13th January 1813: Major Raitt tells General Acland revelations from an informer

Wednesday [Evng]

My dear General

I send you on the other half Sheet a List of all the Prisoners with their Fates attached to them, 14 of them are to be executed on Saturday, next, Lumb is reprieved.

I have just received your Dispatch & will lay the applications before the General tomorrow morning. Haigh of the 51st is gone this evening in Charge of two Men to Huddersfield to find out a deposit of Arms told him by Mellor he slept with him in the Castle for 6 or 8 Weeks, he acknowledges (that is Mellor) to having fired at Hinchliffe not Schofield, Thorpe was present likewise, Mellor did not acknowledge the Murder of Horsfall, but did not deny it.

I was not in the [Court] after you left this, but as you are to be so soon here you will then hear all particulars, are you likely to close your Proceedings soon?

I remain
Yours truly
Much Obliged
[illegible] Raitt

[To: Major General Acland]

[13th January 1813]

6th January 1813: The trial of Mellor, Thorpe & Smith - Part 4: the verdict

At just before 8.00 p.m., and after being in Court 11 hours, the Jury in the trial of George Mellor, William Thorpe & Thomas Smith returned after only 25 minutes deliberation. They found all 3 defendants Guilty.

Unlike all the other prisoners on trial in the Special Commission, Mellor, Thorpe & Smith received sentence immediately.

The prisoners were asked by the Judge why sentence of death should not be passed and said:

George Mellor – I have nothing to say, only I am not guilty.

William Thorpe – I am not guilty, sir; evidence has been given false against me; that I declare.

Thomas Smith – Not guilty, sir.

Sir Simon Le Blanc then passed sentence:

You, the several prisoners at the bar, have been tried and convicted of wilful and deliberate murder; under all circumstances an offence of the deepest malignity, but under the circumstances which have appeared in this case in particular, as far as one crime of the same denomination can be distinguished from another, this may be pronounced a crime of the blackest dye. In other cases, the Court has been able to discover something which might work upon the passions of mankind, and might induce them to commit an act, at which, in their cooler moments, their minds would have revolted. But, in the present case, the crime was committed against a man, who appears to have given no offence to any one of you, except that he was suspected of having expressed himself with a manly feeling against those who had set up a right to violate all property, and to take away the life of any man who had been supposed to encourage others to do what I trust there still are men sufficient in this country to do—to stand manfully forward in defence of their property. For that reason, he was marked out by you as an object of the most cowardly revenge. You, attempting to associate with yourselves such men as you could prevail upon to join in your wicked purposes, way-lay him at the moment when he is returning home, almost in mid-day, with a boldness which one has scarcely ever witnessed in trying offences of this description. But in the course of your trial, proceedings have come before the Court, at which human nature should be so debased. That the national character should be so debased; that men, who ought to boast of their character as Britons, should have dared to hold forth, in the language in which you have held forth, and with so little discretion, that assassination and destruction of property were instruments in your hands, to be exercised at your pleasure, and against any person who had happened to offend you—independently of this, that you should have dared to take into your hands the holy scriptures, and to administer an impious oath to those who were cognizant of your offence, calling the Almighty as a witness (that Being whom you were conscious you had offended in the highest degree), calling upon him for vengeance upon the heads of those who should discover your crimes—these are circumstances which have appeared in the course of this trial, and which have scarcely ever appeared in the course of any trial which has been brought before a court of justice.

It is not upon the testimony of one, or two, or three witnesses, that your guilt depends; and let me advise you not to lay that balm to your souls, that you have been deprived by false accusation, and by false oaths, of your lives. A chain of circumstances has been discovered in the course of this trial, which does not depend upon the oath of any one, or two or three men, whom you may denominate even as bad as yourselves. But even from the testimony of those, who, if there had not been honest to a certain degree, would have given a different evidence, it is clear that two at least of you were guilty; and as little doubt remains, from other evidence, upon the guilt of the third.

In the shop where you have worked, some of you appear to have gained such an ascendancy over the minds and over the consciences of the workmen, who were in some degree under your control, that you could mould and fashion them to any wicked purpose you yourselves might imagine. Their eyes, I hope, will be opened by the fate which awaits you; they will see, that though for a short time the career of the wicked may continue, yet the law is sure at length to overtake them.

To you, the unfortunate persons who stand at the bar (for every man who has disgraced his character as you have, must be deemed unfortunate), to you the only kindness I can offer, is, in the advice to prepare, as speedily as you can, for that execution of this sentence, which must surely await you; to make the best use you can of the period still allotted to you in this world—longer far than was allowed to the unfortunate person who was the object of your revenge; that you will take the opportunity of making your peace with that Almighty Being whom you have offended; that by the sincerity of your repentance, the fulness of your confession, and the acknowledgement of your offences, you may endeavour to obtain that forgiveness in the world to come, which I cannot hold out to you any hopes of obtaining in this world.

