24th May 1816: Sir H.B. Dudley updates the Home Secretary from Ely

Ely Friday Evening

My Lord

On my arrival here I found that my Brother Magistrates had entered into an indirect amnesty with the Principal Insurgents, the mischievous terms of which your Lordship will see in the publication enclosed. The consequence has been what might have been easily foreseen: that the Insurgents feeling themselves thus triumphant, fell back to Littleport last night from those of this Town, where they recommenced their outrages with savage activity, and after levying contributions on all the Inhabitants, and destroying considerable property in Dwellings, [Stacks] Guineas &c are preparing as I understand to advance to join the mal-contents of this place this evening. A troop of Royston Yeomanry, we pressed on as we returned will arrive in half an hour; so that what with irregular cavalry we have here consisting of a detachment mentioned Enclosed in another. I have no doubt but we shall defeat them, but I am not inclined to think from all I learn that we shall be able to advance against them, to effect their complete overthrow, & secure the numerous Desperadoes that must be brought to [illegible] punishment until the arrival of a further military force.

—The information in the annexed Letter addressed to your Lordship, was about to be sent off on my arrival.—

Your Lordship may depend upon nothing being left undone on my part that can contribute to the restoration of the public tranquillity.—I have heard of five or six insurgents being connected in this town from Littleport as [illegible] to the main body expected from that place.—We are going instantly in search of them.—

I write in the midst of a noisy & alarmed Committee so that I fear I shall have scarcely made myself intelligible to your Lordship.—

Your Lordship will hear from me again tomorrow without fail

I have [etc]

Bate Dudley

PS. The continuing Outrages at Littleport are so alarming that, I am induced to make a Dash at the Insurgents without loss of time

[Ely Friday evening 24th May 1816]

24th May 1816: Ely Magistrates write to the Home Secretary about the disorder there

My Lord,

In Addition to the Report, which we did ourselves the Honor of communicating to you, by our Brother magistrate—the Reverend Mr [Lomas?], we feel it is our Duty to state further for your Information, that a Detachment of the First Light Dragoons, consisting of Captain [Methuen] & sixteen privates, has arrived here; but that they are by no means sufficient to quell the turbulent Spirit of the riotous populace, who, tho’ dispersed for the present still continue to exhibit the strongest Symptoms of a dangerous Disposition, which we can are apprehensive will again break out with encreased Violence, as all the Reports from the neighbouring Villages confirm; one of them Littleport, which is only five miles distant, being in the intire pawn of the Rioters, who are levying Contributions upon the peaceable Inhabitants, & are threatening Destruction to the Village—We therefore earnestly intreat you to send us a sufficient force to aid the exertions of ourselves & the peaceable Inhabitants of the place, to save us from the Dangers with which we are surrounded & from the Destruction with which we are threatened. We respectfully suggest, that nothing short of two full Troops of Horse will enable us to answer for the peace of this Town & neighbourhood, & that a piece or two of Artillery would be particularly serviceable, as some of the Rioters are armed with large fowling Guns, whose Tubes are from seven to ten feet in length, & will carry from one to two pounds of Shot, & will kill at a Distance of one hundred or perhaps two hundred yards—We have the Honor to be,

Sir,
your most obedient Servants.
Peploe Ward DD.
John Vachell

Ely, May 24th 1816

[To] The Right Honble Lord Sidmouth
&c &c &c—

24th May 1816: Risings at Ely & Littleport are suppressed by the military

Friday 24th May 1816 was the final day of the labourer's uprising in Littleport & Ely, in Cambridgeshire. Once again, Peacock (1965, pp.pagenos) gave a good description of events using various sources:

Friday, 24th May was the most eventful day in the story of the East Anglian riots. The Ely magistrates had sent for troops to Bury, and had deputised Law "to convey the intelligence" of what had been going on to the Home Secretary. He left for London shortly after the attack on Cooper's house. En route he called on the Royston Yeomanry Cavalry and a detachment of these was sent to Ely. Later, he went to see Lord Sidmouth and asked for regular troops to be sent to the troubled city. 

Sidmouth did not seem to think that troops were needed but sent to ask an associate of his, Sir Henry Bate Dudley, to go back with Law and take charge of operations to pacify the troubled districts.' Dudley agreed and met Law the following day. They set out for Ely early on Friday morning. 

