of the Crown, if they shall think fit. But they have not yet made their minds up on the Subject. He added that if there had been no Conviction for Murder, they would probably have accelerated the Execution of some of the other Offenders, but that they consider the Impression made by the Execution which has already taken place, to render it less necessary to make another very early Example.

One of the men convicted yesterday sent to Cartwright afterwards to bargain for his Recommendation for mercy upon the Terms of making a full Disclosure. I told Cartwright that the only Language he ought to hold on this Head should be, that the only Hope of mercy was in an ample Confession, but that it was impossible for any one here to give the slightest Assurance that Mercy would be the Effect even of Confession. I have since seen Mr Blackburn the Prisoner’s Attorney in the presence of Mr. Park, & we both held the same Language as I have above expressed. I further told him that in these Cases the application must be to the Crown, & not the Prosecutor, for that the Prosecution having been taken out of the Prosecutors Hands by Government, his Recommendation would not be of any greater Weight than that of any other Individual. I promised to transmit to Ld. Sidmouth any Petition which may be put into my Hands while I remain at York, & Mr. Park advised him to expedite any Discovery which any of the Prisoners my propose to make, on, Account of the Probability of the Judge’s ordering as speedy an Execution as they had done at Lancaster.

Mr. Williams the Barrister, who has been Counsel for some of the Prisoners, has told Mr. Park that he is convinced there is a Depot of Arms somewhere, & Blackburn admits his Belief that it contains 400 Stand. This is the most important Fact that can be expected from Confession. But I feel some Doubts, whether any of the Convicts except the Murderers, are likely to be in possession of the Secret. From them I do not find that any material Fact was obtained, & I must apprize Lord Sidmouth that in the State of this Gaol it is scarcely probable that there should be a Confession in any case. He will be astonished to learn that in this great County, the Gaol contains but one condemned Cell. Here the three murderers were placed together, giving Countenance to & upholding each other of course, instead of leaving each Individual to the Workings of his own mind, & fitting him for making his Peace with God & the best Reparation in his power to the injured Laws of his Country. There are other points in which this appears to me to be a very ill-regulated Gaol, upon which I shall probably trouble you with a Letter, if I do not find that the Observations which I have made on the Subject to some of the magistrates are likely to be attended with good Effect.

I hope we shall finish on Tuesday, & shall be very happy to find that Lord Sidmouth approves as much of our whole Proceedings as I learn by your Letter just received that he did up to Wednesday Eveng

I am
Dear Sir
Yours most faithfully
H. Hobhouse

If you have seen the Leeds Mercury of yesterday, you will observe it to be stated that the Jury recommended to mercy Smith the Murderer. There being no Truth in this, I have directed a contradiction of it to be inserted in the York Paper tomorrow, as well as of the Statement in yesterday's York Herald that a long List of Men have been acquitted, who have not been tried.

[To] J Beckett Esq

6th January 1813: The trial of Mellor, Thorpe & Smith - Part 4: the verdict

At just before 8.00 p.m., and after being in Court 11 hours, the Jury in the trial of George Mellor, William Thorpe & Thomas Smith returned after only 25 minutes deliberation. They found all 3 defendants Guilty.

Unlike all the other prisoners on trial in the Special Commission, Mellor, Thorpe & Smith received sentence immediately.

The prisoners were asked by the Judge why sentence of death should not be passed and said:

George Mellor – I have nothing to say, only I am not guilty.

William Thorpe – I am not guilty, sir; evidence has been given false against me; that I declare.

Thomas Smith – Not guilty, sir.

Sir Simon Le Blanc then passed sentence:

You, the several prisoners at the bar, have been tried and convicted of wilful and deliberate murder; under all circumstances an offence of the deepest malignity, but under the circumstances which have appeared in this case in particular, as far as one crime of the same denomination can be distinguished from another, this may be pronounced a crime of the blackest dye. In other cases, the Court has been able to discover something which might work upon the passions of mankind, and might induce them to commit an act, at which, in their cooler moments, their minds would have revolted. But, in the present case, the crime was committed against a man, who appears to have given no offence to any one of you, except that he was suspected of having expressed himself with a manly feeling against those who had set up a right to violate all property, and to take away the life of any man who had been supposed to encourage others to do what I trust there still are men sufficient in this country to do—to stand manfully forward in defence of their property. For that reason, he was marked out by you as an object of the most cowardly revenge. You, attempting to associate with yourselves such men as you could prevail upon to join in your wicked purposes, way-lay him at the moment when he is returning home, almost in mid-day, with a boldness which one has scarcely ever witnessed in trying offences of this description. But in the course of your trial, proceedings have come before the Court, at which human nature should be so debased. That the national character should be so debased; that men, who ought to boast of their character as Britons, should have dared to hold forth, in the language in which you have held forth, and with so little discretion, that assassination and destruction of property were instruments in your hands, to be exercised at your pleasure, and against any person who had happened to offend you—independently of this, that you should have dared to take into your hands the holy scriptures, and to administer an impious oath to those who were cognizant of your offence, calling the Almighty as a witness (that Being whom you were conscious you had offended in the highest degree), calling upon him for vengeance upon the heads of those who should discover your crimes—these are circumstances which have appeared in the course of this trial, and which have scarcely ever appeared in the course of any trial which has been brought before a court of justice.

It is not upon the testimony of one, or two, or three witnesses, that your guilt depends; and let me advise you not to lay that balm to your souls, that you have been deprived by false accusation, and by false oaths, of your lives. A chain of circumstances has been discovered in the course of this trial, which does not depend upon the oath of any one, or two or three men, whom you may denominate even as bad as yourselves. But even from the testimony of those, who, if there had not been honest to a certain degree, would have given a different evidence, it is clear that two at least of you were guilty; and as little doubt remains, from other evidence, upon the guilt of the third.

In the shop where you have worked, some of you appear to have gained such an ascendancy over the minds and over the consciences of the workmen, who were in some degree under your control, that you could mould and fashion them to any wicked purpose you yourselves might imagine. Their eyes, I hope, will be opened by the fate which awaits you; they will see, that though for a short time the career of the wicked may continue, yet the law is sure at length to overtake them.

To you, the unfortunate persons who stand at the bar (for every man who has disgraced his character as you have, must be deemed unfortunate), to you the only kindness I can offer, is, in the advice to prepare, as speedily as you can, for that execution of this sentence, which must surely await you; to make the best use you can of the period still allotted to you in this world—longer far than was allowed to the unfortunate person who was the object of your revenge; that you will take the opportunity of making your peace with that Almighty Being whom you have offended; that by the sincerity of your repentance, the fulness of your confession, and the acknowledgement of your offences, you may endeavour to obtain that forgiveness in the world to come, which I cannot hold out to you any hopes of obtaining in this world.

It remains only to me to pass upon you the sentence of the law. That sentence is, that you, the three prisoners at the bar, be taken from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence, on Friday next, to the place of execution; that you may be there severally hanged by the neck until you are dead, and your bodies afterwards delivered to the surgeons to be dissected and anatomised, according to the directions of the statute. And may God have mercy upon your souls.

The execution was scheduled for 2 days time - in the midst of the proceedings, and despite the fact that all 3 prisoners were on trial for other offences.

4th January 1813: Henry Hobhouse updates the Home Office about the progress of the York Special Commission

Private

York
Jan. 4. [1813]
Dear Sir,

The Grand Jury have found a true Bill for the murder, & we immediately applied to the Court to try tomorrow. The Application was resisted upon an Affidt stating want of preparation in the Prisoners, & an Attempt was made to postpone the Trial until Friday. In the Result the Judges fixed it for Wednesday morning. The Consequence is that we must fill up tomorrow with some other case. We shall take care to select one in which the murderers are not implicated.

Mr. Justice LeBlanc was in Court, but was extremely unwell. I wish he may not be knocked up.

I am
Yrs faithfully
H. Hobhouse

[To] J Beckett Esq

4th January 1813: Baron Thomson's charge to the Grand Jury at the York Special Commission

The Judges at the York Special Commission: Baron Alexander Thomson (left) & Sir Simon le Blanc (right)

The York Special Commission had formally opened on Saturday 2nd January 1813, but the business of the Commission started the following Monday 4th January, with the swearing in of the Grand Jury by one of the Judges, Baron (Sir Alexander) Thomson. The other Judge was Sir Simon Le Blanc. Both Judges had presided over the Lancaster Special Commission 8 months previously, where they had handed down 8 death sentences.