It remains only to me to pass upon you the sentence of the law. That sentence is, that you, the three prisoners at the bar, be taken from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence, on Friday next, to the place of execution; that you may be there severally hanged by the neck until you are dead, and your bodies afterwards delivered to the surgeons to be dissected and anatomised, according to the directions of the statute. And may God have mercy upon your souls.

The execution was scheduled for 2 days time - in the midst of the proceedings, and despite the fact that all 3 prisoners were on trial for other offences.

6th January 1813: The trial of Mellor, Thorpe & Smith - Part 3: witnesses for the defence

The last part of the trial of George Mellor, William Thorpe & Thomas Smith consisted of numerous witnesses for the defence who spoke to state that they had spent time with either Mellor, Thorpe or Smith at or around the time Horsfall was shot. It’s not clear whose idea this was, or even if the defendants wanted it: there is evidence that George Mellor had been clear on a number of occasions that he wanted witnesses who had appeared for the prosecution – principally the household of Joseph Mellor – to tell the truth about what had happened that night. The witnesses that were to speak for him at the trial put him nowhere near his cousin’s house: had he changed his mind, or did his defence team insist this was now his best chance?

William Hansard, spoke for George Mellor, stating that he met him at 6.45 p.m. on the evening in question about a quarter of a mile from Huddersfield going towards Longroyd Bridge,

Jonathan Womersley, a clock-maker from Huddersfield, said he saw Mellor between 6.00 and 6.15 p.m. at the corner of Cloth Hall Street in Huddersfield, and that they went to the White Hart public house & drank 2 pints of beer and settled an account of Mellor’s. Womersley said he left 20 minutes later, leaving Mellor there with a William Battersby. He went to another pub, the Brown Cow, and heard there what had happened to Horsfall.

A cobbler, William Battersby, had been drinking in the White Hart with Mellor and Womerlsey that evening, and he estimated they stayed there for 30 minutes, when they heard about Horsfall and afterwards parted.

John Thorpe of Castle Street, Huddersfield, said he had known George Mellor 16 or 17 years, and stated that he had met him opposite the George Inn in Huddersfield at about 5.50 p.m. He was precise about the time because he said he had a watch he wanted to sell Mellor and showed in to him at that time.

Jonathan Battersby, another cobbler from Huddersfield, said he had met and talked to George Mellor  in the market place at Huddersfield before 6.00 p.m.

George Armitage, a blacksmith at Lockwood, said George Mellor had walked past his workshop from the direction of Joseph Mellor’s house towards Huddersfield between 5.00 and 6.00 p.m. that evening, when they had briefly spoken to each other. When cross-examined by Park for the prosecution, Armitage said that Mellor had said he had been to his brother’s house with a man that wanted work.

George Armitage’s brother, Joseph Armitage, also said he had seen George Mellor at the workshop between 5.00 and 6.00 p.m.

Charles Ratcliffe, a cropper from Huddersfield, worked in the workshop of Mr Fisher at Longroyd Bridge, the same place that William Thorpe worked at the time. He had been there at 5.30 p.m. on the day in question, and had seen Thorpe there and talked to him for 15 minutes before leaving for Huddersfield, where he heard of Horsfall being shot at 6.50 p.m.

Frances Midwood lived with her father at Longroyd Bridge and had gone to fetch water from Mr Fisher’s workshop. She made several trips, and estimated she saw William Thorpe there at 5.10 p.m., and then later, talking to Charles Ratcliffe. She stopped going back when she heard Horsfall had been shot, but stated that on each occasion she had been, Thorpe had been there, and she had also seen the next witness, Abraham Pilling.

Abraham Pilling, a cobbler from Huddersfield, had set out for Longroyd Bridge at 5.45 p.m. to take some shoes he had made for Frances Midwood to her. He lived around a mile from Longroyd Bridge, and arriving there after 6.00 p.m. he saw Midwood crossing the road with a can and going into Mr Fisher’s workshop for water. Pilling said he stayed and talked with Thorpe for some time whilst Midwood fetched him the money for the shoes. When he left the workshop to go elsewhere, some of the neighbours told him that Horsfall had been shot.

John Bower was a 17 year-old apprentice at John Wood’s cropping shop. He stated that on the evening in question, he had been working there with George Mellor, Thomas Smith, Benjamin Walker, James Varley and John Walker before 7.00 p.m. that evening. He said that Smith had left at 6.00 p.m. to go drinking before returning, and that Mellor had been absent from 3.00 p.m. until they worked together before 7.00 p.m.

Mary Thorpe, a servant of John Wood, stated she saw Thomas Smith and the last witness Bower come into the kitchen at 6.00 p.m., the clock striking the time.

William Hirst, was a lodger at John Wood’s house. He said he met Benjamin Walker at the workshop at 7.00 p.m. Having already heard about Horsfall being shot in Huddersfield earlier, when he gave Walker the news, he said Walker had said “That is too good news to be true”. The prosecution objected to the latter revelation, and the Judges agreed.

The final witness, Joseph Rushworth from Cowcliffe, said that he had been to Joseph Radcliffe’s on 12th October when he saw William Hall, who had been there to talk to the magistrate. He said he had had no further conversation with the informer after that time.