Bate Dudley and Law arrived in Ely at 2.30 p.m., with another forty-two of the Royston Volunteer Cavalry under Captain Wortham, to find the place in an uproar. (Vachell and Peploe Ward had written to Sidmouth, asking for no less than "two full troops of Horse and a piece or two of artillery" to add to the Royston Yeomanry and a seventeen-strong detachment of the 1st Regiment of the Royal Dragoons who were there under the command of Captain Methuen.) Methuen was at first held in check by the frightened magistrates in the same way that Lieutenant Goodenough had been at Brandon. The Dragoons paraded the streets but at about eleven o'clock an incident developed when John Hassett dashed from a crowd of twenty or more hostile labourers and assaulted Joseph Heamers, one of the soldiers. Grabbing the man's sword, Hassett was alleged to have said, "Damn your Eyes I have got your sword and will fight any of you you Bugger". Following this, fighting took place and Methuen's men arrested some labourers, including Wilson. Wyebrow and some of his friends from Downham, but they somehow contrived to escape. This was the first stirring against the crowd for which Daubeny and Seymour, two J.P.s, were responsible. Bate Dudley, however, told Sidmouth that the mob had destroyed "dwellings, stacks and granaries" and blamed "My Brother Magistrates who had entered into an indiscreet amnesty with the Principal Insurgents". His written accounts of the troubles were highly coloured and penned, of course, to glorify his own part. 

Nevertheless he did act with promptitude and considerable bravery although he had the troops to back him up that the unfortunate Ward and Metcalfe earlier had not. 

Ely was brought quickly under control by the new arrivals and Bate Dudley was told of the troubles elsewhere. "The continuing outrages at Littleport are so alarming," he wrote to Sidmouth almost immediately after he arrived in Ely, "that I am determined to dash at the insurgents without delay." About ten more people were recruited from the populace and then Dudley and Law, at the head of "20 of the Royston Yeomanry, the Detachment of the 1st Royal Dragoons and some inhabitants of Ely, and part of the staff of the Cambridge Militia", went "full charge" to Littleport. 

A number of colourful stories gathered around the story of the attack on Littleport, none of which can be substantiated, but most of which are worth repeating. The Rev. E. Coneybeare, for instance, said that the rioters were hunted by a Hanoverian Regiment who combed the district "with true German thoroughness", whereas in fact these troops had left the country long before May. 

"Local tradition still hands down the tale of the poor thatcher," he recorded, "who was engaged on the roof of the great tithe barn at Ely (the largest in the kingdom) at the moment when a detachment of these foreigners was marching past. The usual thatcher's cry to his assistant, 'Bunch! bunch!' was interpreted by the German officer in command as an insult to his troops. On the instant he halted them beside the barn, and gave the order to fire. Pierced by a dozen musket balls, the unhappy thatcher rolled from the roof, his body falling upon the great folding door of the barn, which happened to be half open. There it hung, dripping with blood for over three days, the officer swearing that anyone who dared to remove it should share the same fate, as an example to all to behave with due respect to their oppressors." 

Another writer painted a fanciful yet dramatic picture of the events of Friday and a clash with Methuen's troops. The armed waggon certainly had not been taken to Ely again. 

Next morning a report was circulated that the horse soldiers were coming. The waggon that was brought by the rioters on the previous day was placed at The Lamb corner, and upon it were placed heavy wash guns, charged heavily with slugs, and manned by pot valiant fenmen trained to command the road. Others with forks, cleavers, knives, and bludgeons had assembled, swearing they would cut down every soldier as he came up. About noon a cry was raised, "They are coming", and a troop of Dragoons from Bury came up the Gallery at a sharp trot, their carbines at hip, swords gleamingin the sunlight. The bright helmets, with the rattle and clank of horses' feet and military trappings were too awful for the warlike fenmen and their supporters; they bolted in wild confusion in all directions, some making off for Littleport, others creeping out of Ely the best way they could. Sir Bates [sic] Dudley was sent down also by Government to check further violence. Some of the princi¬pal rioters were soon overhauled, hoisted in a waggon, and thrashed through the streets. Dudley's ride, as it was called, spread terror throughout the fens, and a wholesale dread of incurring the wrath of Sir Dudley. 

While preparations for an attack on Littleport were being made, the labourers there were celebrating in the usual manner. Most of their time was spent in drinking with what money was left over from Thursday, and there were only a very few half-hearted incidents like those of Thursday. South went back to Josiah Dewey's and threatened him with a gun saying, "blast you, I have a good mind to shoot you in your House", and Cammell and Rutter led a crowd to the house of James Horsley, a thatcher, and demanded £5. Much of the spirit the labourers showed the previous day seemed to have gone, and they went away after Horsley had promised them that he would go along to Dennis's public house, a promise which he did not keep. James Luddington, a J.P., also argued with a crowd led by Joseph Irons, who went away from him empty-handed but threatening to return with "the foreman" (Dennis). William Walker was also threatened and told by Robert Langford that the mob was reassembling and that, unless he handed over money and gin, his house would be burnt down. It was generally believed that a plan was afoot to fire Littleport and Ely later during the day. Bate Dudley certainly thought so, and William Crow was reported to have heard James Lee say that "If the overseers of the parish will not come forward this day (Friday) and pay all us [sic] two, shillings per day for yesterday and today then woe be to Littleport tonight". Asked if he meant fire, he replied, "Yes", and told Crow to spread the news around. Long after the riots were over, reports appeared in the East Anglian newspapers saying an attempt to start something had actually been made in Ely. 

