12th January 1813: The prosecution moves to rapidly conclude the York Special Commission

By 12.30 p.m. on Tuesday 12th January 1812, the prosecution had finally sated it's appetite for Luddite convictions. The 5 trials that remained were rapidly dispensed with.

David Moorhouse (a 26 year-old stonemason) and John Smith (33, a Butcher) were charged with a burglary at the house of William Savage of Kirkburton on 11th June 1812.

James Alan Park for the prosecution addressed the Court saying it was not necessary to read the indictment as the Crown did not intend to give any evidence. He explained this was because that although there was a strong suspicion that the two men were guilty, that conviction was only probable.

Sir Simon Le Blanc directed the Jury to find the men Not Guilty, which they duly did.

Next, James Starkey (a 22 year-old carpet-weaver) was charged with a misdemeanour for inciting 2 men (both undercover agents) to blow up Rawfolds Mill on 5th September 1812. His case was traversed to the next Assizes, and he was discharged on bail in the meantime.

James Alan Park then addressed the Judges about the remaining cases:

My lords; There are still remaining in your calendar 17 prisoners, who stand capitally indicted for different offences. Upon looking through a list of their cases with all the accuracy in my power, assisted by my learned friends, I discover that three of the ringleaders in all those offences have already suffered the penalty of the law; and two others of those who were involved in some of these indictments, have also been capitally convicted; I will not state their names, because I wish to create no prejudice. I further observe, that two others of those persons were acquitted upon a former trial on Saturday night, but I do not think that the circumstance ought to influence my judgment upon the present occasion, so as to render it my duty to put them upon their trial again. But, inasmuch as I consider that those whose cases remain, including the two were acquitted on Saturday, have been, to a considerable degree, the dupes of designing persons, and have been led on by the five persons to whom I have alluded, I am in hopes that I shall not be doing wrong in permitting them to be discharged on giving bail to appear at any time when called upon by the Crown. And I do assure your Lordships, that if they will conduct themselves as honest and industrious subjects, they never shall be called upon. I trust that we shall very materially benefit this country by the course we have taken, and that this lenity and forbearance on the part of the Crown (for so the prisoners must consider it) will have a powerful effect on the minds.

Baron Thomson agreed to the suggestion, providing certain formalities were dealt with. The last 3 cases were rapidly read out, in order to acquit the defendants, as Park had requested.

The third case concerned the breaking of John Hirst's shearing frames at Linley on 23rd February 1812, and also those of James Balderstone at Linthwaite on the same night. Samuel Booth (33 years-old), George Brook (of Dalton, aged 45) George Lodge (48), and Joshua Schofield (22), all croppers, were indicted for the attack on Hirst, along with George Mellor, Thomas Smith, William Thorpe, and Jonathan Dean, and John Walker, who had already been convicted. All of these 9, except Samuel Booth, were also indicted for the attack on Balderstone.

The fourth cases concerned the burglary of the house of William Newton at Foolstone on 18th May 1812, stealing three guns and a bayonet. James Varley (aged 35), Joseph Thornton (19), George Brook (of Lockwood, 18), George Beaumont (42), Abraham Armitage (30), Samuel Haigh (34), Benjamin Hinchliffe (24), John Taylor (26), and Robert Fitton (44) were indicted. Varley & Thornton were croppers, Fitton was a weaver, and the rest were labourers. The already executed George Mellor was also indicted.

The fifth and final case concerned a burglary at the house of Joshua Brook at Wooldale on 1st May 1812, where a gun and pistol were stolen. Charles Thornton (aged 19, a cropper) as well as the aforementioned James Varley and George Brook (of Lockwood), and James Brook & John Brook - who were acquitted at the Rawfolds trial - were indicted.

All 17 remaining prisoners were brought to the bar, and were entered into recognizances, along with 2 sureties each, to appear again if the Special Commission was recalled, and in the meantime keep the peace and be of good behaviour.

All that was left was for Baron Thomson to sentence the already convicted prisoners.

6th January 1813: The trial of Mellor, Thorpe & Smith - Part 2: witnesses for the prosecution

After Sir Simon Le Blanc had summed up the prosecution's case, witnesses for the prosecution were then called, beginning with Joseph Armitage, the landlord of the Warren House Inn, a pub on Crosland Moor, and Horsfall’s last stop on the way home before he was shot. Armitage was examined by Mr Topping for the prosecution & was asked about the timings surrounding the matter: he stated that Horsfall had arrived at the pub at 5.45 p.m. and drank a glass of rum and water whilst still on horseback, also buying drinks for two ex-workmen. Horsfall left 20 minutes later, at 6.05 p.m., without having dismounted. At 6.30 p.m., some children brought the news that Horsfall had been shot in a plantation a quarter of a mile up the road from the pub. Armitage set off with the two workmen and found Horsfall sat by the roadside 30 yards below the plantation, bleeding heavily. They brought him back to the pub, where he died over a day later.