The evidence concluded, the case was summed up, with the Judge underlining the clear differences between the evidence of witnesses for the prosecution and defence.

The Jury retired at 7.30 p.m. to consider their verdict.

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”.

6th January 1813: The trial of George Mellor, William Thorpe & Thomas Smith - Part 1: the prosecution's case

On Wednesday 6th January, the trial of George Mellor (aged 22), William Thorpe (23) & Thomas Smith (22) for the murder of William Horsfall took place. The Crown had wanted to try this case first, but was prevented from doing so by an application from the defence’s legal team that they were not prepared.

The trial commenced at 9.00 a.m. in an overcrowded court room, so much so that court officers and counsel struggled to find a seat.

The Jury for this trial was as follows:

Humphrey Fletcher, Foreman
William Buttle
William Atkinson
John Johnson, senior
Jonathan Barker
William Denison, junior
Robert Kettlewell
Jeremiah Kirk
William Rimmington
William Scholefield
John Walker
Nicholas Walton

In the indictment, only Mellor was charged with shooting Horsfall – Thorpe & Smith with being present and aiding & abetting, but all 3 were charged with murder. They all pleaded Not Guilty, the Leeds Mercury describing their appearance as “very respectable”.

For the Crown, James Alan Park reminded the Jury that they were sworn to “inquire into the matter of blood”. He went on to paint a very picture of the whole of the Luddite disturbances, as if they had culminated in the assassination of Horsfall, a mystification that has been repeated down the years to today. Horsfall was portrayed by him as a family man, giving employment to hundreds of workers, and loved by them almost as a benevolent father figure. Park also placed the anti-Luddite argument central and prominent in his address to the Jury:

“(Horsfall) employed the machinery which was the object of the abuse of these misguided people. I have not the means of making such observations as I have frequently and lately heard made, upon the delusion which has prevailed upon that subject, amongst the lower orders. It has been supposed that the increase of the machinery, by which manufacturers are rendered more easy, abridges the quantity of labour wanted in the country. It is a fallacious argument: it is an argument, that no ma who understands the subject at all, will seriously maintain. I mention this, not so much for the sake of you, or these unfortunate prisoners, as for the sake of the vast numbers of persons who are assembled in this place.”

The Leeds Mercury also captured Park’s words about Horsfall’s character:

“(Horsfall) had expressed himself with a manly warmth against the delusions under which the manufacturing classes laboured, some may think his warmth imprudent, but I am not of that opinion”

Park then went on to relate what had happened on the 28th April 1812. Reflecting on the indictment, Park noted that it accused Mellor of firing one shot – Park admitted that two shots were fired, but said this was ‘immaterial’ – he contended that all three were charged with murder and it did not matter who fired the shots. He went on to say that four men were involved, and that the fourth accomplice – Benjamin Walker - would give evidence for the Crown.

Park related that a vague plan had been hatched in John Wood’s cropping shop, where Mellor, Walker & Smith worked, Wood being Mellor’s step-father. Park contended that George Mellor was the ringleader, and an advocate of assassination, but that Walker was not informed of the plan to shoot Horsfall until 4.00 p.m. on the very day it had been decided to proceed with the plan. The four men were to meet in a plantation belonging to Sir Joseph Radcliffe at 5.30 p.m., as it adjoined the road Horsfall would be taking on his journey home to Marsden from Huddersfield market.

Park then explained he would call another witness for the Crown – William Hall – a fellow cropper who knew of the plans for Horsfall. Park contended that Hall had bought Mellor’s Russian horse pistol, and Mellor had borrowed it from him that day, explaining what he intended to do.

Park also tried to whiten the character if his principle witness by contending that Mellor had threatened to shoot him if he did not take part in the plan. He went on to describe in detail what had taken place, as the witnesses would relate further into the trial.

Park ended his statement of the Crown’s case with a bleak biblical quotation:

“the land can only be cleansed from the pollution it has received from blood, by the blood of him that sheddeth it”.

24th October 1812: The authorities leak information to the press about the Horsfall arrests

On Thursday 24th October 1812, a letter was sent to the Courier newspaper about the arrests made for the shooting of William Horsfall, and which was subsequently published on 29th October. It took a further 9 days for it to appear in any local press, eventually surfacing on 7th November in the Leeds Mercury.

The letter, which is featured below, was clearly written by some person or persons very familiar with the cases of George Mellor, William Thorpe, Thomas Smith and Benjamin Walker. It contains information present in the statement of Benjamin Walker, which must have been known to only a handful of people. The most likely suspect behind the letter must be the Stockport solicitor, John Lloyd. He had been known to publish items in the press in the past, which had greatly annoyed General Maitland.

There seems to have been an effort to prejudice the case by placing information in the public domain, especially as it contains errors, which I will illustrate below. The names are redacted in the original, but I have added them (in square brackets) where it is obvious from the relevant statements obtained by the authorities who they are meant to be:

To the Editor of the Courier.
Huddersfield, Oct. 24.

