18th June 1812: The Manchester Magistrate, William Hay, writes to Home Office with a ticket for a Luddite meeting

On Thursday 18th June, the Magistrate the Reverend William Robert Hay wrote to the Home Office with his latest news from Manchester. He informed the government that 6 women had been committed to Lancaster Castle for rioting at Barton-upon-Irwell on 20th April, and also that information from the examination of the Manchester 38 had been sent to Government.

Hay enclosed the report from the informer RW, about meetings in Stockport. Finally, he enclosed a ticket from a Luddite meeting, which can be seen above. He did not offer an explanation for where this came from, or how he had obtained it, so we do not know if it relates to the activity of the informer RW or some other source.

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Hay's letter can be found at HO 40/1/1.

Chetham's Library in Manchester has the scrapbooks of William Robert Hay in their archive, and another example of the same meeting ticket can be seen there.