In cross-examination, Mr Hullock for the defence was very particular and repetitive in getting Armitage to be clear about the timings for all that happened. Armitage stated that he frequently looked at the clock throughout the day, as his customers needed to know when their horses would be ready after stopping at his pub. He fixed the time of Horsfall’s assassination as between 6.10 – 6.15 p.m.

The next witness was Henry Parr, who was examined by Mr. Holroyd for the prosecution. Parr was taking a similar journey to Horsfall and at the same time, trailing slightly behind him. He had passed the Warren House when he heard a crack from a gun coming from the plantation ahead on the left-hand side of the road, saw gun smoke and then four people in the plantation about 150 yards away. He saw Horsfall take the shot and cry out ‘murder’. One of the assassins stood up onto a wall at the edge of the plantation and Parr rode towards Horsfall, upon which he saw all four men flee. He stated that all four were dressed in dark clothing. Riding up to Horsfall, he helped to keep him in the saddle, but blood was spurting from his side, and Horsfall eventually fell from his horse. Parr left Horsfall with two boys who were at the roadside, before riding away to alert William's brother, John Horsfall, as William had requested.

Under cross-examination by Mr Williams for the defence, Parr was clear that he did not know the three accused.

When he was re-examined by the prosecution, Parr was clear that he had heard only one shot, and also went on to say that three of the men stood behind the man with the gun who made the shot.

Another witness, a clothier called Joseph Bannister, was called: he had met Parr on the road at 6.30 p.m., who explained what had happened. Bannister went forward to help, finding Horsfall at the roadside, and later stayed some time with him at the Warren House.

The next witness was Rowland Houghton, a Huddersfield surgeon who had been called to attend to Horsfall at 7.00 p.m., but did not arrive until between 8.00 and 9.00 p.m. at the Warren House. Houghton found that Horsfall had 2 wounds on the upper left thigh, 3 inches apart; another wound on the lower left side of the belly, another on the lower part of the scrotum and two more wounds on the right thigh. One of the bullets had already been extracted (by army surgeon Mason Stanhope Kenny, who was not called as a witness) before he arrived, and he removed a bullet from the inside of Horsfall’s right thigh, near to the hip joint. Houghton regarded a wound that had penetrated Horsfall on the left side had been the fatal one.

Two bullets that had been extracted were produced by the Reverend Abraham Horsfall & John Horsfall, William’s relatives, to the Court – one like a musket ball, the other had been cut and flattened.

Next, the Crown called their star witness – the accomplice Benjamin Walker. Walker was a cropper, who worked with Thomas Smith and George Mellor at John Wood’s cropping shop, with William Thorpe working for a man called Fisher close by. Walker said that after the unsuccessful attack at Rawfolds, George Mellor had said that the only way for the Luddites to succeed now would be to shoot the masters.

Walker stated that on the day of Horsfall’s assassination, he had been working at John Wood’s shop with his father John and his brother William in one part of the workshop, with Mellor and Smith in another. That between 4.00 and 5.00 p.m., Mellor approached him and asked him to go with him to shoot Horsfall, and he refused. He said he left the workshop to go for a drink for about 30 minutes, returning at 5.00 p.m. to find Mellor, James Varley, John Walker and William Hall together. He said that Mellor approached him, gave him a loaded pistol and told him he must go with him, Smith & Thorpe to shoot Horsfall. Mellor further directed him to make his way to Joseph Radcliffe’s plantation on Crosland Moor with Smith, using a direct route.

Walker said that he and Smith arrived at the plantation ten minutes before Mellor & Thorpe. He also
noticed that Mellor & Thorpe were now wearing a green and a dark-coloured top-coat respectively. He went on to say that he never went as close as 20 yards from the wall which bordered the plantation and faced the road Horsfall was travelling on – that Mellor and Thorpe were close to the wall and out of his sight from where he stood. For the prosecution, James Alan Park was careful to contend to the Jury that although Walker could not see Mellor and Thorpe, that this did not mean others, such as the witness Parr, could not see them all from his position. Walker said that Mellor told him and Smith to fire on Horsfall if he and Thorpe missed. When Horsfall was shot, they all fled, with Thorpe handing Walker his pistol and Mellor cursing the two other men for not firing. He contended that Thorpe’s pistol had been discharged and was still warm, but that he threw it down when they reached Dungeon Wood, with Mellor retrieving it. Walker said that Mellor had hurt his finger firing his overloaded pistol, and Thorpe had hurt his cheek, possibly on some branches. Walker and Smith hid their pistols in an ant-hill in the wood, and then parted company with the other two: Mellor ordered them to go towards Honley along a different route than he and Thorpe would take, and gave them 2 shillings to buy some beer.

