![[Wheatley Family History Project]](banner.gif)
[Go to Home Page]
[Blackner wrote within twenty years of the riots, and his partisan feelings had scarcely cooled.]
‡ ‡ ‡
We have now arrived at a period when it is necessary to detail circumstances in our local transactions which will require a very great share of prudence to prevent the spirit of party from disfiguring the fair page of the historian. Truth, however, shall be given to the utmost of my power in obtaining it; and if, in detailing the outrages committed against law and individual safety, some expressions of warmth should escape me, the reader will bear in mind, that, in order to be a faithful historian, it is not necessary that the man who assumes that character should give up the principles of patriotism and many other noble passions of the heart.
The blaze of opinion, which sprung from the American and French revolutions, had made a great alteration in the political disposition of the people of England; and no where more so than in Nottingham. The town was divided into two hostile parties, under the appellations of democrats and aristocrats; the former considering delegated authority as the only legal power, and titles of nobility as so many excrescences upon the body politic which ought to he cut off; while the latter abandoned their rights as brother members of a community, and made unconditional submission to the will of the king, the nobility, and clergy the controlling article of their faith. Patriotism, in the natural acceptation of the word, became extinct for a time; for the democrats prayed for the overthrow of the arms of royalty wherever they might be engaged, or to whatever kingdom or empire they might belong; and the aristocrats prayed for the destruction of the friends of democracy, without ever considering the cause in which they were engaged. Both parties were guilty of treason against the English constitution, as far as intention can constitute treason; the one against the liberties of the people, and the other against the. aristocrasy and the crown. But, however much at variance were the principles of these parties, their local practice was equally so; for while the democrats sought by every persuasive means, and by the circulation of political pamphlets to gain proselites, (in which they were very successful) their opponents became proportionately angry and revengeful; the latter of which passions manifested itself so early as December, 1792, when an incendiary letter. was sent to Mrs. Carter, who kept the Sun inn, in Pelham-street, the principal resort at that time of the democrats, threatening to burn her house, &c. if she continued to entertain them. This letter had no other effect than that of exciting disgust and exertion, and the winter and spring passed with mutual recrimination and street squabbles.
The war against the rising republic of France had now been determined on by the British <p. 387> ministers—they dreaded the progress which republican opinions were making because of their ready commixture with the principles long entertained and industriously propagated by the most enlightened part of the British public in favor of an equal representation of the people: they therefore, with William Pitt at their head, who had long been considered the champion of English reformists, now became the focus of a monarchial European combination, for the purpose of stopping the growth of political opinions; and the restoration to the throne of France of the long detested family of the Bourbons was made their sine qua non. And ministers, in order to obtain public opinion in favor of their project, caused the pulpits and as much of the public press as they could purchase and control, to teem with invectives against republicans and reformists; with open declarations, except the Bourbons were restored, that monarchy, aristocracy, and the established religion of this country must all fall together. The fallacy and iniquity of the measures being seen through by many most respectable characters, whose habits were those of peace, and whose political opinions were founded on rational liberty, and consequently on the pure principles of the English constitution; they therefore, though they hitherto had not mixed in the political circles of the day, now saw it a duty they owed to their country and to the well being of mankind in general, to make a constitutional effort to stem the fatal torrent which was then flowing to break down every barrier of human liberty, that universal despotism might be established on their ruins.—PEACE WAS THEIR OBJECT; AND THE GUARANTEE OF THE SACRED AND FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE, THAT ONE NATION HAS NO RIGHT TO INTERFERE WITH THE INTERNAL CONCERNS OF ANOTHER. [O, that the efforts of these worthies had been successful! what a mass of misery would then have been spared to the human race!] On an occasion of this sort, Nottingham was sure to be among the foremost of the provincial towns; and twenty-six gentlemen, of the description just given, signed a requisition to the mayor, calling upon him to further, by the constitutional means in his power, a petition from the town founded on the premises above named.* This conduct, by the more violent and ignorant of the war party, was considered little short of treason, and these patriots were secretly marked out as victims to their vengeance. We say, by the more violent and ignorant of the war party; because it ought ever to be borne in mind, that many in this town, that, most likely, from mistaken opinions and overhasty conclusions, had become advocates of the Bourbon-restoring system, were directly averse to the disgraceful measures pursued by the misguided and enfuriated men, that circumstances caused to be ranked as belonging to their party.
