1st August 1812: General Maitland informs the Home Office about Samuel Crabtree

Manchester 1st August
1812

My dear Sir.

I last night received Your’s of the 30th and this morning, met the Magistrates at Stockport on the Subject. —

The Provisions of the 2nd Clause, will be carried into effect, in all the Disturbed Part, of the County of Cheshire, on Wednesday, the first day on which, from the peculiar circumstances of this Country, it was adviseable so to do.

I am equally in hopes of getting the Magistrates to do it, all along the Border, but the truth is, whenever Danger is not staring them in the Face, they are sadly relaxed in their Operations.

A man was killed last night near Ashton: It is not at present quite clear, whether he was Shot, by the Disaffected, or whether he was killed by accident, when on the Way to murder a man, they had agreed to transport at their last Meeting, which is their Cant term for Murder.

I am quite confident, the last will turn out to be the Case, and that this Accident, prevented about 30 of them, who were assembled from carrying into Effect, their original purpose.

I shall write to you again tomorrow,
And am [etc]
T Maitland

Nine OClock PM.

P.S:

I have this moment received a Report, from the Surgeon of the Norfolk Militia, I sent to inspect the Body, he had 4 Balls in him, and I have every Reason to imagine, it was an Accident among themselves: the Deceased was a man of notorious Bad Character.—

TM

[To] John Becket Esqr.
&c &c &c

31st July 1812: A would-be Luddite assassin is found dead in Newton, Cheshire

In his memoirs, Captain Francis Raynes related an incident that took place in the evening of Friday 31st July 1812 at Newton, near Hyde, Cheshire. The Cooper referred to is William Cooper, Raynes' informer, who had been uncovered by Luddites and whose life had been threatened previously. Raynes had taken him under the protection of the military:

About five o’clock in the Saturday morning ... Ashworth, my special constable, came to inform me, a man had been murdered in Newton, at a short distance from the back of Cooper’s house, and his body horribly burnt and disfigured. I immediately hastened to Newton, accompanied by some soldiers and the special constable, and found there a spectacle too shocking to describe. On examining the body and the place where it was found, I had no doubt in my own mind, but the deluded men, bent on the horrid purpose of murdering Cooper, had assembled at the back of his house, with determined resolution of executing it. But it appeared to me, that Samuel Crabtree, the young man found shot, after loading his pistol, had put it into his pocket, where it had accidentally gone off, several bullets having entered his back, and the fire communicating with a quantity of powder he had about him, produced the dreadful appearance the body assumed: a powder flask burst, and a leathern bag, containing upwards of sixty bullets, some of which were melted, were found with the body.

Raynes went on to state that there was no formal inquest into the death. The incident was later related in the press, although there was no mention of Cooper. Crabtree was 18 years old.