23rd April 1814: The solicitor Louis Allsop tells the Reverend Becher about his plans to employ a spy among framework-knitters

Nottingham
22 April 1814.
Friday Evening

My Dr Sir

I could not possibly reply to your Letter received Yesterday Afternoon by the return of the post. I shall have great pleasure in rendering to You personally any Assistance in my power respecting the Frame-breakers.

The persons who have established the Society we conversed about, when last I saw You; They whom You allude to, as invested with the power & actuated by the Will to preserve the peace of this County will do me the Credit to believe that they can command my Services at any time. But I am apprehensive, you estimate my Services too highly; unconnected as I am officially with the Magistrates, & those persons who have been actively employed in the Investigation of the proceedings before referred to, I am not in the Way of meeting with proper people to be employed in the Discovery of the Mischief, & before I could form the opinion which a discreet man ought to do, it would be necessary for me to know more of those I should employ, than I can possibly do; my Maxim is not to engage to do more than I can perform, and with all then upon a first Communication I am anxious to come to a full Explanation; with this understanding I am quite at your Service. There are certain Individuals in this place, who possess both the means & Inclination to get at the bottom of the proceedings. I have been in the habit of advising with them most confidentially for a considerable time & I have occupied the whole of this morning in a Communication with them & in directing their attention the Investigation of the Society, We spoke about; They have now allowed me the Liberty to mention their names. They are fully alive to the Extent & Danger of the Mischief; we much wanted a Set of the printed Resolutions of the Club, you had when in Nottingham, and if I am not successful in getting a Set (which I have reason to expect) I must beg of You to procure a Copy, & forward to me here. I explained to these gentleman the Substance of the Resolutions, as far as I cd. remember from the hasty perusal I had of them, and my impression thereof—We all agreed as to three of the parties, the same three I named to You, and the probability of the fourth, one only doubt respecting him being that the rest would not trust him—the men agree too, in my Suggestion that the Constitution of this Club is founded upon the Methodist System of Wesley, & this particularly struck one of my Friends as a convincing proof that Latham who is a Methodist was one; many Circumstances came out on comparing our Sentiments, to corroborate each other, not worth while troubling You or myself with—It appears to us quite evident that the principal Actors are in Nottingham and that a person, if possible, shod. be immediately procured to go amongst them, one was thought of, his name not mentioned, but some Circumstances about him came out, which induced me to think he is the same from whom you obtained the Information you stated to me at Nottingham; it was settled that We should obtain Information from Hodgson the printer, by those who could approach him in all of the Meetings & the names of the parties who usually attended at a public house in Glasshouse Lane. The parties suspected and most difficult to watch, as their time appears to be occupied very much in observing the Actions of those whose Intents or Duty they fancy, are in opposition to them. There is a regular communication with these people in Sheffield, where the Workmen have struck & it would be desirable to obtain Information therefrom. Lord Sidmouths attention should be directed to this, & to the propriety of examining at the post office here & that the different places where Committees of this Society are established, the Letters, as some may by chance be sent in that Way, tho’ they doubtless communicate by the Coaches & by private hands. a great difficulty is, what can afterwards be done; Lord S must consider whether the Magistrates have sufft power to seize these people & their papers, if not, such power ought to be given by Parliament, as well as the punishment made greater than the Law deems now to inflict upon persons guilty of unlawful Combinations—The most desirable thing would be to get at the main Springs, because while these Fellows remain untouched, altho’ the minor agents may be punished, the Hydra will always spring up again & particularly as these men are living entirely at the expense of the Society—an opportunity presented itself to me this Evening of making an Enquiry of Hodgson the printer, he printed 5000 of the papers, for which he was paid about 25£ he was employed by a Man of the name of Simpson, Kings place Woolpack Lane—it is my Intention in the Morning, if I can get time, to enquire who this Simpson is; tho’ I understand Hodgson has communicated these matters to some of the County Magistrates—I have this day heard that Latham has been travelling about the Country lately, and has been at Daventry.

Saturday evening

I have not had an Opportunity to obtain Information this day, Hodgson has been twice at Simpsons who is from home, but says he can see on Monday Morning however You had better send me a Copy of the Rules, in Case Simpson shod. refuse to let Hodgson have them—I hear that Latham has been at Tewkesbury.