The first victim marked out for sacrifice at the altar of ignorance was the late Mr. Joseph Oldknow, alderman, who resided at the top of the piazzas on the Long-row; and, in August, 1793, his house was assailed in the open day with stones, &c. by an enfuriated mob. Mr. Oldknow was a gentleman not to be trifled with—he remonstrated, but in vain—he told his assailants what they might expect as a consequence of their outrageous conduct, for which they vomited forth vollies of <p. 388> abuse and discharged fresh vollies of stones: he then discharged the contents of a blunderbuss among them, which killed one man. and wounded six or seven. This resolute and constitutional proceeding of Mr. Oldknow in defence of his property and his life, had the effect of immediately stopping the progress of these daring violaters of the law for a time, as no more mischief, of any material consequence, was committed this year, though much was in contemplation. But what a dreadful state had the enfuriated passions of men led them to, when nothing short of the last means of self-defence, which an Englishman holds in right from the constitution, could convince these depredators of their error! And if ever the time should arrive that Englishmen shall be deprived of that right, they have ceased to be any thing, except the slaves of oppression and the cruel and passive instruments of its vengeance; when, the sooner the name of their country is blotted from the list of nations, the better for the rest of mankind.*
The succeeding winter, like the preceding one, passed with mutual disquietude between the parties; and the spring (which unfolds scenes of peace, happiness, and love, except in the bosom of unsocial man,) but added to the passions of irritation. Government had proclaimed, that opinions hostile to monarchy were making a rapid progress among the people; and they called upon those "that loved the church and king" to arm in their defence, which was done with avidity throughout the country.† A few of the democrats of Nottingham formed a resolution of learning the military discipline, and early in a morning repaired to Snenton plain for the purpose, w<h>ere they were drilled by an experienced character; and, for want of muskets, they used sticks, which were sarcastically called wooden guns. This measure, though it injured no man, was extremely indiscreet, considering times and circumstances; for though every Englishman is constitutionally considered a defender of his country, and is liable to be called upon and armed at any hour to repel invasion, or suppress insurrection, which naturally implies. both a right and necessity of learning the use of arms; and though every Englishman has a right to possess fire-arms and to use them in defence of his person, family, and property, under any circumstances of peril; yet, as the professions of the democrats were founded on the dissemination of information and maxims of self-defence, the measure in question was unnecessary, and also extremely impolitic, because it furnished their enemies with the means of charging the whole peace party with deception and dangerous intentions, inasmuch as some of them were learning the use of arms, without the sanction of government. If these men had purchased arms, instead of wasting their time in learning their use when they had them not, the subsequent mischief might have been prevented; for the ruffianly cowards that composed the ducking mobs took especial care not to assail those houses which they knew were protected with arms. The friends of war now appear to have began preparations for <p. 389> systematic renewal of the violences of the previous summer: a committee was therefore formed to prepare and regulate the modes of attack and point out the objects thereof;* and the temper of the mob was first tried upon two countrymen that were led into trouble under the following circumstances.