SIR.—A very important event happened here on Thursday last, of which as the Leeds Mercury of to day does not appear to have any information, I hasten to communicate the intelligence through the medium of your paper.

A man has been taken up and examined before that indefatigable Magistrate Joseph Radcliffe, Esq. and has at length received the offer of his Majesty's pardon, and given the most complete and satisfactory evidence of the horrible murder of Mr. W. Horsfall. In consequence of this, the whole of the wretches concerned in that dreadful transaction, have been taken committed to York Castle, to take their trial at the ensuing Commission of Assize.—He was with the party (four in number) when Mr. Horsfall was shot.

They were furnished with loaded pistols by [George Mellor] who ordered them to take their stand in the Plantation on Crosland Moor. Two others soon after joined them, and took their station about twenty yards below them. When the unfortunate Gentleman came up, two fired. They then all fled across the fields, and [George Mellor & William Thorpe] damned them all the way for not firing their pieces. Two ran forwards to Honley, four miles off, and two more stopped at a place called Dungeon Wood, and hid their pistols at [Joseph Mellor]’s house there, in some flocks—left their great coats, and ran immediately in their jackets to Huddersfield, where the news of the murder had but just arrived. The next morning they all four met at the work-shop of their employer (a cropper) and [William Thorpe] produced a Bible, and made them all swear not to betray each other.

The villains have frequently been examined before, but have always been discharged for want of sufficient evidence. One behaved with the greatest effrontery till he saw —, and then he changed colour and gasped for breath! When he came out, he said, “Damn that ______, he has done me.”

It appears [George Mellor] and [William Thorpe] have been Chiefs in all the disgraceful transactions that have occurred in this part of the country the last twelve months, especially at Rawfolds, where the former was Captain of the gun-division, and the latter of the pistol. ______ has thus made discoveries which will lead to the detection of a great number of these offenders, and, it is hoped, ultimately restore the West-Riding to its former tranquillity.

Most the information is clearly from Benjamin Walker's statement, although the information about the pistols being hid at Joseph Mellor's house is from the statements given by him and his household.

The fourth paragraph - about the confrontation between the informer [Walker] and his former comrade appears nowhere else in any evidence. Brooke & Kipling (1993, p.48) point out that it cannot be George Mellor, as he had already been committed to York Castle before Walker was arrested. There is a possibility that it is William Thorpe, but it seems unlikely because of the strong denials Thorpe had given in his statement and subsequently at his trial. It seems unlikely then, that if such a confrontation had taken place, that it would not have been brought up at trial, which it wasn't.

21st October 1812: The cropper, Benjamin Walker, turns informer & implicates Mellor, Thorpe & Smith in the William Horsfall shooting

By the evening of Wednesday 21st October 1812, Benjamin Walker, the cropper who had been arrested 4 days before, had reached his limit and agreed to turn King's Evidence for the State against his former comrades and fellow croppers.

Only 24 hours before, he had proved to be unyielding for the past 3 days: General Acland had reported to General Maitland in a letter of the 20th that Walker had "been examined, but nothing has come out".

Something had made him capitulate. He was being interrogated by the Stockport solicitor, John Lloyd, a loyalist zealot who was renowned for his interrogation techniques and practice of abducting witnesses. In a letter Lloyd wrote to Acland the day before,  he indicated that he had an informer (a 'respectable merchant in Huddersfield') who told him that prior to her son's arrest, Walker's mother had unwittingly approached the informer with concerns that those in custody may impeach those at large. Lloyd had persuaded this merchant to turn informer when he had Walker's mother watched and followed to his home. Lloyd had then acted to apprehend Walker, followed by William Thorpe after 'intimations' from Walker's mother he was also somehow involved. Lloyd then apprehended Walker's mother herself, and subjected her to a rigorous 'examination', but she would not tell him what she had told the informer. Lloyd got the informer to give him an undertaking that he would get Walker's mother to relent, so that he would not have to appear himself to give evidence. Finally, Lloyd then abducted Walker's mother to his home in Stockport "where she will more fully and freely give her Examination".

By the Thursday 22nd October, Walker had placed a mark next to his name (because he was illiterate) at the bottom of a lengthy confession which implicated many of his comrades. Radcliffe, Lloyd & the others intended to use him as King's Evidence, which would save him from the hangman.

The statement began with a description of how Walker became involved in the raid on Rawfolds Mill: hearing about the plan at his workplace in John Wood's cropping shop: Walker said George Mellor had teased him, asking him if he could 'keep a secret', before revealing the plans to attack Rawfolds. A good deal of what we know about the raid comes from this statement. Walker stated that Mellor and William Thorpe were the ringleaders, and company commanders on the night, and also stated that he and others from John Wood's shop felt obliged to be involved because, as well as being their employer, Wood was Mellor's step-father. Walker also implicated others he said were wounded - James Haigh and a man called Jonathan Dean - and also a man called Mark Hill who had been involved in collecting money for those wounded in the raid.