The Grand Jury, which including the West Riding magistrate Joseph Radcliffe, were as follows:

The Hon. Henry Lascelles of Stainsby, Foreman
The Hon. William Gordon of Rudding Park
Sir Bellingham Reginald Graham, of Norton Conyers, Baronet
Sir Henry Carr Ibbetson, of Denton Park, Baronet
Sir Mark Masterman Sykes, of Sledmere, Baronet
James Archibald Stuart-Wortley, of Wortley Hall, Esquire
Robert Frankland, of Thirkleby, Esquire
John Robinson Foulis, of Heslerton, Esquire
Thomas Davison Bland, of Kippax Park, Esquire
John Lister Kaye, of Grange, Esquire
Thomas Norcliffe, of Langton, Esquire
John Bell of Thirsk, Esquire
Ralph Creyke, of Marton, Esquire
Hall Plumer, of Stockton Hall, Esquire
Thomas Dunscombe, of Towlston Lodge, Esquire
John York, of Halton Place, Esquire
Richard Bethell, of Catfoss, Esquire
Richard Stainforth, of Hutton Lodge, Esquire
Joseph Radcliffe, of Milnsbridge, Esquire
Robert Harvey, of Farnham, Esquire
John Wilmer Field, of Heaton, Esquire
Henry Willoughby, of Hutton, Esquire
Richard York of Wighill Park, Esquire

There appear to have been different Juries for different trials.


Counsel for the Crown were: Messrs Park, Topping, Holroyd & Richardson; Attornies, Messrs Hobhouse (London), Allison (Huddersfield), and Lloyd (Stockport)

Counsel for the Prisoners were: Messrs Brougham, Hullock, and Williams; Attorney, Mr Blackburn (Huddersfield)

Thomson's charge to the Grand Jury was as follows:

Gentlemen of the grand Inquest;—We are assembled, by virtue of his majesty's commission, to exercise the criminal judicature in this county, at this unusual season of the year for the occurrence of such solemnities. None of us, however, can be insensible of the necessity which exists for a speedy investigation of the charges against the very numerous class of prisoners in your calendar. You will perceive I allude to those persons, who are accused of having participated (and several of them in repeated instances) in those daring acts of tumultuous outrage, violence, and rapine, by which the public tranquillity has been disturbed throughout the great manufacturing district in the West Riding of this county, for a period comprising, with little intermission, almost the whole of the year which has just elapsed.

Those mischievous associations, dangerous to the public peace, as well as destructive of the property of individual subjects, and in some instances of their lives seem to have originated in a neighbouring county, and at first to have had for their object merely the destruction of machinery invented for the purpose of saving manual labour in manufactures: a notion, probably suggested by evil designing persons, to captivate the working manufacturer, and engage him in tumult and crimes, by persuading him that the use of machinery occasions a decrease of the demand for personal labour, and a consequent decrease of wages, or total want of work. A more fallacious and unfounded argument cannot be made use of. It is to the excellence of our machinery that the existence probably, certainly the excellence and flourishing state of our manufactures are owing. Whatever diminishes expense increases consumption, and the demand for the article both in the home and foreign market; and were the use of machinery entirely to be abolished, the cessation of the manufacture itself would soon follow, inasmuch as other countries, to which the machinery would be banished, would be enabled to undersell us.

The spirit of insubordination and tumult, thus originating, has spread itself into other manufacturing districts; and when large bodies of men are once assembled to act against law, the transition unhappily is too easy from one irregular act to another, even to the highest of crimes against society. And thus we find that the destruction of tools has been succeeded by destroying the houses and the workshops of the manufacturers; it has led to the violent robbery of arms, to protect the tumultuous in their illegal practices, and to enable them to resist or to attack successfully; and from the robbery of arms they have proceeded to the general plunder of property of every description, and even to the murder, the deliberate assassination, of such as were supposed to be hostile to their measures. A temporary impunity (for the law, though sure, is slow) has led on these deluded persons from one atrocious act to another; from the breaking of shears to the stealing of arms, to nightly robberies, to the destruction of property, and of life itself.