"The design of the Littleport rioters to destroy the town of Ely by fire," it was reported, "has been manifested by a discovery, made within these few days, of a quantity of combustible materials, which were found in the warehouse of a Mr. Garratt, a respectable grocer of that place, secretly laid immediately under the floor where he kept his casks of gunpowder: amongst these combustibles was a piece of charcoal, the fire of which appeared to have been providentially extinguished from the want of air." 

When Bate Dudley and Law arrived at Littleport at about six o'clock in the evening, most of the labourers were in The George. Robert Stevens, a local surgeon, said that the Fighting Parson dismounted and commanded them to give themselves up. Cammell became abusive and Bate Dudley tried to grab him, but broke off the encounter when either Rutter or Daniel. Wilson, the blacksmith, hit him over the head with an iron bar. The prosecution brief of "The King versus Daniel Wilson" in the Cambridgeshire Record Office describes this undignified treatment of the victor of so, many duels thus: 

N.B. The truth is that Sir H. B. Dudley attended by the Military went to the door of The George public house and commanded the Rioters to surrender upon which Cammell came out and stood in the Door way and said come on you Piccadilly Butchers (alluding probably to the military) upon which Sir Henry collared him and it was during the struggle between Sir H. B. Dudley & Cammell that this assault took place. 

Shortly after the assault on Bate Dudley, shooting began. It is not clear who fired the first shots, but the labourers, were no match for the military. John Simmons, one of the Dragoons, was knocked off his horse and a sergeant's knee was injured when he, too, was unhorsed. Thomas South seriously injured a soldier named Wallance, a Waterloo veteran, who eventually had an arm amputated and became a pensioner on the Littleport poor rates. These were all the injuries among Bate Dudley's party, but among the labourers casualties were greater. Thomas Sindall was captured and then shot through the head by William Porter while trying to escape, and a colleague had part of his jaw taken away by a sabre cut. Isaac Harley was badly shot but lived to regret that "having three waistcoats on, prevented his death that day". 

Most reports of the incidents at Littleport said that two labourers were killed during the fighting, but Sindall was undoubtedly the only fatality. Bate Dudley told Sidmouth there were two and every journal and newspaper wrote in the same way, The Morning Post, for instance, saying so in the very issue that reported the Coroner's inquest on Sindall. W. H. Barrett says that, according to tradition, two soldiers were also killed and not found until their bodies were dug up during excavations forty years later. It is inconceivable that their disappearance would have escaped comment at the time, however. 

The labourers scattered after the affray outside The George, chased by the soldiers. Fifty-six were taken into custody that evening and a further forty-two were brought in on the Saturday. The chase was not without its drama and the Dragoons compared favourably with those at Norwich. 

"We understand that after the firing ceased at Littleport," noted the Norwich Mercury, "two privates of the First Royal Dragoons, being in close pursuit of two daring offenders on one of the banks of the River Ouse, and the latter having taken to a boat and crossed the river, immediately gave their horses to, a bystander and elevating their pistols with their left hands above the water, swam across the river with their right arms, to the opposite bank, and secured the two men, the river is of a great width." 

All over the weekend labourers were taken in and examined by the magistrates. The two Harleys and John Dennis, for instance, who had £25 in notes with him, were caught on the 25th at West Dereham. Many were sheltered by other labourers, one of whom was eventually fully committed to the Special Assizes for doing so. This was David Stimson who was visited by James Smith of Eriswell, Suffolk, constable, 

who on his oath saith that on Saturday Evening the twenty-fifth day of May instant he went to the house of the Prisoner David Stimson who, resides in Burnt Fen in the Parish of Mildenhall in the County of Suffolk for the purpose of searching the said house after some Rioters who were suspected to be concealed there that the said David Stimson told him this informant that he had, had half a Dozen secreted there the night before and that he would secrete them. 

Some of the locals were zealous in their attempt to bring the labourers to book. One of the bills paid by the magistrates of Ely was for £1 3s. 5d. "Expenses for the apprehension and keeping in custody Thomas Tippell alias Gibbons on suspicion of being Jefferson a Littleport Rioter who was absconded". 

Some of the labourers who ran from Ely, Downham and Littleport got well away, and Bow Street officers were employed to apprehend them. Aaron Layton was one who was caught in London. William Gotobed also got to the capital, but was never caught. He eventually returned to Littleport several years later after his wife and family had become chargeable to the parish and the locals had petitioned on his behalf. His brother, Thomas, had also not been, caught by the time of the trial and Stephen Saunderson was, another who went to London, got clean away and was never brought to book. 