Walker then went on to state his involvement in the assassination of William Horsfall. He alleged that the shooting was solely the idea of Mellor & Thorpe, a plan they presented to him and Thomas Smith only 30 minutes prior to putting it into execution. This is perhaps the weakest past of Walker's whole testimony: all that subsequently followed is supposed to have occurred in only 30 minutes, something which stretches credibility beyond any reasonable point, but which the Crown subsequently based its case on. Walker said he and Smith 'refused for some time' the idea of the execution, hard to believe as they would have needed to have moved fast to make it to Crosland Moor and lie in wait for Horsfall, who would have been well on his way to the Warren House even by then. Walker then said that Mellor provided both he and Smith with pistols and directed them to make their way to the plantation on Crosland Moor and wait for him and Thorpe who would take a different route to arrive there. According to Walker, they did this and waited 10 minutes before the two others arrived, meaning that only 20 minutes had elapsed from Mellor broaching the idea to them reaching this point.When Mellor & Thorpe arrived, they agreed that Walker and Smith would fire only if they missed, and that they should lie in wait 20 yards behind Mellor & Thorpe. Walker then says, rather bizarrely, that they all waited a further 30 minutes before Horsfall arrived, which contradicts his statement earlier that he only knew of the plan to kill Horsfall 30 minutes before it happened.

Walker went on to say that when Horsfall drew level with the plantation, he heard two shots, and assumed both Mellor & Thorpe had fired, although he did not see what happened. In this statement, he is clear that neither he nor Smith fired a shot, something which he said annoyed Mellor as they fled. The four split in Dungeon Wood, with Walker & Smith taking a different route. He and Smith then headed on to a public house at Honley, where they drank and ate.

The following day at John Wood's workshop, Walker said that William Thorpe made he and Smith swear on a Bible to keep the matter secret. The day after that, Walker said Mellor told him to be careful and say nothing, as some people from Dungeon had already been questioned.

Walker was keen to exonerate his master, John Wood, saying that he knew nothing of his step-son's plan.

At the end of the statement, more detail was added: Walker said that after he and Smith had parted with Mellor and Thorpe in Dungeon Wood, they had hidden their loaded pistols in an anthill, but never returned to retrieve them. He also talked about the Russian pistol belonging to George Mellor, and how Thorpe had hurt his cheek running through Dungeon Wood, and Mellor one of his fingers because he had loaded his pistol full of musket balls. He also described the coats Thorpe and Mellor were wearing. All of these details had appeared as questions put to Joseph Mellor's household 10 days before, and appear to corroborate them.

Radcliffe and Lloyd now had what they wanted: an accomplice to corroborate the story that had been concocted. Despite the seemingly insurmountable issues with the timings given by Walker, his confession would prove to be the framework for the Crown's case.

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.

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: A young apprentice to Joseph Mellor gives information to Joseph Radcliffe, which leads to arrests

After receiving information from Francis Vickerman via John Lloyd, that possible suspects in the assassination of William Horsfall had been at the house and workshop of the master cropper, Joseph Mellor, on Saturday 10th October 1812, the magistrate Joseph Radcliffe first acted to summon and question one of Mellor's apprentices, a boy called Joseph Oldham.

Oldham told Radcliffe that on the day Horsfall was shot, another apprentice called Thomas Durrance showed him 2 pistols brought to the house by 2 men that evening. Later on, a man he did not know called upon the house to ask if he could wash himself, accompanied by another man, called George Mellor - a cropper and his master's cousin. Oldham said that Mellor had walked about the workshop while the other man washed himself. He described the unknown man as stout and tall, with light-coloured hair, wearing a dark or drab-coloured coat, but with no marks of blood upon him. He said that George Mellor also wore a drab-coloured coat.

After the vague description that Vickerman had given Lloyd of the suspects, he now had a definite name: George Mellor.

10th October 1812: The Huddersfield manufacturer Francis Vickerman gives information to the Stockport solicitor, John Lloyd

By Saturday 10th October Francis Vickerman, the Huddersfield manufacturer who lived at Taylor Hill, had already sent 2 letters to General Acland (here and here), offering information about and making suggestions on how to deal with the Luddites in the area.

Some time before this date, he had spoken to the authorities, most likely the Stockport solicitor, John Lloyd. Notes taken either at or after that interview survive in the Home Office archives. We cannot be sure of the date, since the notes are not dated, but they are in the distinctive handwriting of Lloyd. The fact that Lloyd wrote from Congleton on the 9th October, where he stated he planned to return to Stockport the same evening, means that the interview may have taken place the next day - or that Vickerman visited Lloyd whilst he was in Cheshire: Brooke & Kipling (1993, p.30) note that he had done so earlier in the year when he had spoken to Lloyd at Chester, and was anxious to avoid anyone knowing he had done so.

It's strange then that no other documents in the Home Office archive seem to corroborate that any such meeting took place: be it a letter from Lloyd, Joseph Radcliffe, General Acland or the Huddersfield solicitor John Allison, there is nothing which confirms or acknowledge the important contribution the interview made to cracking open the Huddersfield Luddites. However, the information in these notes does appear, alongside much other information, in a notebook kept by General Acland, suggesting he had read the notes.

