21st July 1812: A Mason from Manchester informs the Home Secretary that a Luddite has infiltrated a local lodge

Manchester 21st July 1812

My Lord

I have just come to the knowledge of a circumstance, which, I deem of too great importance in regard of our safety, to keep concealed, for a moment, from his Majesty's Government: for, when I consider the introduction of Illuminism into the Lodges of Germany and France, and reflect upon its disastrous consequences to Europe generally, and to France in particular — any attempt, of the people termed Luddites, to disseminate their doctrines with their Oath, into the Masonic institutions of this country, overwhelm the mind with alarm, and seems to demand your Lordship's earliest attentions.—Yesterday, a deputation arrived, at the Lodge of Integrity here, from Eccles, (about four miles distant), to give information to Mr Lynch, (Deputy-Provincial-Grand-Master,) of the suspension of one of their members, on account of an attempt made by him, to twist-in several of the Brethren; and, for his having been, himself+, twisted-in.

All that the deputation wanted was Mr. Lynch's authority to destroy the certificate of the suspended Member, and to request that, the necessary precautions might be, immediately, used to prevent his again ever entering that, or any other Lodge, in the province.

As this was a mere proforma business, I was unwilling that it should here terminate.—I took an opportunity of explaining to Mr. Lynch the facility which the secrecy of masonic meetings afforded to the promotion of seditious plans, and at the same time mentioned the advantage which the Diciples of Weishaupt had taken of this secrecy in promoting the views of the Illuminati.—Concurring exactly with myself in opinion, I proposed to make your Lordship acquainted with the circumstance, and, (if we were fortunate enough to meet your Lordship's approbation,) to search all the Lodges of the county minutely: and, further, to send to every Lodge in our province a list of the names of those men tried and condemned at Chester and Lancaster, with the names of those who have since been taken into custody, the purpose of ascertaining, whether any considerable proportion of these infatuated men were are Masons.—From the tenor of the enclosed oath, we are inclined to believe that, it has been drawn up by disaffected Mason; as, the Oath itself is by no means dissimilar from that one of those, administered to the candidates for one of the degrees of Masonry—

Determined to preserve the strictest silence on the subject, until I have the honor of being made acquainted with your Lordship's pleasure

I am [etc]

Henry Hardie M.D.

To the Right Hon:le Lord Sidmouth

Dr. Hardie
Manchester

+ He is to be tried, at the next New Bailey Sessions, on the above charge.

20th April 1812: Colonel Clay informs the Home Office of the state of Manchester & the surrounding towns

Manchester
20. April 1812
½ past 11 o’clock. P.M.

Sir

In consequence of information I received from the Police Office at a late hour last night, I occupied the points previously agreed on for the protection of the Provision warehouses before seven o'clock this morning, which had the desired effect. The Town has, however, been in a most disturbed state all day; so much so, that it became necessary to read the riot act this afternoon; & towards Evening, to call out the whole Garrison for the purpose of dispersing the mob & clearing all the Streets; which has been attended with some difficulty, but affected without material injury to any one.

In the midst of the tumult here, expresses arrived from Ashton, Middleton, & Eccles — with requisitions for Troops—. At the former place the mob plundered several shops in the town & demolished the windows of the Inn — at the latter, the people had assembled & evinced a disposition to Riot; but at Middleton, the mob made a most daring attack on the works of Mr. Burton, who has nobly defended them, & shot five of those wretches on the spot. I sent immediate assistance to him, & have since heard that all is quiet there: but to Ashton & Eccles I could not spare a man; as I am fully aware that the disturbances in the neighbourhood are principally intended to draw off the force from hence.—

I have also been informed that the People at Worsley have been very riotous today; but I have nothing official from thence.

A great number of people have also been levying Contributions on different Gentleman's families at their Country Residences in the Vicinity of Manchester this morning.

I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most Obedient
Humble Servant

JG Clay – Colonel
Commanding at Manchtr

The Right Honble
The Secretary of State
Home Department
&c &c &c

20th April 1812: Serious rioting across the North West of England

On Monday 20th April 1812, serious rioting broke in many towns across the North-West of England. Much of it bore the character of food rioting that was by then into its second day in Manchester.

In Oldham, the Adjutant of the Local Militia, William Chippindale, had observed large groups of people assembling in the countryside the previous day, and had heard rumours that they would be collecting in town the following day. He had only a handful of men to guard the Militia's armoury, which was a regular dwelling house, and he set about fortifying it which was complete by 12 noon. When disturbances began in earnest later, Chippindale apportioned blame to people coming into Oldham from Saddleworth ('rude uncultivated savages') and Hollinwood, the latter group being mainly Colliers. Warehouses and shops were plundered, and the crowds engaged in autoreduction. Sections of the crowd began to assess the possibility of attacking the armoury but decided against it. Chippindale then saw the crowds head en masse to nearby Middleton.

At Rochdale, large crowds came into the town from the direction of nearby Oldham & Royton, and the clamour amongst them was to carry out the autoreduction of prices that was a common theme elsewhere. There were at least two arrests and it seems a stand-off situation existed in the town for many hours before windows began to broken at around 8 p.m. The Cumberland Militia was eventually called out and the Riot Act was read by a Magistrate, William Horton. The crowds were eventually dispersed by the military and the streets locked down by 11.00 p.m.

At Bolton, crowds had also gathered to enforce autoreduction early, and Colonel Ralph Fletcher was at the forefront in calling out the military for 8.00 a.m. A 60-strong detachment of the Scots Greys was called out, along with 80 of the local Yeomanry Cavalry under Major Pilkington and 50 of the Bolton Local Militia under Fletcher himself. These were all in use to guard the market place. The guard continued until around 7.00 p.m., when even greater numbers had collected in the streets. Fletcher then decided to read the Riot Act, the streets were cleared and Public Houses shut.