I am
Mr D Sir
Most sincly Yrs

L. Allsopp

[To] Revd J T Becher

The Luddite John Hill is lost to us again, just as we thought we'd found him

'JH' - but not John Hill - the enigmatic gravestone at Greetland

Back in March, I wrote about how research by local historian Andrew Howson and myself had led us to contact Greetland Methodist Church officials to try to ensure that they looked into whether the remains of a Luddite hanged at York, John Hill, were buried in a plot there which was marked marked with an enigmatic gravestone (see picture above) bearing his initials.

This was only possible because the graveyard was being cleared in preparation for development on the site. Andrew's research into church records, combined with my publication of documents on this website, made it clear that Hill was buried at Greetland on 20th January 1813, within 4 days of his execution, and that the famous Methodist Thomas Jackson had signed the burial records, despite claims in Jackson's own biography that he prevented Luddite burials from taking place there.

Officials at Greetland Methodist Church, in particular Geoff Butler, took this research seriously, and applied for licenses to exhume the 'JH' grave plot, with archaeologists undertaking the excavation and other experts being employed to determine if the remains had injuries consistent with hanging.

In the meantime, Andrew and I determined that Hill's wife and child had died and been buried at Greetland within only a few years of Hill himself - on 16th April 1816 & 28th July 1816 respectively. Further research from Andrew determined the names that the patriarchal style of the burial records omitted - Hill's wife was originally called Susannah Fleeming, and had married Hill on Christmas Day 1810, and had died aged 26, while their daughter, Ann, was born 6 months before the Luddite uprisings in the West Riding on 28th September 1811 and died aged only 5.

There was therefore a very real prospect that Susannah and Ann had been buried with John, in the same plot.

So it was with much disappointment that I was informed by Geoff Butler yesterday that the remains found in the 'JH' plot at Greetland did not match what we had hoped would be found: instead, the grave contained the remains of a man and a woman aged over 60 years of age, and the remains of a small child up to 1 year of age.

Where is John Hill? Well, we know that he is buried somewhere in the graveyard at Greetland, but clearly not in a marked plot. The 'JH' gravestone was the only plot with a headstone that was a likely candidate. The church's own recording of the gravestones do not yield evidence that any other graves may contain John and his family. It's possible that his remains may be uncovered as work progresses on the wider site, and Geoff Butler has given me assurances that those doing the work will be alert to any remains uncovered. We can only hope that the remains of John, Susannah and Ann are located in this way.

The likelihood of a burial in an unmarked plot fits in with the fact that the latter day Methodist church was acutely embarrassed that members of its congregation were in any way connected with Luddism and the disturbances in the West Riding. In this way, Thomas Jackson wrote in his biography six decades after the burial of Hill that he had prevented the burial of Luddites (read the extract after the 'read more' link below). Strangely, Dr John Hargreaves is quoted in an article in the Yorkshire Post today saying that it's possible that Jackson's vain lies are the truth, despite the documentary evidence & primary sources that he has seen - found by amateur historians - that prove Hill's burial at Greetland & the fact that Jackson knew this had taken place.

Happily, Geoff Butler has confirmed that the current Methodist Church at Greetland is keen to remember John Hill in a more permanent way on the site, even if his remains can never be found.

Saved from destruction - the last resting place of the Luddite John Hill - and plans for his re-burial!

A view of Greetland Methodist Chapel, and graveyard, from Google Street View

It's now more than a year since I wrote this blog about the last resting places of the 14 Luddites hanged at York in January 1813. At that time, it was not at all clear if it would be possible to learn where any of the burials were located, despite clues in the primary sources - at least not without extensive & time-consuming research.

Fourteen months ago, we quoted a letter from the military commander in the area of Elland, a Lieutenant Cooper, who reported that the Luddite John Hill had been buried at 'in the neighbourhood of Elland' within a few days of his execution at York. Cooper reported that the local parson had refused to read the service over  the burial, and that this had caused some ill-feeling amongst those gathered. Cooper intimated however, that this atmosphere was nowhere near as poisonous as that of previous burials, like that of Samuel Hartley at Halifax, which had almost turned into a riot.

Since then, with the research conducted by one particular reader of this website, a local historian and genealogist Andrew Howson, the last resting place of John Hill has been located for certain at the graveyard of Greetland Methodist Chapel, near Halifax. Andrew had located the burial register of the Chapel in both the national archive and the west yorkshire archive, and it  showed that a 27 year-old man from North Dean called John Hill was buried there on 20th January 1813.