Walker said that he and Smith went to Honley to drink in a public house, the Coach & Horses Inn. Whilst they were they, some travellers came from Huddersfield market to announce that Horsfall had been shot. Thomas Smith then started to whistle a tune, and a drunken collier in the pub got up to  dance to the tune. Walker said that he and Smith stayed at the pub until between 8.00 or 9.00 p.m. and managed to drink between 7 or 8 pints each whilst they were there. They arrived home at 10.00 p.m. that night.

The following morning, Mellor sent Joseph Sowden to bring Walker into the workshop, to join him as well as Thorpe and Smith. Mellor administered an oath to Walker, asking him to kiss a Bible at the end of it. He noticed that Mellor’s finger was bound.

Walker was then cross-examined by Mr Hullock for the defence. He was asked where he had been for the past couple of months, and revealed he had been in Manchester on Saturday 2nd January and before that in ‘safe custody’ at Chester Castle for 10 weeks. He went on to confirm some of the evidence he had just given. He also said that he had confessed to his mother and father what had happened at the plantation upon arriving home the same night, and that his mother went to Joseph Radcliffe’s 11 or 12 weeks ago to inform him: that Mellor and Thorpe had already been taken up by this time, saying that he and Mellor were taken up at the same time. He confirmed that he could not read, but had heard from Joseph Sowden that a reward of £2000 had been offered for information about the killing before he was taken up.

Walker was asked by the defence if he had sent a message to a woman named Hartley, and revealed that, whilst in custody, he sent a woman called Mary Dransfield to go to Mrs Hartley and ask her to go to a magistrate to prove he was elsewhere at the time Horsfall was shot. Walker said that Mrs Hartley had come to John Wood’s cropping shop on the evening of Horsfall’s shooting to inform them what had happened, but he now said he was not there at that time, and that Mellor had told him Hartley had come to the shop. Walker also revealed that when he first faced Joseph Radcliffe, William Hall had been a witness for his being present at John Wood’s cropping shop when Horsfall was shot.

William Hall himself was the next witness for the prosecution. He stated that on the afternoon of Horsfall’s shooting, between 4.00 and 5.00 p.m., George Mellor had approached him to borrow a pistol: this was the Russian horse pistol that Mellor had previously owned that had come into Hall’s possession. Hall took Mellor to his house, where Mellor loaded the pistol in front of him: he used two loads of powder then loaded the barrel with one bullet, then slugs that had been made from other bullets, and then another bullet. Hall was concerned about the recoil from the pistol, and Mellor confirmed he intended to shoot Horsfall with it. Hall stated that Mellor asked him to accompany him, but he refused. Hall described Mellor as wearing a bottle-green top-coat.

Hall confirmed that Mrs Hartley had brought the news about Horsfall to the workshop at 7.00 p.m. that night. Hall also said that Mellor had told him that night at bedtime that he and Thorpe had left their pistols at his cousin Joseph Mellor’s house with two apprentices, with instructions for them to give them to Joseph when he returned home. Later, Mellor also told Hall that he had hurt his finger and didn’t know if it would heal properly or not.

Hall stated that Thomas Smith had also arrived home that night and had told him he had been to Honley with Benjamin Walker after hiding their pistols in Dungeon Wood.

Hall went on to state what had occurred the following day at his workplace, John Wood’s cropping shop. That Mellor made him and others at the shop take an oath of secrecy, for all that he and others had been witness to or been told.

Hall said that On the Sunday after Horsfall had been shot, Thomas Smith asked him to go with him to find the two pistols left in Dungeon Wood, but they could not find them among the ant-hills. Two or three weeks later, Smith showed him a pistol telling him that somebody else had been out with him and they had found his pistol.

Hall said that it was not until 3 weeks after Horsfall had been shot that George Mellor had returned the Russian horse pistol to him, and that some time after that, he asked him for it back again, this time to lend out to some people at Leeds who needed arms.

Hall also contended that 2 or 3 days before he was arrested, Mellor had asked Hall if he would wear William Thorpe’s coat if he was questioned before Joseph Radcliffe, and also to state he had gone with Mellor to his cousin Joseph’s house on the night Horsfall was shot. Hall had refused.

The next prosecution witness was Joseph Sowden, another cropper who worked at John Wood’s shop. He said that Mellor and Thorpe had come into the shop at 4.30 p.m. on the day Horsfall was shot – both of them carrying pistols, and that Mellor had ordered Benjamin Walker to go home and fetch top-coats and a pistol, and that Walker left and he didn’t see him again that day. Sowden said that the next day, all four assassins had told him what had happened and then Thorpe wanted him to swear an oath – when he refused, he said Thorpe threatened him, after which he took the oath and administered it to the others in the workshop under Thorpe’s presence.

Under cross-examination by Henry Brougham for the defence - seemingly Brougham's only intervention during the whole trial - Sowden largely reconfirmed much of the evidence he had already given. But he denied Brougham’s accusations of being a secretary to any Luddite association or being a delegate to other workers’ organisations.

Benjamin Walker’s father, John Walker, was the next witness for the prosecution, but only seems to have confirmed he worked at John Wood’s cropping shop.