About eighty prisoners were eventually caught, sent before Bate Dudley and the other magistrates and fully committed for trial. It was decided to try them at Special Assizes, which, it was hoped, would attract great attention and serve as a warning to rioters in other parts of the country. According to Sidmouth it was successful in doing this. 

The Home Secretary also changed his mind about the need for sending more troops to the troubled areas. He had stopped the disembodying of the West Norfolk Militia on the 18th May and promised to send troops to Brandon the following day. Hearing that Ely Cathedral was in danger and that "reports from neighbouring villages" confirmed there was "a riotous disposition" prevailing, he despatched three troops of cavalry (100 men), two six pounders and three companies of the 69th Regiment there under the command of Major General Byng. He also ordered the Lords Lieutenants to go to their respective counties, expressed grave dissatisfaction at the behaviour of the magistrates, and ordered the following proclamation to be displayed prominently in all the trouble spots. 

Sidmouth's decision, to send troops to East Anglia and the magistrates' firmness—although belated—almost certainly prevented the riots spreading further. On the very day that the shooting took place in Littleport, there had been troubles elsewhere. There had been every indication that the affair there was but the beginning of a really widespread rebellion.

23rd May 1816: Littleport labourers march on Ely, where rioting commences

Peacock (1965, pp.100-106) continued to give a good account of the proceedings in Cambridgeshire on Thursday 23rd May 1816: 

Dennis and the labourers reassembled at The Globe Inn, where their plans for the following day (which incidentally was Ely Fair day) were laid. It is more than likely that someone was sent to Downham, a few miles away, to tell the inhabitants there to make their way to Ely the next morning, and probably a reckoning of who had and who had not been forced to part with cash was made with a view to rectifying any oversights. Certainly Richard Burridge and Richard Nicholas went along in the very early hours of Thursday morning and robbed Mary Morley, Ann Cutlack, a farmer's wife, and Isaac Taylor, who was told that "the mob which were then collected together at Littleport were going to Ely to take the Town up to Government". It was also decided to obtain arms, and Littleport was searched for ammunition and firearms of any kind. John Green and Beamiss went again to Wiles' shop (it is interesting to note that, until Dennis appeared on the scene, the powder and shot were untouched) and took 7 lbs. of gunpowder and a barrel containing 56 lbs. of shot back to The Globe, where Francis Torrington contributed another 5 lbs. of gunpowder he had taken from one of the Cheesewrights. William Murat and John Warner knocked up John Rust, a labourer who shot wildfowl, and relieved him of two guns worth £10, while Burridge and Henry Mainer, wearing handkerchiefs and scarves taken from Vachell, took another, worth £5, from Elizabeth Stimson. Robert Salmon took a gun from Cutlack and relieved Thomas Waddelow of another. Somewhat later, an armed William Gotobed held up Robert Whitworth (or Whitmore) and robbed him of a gun and two pitchforks, saying he was off to join the crowd. Dennis was seen by numerous people distributing shot at The Globe from about one o'clock onwards, and Mary How said the labourers had some target practice in the early hours. In all, the Treasury Solicitors; were told, seventy-three offences were committed in Littleport during Wednesday and the early hours of Thursday, 23rd May. 

Having armed themselves, the labourers looked around for a means of transporting themselves and their firearms into Ely. They went along to the farm belonging to Henry Tansley and took a waggon and three horses from his stable. According to George Stevens, the mob was ready to start the march at three o'clock in the morning but the waggon had not then been got ready. Eventually it was loaded up so that it looked like a primitive tank, and was driven by George Crow. "They had armed themselves", a description said, 

with the most dangerous and offensive weapons, such as Bludgeons, Pitchforks, Muck Cromes, Fork Shafts headed with short iron spikes, Fowling pieces and Fowler's guns, the tubes of which latter are from 7 to Io feet in length, carry about 2 lbs. of shot, and will kill at a distance of 150 yards. 

The procession, headed by the armed waggon and John Walker, "carrying a pole in his Hand by way of a Signal", set out for Ely during the early hours of Thursday morning. One last piece of violence was committed in Littleport when Isaac Harley and Thomas South caught sight of William Martin in the street. They demanded that the farmer should accompany them to Ely but he refused. Harley threatened to kill him and South knocked him down, but they left him behind. Another farmer, an old man named William Poole, was not so fortunate. He was working in a field near the turnpike road that led from Littleport to Ely when he saw an armed party on the road. In spite of protests that he could hardly walk, Burridge and Thomas Armiger forced him to join them. Quite a large number of others were similarly pressed into going. 

The authorities had been warned of the approach of the crowd from Littleport, and a magistrate, the Rev. William Metcalfe, met them, on the outskirts of Ely, sometime between five and six o'clock. He asked the crowd to stop but Crow, driving the waggon, said, "Go on, go on, we will go into the market place." 

