3rd July 1816: Luddites sabotage 18 frames in Whitwick, Leicestershire

In the evening of Wednesday 3rd July 1816, Leicestershire Luddites switched tactics from frame-breaking to sabotage. The Leicester Chronicle of 13th July 1816 carried a brief story about the action:

In the night of Wednesday se'nnight, some person or persons broke open three frame work-knitters shops, viz. John Bamkin's, Wm. Braunston's, and _______ Harris's, at Whitwick, near Sheepshead, and drew out and took away the jack wires from eighteen frames, without doing any further damage to them.

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Malcolm Thomis (1970, p.182) has the date of this action as 10th July 1816, but he has ignored the word "se'nnight" in the newspaper report, locating the date as the 3rd, rather than the 10th of July.