23rd May 1816: Threshing Machine destroyed at Finchingfield, Essex

In the evening of Thursday 23rd May 1816, a crowd of people destroyed a threshing machine belonging to a John Smith at Finchingfield, Essex.

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This incident was reported in the Bury & Norwich Post of 29th May 1816 & the Morning Chronicle of 27th May 1816. Both publications quote from the same letter, but identify different locations: for the Morning Chronicle, it is Freshingfield, Suffolk (aka Fressingfield), whilst the Bury & Norwich Post have it correctly as Finchingfield in Essex. Whilst Peacock (1965, p.117) goes with Fressingfield, it was obviously Finchingfield, as the same letter describes incidents that took place in the vicinity on the following day, & committed by the same group of people, rather than in another county almost 60 miles away!