Martha Mellor, the wife of Joseph Mellor, George Mellor’s cousin, was called next. She stated, as she had in her original evidence to Joseph Radcliffe, that she first saw George Mellor at her home at Dungeon  Bottom at 6.15 p.m. the evening that Horsfall was shot. She said he brought with him another person she did not know and has not seen since – the trial account does not record whether she was asked to identify in Court if either Smith or Thorpe were the man, but the inference is that she did not regard either of them as the ‘stranger’. Mellor asked after Joseph, who was absent at that time, and also if Joseph needed a man to work there. Martha said they did not at that time. Mellor asked her for a handkerchief, and she gave him a black silk hanky. Mellor also asked if the man could wash himself and she agreed to this. Martha described both Mellor and the other man as wearing dark coloured top-coats, and said that they stayed for 15 minutes.

On being cross-examined by Mr Hullock for the defence, Martha was clear that her husband Joseph arrived home 30 minutes after they had left, at 7.00 p.m. She also stated that one of the apprentices and a witness that evening, Joseph Oldham, had ‘run away', a week after George Mellor was committed to York, and had not returned.

The defence appeared to have missed an opportunity to ask Martha if George Mellor had an injured finger, and if the other man had a bloody face, as some of the prosecution witnesses had contended. They also failed to underline the crucial nature of the timings in Martha’s evidence: the arrival of the two men in the house at 6.15 p.m. was at the time the prosecution stated that Horsfall was shot. Any earlier, and this would have affected the evidence of those present at John Wood’s shop; any later would affect the evidence of other prosecution witnesses that corroborated Martha’s timings.

One of Joseph Mellor’s apprentices, 17 year-old Thomas Durrance, was next. In line with the evidence he gave to Joseph Radcliffe, he stated that George Mellor and the other man, who he only ‘thought’ was like William Thorpe, came into the workshop that evening both wearing dark-coloured top coats – underneath which, George Mellor had a green coat. Mellor asked Durrance to go upstairs with him and then produced two pistols which they hid beneath some flocks of waste cotton, with Mellor swearing him to secrecy about them. However, when Durrance’s master Joseph Mellor arrived home later, he showed him the concealed pistols straight away.  He also admitted showing the other apprentices the pistols, including Francis Vickerman, another witness who was not called.

Durrance went on to state that after he had been examined by the magistrate Joseph Radcliffe last October, George Mellor gave him 5 shillings, asked him to give his fellow apprentice John Kinder half of it, and urged him to tell the truth of what had happened that evening except for the pistols, which he wanted Durrance to keep secret.

Durrance was unwilling to positively identify William Thorpe as ‘the man’ accompanying George Mellor that evening.

Questioned by one of the Judges, Durrance estimated that Joseph Mellor arrived home between an hour and 90 minutes after George Mellor and the stranger had been there, and also that he hid the pistols in an outbuilding with Joseph Mellor 2 hours after they had been hidden upstairs.

The other apprentice to Joseph Mellor that had been present that evening, 18 year-old John Kinder, also gave evidence. He saw Mellor come down the stairs with Durrance and explained to Durrance who he was. Durrance showed him the pistols after Mellor and the stranger had left, and Durrance stated that they were not loaded. Kinder also confirmed that Durrance had given him half a crown and explained what George Mellor had said about telling the truth and keeping the pistols secret.

Next to give evidence was George Mellor’s cousin, Joseph Mellor. He confirmed he had arrived home about 7.00 p.m., and that Durrance had told him about the pistols. In October, he had told the magistrate he had learned the news about Horsfall from a neighbour, William Spencer, later in the evening, and had brought the news home to his household afterwards, but Joseph doesn’t seem to have mentioned or been asked about this.

Joseph stated that when Durrance showed him the hidden pistols, he moved them to another outbuilding. In his workshop, he found a dark-coloured top-coat which had 2 bullets in the pockets, and that he also found a dark bottle-green coat behind the door, neither of which belonged to him.

Joseph went on to relate how the cropper James Varley arrived the next morning, and that he told him about the hidden pistols, and that a week later, they had gone. In the statement he gave to Radcliffe, Joseph made it clear that he strongly intimated to Varley that the pistols should be taken away after telling him where they were hidden.

A Mr Staveley, the governor of York Gaol, gave evidence that the coat George Mellor was wearing when he was brought to the York Castle after being arrested. The coat was bottle-green, and Joseph Mellor was asked to identify it – he said it was similar to the one he found in his workshop, but would not swear that it was the same one.

The prosecution then called Abraham Willey, who worked for Joseph Radcliffe. When Horsfall was shot, he was working 200 yards away in a stable behind the plantation. He heard a gunshot and went to see what was happening and observed four men running down the fields behind the plantation towards Dungeon Wood at a distance of at least 50 yards. He stated that they were wearing dark-coloured coats. A few minutes later, the two boys that had found Horsfall lying in the road – his sons – came to tell him what had happened.