The story was similar in Ashton-under-Lyne, with provision shops and warehouses being into and the produce seized. An arrest was made, with the prisoner being held at the Globe Inn in town, with crowds demanding his release. When this was refused, the pub had most of its windows put through. A Manchester Magistrate, The Reverend William R Hay was in town on other business at the time and wrote to the Home Office to explain the authorities were unable to intervene due to the lack of military. He even swore in 60 members of the Local Militia as Special Constables.

The crowd then moved through Dukinfield and on to Stalybridge, where the Granary, Corn-Mill and Warehouses of the Huddersfield Canal Company were attacked by a large crowd of people. As well as goods being carried away, at least 1000 bushels of flour and meal were destroyed, their rage being so great.

Between 1.00 and 2.00 p.m. a flour Mill at Worsley was attacked by a large mob. The machinery was damaged and much of the flour carried away. In nearby Eccles, all the shops were shut up, and the Liverpool coach heading through the town had stones thrown at it.

Much later in the afternoon, the same crowd that had assailed the Mill at Worsley arrived at Barton-upon-Irwell. A provision shop was attacked, with autoreduction being in evidence. A hundred people entered the local Mill of Messrs Gilbert, Marsdens & Co, attacking the machinery with staves and clubs: outside the crowd called out "Now or never", a by now popular slogan seen in evidence 12 days before in central Manchester and parts of Yorkshire but a few days ago. Most of the flour, either loose or in sacks, was carried away.

At many of these locations, arrests took place, with prisoners later being committed to either Chester or Lancaster Castles, depending upon which County the riots took place in.

5th April 1812: Delegates from many North West towns meet at the Kings Arms in Salford

The Kings Arms, Salford in the 1970s. Image copyright Salford Pubs of the 70s on Flickr.

At 6 p.m. on Sunday 5th April, an important meeting was held at the Kings Arms (previously the Good Samaritan) on what was then Oldfield Lane in Salford. Evidence from one participant exists in the Home Office archive - that of one of Colonel Ralph Fletcher's spies, John Stones, mediated through his handler, James Warr of the Bolton Local Militia. The weaver Humphrey Yarwood also mentions the meeting, although he was not present, as did a weaver from Stockport, Thomas Whittaker, in a statement later taken when he was in prison.

The delegates present came from a number of different towns in the North West. According to John Stones, there were 10 present, including 1 from Stockport, 3 from Manchester, 1 from Eccles, 1 from Blackburn and 1 from Bolton. Stones also tells us that the Bolton delegate was a man called Waddington (probably Robert Waddington), who had introduced him to the meeting. Yarwood tells us that a member of the newly-formed Manchester Secret Committee - John Buckley Booth - was there, and that delegates were also present from Saddleworth, Ashton-under-Lyne and Oldham, with a delegate from Failsworth no doubt being counted by Stones as being from Manchester. Thomas Whittaker names the Stockport delegate as Thomas Miller.

Stones reported that the delegates all stated their Towns were 'ready', and that were now waiting on Bolton. Delegates gave numbers for those 'twisted in' in the townships: 823 in Stockport, of whom 250 had arms or other weapons; 2000 in Manchester, which as well as workers included Manufacturers, Publicans and Shopkeepers; even Eccles - which had only been recruiting for a fortnight - had managed to raise 183 and had access to 200 stand of arms because a Local Militia sergeant had been twisted in. According to Stones, all were clear that their aims were no longer limited to an advance of wages - they wanted to 'put the great men down that had trampled them under for so long'.

According to Stones, the meeting set a date for the 'Firing of Factories' to take place in each of the Towns that had sent delegates - the evening of Monday 13th April between 12 midnight and 1 a.m. Waddington said that Bolton was not ready, but the other delegates said that something had to happen in that area and soon - it was suggested that the steam loom factory at Westhoughton should be included in the factories to be attacked, unless another arrangement was made at a meeting due to take place on Wednesday 8th April. Yarwood states that the towns were given autonomy to 'choose what mischief they thought proper' for the 13th, but that the Manchester districts had to agree to it.

Whittaker stated that Thomas Miller had reported that a Bolton delegate (either Waddington or Stones) had brought a scale model of a pike along to the meeting. He describes how Waddington placed the constituent parts of the model pike on a table, with everyone puzzled as to what this was and what he was doing. Waddington then assembled the parts to demonstrate that what looked inoffensive could be made into a deadly weapon. Given that Stones was a member of the Bolton Local Militia, and that Waddington knew this, it would seem to be likely that Stones was the man with the pike, even though he doesn't mention it in his report.

Yarwood tells us that the next meeting was due in a fortnight, 19th April.

Stones left the meeting with Waddington to return to Bolton, presumably on foot because Stones relates how they met a man in Swinton and engaged in conversation, persuading him to join their cause. They were ready to twist him in there and then, but they did not have a copy of the oath on them, and directed the man to get the Eccles delegate to arrange this. The Swinton man estimated he could get 100 other local men involved.

On their journey home, Waddington told Stones that he believed figures such as Lord Cochrane, Sir Francis Burdett and Samuel Whitbread would join them when the country was ready. There was an intention to seize the arms and ammunition belonging to Bolton Local Militia, and he had invited Stones because he trusted him, having heard how he and his father were so active. Waddington told Stones that the secret committee at Bolton had arranged to procure 6 artillery pieces, under the direction of a man called Ratcliff who had used them in the military. They also knew where to get hold of Pikes.