A crowd, estimated by one observer at 500, collected in the market square outside The White Hart Inn, where a number of the magistrates (all clergymen) had gathered. Metcalfe and the Rev. Peploe Ward asked them what they wanted and received the usual replies. Richard Rutter added a demand for beer at 2d. a pint to the now familiar cry for flour at 2s. 6d. and an allowance or wage of 2s. The magistrates, who were by this time scared out of their wits, invited a deputation, led by John Lee, into the inn to discuss their claims and the following paper was eventually drawn up. 

The Magistrates agree, and do order that the overseers—shall pay to each family Two Shillings per Head per week, when Flour is Half a. Crown a Stone; such allowance be raised in proportion when the price of Flour is higher, and that the price of Labor shall be Two Shillings per day, whether Married or Single and that the Laborer shall be paid his full wages by the Farmer, who hires him. 

During the deliberations in The White Hart the Rev. Henry Law, another magistrate who had been asked by Ward to hurry to Ely, entered the room. He wrote a number of letters, now in the Cambridge University Library, justifying his part in the proceedings and they help determine what went on on that day. Law approved of the concessions. He told Sidmouth that increased relief from is. 6d. to 2s. "to the poor families receiving parochial relief was justified ... My Lord, because the price of grain had become much higher (in May 1816) than when the foresaid allowance was made (November 1815)". 

The concessions were welcomed by the delegates, but they asked for one thing more—"forgiveness for what had passed". This was not acceptable to all the magistrates and an argument developed. Law told the Home Secretary that he warned the magistrates, as did Lieutenant Goodenough at Brandon, that they were acting ultra vires. "I resisted the compromise about to be made to the rioters," he wrote, "and I stated, that I would not agree to such terms which were contrary to law, reason and common sense, and I told the Mob, that he [Peploe Ward] had no power to hold out such a promise of pardon to them for that if they had offended against the Law, so their offences they must be accountable." The delegates' reply to Law's prevaricating was "then we have done nothing we will agree to nothing we will have Blood before Dinner". This was enough for the majority of the J.P.s and they agreed that "No person to be prosecuted for anything that has been done to the present time; provided that every Man immediately returns peaceably to his own Home". A statement of the magistrates' concessions was printed in an extraordinarily quick time and copies are still in existence. Vachell, writing to Law, said that he hoped that Sidmouth would be told of the way the magistrates were coerced. "... you know," he said, "that they were the absolute prisoners ... at the mercy of a most ferocious armed rabble without any means of defence. Every allowance, I trust, will be made for their complying with terms, to which in fact they were compelled to agree." 

The result of the meeting with the magistrates was announced to the crowd who responded with great cheers and many, including those who had been forced along, returned to Littleport with the armed waggon. Rayner Brassett, who had hidden and so avoided being taken to Ely, had followed the crowd there sometime afterwards with one of the Cutlack family and had returned to Littleport by nine o'clock. Shortly afterwards a group, including South, Jefferson and Little Easey, called on him and demanded food and beer. He accompanied them to The Globe and told Robert Johnson, the publican, to let the crowd have whatever beer they wanted. Brassett returned home but was soon called on by John Sparrow (who turned Crown witness) who said that more of the labourers had gathered at The Crown and that they, too, wanted food. The treasurer went along there and found Sparrow, Chevell, Beamiss and others drinking a barrel. Realising that the whole of Littleport was given over to carousing, he then called at The George, where John Lee and Burridge gave him more money, and at The Turk's Head, where he ordered another barrel—"the Mob", he told the magistrates, "said that all the Public Houses should be treated alike". He paid for what had been consumed so far out of his own pocket because, he said, Chevell knew what was in the handkerchief and he dare not touch it except in that firebrand's presence. 

At noon Chevell and six or seven others called on Brassett. Adding two pounds more, Chevell counted out the hoard which amounted to £43 4s. 0d. He then turned to his colleagues and "proposed ... that all the Publicans should fare alike and that the whole of the money should be spent on victuals and drink". They then departed and Brassett dutifully went his rounds settling with the landlords. At the end of the day a balance of £6 7s. 1d. remained which "was spent by the Mob in Victuals and Drink on the Friday morning". Brassett said that he acted his part simply through fear, a contention which rings true in his case. 

Not all the labourers had returned to Littleport. While those that had were drinking, many of their colleagues were rioting in Ely. 

After hearing of the magistrates' concessions, a section of the Littleport crowd—which had been, joined by some of Ely's "refractory inhabitants"—began demanding beer from the local publicans. By about 8.30 they were joined by labourers from Downham and they made their way to the house of Henry Rickwood. "Rickwood," a prosecution brief said, "is a Miller, and resides at Ely and he seems to have been considered by the Rioters as peculiarly deserving of their marked attention." Henry Chapman summed up the general belief about millers when he said, "the corn is got into the great People's hands—Damn them—if they [we?] are all of one mind we will take it away from them". 