The penultimate witness for the prosecution was a man called Richard Hartley who was travelling from Crosland to Lockwood via a road at the back of the plantation. He stated that he also heard the shot and then saw four men run down from the plantation and down into Dungeon Wood. He contended that he noticed the brass-ended pistol one of the men was carrying in his belt when the man vaulted a wall.

The last witness for the prosecution was Mary Robinson, the landlady of the Coach & Horses Inn at Honley that Benjamin Walker said he and Smith had gone to later in the evening. She put the time of their arrival at the pub as between 7.00 and 8.00 p.m., and they left shortly before 9.00 p.m. She remembers the man whistling and the collier dancing to the tune. Finally, she stated that her husband had asked the two men where they had come from, and they told him Longroyd Bridge,

At the conclusion of the evidence of the prosecution the Judge, Sir Simon Le Blanc, asked Mellor, Thorpe and Smith if they wished to say anything for themselves: their reply was “We leave it to our Counsel”.

20th October 1812: John Lloyd tells the Home Office that his policy of informers & abduction is having results

Stockport 20 Oct 1812

Sir

I was yesterday detained the whole of the day with Mr. Radcliffe at Milnes bridge and prevented writing to you by examinations engaging me. The hint I gave in my last was relating to a circumstance that had been commend to me by a respectable merchant in Huddersfield, just before I wrote, that he had been applied to for advise in consequence of a woman of the name of Walker wishing to know what was best to be done to save some of the murderers of Horsfall for she was apprehensive that the persons in custody under that charge might impeach those at large, & it was from that inferred, that she was interesting herself for her own Son Benjamin Walker who had been in custody under suspicion. As the woman did not act up to a promise she made I apprehended her Son in the night, since which sufficient intimation was given, as coming from her, that a Wm. Thorpe was anor. he had been also in custody — & yesterday I had him apprehended again This woman has declared to her friend with whom she advised that Mellor & Varley already at York, and said Walker and Thorpe were the four murderers but that Mellor alone fired both pistols. I apprehended the woman & strictly examined her but she denies all knowledge & denies ever having said so. I have not been put at liberty at present to produce my Informant her friend; but he has consented after certain arrangements — and he made himself certain almost that he cou’d produce the effect upon the woman's mind this very night & then he will not have to appear at all. In the mean time I have run away with one of the Witnesses to prevent her being tampered with and have placed her in my own House where she will more fully and freely give her Examination —If any thing very material occurs before I return to Huddersfield Mr. Alison will communicate it to you.

I found out the person to whom the Information had been from time to time given by watching Mrs. Walker to his House – & I have in consequence brought him forward – but cannot at present publicly.

I have [etc]
J. Lloyd

[To] J. H. Addington Esqr

19th October 1812: The cropper, William Thorpe, is examined by Joseph Radcliffe

On Monday 19th October 1812, another West Riding cropper swore a statement before Joseph Radcliffe.

William Thorpe had already been put into the frame as being involved in the assassination of William Horsfall at least 9 days ago, when some of Joseph Mellor's household were clearly being asked questions about him, and whether or not he was the 'stranger' who accompanied George Mellor to the house. The only statements sworn that day that mention Thorpe are those of the apprentice John Kinder - who said he 'does not know William Thorpe' - and Joseph Mellor - who says that the cropper James Varley had called on 29th April and asked for a Blue Jacket which 'belonged to Thorpe', which Mellor said he gave him. This suggests that Thorpe's name was being put forward by someone else, but who is not clear. We do know that Thorpe's name appears in Francis Vickerman's first letter to General Acland on 28th August, and Thorpe's own statement reveals that he had been taken up for questioning before on at least one occasion.

Thorpe began his statement by making it clear that he remembered the day Horsfall was shot: he worked at the time for a Mr Fisher of Longroyd Bridge, and said he remained at work that day until 8 or 9 p.m. in the evening before going home. He had been in the dressing shop at work when someone came in and told him the news about Horsfall. Thorpe said that the men he was working with thought the news 'shocking and sudden'.

Thorpe admitted to owning a Blue Jacket, but only in June, several weeks after the assassination. His father had bought the cloth, and he used a Tailor to make it for him. He also denied seeing James Varley on the day of the assassination - in his statement, Joseph Mellor had said Varley had called at his house the day after the assassination to retrieve Thorpe's Blue Jacket, whereas Varley's statement never mentioned Thorpe or the Blue Jacket at all. Thorpe said he received the bill for the Jacket 2 months after it was made, and the statement suggests he produced it as proof at the examination (having looked for and found it 'since I was last in custody', indicating he had been asked about this on a previous occasion). He sold the Jacket in the same week as the York Summer Assizes, saying it did not fit him properly: a man called Samuel Booth of Huddersfield bought it from him for £1, 1s. Thorpe also denied lending the Jacket to anyone else at any time.