The peaceful and industrious inhabitants of the country where these enormous practices have been committed, have had the misfortune to suffer in their persons and property from the acts of men confederated against society, and executing the purposes of their association under circumstances carrying with them the utmost terror and dismay. Armed bodies of these men, in some instances several hundred in number, apparently organised under the command of leaders, and generally with their faces blacked or otherwise disguised, have attacked the mills, shops, and houses of manufacturers and others, by day as well as by night, destroyed tools worked by machinery, and in some instances shot at the persons whose property they have thus attacked. But the worst of these misdeeds is yet behind, a most foul assassination. While such outrages as those mentioned were carrying on in that part of the country, a person in a respectable station of life, returning from Huddersfield to his residence at Marsden, was fired at and shot from behind the wall of an inclosure near the road, receiving several wounds, of which he died shortly after. With this murder some of the prisoners in the calendar stand charged; and it will be your province to inquire into the foundation of that, as well as every other charge to be preferred before you against any of the prisoners, and to treat them as the evidence before you, in your judgment, shall require.

Probably it may be thought requisite, in order to substantiate the charges against the persons accused of being concerned in this murder, or other offences that may come before you, that the testimony of an accomplice should be produced; which is necessary, in many cases, in order to prevent the worst offences from escaping punishment. You will, however, attend to it with caution, taking into consideration all such circumstances as may be laid before you, tending to confirm his evidence, and to satisfy you, that in his narrative of the transaction, in which he would involve others with equal guilt with himself, he is worthy of credit. Such testimony (that is, of an accomplice) is undoubtedly competent, and it is at all times to be received and acted upon, though with a sober degree of jealousy and caution; and with such caution, you, gentlemen, in the first instance, and more especially those who shall be charged with the determination of these important issues in their final resort, will consider them.

With regard to the guilt, which persons may incur by engaging in any riotous assembly, the statute of 1 Geo. I. commonly called the Riot act, has enacted, that if any persons, to the number of twelve or more, who shall be unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together to the disturbance of the public peace, shall not disperse, but continue in that state for the space of an hour after such proclamation made as is directed in the act, they shall be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy. And by the same statute, if any persons, so unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together, to the disturbance of the public peace, shall unlawfully and with force demolish or pull down any dwellinghouse or other buildings therein mentioned, they shall also be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy.

So also by the statute of  9 George III. it is made a capital felony, for persons, being riotously and tumultuously assembled, to pull down or demolish, or to begin to pull down or demolish any wind saw-mill or other windmill, or any watermill or other mill, or to set fire to the same. In addition to which, the act of 43 Geo. III. cap. 58, has provided against the maliciously setting fire (among other things) to any mill, warehouse or shop, with intent to injure or defraud any of the king's subjects, by subjecting the offenders, their counsellors, aiders and abettors, to a capital punishment.

I do not know whether the offences, of which any of the prisoners are accused, were committed under such circumstances as will bring them within any of the acts I have stated, so that indictments may be framed upon them; but it seemed not unnecessary to state these statutes, in order to call your attention to them, in case any such indictment should be preferred.

But there is one statute, which appears to apply to the charges against the greater number of the prisoners: those who are accused of having destroyed shears employed in the woollen manufacture. By the statute of 22 Geo. III. cap. 40, if any person shall by day or night break into any house or shop, or enter by force into any house or shop, with intent to cut or destroy any serge or other woollen goods in the loom, or any tools employed in making thereof, or shall wilfully and maliciously cut or destroy any such serges or woollen goods in the loom or on the rack, or shall wilfully or maliciously break or destroy any tools used in the making any such serges or other woollen goods; every such offender shall be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy.

Several of the charges, in the calendar, will probably be brought before you in the shape of indictments, either at common law for burglaries, or robberies by violence from the person, and will deserve your serious attention. Other indictments will probably be preferred for maliciously shooting at persons; which, by the statute of Geo. I, is made a capital felony, though death does not ensue.

I do not know, whether any indictments will be brought before you against any persons as accessaries, either before or after the fact, to any felonies which may become the objects of your inquiry; but it may not be unnecessary to state, upon this occasion, that there may be accessaries to all felonies committed before and after the fact, whether felonies at common law, or created such by statute: an accessary before the fact being one, who, being absent at the time of the crime committed does yet procure, counsel, or command, another to commit a felony; and an accessary after the fact being a person, who, knowing a felony to have been committed, receives, succours, comforts, or assists the felon: and generally any assistance given to the felon, to hinder his being apprehended or tried, or suffering punishment, makes the assistant an accessary; and, in some instances, accessaries to felonies are deprived of the benefit of clergy, as well as principals.