Vickerman is referred to in the notes as 'Mr V', the same term used to denote the authorship of his second letter to General Acland, from which the signature has been removed. Robert Reid has perversely decided that 'Mr V' was James Varley, a cropper, although Brooke & Kipling confirm it is Vickerman because he refers to a family member: this is further confirmed by a discovery made in our trawling of the Home Office papers.

Vickerman started by suggesting to Lloyd that planting informers would be the best way to pursue the Luddites, in particular at 3 public houses in Lockwood (The White Horse, The Red Lion and one belonging to William Haslem) and others in Huddersfield and at Longroyd Bridge.

Vickerman told Lloyd that a master cropper at Longroyd Bridge named John Wood had a house and workshop where meetings were held. He also suggested that Wood was a 'leading man' amongst the Luddites. The notes mention that Wood's name had already been suggested by a woman at Edgeley, and that cyphers had been found at Wood's house.

Most importantly, Vickerman went on to reveal information about people he believed were connected with the assassination of William Horsfall (having already tried to tempt Acland to meet him by promising information about this in his first letter to him). He stated that his own nephew, also called Francis Vickerman, was an apprentice to a clothdresser called Joseph Mellor, who had a home and workshop at Dungeon Wood, a mile from where Horsfall was shot. A servant girl at Mellor's had told Vickerman junior that on the evening of Horsfall's assassination, two men came to the workshop and undressed themselves, putting on fresh clothes and leaving for an hour before returning and then putting their own clothes back on. An apprentice at Mellor's - John Kinder - could not subsequently find his black handkerchief, and Joseph Mellor had offered him his.

Vickerman went on to say that 2 of those who shot Horsfall were the brother of Joseph Mellor, a cropper from Huddersfield, and another 'young man' who lived with the aforementioned 'leading man' John Wood, Wood being married to the young man's mother. Although names are not mentioned, either Vickerman or the note-taker seem to have confused the same person as 2 different people: a cropper called George Mellor was the cousin of Joseph Mellor, and the same George worked at John Wood's cropping shop, Wood being married to his mother, Mary Greenwood, who had previously been married to George's father William Mellor. However, Brooke & Kipling (1993, p.49) point out that Joseph Mellor did have a brother called John, who was around a year younger than George, and could have been involved in Luddism, although if he did, nothing is known about him.

Vickerman went on to name several 'principal people' among the Luddites: Joseph Beaumont & William Hargreaves, both master clothdressers from Lockwood. Also Thomas Shaw, Joseph Shaw and Luke Bradley of Taylor Hill.

At the end of the notes, Vickerman outlines his views on those amongst the authorities and manufacturers who could be 'depended upon': Thomas and Joseph Atkinson of Bradley Mills; Abraham and John Horsfall, the father and brother of the late William; Thomas Allen & Joseph Hague; Joseph Radcliffe 'the life of all'. Vickerman felt that Sir George Armitage was 'not to be depended upon owing to his timidity'.

Robert Reid has mistakenly called these notes an anonymous letter, despite the fact they contain neither a date, salutation nor a signature and are written very much as notes, and not in flowing paragraphs. The fact he attributed them to Varley indicates sloppy research: as pointed out Brooke & Kipling, this theory falls down on the fact that Varley did not have a nephew who was an apprentice to Joseph Mellor, like Vickerman did (1993, p.104 fn54). He also seems to have missed the fact that the handwriting is John Lloyd's. But a new discovery of ours indicates beyond doubt that Vickerman was the man being interviewed, and that Lloyd was the interviewer. In a separate division of the Home Office archives is a stray page in the same handwriting which begins 'Mr V says'. In it, Vickerman states that the Luddites had continuity with the jacobinical United Britons - a 'gentleman' had told him that 'the system has existed from the time of Colonel Despard' and that he himself had found cards 'about his shear frames' marked with the words 'Liberty Equality & Humanity' and '1st West York' printed in red ink on the reverse. The emblem of the United Britons contained the phrase 'Liberty Justice & Humanity', an error on the part of either Vickerman or Lloyd, but proof of the continuity of the revolutionary designs amongst the West Riding Luddites. Also proof that 'Mr V' was a manufacturer who owned shearing-frames, as was Vickerman.

Any final doubts about who the interviewer and interviewee are is removed by what is written on the reverse of this page: 'Lloyd & V.—Informations'. Frustratingly, there is no date.

The events that were to follow over the next 2 days are inextricably linked to the information provided by Vickerman.

2nd October 1812: Joshua Haigh is committed to York Castle

On Friday 2nd October 1812 Joshua Haigh, the soldier who had confessed to killing William Horsfall and being involved in the attack on Rawfolds Mill, was committed to York Castle by Joseph Radcliffe.