Names were then mentioned to Thorpe: he said he knew Benjamin Walker, but counted him as 'no particular acquaintance' and said the last time he was in company with him was 'last week when we were in custody together'. He also admitted to knowing Thomas Smith, a former apprentice to John Wood, for whom George Mellor worked. Thorpe also said he knew George & Joseph Mellor, & James Varley. He denied being in their company in the days surrounding the assassination of Horsfall. He went on to say he had met Joseph Mellor with a fellow cropper William Brooke the Sunday after Horsfall was shot (3rd May 1812), but they did not talk about the assassination and Thorpe was adamant he had not borrowed 'either gun or pistol' from Joseph. Thorpe & Brooke had walked that day to the house of a man called Luke Bradley, by whom Thorpe had been promised some Butter. Bradley was not in and they called at Mellor's on the way back. This revelation could only have made Radcliffe more suspicious, for Bradley had been named by Francis Vickerman as being a 'leading man' among the local Luddites.


The statement is relatively mundane, as it deals exclusively with such domestic details, and is an effort by Thorpe to prove he was elsewhere at the time of Horsfall's shooting and deny parts of the statements put forward by others.

Unlike with William Thorpe, there is no evidence that either Thomas Smith or George Mellor even so much as opened their mouths to say one word to either Radcliffe, Lloyd, Acland or Allison. Unlike Thorpe, they did not even seek to deny the claims put to them: for them the Luddites Oath was, as they had sworn, inviolate - this Omertà was absolute.

13th October 1812: General Acland tells General Maitland that the evidence against George Mellor is 'very circumstantial'

Huddersfield 13th October 1812.

My dear Sir.

In reference to my letter of the 10th Inst respecting the arms stolen from the 15th Hussars at Leeds, Colonel Campbell on enquiring finds they were taken from the Men's bed room by some persons who enter’d it during the night while they were asleep—

The Two Carbines were found the following morning concealed under some Hay grass in a Field near a huge manufactory, the place was watch’d for two nights but no person came—The Pistols have not been found & all search & enquiry has failed.—

George Mellor is committed to York Castle on suspicion of being concerned in the Murder of Mr. Horsfall, I questioned [him] Mr. Allison respecting the Evidence which is he says very circumstantial & that he thinks there is already sufficient to convict him, if there by any judge but Bailey—more he says however may possibly come out—

John Varley is committed also for Stealing arms, Mr. Ratcliffe thought it better not to commit him on the other charge of being an accomplice in Mr. Horsfall business of which he must know a great deal though he certainly was not one of the four—

Benjamin Strickland  is likewise committed for a burglary at Kirk — Heaton

Wroth P Acland

[To] Lt General
The Rt. Honble
T. Maitland.

12th October 1812: George Mellor, James Varley & Joseph Brook committed to York Castle

On Monday 12th October 1812, the West Riding Magistrates, Joseph Radcliffe committed 3 more prisoners to York Castle.

Joseph Brook, a Tailor from Rastrick, was charged with a burglary at the home of Benjamin Strickland on 5th October 1812.

George Mellor, a clothdresser from Longroyd Bridge, was charged upon the oath of his cousin, Joseph, and others with being strongly suspected of shooting William Horsfall on 28th April 1812.

James Varley, a clothdresser from Lockwood, was charged with unlawful assembly and an arms raid on William Newton of Hagswood Hill on Whitsun monday.

11th October 1812: General Acland updates General Maitland about the Horsfall suspects

Huddersfield 11 October 1812

My dear Sir

Enclosed I send you the Substance of the report of the robberies committed in the neighbourhood of Halifax on the night of the 7th Inst

I think we are now getting close to the murder of Mr. Horsfall & there is great reason to believe that George Mellor who I mentioned in my letter this morning, & ____ Thorpe were two of them – as far as Depositions of Joseph Mellor (who lives under Dungeon Wood) his wife & two apprentices go, the Evidence is very circumstantial, but nothing sufficiently direct to convict – but more is likely to come out in the examination of a man by name Varley, who will be brought up again to-morrow, he is very reluctant, though he certainly knows a great deal about it, & there is sufficient to commit him as an accessory after the fact, if he will not speak out — I hope to be able to make a favorable report to you tomorrow, but you are well aware how extremely difficult it is to extract any thing like good evidence from the people who are brought forward as witnesses.