There is also an offence, which the law denominates misprision of felony; which is, the concealment of a felony which a man knows; and which is punishable as a high misdemeanor.

There is yet one species of offence contained in your calendar, which deserves to be particularly adverted to, because it is, in all probability, that which has been the means of procuring many of the deluded people who have been guilty of the outrages imputed to them, to embark and to continue in such crimes: I speak of the offence of administering unlawful oaths. By the statute of 37 George 3rd, cap. 123, it is enacted, that any person who shall, in any manner or form whatsoever, administer or cause to be administered, or be aiding or assisting at, or present at and consenting to, the administering or taking of any oath or engagement purporting or intending to bind the person taking it to engage in any mutinous or seditious purpose, or to disturb the public peace, or to be of any association, society, or confederacy, formed for any such purpose, or to obey the orders or commands of any committee or body of men not lawfully constituted, or of any leader or commander, or other person not having authority by law for that purpose; or not to inform or give evidence against any associate, confederate, or other person; or not to reveal or discover any unlawful combination or confederacy; or not to reveal or discover any illegal act done or to be done; or not to reveal or discover any illegal oath or engagement, which may have been administered or tendered to or taken by such person or persons, or to or by any other person or persons, or the import of any such oath or engagement; this offender shall be guilty of felony, and may be transported for any term not exceeding seven years: and every person who has taken any such oath or engagement, not being compelled thereto, shall also be adjudged guilty of felony, and may in like manner be transported: with a proviso, that compulsion shall not excuse any party taking such oath or engagement, unless he shall, within four days after the taking of it (unless prevented by actual force or sickness, and then afterwards within four days), declare the same, together with the whole of what he or she shall know, touching the same, and the person or persons by whom and in whose presence, and when and where such oath or engagement was administered or taken, by information on oath, in such manner as is directed by the act: and all persons aiding and assisting at, or present and consenting to, the administering or taking of any such oath or engagement, as well as all who cause such to be administered or taken, though not present at the administration of them, shall be deemed principal offenders, and be tried as such, though the person who actually administered such oath or engagement shall not have been tried or convicted. It is also enacted, that it shall not be necessary, in any indictment against any person or persons administering or causing to be administered or taken, or taking any such oath or engagement, or aiding or assisting at, or present at and consenting to the administering or taking thereof, to set forth the words of such oath or engagement, and that it shall be sufficient to set forth the purport of them, or some material part thereof: with a proviso, that any engagement or obligation whatsoever, in the nature of an oath, shall be deemed an oath within the meaning of the act, in whatever form or manner it shall be administered or taken.

By a recent statute, the 52nd of the present king, cap. 104, and which took effect from the ninth of July last, it is provided, that every person who shall administer, or be aiding or assisting at the administering of any oath or engagement, purporting or intending to bind the person taking the same to commit any treason or murder, or any felony punishable by law with death, shall suffer death as a felon without benefit of clergy; and every person who shall take any such oath or engagement, not being compelled thereto, shall be guilty of felony, and be transported for life, or for such term of years as the Court before which lie shall be tried shall adjudge: with provision for indemnifying a person taking the oath, on his discovering the same, and complying with the terms prescribed by the act.

No one, who seriously reflects on the infinite mischiefs that may happen to society, from persons associated for any unlawful purpose whatsoever, thus binding themselves to each other under what they are taught to consider as the sanction of an oath, and cementing their union in wickedness by this profane appeal to the Almighty to witness their desperate engagements, can conceive that the punishment which the legislature has provided for such offences, is in any the least degree severe.

You will perceive, that in the course of the address, with which I have now troubled you, I have forborne to advert to any other offences in the calendar than those which appear to be connected with the fatal disturbances in the West Riding, which have produced such dreadful consequences; because I am not aware that any other indictments will be brought before you upon this occasion. And if there should be such, those other offences do not appear to me to be of a nature, that to gentlemen of your description, and accustomed to such inquiries, would call for any observation from me.

I cannot conclude without expressing the utmost confidence that the country may safely rely on the vigilance and attention, with which you will proceed in the examination of the different charges to be brought before you. No indignation at the outrages which have been committed, will excite any prejudice in your minds, when you are weighing the evidence against each individual accused, and deciding how far he is personally implicated in the crime imputed to him. And however those who have been engaged in those, desperate outrages which we deplore, have thereby despised and set at nought the laws and their authority; yet, the persons who are now the objects of your inquiry, will find, that those laws will continue to be administered, not more for the detection and punishment of the guilty, than for the protection and safety of the innocent.