Mr. Rickwood was not at home when John Dennis, who described himself as cashier, demanded "£50 as a douceur for saving [the] house and premises from destruction". Gotobed fired a gun into the place and Mrs. Rickwood sent her son, William, to see Robert Edwards, the Chief Constable of the Hundred of Ely and the agent for Mortlock's bank, to obtain the sum demanded. 

William Rickwood saw Edwards and told him of the crowd's demands. The constable began walking back to the miller's house but en route met the labourers with Mrs. Rickwood. At first he refused to give them money and made the mistake of brandishing his constable's staff, whereupon he was set upon and beaten by James Gammen into changing his mind. He asked whom he was to pay the money to and Dennis—who had tried to restrain, the crowd—said that he would "go in for Littleport" ; Flanders Hopkin went in representing the Downham labourers, and Stephen Saunderson those from Ely. Edwards handed the three £16 each and had one shilling left. Asked who should have it, Dennis replied that it had to be "divided equally". Edwards placed the amount to Rickwood's debt. 

A great number of women were in the crowd milling about the streets of Ely and Sarah Hobbes, a soldier's wife and the only woman actually tried at the Special Assizes, was particularly active. According to John Bacon, a constable, she led the crowd through the churchyard and away from Edwards' house saying "come along, come along . . . we will go to Cooper's, he is a bigger rogue than Rickwood". 

William Cooper kept a flour and grocery shop, and was regarded as a profiteer as bad as the unfortunate Willets elsewhere. The crowd of about 200 angry men and women began to call for "a crow or a mattock" to pull the shop down when Law and Metcalfe, the two magistrates, pushed their way forward. They managed to dissuade the mob from destroying the building but a cry of "five pounds, five pounds" was set up. The terrified Cooper handed over a note to Metcalfe who dutifully passed it on to Dennis. At this stage, the Ely labourers pushed William Atkin and Aaron Layton, a tenant of Cooper's and a master bricklayer, forward, saying that they wanted to be treated the same as the Littleport people. Cooper handed Layton, who later claimed he was acting under duress (a witness said he was "taken from the door of his Mother's by one of the Mob"), another note and the crowd gave him (Layton or Cooper?) "three huzzas and went away". 

From Cooper's shop the crowd went to visit George Stevens, another miller. Dennis demanded £50, but, after haggling for some time, agreed to accept ten. For some reason, Dennis objected to Atkin, who was a carpenter "possessed of some property", acting on behalf of the Ely crowd, and the money was divided between him and Layton. 

The rest of Thursday was given over to rioting and drinking in Ely, the publicans being forced to supply food and drink, as they had at Littleport. Most of the Downham and Littleport people, however, left by the early afternoon, and, after this, the authorities made some show of resistance. Some prisoners were obviously taken for, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Aaron Layton, Walton and Hunt were seen in Littleport asking for help to get them released. This was refused, the locals saying that none of their colleagues was missing and that the waggon had been put away. Later on, Henry Chapman, described as a "yeoman" on one of the briefs, also went to Littleport to ask for help. At five o'clock he was back in Ely, saying this had been agreed to and that "they had got four waggons loaded". This was an exaggeration, but some armed men may have returned. Robert Salmon certainly went and relieved Cutlack of the gun he had returned during the afternoon, announcing that they were off to release prisoners at Ely. Certainly, too, about a dozen were released; this is confirmed by letters from Law and others." 

The Littleport labourers were well satisfied with their day's work and the late arrivals joined in the festivities in the town. Dennis, who had purchased ribands, for the crowd, said exultingly, "we have done everything well they give us credit for it", and there were a few more incidents to record. Henry Mainer went to the unfortunate Tansley, who ranked second only to the Martins as an object of hate, and held him up with a gun. James Wortley and Thomas Smith took a pound from Matthew Waddelow. Apologetically, they told him that he had been overlooked the previous night. 

Downham had not been as quiet as Littleport, and there there were some minor incidents perpetrated on their return from Ely by a crowd led by Flanders Hopkin, John and William Wilson, and Matthew, Thomas and Samuel Seakins. Alice Cornwall was robbed of 4s. and another inhabitant was threatened but was left alone when he gave bread away. The Downham crowd, however, were a spineless lot compared with that at Littleport. A description of an attack they made on the house of Francis Tingey deserves quoting in full. 

The prisoners with many others assembled at the prosecutor's House on the 23rd ult. and demanded Money—The prosecutor having refused to obey the call an attack was immediately made upon his window by the prisoners and their party—The prosecutor's wife then took the Alarm and sent her son Francis Tingey with a Flag of Truce to the Besiegers and he succeeded in saving the Citadel from further destruction by payment of a three shilling piece.