Mr. Ratcliffe has issued three Warrants this Evening for the apprehension of three men at Holmfirth for felonies arising I believe out of Bates’s information, but I have nothing more at present—

Captn McDougal is now placed at Stayley bridge, & writes that the country thereabouts has not been so quiet for a long time as at present. He further says he hears a number have untwisted during the last week at Stockport, but has Lloyd is not returned, I am not prepared to state it as authentic—

M-General Dirom writes that he should proceed to Scotland as this day—

M. General Dirom has forwarded for Colonel Clay some papers relative to a complaint of the [illegible] Master Serjeant against & a Captain of the Carlow, but as Colonel Clay does not appear to have sufficiently investigated the nature of the Complaint, I mean to return them as in their present state, they will not be sufficiently satisfactory to you to take any steps in the business

Clay has also forwarded some others about Recruits of the Louth but in so slovenly a way, that they cannot be sent up, & I must return them — I trust you will not [that] I can taking too much on myself in your absence by doing so, I am certain you would do the same, & I wish to save you trouble on your return by the circulation of papers which if sent in a regular [post] I can as well forward to the Horse Guards during your absence

Wroth P Acland

[To] Lt General
The Rt Honble
T. Maitland

11th October 1812: Joseph Radcliffe questions the household of Joseph Mellor about suspects in the assassination of William Horsfall

A Caucasian Horse Pistol, likely to be similar to the one George Mellor reputedly brought back from Russia

Joseph Mellor, a master clothdresser from Dungeon Wood, and almost all those who lived with him and worked for him were brought before the West Riding magistrate Joseph Radcliffe by Sunday 11th October 1812. It is possible they were brought in the day before, since information they yielded to Radcliffe could have led to the issuing of warrants for the arrests of four suspects the evening before. Their statements however, were sworn on the Sunday.

The largest statement was given by Joseph Mellor, the owner of the cropping shop. Statements were also given by his wife, Martha Mellor, and two apprentices, Thomas Durrance and John Kinder. A cropper who worked for the master clothdresser John Wood, called James Varley, also gave a statement. No statement was taken from another apprentice, Frank Vickerman (the nephew of the manufacturer, Luddite target and informer Francis Vickerman) either at this time or in future.

In looking at the statements alongside each other, I have highlighted points of interest or apparent contradictions.

In his statement, Thomas Durrance, an apprentice, said that the cropper George Mellor had arrived at the workshop declaring it to be a hot day, and promptly took off his dark-coloured topcoat and placed it on the brushing stone in the workshop. Durrance said he saw ‘no other man’ with Mellor. He said that George Mellor then asked for his help to hide 2 pistols, which they did upstairs in the house. Durrance said that he didn’t know who Mellor was until his fellow apprentice John Kinder saw them coming down the stairs and told him. Durrance later told another apprentice, Joseph Oldham about the pistols and what had happened.

John Kinder’s statement says that he was in the workshop with George Mellor for 5 minutes only. Like Durrance, Kinder at first says that no other man was there, but later mentions ‘the other man’ in the same statement. Kinder doesn’t mention what Durrance had said, about his only seeing Mellor when he came downstairs after hiding the pistols. He stresses – presumably because he was asked – that George Mellor had no blood on his hand, the only statement to mention this, and seemingly as a denial to a question. Kinder also says he ‘does not know William Thorpe’, as if the name was put to him: along with that of Joseph Mellor, this is the only statement that mentions Thorpe’s name. It’s not clear where the information about injuries to Mellor or the stranger has come from.

In her statement, Martha Mellor said George Mellor arrived with another man she didn’t know and enquired if there was any work for the stranger there. He had asked permission for the stranger to wash himself, and she had agreed. George asked if he could lend a coat and a silk handkerchief, and that she provided them with a black silk handkerchief, and George took a drab topcoat. John Kinder said that Martha had given George his black silk handkerchief, and that Joseph Mellor gave it him back 2 weeks later. Martha also pointed out that the two men had come into the house through the workshop and left the house back into that room again.

In his statement, Joseph Mellor said that on the evening Horsfall was shot, he had been at Huddersfield market, and had returned about 7.00 p.m. He said that when he arrived, his wife Martha told him that his cousin George Mellor had only left 15 minutes ago; that he had brought a stranger with him who wanted work; that the stranger had hurt his cheek (In her statement, Martha does not mention any apparent injury to the stranger’s cheek). He said Martha told him George Mellor had asked if the stranger could wash himself, which he did and she had given him a black handkerchief to cover his wounded cheek. Joseph also said that Martha told him that George and the stranger appeared to be in a hurry (which is not repeated by Martha in her statement), and that the stranger wore a drab topcoat.

The timings in Martha Mellor’s statement are interesting. She said that George Mellor and the stranger stayed for half an hour in total. Joseph said that Martha had told him when he arrived at 7.00 p.m., that the pair had left 15 minutes ago. With precise timings, this means they would have come to the house at 6.15 p.m. – which, according to the trial report, is within 5 minutes of the time that the Crown said that Horsfall was shot a mile away. The Crown relied on these timings given by the household at Dungeon, and the witnesses to the shooting to make their case. But more than anything else, these very timings prove that it was impossible that George Mellor & the stranger could have been involved in the shooting of Horsfall: Kipling & Hall (1984, p.43) estimate the route from the site of the shooting to Joseph’s house was a 20 minute journey. If George Mellor & the stranger were in the plantation on Crosland Moor, they would have had to have set off for Joseph’s 10 minutes before Horsfall left the Warren House to meet his doom in order for them to get to Joseph’s house in time. Essentially, the Crown were to claim that George Mellor had been in two different places a mile apart at the same time.