I cannot conclude without also expressing a thorough confidence, that, having discharged the duty which has assembled you at this time, and returned to those parts of the county where you respectively reside, your earnest endeavours will constantly be exerted to restore and preserve the public peace, and to convince those who are liable to be seduced from their duty by the arts and delusions of wicked and designing men, of the fatal consequences attendant on their giving way to such evil solicitations, or engaging in any disturbance of the public peace and tranquillity; and that you will, on all occasions and in every situation in which the country enjoys the benefit of your services, be earnest and zealous to inculcate a firm allegiance to his majesty's throne, and a reverence to the laws, and thus to promote that general regularity and order, upon which depend the peace and the comfort of civil society.

3rd January 1813: The Treasury Solicitor, Henry Hobhouse, has concerns that prisoners at York may try to escape

Private

York
Sunday Eveng [3rd January 1813]

Dear Sir,

Ld Sidmouth may depend on having his Wishes complied with in respect to Advices from hence.

We propose trying the Murder first, but from what I hear from the Gaol, I am rather apprehensive an Attempt will be made by the Prisoners to alter this Course.

I am sorry to tell you that Le Blanc is ill to day. But he is nursing himself, & I hope will be able to sit Tuesday if not tomorrow.

I am
Yrs most faithfully
H. Hobhouse

[To] J Beckett Esq

25th May 1812: The Lancaster Special Commission commences

Baron Alexander Thomson (left) & Sir Simon le Blanc (right)

On Monday 25th May 1812, the special Assize to try those committed for trial during the recent disturbances in Lancashire - a Special Commission - commenced at Lancaster Castle, where the prisoners were also held.

The Judges presiding over the trial - Baron (Sir Alexander) Thomson and Sir Simon le Blanc - had arrived at 6.00 p.m. on the previous Saturday, having left London on Thursday 21st May, and were met by the High Sheriff, Edward Greaves, before proceeding to formally open the court on the same day. The Leeds Mercury of 23rd May informed that Mr Justice Chambre and Mr Baron Graham were also present.

Monday began with the swearing-in of the Grand Jury, who were as follows:

Joseph Radcliffe, of Royton, Esq. Foreman,
Isaac Blackburne, of Bank-Hall,
John Birley, of Blackburn,
Thomas Drinkwater, Irwell-House,
William Farrington, of Shawe-Hall,
Henry Fielden, of Witton,
Ralph Fletcher, of Tonge-with-Haulgh,
Thos. Gillibrand, of Chorley,
Nathanial Gould, of Salford,
Wm. Hulton, of Hulton,
Wm. Horton, of Rochdale,
Strethill Harrison, of Lancaster,
Wm. Jones, of Broughton,
John Lever, of Alkrington,
Thomas Leyland, of Walton,
Edmund Rigby, of Ellel Grange,
Benjamin Rawson, of Darley,
Miles Sandys, of Graithwaite,
John Silvester, of Chorley, and
John Simpson, of Hope, Esquire.

The foreman of the Jury was Joseph Radcliffe, the Magistrate from the West Riding who had his hands full dealing with Luddites there. His pre-eminent position these trials is a fact rarely mentioned by historians. Also notably present was Colonel Ralph Fletcher. Even allowing for the wide differences between the modern trial system and that of 200 years ago, it would be difficult to pick a more prejudiced and partial jury than this.

The Lancaster Gazette of 6th June 1812 gave a brief, summarised account of the Judges' charge to the Jury:

An admirable Charge was given to them, by Baron Thomson, in which he stated the law which applied to the different cases which would come before them. Persons breaking into warehouses, mills, or shops, and setting fire to them, or stealing or destroying any goods therein, were guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy. Persons guilty of administering or aiding and consenting to the administering of unlawful oaths, were liable to seven years transportation. He concluded with exhorting them to use their utmost endeavours, in their respective neighbourhoods, to restore and promote the public tranquillity.