22nd May 1816: Rioting erupts at Littleport, Cambridgeshire

The most serious of the 'Bread or Blood' disturbances in East Anglia took place in Cambridgeshire between 22nd - 24th May 1816, commencing in the village of Littleport on Wednesday 22nd May. Peacock (1965, pp.95-100) gave a good summary using multiple sources:

The incidents involving the Southerey labourers took place on the 20th and 21st May. Having secured the release of their friends, they returned to their village in high spirits and sent out messengers to nearby villages to spread the news of their victory over the magistrates. Among those told were the labourers of Littleport, a few miles away. They, according to one of the solicitors who drew up a statement of the events of the 22nd, 23rd and 24th May, "lost no time in asserting their Rights (as they audaciously expressed themselves)". The "Norfolk Banditti", he said, had "succeeded too well" at Downham Market. 

The labourers at Littleport met in The Globe public house on the evening of 22nd May for a Benefit Club meeting, and, without doubt, the recent incidents at Bury, Brandon, and Downham Market, were discussed by the fifty or sixty people present. According to Johnson, they were expecting the men from Southerey. Undoubtedly, the usual amount of drinking went on, and, when it was realised that their neighbours were not joining them, they issued forth from The Globe and made straight for the house of the Rev. John Vachell, the vicar of Littleport, an extremely unpopular magistrate. 

Vachell was at home when the crowd called. He was told that the labourers, wanted work and bread and he was asked to accompany them to a parley with the farmers. Vachell agreed to do this and the crowd met the farmers in the churchyard. Prominent among the latter was Henry Martin who acted as spokesman and who was described as "a principal Farmer in the Parish against whom some of them (the labourers) had imbibed an animosity", and elsewhere as someone who, was obnoxious "because of his conduct in the -affairs of the parish". (He was an overseer of the poor in 1814.) Martin promised the crowd "2s. per day and flour at 2s. 6d. per stone", exactly the same terms, he said, that he had heard the Southerey people had been awarded. By this time windows were being broken nearby and Martin said that "I was then advised to go home—and did so". 

A crowd led by a man blowing a horn had broken away from those negotiating with the farmers and begun rioting and robbing on a scale not seen at Brandon, Bury or Downham Market... 

One of the first objects of attack was a grocer's shop kept by Stephen and Mary Wiles. The windows were broken and Mrs. Wiles said that the crowd demanded that she should hand over £10. She offered £1 and they then settled for a bank token worth 1s. 6d. [sic]. Aaron Chevell (described usually as a labourer, but in one brief as a tailor), then relieved Stephen Wiles of £8 and the crowd set out for the house of John Mobbs, who was knocked down and robbed by John Easey of £3 "and one loaf of bread worth 1s.". 

From John Mobbs' house the crowd went to that of Josiah Dewey, a retired farmer of over seventy years of age. Aaron Chevell said to the old man, "Now if you will give me a £1 note I will go away", but Dewey foolishly said he did not have one. Chevell told the mob to "Go it". "Little" Easey and Richard Jessop knocked the old man down and about fifty labourers forced their way into the house. Mrs. Dewey was told to go off and borrow for them while her husband was held a prisoner. When she returned and handed the money over she found her house being cleared of anything at all valuable, including sheets, table cloths, stockings, a watch, gowns and a cleaver, which Thomas South appropriated and used with considerable effect later on. The crowd also found 100 guineas and a promissory note which they took. 

The success at Dewey's prompted the labourers to go to practically all the farmers and shopkeepers in Littleport, demanding money. Robert Crabbe took from Henry Tansley, and Jarvis Cranwell, and Thomas Sindall demanded a contribution from John Cutlack junior. Cutlack offered £3, but this was refused and he had to give £5, along with "a piece of paper containing a Minute of his having paid the Money to Sindall". William Beamiss senior, the shoemaker, took £1 from Thomas Waddelow and his son took more from Robert Cheesewright. Later he and Chevell went to Tansley again. Chevell, who was one of Tansley's tenants, anounced "I am at the head of the Mob", and Beamiss told the crowd "that he was cashier" and that "the old fellow [Tansley] has got the money, let us lug it out". The farmer handed over another £2. George Kidd was also visited twice, Thomas South deciding that the 6s. he had given the first time was not enough. South, wielding his cleaver, was also mainly responsible for robbing Robert Whitworth, a farmer, and entering the house of Mrs. Elizabeth Little and taking 10s. Aaron Chevell also took £1 4s. 0d. from George Aldis, a surgeon, and returned later to enquire whether or not the note was a good one! Henry Luddington, a magistrate, was one of the few people spared, he having persuaded Beamiss to leave his house alone. 

At about nine o'clock the labourers decided to bring some organisation into the proceeding, and Aaron Chevell led a group to the house of Rayner Brassett, a baker and flour dealer who was later charged with rioting, but turned Crown witness. Bras-sett was asked for a pen and paper to put down an account of how much they had obtained, and then the question arose of who was to be treasurer. Taylor, a labourer who appears quite often in the story yet who was never charged, was asked but declined. "Chevell then said let me hold it but the others replied no if Chevell has it we shall never get it again. Brassett shall hold it." The money, some £25, to which more was added during the evening (what happened to Dewey's 100 guineas is unknown), was put into a handkerchief and handed over to Mrs. Brassett. The crowd left to continue levying and wrecking, saying they would call back the following day. 