19th September 1812: The Stockport solicitor, John Lloyd, tells the Home Office he has a suspect for the killing of William Horsfall

General,

I have to request you assistance. Information has been obtained this Morning that a Soldier of the 51st Regt is one of the Murderers of Mr. Horsfall. His name is Joshua Haigh — was inlisted in this Town by Serjeant Marshall — and, prior to April Sessions, he was detected of lead stealing for ‘Lud purposes but discharged about the 7th or 8th of April from Pontefract Sessions, being no prosecution. Mr. Horsfall was shot about the 28th of that month. Haigh fled over to Ireland, where he was apprehended by a party of the 84th Regiment, as a Deserter from the 51st, and escorted to the Army depot at Brabourne Lees, Kent. Capt. Thwaites command there, and will cause him to be detained – and perhaps sent down his — The Capt might may be authorized to shew him the proclamation in order that if he is in a situation to avail himself of the Royal Clemency he may impeach his accomplices.

You shall be furnished with all particulars for private satisfaction, but I conceive it will not be necessary to state more than the above to the commanding Officer; and tomorrow I will procure a Warrant from Justice Radcliffe which can succeed the communication you may be please to make to that Officer.

I have thought it best, General, to make this communication in writing that you may, if you think proper, forward it with any letter you may write to have the matter properly attended to—

I have [etc]

J Lloyd

Huddersfield 19 Sept 1812

[To General Acland]

18th May 1812: Edmund Eastwood, William Horsfall's companion on his final journey, dies

On Monday 18th May, Edmund Eastwood, a manufacturer friend of William Horsfall, died. He had ridden alongside William Horsfall during part of his final & incomplete journey, and had never recovered from the injuries he sustained in trying to obtain help. The Leeds Mercury of 23rd May carried his death notice:

On Monday last, Mr. Edmund Eastwood, of Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield.—This gentleman was the intimate friend of the late Mr. Horsfall, of Marsden; and soon after Mr. Horsfall had received the fatal shots upon Crossland Moor, he was thrown from his horse near the place where the assassination took place, and considerably hurt. Indifferent to his own injury he ran on foot to Huddersfield, to procure surgical assistance for his friend, and on his return he again mounted his horse and repaired to Huddersfield a second time, for a supply of medicine, when he was again thrown from his horse at the corner of the church yard in that place, and so much injured by his repeated accidents and arduous exertions as to occasion a complaint in the abdomen, which terminated in his death.

2nd May 1812: Burial of William Horsfall in Huddersfield

In the early morning of Saturday, 2nd May, William Horsfall was buried at Huddersfield Parish Church. The brief report in the Leeds Mercury made it clear that the matter was not made into a public occasion and was conducted early in the morning, presumably to avoid hostile crowds and the possibility of disorder - "few people knew till the funeral was over."

1st May 1812: Government reward notice for Horsfall assassination

Whitehall, May 1, 1812.

Whereas it hath been humbly represented unto His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, that, on Tuesday evening 28 April last, between the hours of six and seven o'clock, Mr William Horsfall, of Marsden, near Huddersfield, in the county of York, cloth-merchant, was shot at, as he was returning from Huddersfield market, by some one or more of four villains, who were seen lurking behind a wall in the plantation of Joseph Radcliffe, Esq, on Crosland Moor, and four slugs entered his body; since which the said Mr. Horsfall has died of the wounds he received;

His Royal Highness, for the better apprehending and bringing to justice the persons concerned in the said murder, is hereby pleased, in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty, to promise His Majesty's most gracious pardon to any one of them (except the person or persons who actually fired at the said Mr. Horsfall) who shall discover his or their accomplice or accomplices therein, so that he, she, or they may be apprehended and convicted thereof.

R.RYDER.

And, as a further encouragement, a reward of TWO THOUSAND POUNDS is hereby offered to any person making such discovery as aforesaid (except as is before excepted), to be paid on the conviction of any one or more of the offenders by Mr. John peace, of Huddersfield.

30th April 1812: Major Gordon informs Lieutenant-General Grey that Luddites are conducting arms raids

Huddersfield 30th of April 1812

Sir

I have the honour to report to you for Lt Genl the Honble HG Grey's information, the arrival of a division of the West Kent under the command of Major Best consisting of [1 Major; 2 Captains; 2 Lieutenants; 2 Ensigns; 1 (Assistant) Serjeant; 6 Serjeants; 2 Drummers; 211 Rank & File] which I do not consider a sufficient force for this place & neighbourhood. The Rioters are collecting arms by force — last night in the neighbourhood of Lockwood, (2 miles from hence) about twenty of them entered a house and demanded the arms (a Gun & pistol) which they knew the person had - he at first refused to deliver them — they then threatened to destroy his house & put him & his family to death if he resisted—Several other attacks of the same description have been made within these few days. I think it might be of service to cause a search for powder in the houses of those who have permission to sell it – and to obtain an order if possible to purchase the whole of it and prevent a further supply until this county such as many others are are in a more quiet state—

I feel under the necessity of reporting that I conceive it absolutely necessary a much larger force should be in this neighbourhood and that a temporary Barrack should be found in the towns for the accommodation of the Troops, Cavalry in particular, for our arms are not safe which the men are with their arms, in addition to which, they may with ease be prevented turning out, in case of a sudden attack and which we are always liable to in this place — I can assure you Sir this requires immediate attention―