The Court was then adjourned to the following morning, when the trials would commence in earnest

16th May 1812: Dates of Lancaster & Chester Special Commissions confirmed and more prisoners committed

On Saturday 16th May, the Lancaster Gazette brought more news about the forthcoming Lancaster Special Commission. It revealed that the trial was to open a week later on the 23rd May, and would be presided over by Baron Thompson & Sir Simon Le Blanc. There was also news of the Chester Special Commission, which would commence on Monday 25th May.

In addition, there was news about more prisoners committed to Lancaster Castle by Magistrates sitting at the New Bayley Court in Salford, viz: John Burney (for administering an illegal oath); Adam Bullough, Ann Butterworth (daughter or Robert Butterworth), Ann Butterworth (daughter of William Butterworth), Samuel Howarth, Alice Partington, Milicent Sothard, and Ann Dean, all for rioting.

11th March 1812: The Leeds Luddite James Shaw walks away free from York Lent Assizes

The Lent Assizes at York had commenced on Saturday 7th March. On the following Wednesday, it was the turn of James Shaw, the Luddite captured by the authorities at Sheepscar in January, to face trial. The Leeds Mercury of 14th March recorded the words of the Judge, Sir Simon Le Blanc a Justice of the Court of King's Bench, on his case:

"Assembled as we are at present in the ordinary discharge of a duty you have so often been called upon to perform; I should have felt it necessary to trouble you with any observations of a case had not occurred which seem from its infrequency to require some notice. The list of offences, though somewhat longer than usual, does not appear to contain many cases of novelty, and I hope to have had the pleasure of congratulating the County of York in having escaped the contagion of that system of depredation which has continued so long and occasioned such extensive mischief in a neighbouring county, but this hope has not been fully realised; I am grieved to find from the case in the Calendar, and from information received since we arrived here, that this county has not entirely escaped the influence of bad example; but I trust there will be found not only sufficient vigilance in the magistracy to suppress these disorders, but, also courage in the subjects to protect their property from the attacks of these depredations. The advantages of machinery in manufacture has been so clearly proved, and the subject so ably discussed, that it excites surprise that any should be found so ignorant and infatuated as to imagine that the destruction of machinery should better the situation of the persons employed in manufactures. These absurd ideas have been refuted over and over again, not only by writers on the subject, but by the judges in their different circuits, and one might have expected no man could be found ignorant enough to be influenced by them, and I should hope no man would have been so wicked as to instil such mischievous notions into the minds of these deluded man. The Legislature has heretofore provided penalties and serious penalties for the protection of the species of property; all that is required is that the law should be put in force, which can only be by vigilance and courage in detecting offenders. I only find one case in the Calendar which has any reference to this subject, and that person, most fortunate for himself, was by the prompt exertions of a magistrate arrested, perhaps before he had completed the offence. He will probably be prosecuted under some of the provisions of what is called the Black Act, an Act passed to repress certain enormities in the reign of George I, committed by persons armed and disguised by blacking their faces, and as prosecutions under this act are extremely rare, I take the liberty of pointing out to you the words of the Act, 'if any person or persons being armed with swords, fire-arms, or other offensive weapons, and having his or their faces blacked, or being otherwise disguised, shall appear in any forest, park, &c. or in any high road, and shall be convicted thereof, they shall be adjudged guilty of felony.'

Two circumstances it will be observed are necessary to constitute this offence, that the person should be armed, and should be disguised by having his face blacked, and in the present instance perhaps it will appear, but of this you will judge when the case comes before you, this person was discovered before the offence was completed, and that only one of the circumstances can be proved against him; he was evidently on the verge of committing capital felony, from which he was, perhaps fortunately for himself, withheld by being taken into custody. You will therefore inquire not only as to his person being disguised, but as to the fact of his being armed with offensive weapons, as swords, firearms, or other weapons, calculated to injure or terrify his Majesty's subjects. I have presumed to make these observations because a case of this kind may not have come before you, and in a statute so extremely penal there ought to be satisfactory grounds for putting a person upon this trial before another Jury, who in such case will have ultimately to decide upon his guilt or innocence."

The Bill against James Shaw, of Leeds, cloth-dresser, charging him with having disfigured his person by blacking his face, and with being unlawfully armed with offensive weapons, was thrown out, by the Grand Jury, on Wednesday; and he was, of course, discharged without being put upon his trial.

 The first trial of anyone accused of being a Luddite had ended without a conviction.