Thomas South, William Dann and Robert Crabbe then led an attack upon the house of Robert Speechley "a very feeble and harmless character of upwards of 71 years of age". South, brandishing his cleaver, told the people in the house that "he would serve them as he had served Dewey and not leave them a chair to sit upon". He took £2 12s. 0d. from Sarah Butcher, a servant, and William Dann, who was "in liquor", took from Thomas Cheesewright, who had gone into the house after being robbed in the street by William Beamiss. The place was then systematically broken up and glassware worth £20, twenty ounces of silver, linen and a quantity of money were taken. 

By this time the labourers had tasted success and from Speechley's they set out to hunt the unpopular Henry Martin. He lived with his grandparent, Mrs. Rebecca Waddelow, a shopkeeper, and had in fact hidden in the house, although he made his escape as soon as he heard the crowd approaching, shouting for his blood. Joseph Easey led the mob and Mrs. Waddelow, who was said to be "remarkable (7o-8o years) for Piety, Charity and Simplicity of character", sent out her servant, "Little" Sallis, to negotiate with him. Sallis offered Easey £5 to go away but this was refused, Easey saying that he would "have Martin". Richard Jessop was also asked to take the cash, but he, too, refused, "for Martin he would have". The crowd, in which John Walker bearing "an ensign" was prominent, then smashed their way into the house. 

Inside the house the crowd found Mary Cutlack, who was robbed of £3, and William, the brother of Henry Martin. Thomas South, who one report said was a servant of Henry's "whom he would doubtlessly have murdered had he met him ... sought to gratify his disappointed malice upon the Prosecutor (William)". South aimed a blow with his cleaver but missed and the fanner made his escape, along with William Gillett, who had been beaten and said he left "through fear". Thomas Gotobed, who was also anxious to settle with Martin, and others then proceeded to search the house and, not finding their prey, chopped up every piece of furniture they could lay their hands upon. They then "cleared the shop" of food and clothing worth some £50, and George Crow took about £6 in notes. Only one known member of the crowd was not from Littleport. This was Thomas Edgerley, a waterman from Ramsey, who had been working on a gang of lighters that were lying near Littleport bridge. He had joined the rioters and had taken tea and cloth worth £10 from Waddelow's shop, which he kept and eventually sold. 

Henry Martin had managed to get away from the crowd and had met Hugh Robert Evans, a local solicitor and clerk to the magistrates of Ely. The two of them tried to get away from Littleport in a post chaise, but were stopped by William Beamiss, John Hunt and a few others, who demanded money. Evans was relieved of 14s. and Martin, who kept in the shadows and concealed his real identity, parted with 4s. 6d. This was one of the offences chosen to go before the Judges at the Special Assizes, and one of the few that Beamiss was found not guilty of. 

The crowd returned to the Rev. Vachell's house at about eleven o'clock. First of all they demanded money and beer. Two pounds were handed over and they were told they could have a barrel, but Isaac Harley, who was armed with a gun, said this was not enough and threatened to shoot the Vicar and his gardener. Vachell made the mistake of brandishing a pistol and the infuriated crowd, knocking him aside, forced their way into the house. Mr. and Mrs. Vachell and their daughter, "an amicable and interesting young lady in extremely ill-health", managed to make their escape leaving the house to the mercies of the mob. The place was broken up and everything of value was taken, including twenty pounds of flour, silver spoons, "the 5th volume of the Botanical Magazine, a framed portrait of Philip Metcalfe, Esq., and a Bell pull ..." which were discovered in the house of Elizabeth Watson. 

After wrecking Vachell's house, the Littleport labourers took to organising themselves. So far no agreement had been reached with the magistrates as at Brandon and Bury, and, having cowed their own village, they began preparations for an armed march on Ely the following day. There the magistrates could be forced into making the concessions Henry Martin had suggested. 

The incidents in Littleport until about eleven o'clock were not directed by anyone of authority and had simply had revenge as their objective, although the farmers were approached with wage claims early on. At about this time, however, the crowd sent for John Dennis, a licensed victualler, who was sympathetically disposed towards them. According to Mary How, his servant, Dennis was in bed when the crowd first called and she said that they had to go back twice more before he would agree to go. She also said that Christopher Butcher threatened to shoot her master if he would not join, the crowd, but Dennis himself said that he got up and went to the market place because he heard "beer was, to be given". His defence at his trial was that he was forced into joining the crowd, but his actions belie this. It is reasonably certain that he took control of the preparations for the march to Ely.