The Depot of the Local Militia is also in this town, which I conceive extremely dangerous, there are seven barrel of Ball Cartridge, and about 40 Stand of arms complete, which alone require a strong guard to protect it, independent of the danger arising from the powder lying in the middle of the town, at all times liable to be destroyed by fire, and which they will endeavour to do if they are prevented taking possession of it—

I could wish the Depot of Arms &c to be where there is a stronger Garrison, it will otherwise on the return of the Regiment be in the extreme dangerous to have such a quantity of arms unprotected—

Mr Horsfall died this morning in consequence of his wounds.—

I have just left Mr Radcliffe who tells me, he thinks was the prisoners who is strongly suspected of being at the attack of Mr. Cartwrights Mill, will be forwarded this morning to York. I send a Serjt and twelve men with him from hence to Leeds – and have written to Col Campbell by this consequence, saying he may expect him at Leeds in the course of an hour after he remains thus.—And that I have communicated with you for the purpose of having a relay at Tadcaster from York

I have [etc]
William Gordon
Major Capt 2nd [Dragoon Guards]

30th April 1812: Joseph Radcliffe informs the Home Office of nocturnal arms raids & requests more troops

Sir

Messrs T. Atkinson, & Allinson who left Hudfd last night will have been with you before this with the inclosed comes to hand, in which I send 2 examinations taken this day relative to the nightly breaking into houses to rob them of arms, many have been so broken into, & could a power, as I in a former letter observed, for a general search for arms be obtained, most undoubtedly it wd at least lead to discovery and detection of the thieves &c.—I also take the liberty of inclosing a letter I this day got from Majr Gordon of the 2d D. Gds now quartered at Hudfd, and most active & attentive officer, by which you will observe his opinions of the urgent necessity we are under for further military support, & which I trust by your applications to the war office will be granted without delay, or we must resign every thing to the power of the disaffected, for depend upon it, the present complaints are only a prelude to further encroachments on the internal peace of the country.

I inclose an acct of Mr. Horsfall's death, shot on Tuesday evening, & also a letter from Mr Stables, one of the committee to obtain a pardon for an accomplice, & a reward of 2000£, & I am Sir

Your most Obt
Hbl Servt
Joseph Radcliffe

Apl 30. 1812

30th April 1812: The death of William Horsfall

After being shot 38 hours earlier, William Horsfall finally died at the Warren House Inn on Crosland Moor at around 8.30 a.m. on the morning of Thursday 30th April 1812.

Mason Stanhope Kenny, the assistant surgeon of the Queen's Bays who had been brought to help him at 8 p.m. on the day he was shot, later gave a deposition to Joseph Radcliffe which stated that Horsfall had suffered three wounds: one on the lower left side of his abdomen, another on the upper part of his left thigh which entered his intestine, and a third on the right thigh. He reported that two of the musket balls causing these wounds were later extracted.

Another surgeon, a Mr. Houghton, had arrived later. He observed 2 wounds on Horsfall's left thigh, and another on the left of his abdomen, and 2 more wounds on his right thigh, a total of 5.

The report in the Leeds Mercury on 2nd May reported 4 wounds, with the most damaging being the one entering Horsfall's abdomen from the left and travelling downwards leaving the bullet lodged at the back of the right thigh. The bullet from this wound was extracted by Houghton.

The Mercury suggested all the entry wounds were on Horsfall's left side, despite the fact that Stanhope Kenny's deposition only mentions 3 wounds, with one being on the right side, and Houghton's evidence, which mentions 2 wounds on the right side.

It doesn't appear to have been remarked upon by any authors before now that in suffering wounds on different sides of his body, Horsfall had either been shot from both sides of the road, or that he had turned to face his assassins either before or as shots were fired, or even that some of the shots were fired after he had fallen. All of this runs contrary to the evidence given by witnesses.

Whatever happened, Horsfall never recovered. by 5.00 a.m. on the morning of the 30th, he had started to bleed profusely, with one of his thighs swelling enormously. When he finally died three and a half hours later, in the persence of his brother, the Reverend Abraham Horsfall, he was supposedly lucid. At some point before he died, Horsfall said to Houghton "these are awful times, Doctor."

By these words, it's not clear if his impending doom had made Horsfall realise the wretched fate he was condemning many families to in the West Riding by his use of shearing frames and imposition of the factory system, but it seems unlikely. What we can be clear about is that the 38 hours he spent in agony were as nothing compared to the grinding misery he had condemned the West Riding croppers and their families to by his actions.

According to Frank Peel (1968, p.145), the Horsfall family subsequently discontinued the use of shearing frames at Ottiwells Mill, meaning that, in a specific local context, and like with Burton's Mill at Middleton and the Westhoughton Factory, Luddism worked.

A coroner's inquest was held later the same day, and returned a verdict of Wilful Murder by a person or persons unknown. To the Luddites, it was a political assassination.