Joseph stated that later, whilst he was eating his supper, his apprentice Thomas Durrance asked him if they could speak in the workshop. Durrance told him how George Mellor and another man had called and had left two pistols which they had hidden in the presence of two other apprentices, Joseph Oldham & John Kinder. Durrance showed him the pistols' hiding place - Joseph was shocked, and he recognised one of the weapons, a brass-mounted horse pistol with a wide bore and a foot-long barrel. He remembered that his cousin George had told him that he had brought a pistol such as this from Russia. Inspecting the weapons, Joseph could see they were not loaded. He went back to finish his supper.

Joseph stated that afterwards he called on his neighbour, William Spencer, feeling uneasy about the pistols in his house. Spencer told him that William Horsfall had been shot that day and that soldiers had been searching for a young man they had come across in Dungeon Wood. Despite the risk of running into the patrol, Joseph left to go home, and did meet some mounted soldiers in the Wood who asked him if he had seen strangers - he told them he was returning from market. When Joseph got home, he told everyone present the news. They all felt uneasy, and decided to hide the two pistols somewhere else. In his statement, Thomas Durrance said this took place at 8.00 p.m., only an hour after Joseph said he had arrived home from Huddersfield. Martha Mellor stated that Joseph brought the news about Horsfall back from Spencer’s house an hour after he had arrived home from Huddersfield.

Joseph Mellor stated that they all sat up in the house, waiting for George Mellor and the stranger to return, as they had promised, but they never came that night.

According to Joseph Mellor, at 4.00 a.m. the next morning, Joseph was awoken by a fellow cropper, James Varley from Lockwood. In his statement taken the same day, Varley says it was actually between 5 and 6.00 a.m. Joseph said Varley asked if George Mellor and another man had called and left two topcoats. He also asked if a blue jacket belonging to a cropper called William Thorpe was there. In his statement, Varley denies enquiring about the coats, saying he had been sent to Joseph’s by his master, John Wood, to borrow Joseph’s horse. Joseph said he fetched all the coats from about the house and workshop, informing Varley that the coat in the workshop had 2 ball cartridges in the pocket. Varley asked Joseph to check the bottle-green coat that had been hung up behind his door in the house, and he wanted to know if there was blood on the cuffs - Joseph said there was none, and Varley asked him to keep the coat there. In his statement, Varley says the coat he retrieved was a brown Duffield coat that he had left behind the door on a visit a fortnight before. Joseph stated that he had never seen the green coat since, and didn't know when it had left the house. Joseph said Varley asked after the two pistols left by George Mellor and the stranger: Joseph admitted to hiding them, but Varley didn't want to take them there and then. Joseph said that Varley could return at any time to fetch them, but wanted them out of his house as soon as possible. In his statement, Varley denied enquiring after any pistols. Joseph stated that he had gone to the hiding place a week later to look for the pistols, but they had gone: his wife told him that Varley had called the day before when he was not in, and assumed Varley had taken them then.

Joseph stated that some time afterwards a man called William told him that he had bought a Russian pistol from George Mellor, with George telling him it had 'done execution'. The man said the pistol had been sent to Leeds in order to 'boast' about this.

Joseph ends his statement by saying that a month after the day he had last seen him, James Varley returned to Joseph's house and asked him if he would help him to find two loaded pistols that had been hidden in an anthill in Dungeon Wood. They both went to look, but could not find them. Joseph said that Varley later told him that one of the pistols was lost, but the other had turned up, and that one of them belonged to a cropper called Ben of Bucks (aka Benjamin Walker, a person named by Vickerman in his first letter to General Acland) and that the other belonged to a man called Tom, who was an apprentice to the master clothdresser John Wood of Longroyd Bridge. In his statement, James Varley said they had searched for pistols in the Wood, but that this was Joseph’s idea.

10th October 1812: Joseph Radcliffe issues warrants for suspects in the assassination of William Horsfall, and others

After receiving information from Francis Vickerman & Joseph Oldham about possible suspects in the assassination of William Horsfall, the authorities in Huddersfield acted on Saturday 10th October 1812. The sequence of events is not clear to this day, but we know from a letter from General Acland to General Maitland that in the evening, Joseph Radcliffe had issued warrants for the arrest of the croppers George Mellor, Benjamin Armitage, Thomas Smith & one other not named by Acland. They were taken up either that evening or in the early hours of the 11th October.

Also brought before Joseph Radcliffe for questioning were almost the entire household of the master clothdresser Joseph Mellor, also named by Vickerman: Joseph's wife Martha, the apprentices John Kinder & Thomas Durrance (though not the apprentice Francis Vickerman junior), and James Varley, a cropper who worked for Mellor. Whether or not the information they volunteered in their initial examinations led to the arrest of Mellor et al is unclear, but likely, given that Joseph Oldham had only named George Mellor.