24th August 1816: Joseph Bugg is executed at Ipswich for his part in the 'Bread or Blood' disturbances

The Cambridge Chronicle of 30th August 1816 gave sparse coverage to the execution of Joseph Bugg, who had been found guilty of arson at the previous Suffolk Assizes:

On Saturday last Joseph Bugg was executed at Ipswich, pursuant to his sentence at the last Suffolk assizes, for setting fire to a barn and cart-lodge, in the occupation of Mr. Glanfield, of Martlesham-hall. When exhorted by the chaplain to confess, he replied, he was in liquor, and did not know what he did; but after the Chaplain had left him, he confessed to the gaoler and the persons assisting, (just before he was turned off) that he set fire to a quantity of whins that were near the premises burnt. He was 26 years of age, had served in the Spanish campaign, and was much addicted to liquor.

19th January 1816: 19 men imprisoned for machine-breaking in Suffolk in 1815

On Friday 19th January 1816, the Cambridge Chronicle carried reports from two recent Quarter Sessions in the county, where cases of machine breaking that had taken place in Suffolk in 1815 were dealt with.

At the Ipswich Quarter Sessions 12 men (4 more than were initially charged) were tried for destroying a threshing machine at Holbrook, Suffolk the previous August:

At Ipswich sessions, Daniel Grimwood, Thomas Seager, Joseph Cook, Martin Gosling, ____ Sells, John Driver, Jerry Lucas, ____ Bayley, Robert Payne, Samuel Page, Robert Page, and S. Turner, were indicted for appearing in a riotous manner in the parish of Holbrook, on the 3d of August last, and there breaking and destroying a threshing machine, the property of John Roper, of Wilby.—Mr. Stocks, for the prosecutions, insisted upon the urgent necessity of supporting the laws, and after the evidence, which was full and conclusive, had been gone through, the prisoners were called upon for their defence, but they had little to urge except the difficulty of gaining employment, which they attributed to the use of machines.—Several persons were called, who gave them excellent characters. The Jury brought in the whole Guilty, and the sentence of the Court was,  that Grimwood, Seager, Cook, and Gosling should be imprisoned for twelve calendar months; Sells and two others, for nine months, and the remainder of the prisoners for six months.

At Woodbridge Quarter Sessions, a total of 7 men were tried for destroying 3 threshing machines in disturbances that had involved a total of 100 people the previous November:

At the quarter sessions at Woodbridge, Edmund Prime, Wm. Garnham, Wm. Bannister, John Abbott, Wm. Barker, and Thos, Stevens, charged with breaking machines in the parishes of Kenton and [Monk]-soham, and also for subsequent riot and misdemeanour, were found Guilty, and ordered to be imprisoned twelve months in the county gaol.—John Brunwin, for the like offence, was sentenced to be imprisoned six months in the same gaol.—It is much to be hoped that these necessary examples will have the effect of preventing such excesses for the future—excesses not only disastrous to the objects of them, but ruinous to the perpetrators.

4th August 1815: 8 men charged with machine breaking over the attack at Holbrook

On Friday 4th August, 8 men were committed to the County Gaol in Ipswich for the attack at Holbrook the previous day. They were all charged with riotous assembly and machine breaking. The men were Daniel Grimwood, Joseph Cook, Samuel Page, Martin Gosling, Thomas Seager, Jerry Lucas, John Driver and Robert Payne. They would all stand trial at the next Quarter Sessions.

All the men were bailed - save for Lucas, Driver and Pool who could not afford it.

25th February 1815: Near riot in Ipswich as threshing-machine breakers are sent to Gaol

The Great White Horse Hotel (formerly Inn) at Ipswich: where the magistrate Sir William Middleton took refuge amidst scenes of near riot. It is now home to a clothing & coffee shop (photo by David Hallam-Jones. cc licence)

On the morning of Saturday 25th February 1815, the 8 or 9 men arrested for breaking threshing machines at Gosbeck 4 days earlier were conveyed to Ipswich Gaol. Two of the men were given bail by the visiting magistrates, and would stand trial at the next Assizes. The rest were committed to Gaol, being unable to afford bail at that time (although by 28th February, they had found bail, and were released).

Accounts as to what occurred afterwards differed between the Bury & Norwich Post and the more local paper, the Ipswich Journal, which differed principally over whether or not objects were thrown (The Bury & Norwich Post having the last word and insisting an onion was thrown, hitting one of the Magistrates).

Both publications agreed that, as they left the Gaol, the officials were surrounded by the general public present & subject to a hostile reception, with Sir William Middleton (the former MP for Ipswich) in particular being a focus of hostility: whilst seven other magistrates slipped away, Middleton was forced to take refuge in the Great White Horse Inn.

The Bury & Norwich Post described a scene outside the Inn as a 'street filled with disorderly people, who stood debating on the Corn Bill till late in the evening'.

Middleton only emerged much later when the crowd had dispersed, at around 10.00 p.m., and then accompanied by an escort of constables, retiring to his residence at Shrubland Hall.