Unfortunately, the research was made particularly urgent when Andrew discovered that the graveyard was due to be built upon - and most of the burials obliterated - by a housing development. There were plans to remove a limited number of burials from the graveyard, and re-inter them in a memorial garden in another local church. But of John Hill, there was no information (despite a previous press release by the church which had been published acknowledging that 'Luddites' were buried there).

Officials at the church proved difficult to contact initially, perhaps because they had been told by a well-known local academic that no Luddites were buried at Greetland. The academic based this statement on comments in the biography of a Thomas Jackson, the local parson at the time, that he had actively prevented burials of Luddites at Greetland. Fortunately, our presentation of the primary sources indicating the truth to the church does seem to have won out over a secondary source containing the bitter lies of a member of the church hierarchy written decades after the event. The modern church officials confirmed the name and date of the burial in another version of the register, and that there was a small headstone marked 'JH' as well.

The latest news is that, after our intervention, the Church intends to exhume the remains of John Hill and re-inter them at the memorial garden, and also preserve the headstone  on this site.

As far as we're concerned, the icing on the cake would be for there to be a plaque remembering John Hill accompanying the re-burial - and perhaps his name attached to any new road on the development, as with 'John Booth Close' at Roberttown.

NB - for the latest news on John Hill's grave, read this blog post.

19th April 1812: Memorial service for Samuel Hartley at Halifax Methodist Chapel

Jonathan Saville later in life

On Sunday 19th April 1812, a memorial service was held at the Methodist Chapel in Halifax for Samuel Hartley. It was another occasion of high emotion, with the minister Jabez Bunting once again refusing the officiate. He asked the young disabled preacher, Jonathan Saville to officiate, and Saville later recorded the occasion in his memoirs (1844, pp.24-26):

"I preached one Sunday to the largest congregation that ever assembled in Halifax Chapel. A young man had been shot while assisting to make an entry into a Mill near Cleckheaton, for the purpose of breaking machinery; and he was brought to Halifax Chapel to be buried. On the Sunday after the funeral, the people came from far and wide to show their sorrow for the deceased, [or rather, to make a political demonstration]. They filled the Chapel to overflowing; hundreds stood on the outside, unable to get in, and constables walked before the doors to keep the peace. The preacher who was planned for that afternoon had gone to Huddersfield, probably to get out of the way. Mr. Jabez Bunting sent for me. When I got into the pulpit and looked round, I felt faint. It was the first time that ever I felt my right thigh weaker than the other: it trembled as if I had an ague. My tongue for a long time clave to the roof of my mouth. Mr. Bunting was in the chapel. After the singing, I felt loosed in spirit, and took for my text, my favourite, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, &c." Towards the end, I had occasion to speak of the Christian's confidence in a dying hour, and I contrasted the death of the believer with that of the infidel. At the time, perhaps more than ever, infidelity was busy among the lower classes. I said, "When the tired Christian has been toiling on the ocean of life, he comes at last to the harbour's mouth, and angels are standing on the shore to welcome him home.—But the infidel, as he comes in, sees devils waiting for him, and he cries, 'tack about, tack about!' but no! in he must go," and so on. Then I exclaimed,"Infidel, die hard! never strike the black flag when Death confronts you!" It seemed to have a great effect. A few days afterwards, as I was going up King-Cross Lane to my Class, some persons threw stones at me, but I was not hurt."

15th April 1812: The funeral of Samuel Hartley in Halifax

Jabez Bunting in the 1840s

On Wednesday 15th April, two days after his death, the body of Samuel Hartley was transported to his native Halifax for burial.

The funeral drew hundreds of mourners, many of them wearing silk aprons edged with black. Like many of the West Riding Luddites, Hartley was a Methodist, but the local minister, Jabez Bunting, refused to officiate. Bunting was from then on the subject of much hostility to those who sympathised with the Luddites. He apparently had death threats made against him and had to accompanied on his country appointments for some time.

At the funeral, there were angry scenes, but a deputy was eventually found, apparently at the insistence of local Luddites. The crowd gathered were still evidently unhappy at the end of the service, and the preacher had to make "an abrupt exit" at the end of service.

A memorial service was to be held for Hartley at Halifax Methodist Chapel the following Sunday.