The rustics of Newthorpe, like the sons of ignorance and prejudice in many other places, gave a display of their loyalty, by hanging, shooting, and burning a bundle of straw &c. which they, in their manifest wisdom, intended to represent Thomas Paine, author of the "Rights of Man;" and when night came on, and these valiant men of Newthorpe had expended all their ammunition, they applied to Matthew Lindley, a shopkeeper in the hamlet, for a fresh supply, that their victory over the bundle of straw might be rendered more signal. With this application Mr. Lindley refused to comply, "because," said he, "the sun is set, and the law forbids any person, to sell powder after that time, for fear of accidents by fire." But as these heroes were alike strangers to law, common sense, and common prudence, they broke Mr. Lindley's windows, and otherwise damaged his property. In consequence of this, he applied for legal redress, and himself and some of the violators of the peace, were ordered to attend before the county magistrates, on a Saturday, at the White Lion Inn, in Nottingham, at which place the magistrates used to meet for the transaction of such business as might come before them; Mr. Lindley taking his brother Robert with him as a witness. Suffice it so say further, that Mr. Lindley got no redress—that himself and brother were forced into the centre of a lawless banditti, collected on the occasion in the inn yard, whose passions were inflamed by those very persons that it was expected would have been punished for their outrage at Newthorpe, and whose ferocity was rendered stronger by this display of criminal impunity—that the two destined victims were borne by the mob into the market-place, under circumstances of personal injury which we need not describe; and that, while Mr. Lindley had the good fortune to escape into a shop on the Long Row, with the loss of one or both of his coat-skirts† his brother Robert was dragged to the Exchange pump, where he was pumped upon as long as the mob pleased, and otherwise treated according to their notions of justice. <p. 390>
But the great effort of violence was made on the 2d of July, as will be proved from the following extracts from documents written on the subject.—Extract of a letter to the author from Mr. Robert Denison, proprietor of the cotton mill, then standing near Poplar-place, to the defence and threatened injury of which the extract alludes:—"July 2d, 1794, a ferocious mob made an attack upon the mill and demolished the windows. A man with a young child on one arm and a firebrand in his right hand, set fire to the work-shops, which were consumed with much valuable timber. The adjoining tenements were much injured by the miscreants placing fire on the stairs and other parts of the houses." And again, "The mill was defended by several young men, most of them stocking-makers (who volunteered their services) and the three sons of the proprietor; but such was the imbecility of the mayor, that he wrote to the proprietor—THAT THERE WAS NO SECURITY FOR THE LIVES OF THE YOUNG MEN IN THE MILL, UNLESS THEY WERE CONDUCTED BY A MILITARY ESCORT TO THE COMMON GAOL, IT BEING THE ONLY PLACE OF SAFETY." I have three briefs in my possession superscribed by Kinderley and Long, Chancery-lane, London, which are acknowledged by Messrs. Vaughan and Reader, and which were pleaded from by those gentlemen at the Lent assizes in this town in 1795, in behalf of William Marriott and Samuel Duckmanton, against three of the duckers, and from one of them the following extract is given:—"The temporizing and pusillanimous conduct of the chief magistrate and attending constables contributed very much to increase the fury and confidence of the mob—we are sorry to say, that it was sanctioned by men respectable for property, who ought to have known better than to fan the flame of civil insurrection, but whose weak heads and bad hearts were impenetrable to the sacred duty which they owed to the community and the law. The. mayor was informed of the riot so early as about three o'clock in the afternoon on Wednesday the 2d July. He was with the mob shortly after attended by several constables,—not endeavouring to disperse them or repress their outrageous violence, but witnessing with criminal apathy, the excesses which they committed, and even joining them in their illegal purpose of searching for the arms which the peaceable inhabitants kept for their own defence in times of similar commotions, under pretence that they were procured with sinister intentions against the state. The mob continued in the neighbourhood of Coalpit-lane with the chief magistrate among them till near five o'clock; during which period houses were entered and searched, windows broken, and many persons dragged to adjacent pumps and ditches, where they were half drowned with water, or suffocated with mud, and otherwise beaten and cruelly treated; the mayor making no effort to protect them. Having carried on this scene of riot, insult, and brutality in this part of the town for about three hours, without a single aggressor being apprehended, the mob went towards Pennyfoot-stile with the same malevolent intentions, and searching houses, ducking, pumping &c. were continued with the same relentless, or rather increased fury."
Many persons were ducked in the Leen and Canal, and John Relps, a highly respectable master stocking-maker, lost his life in consequence of the ill treatment he received on the occasion; nor were the criminals punished for the murder. Posterity will scarcely believe that these monstrous scenes were carried on for more than a week, with a few intervals of troubled repose, while this Henry Green, this chief magistrate of a great and ancient corporate town, was within call; nay <p. 391> he was actually a spectator of the scenes three separate days; and but a short distance from his own house one man was actually uncovered by a fury in the shape of a woman, while her worthy associates of the other sex plied him with copious streams from a pump. A few of the common ruffians received a little imprisonment, and there ended the course of criminal retributive justice; nor was it material about punishing the petty agents in this nefarious business—it was on the head of this Henry Green, this villanous mayor, that the whole weight of legal vengeance should have fallen. But though he escaped the punishment of man, he was marked out by the finger of heaven; for, from being highly respected as a gentleman, from being an opulent hosier, a cotton-spinner, and a brewer, he became in a short time alike a bankrupt in property and in fame. Though dwelling in a very populous town, he became as isolated as an hermit, for he was shunned both by the virtuous and the vicious—by the former from a principle of honor, and by the latter from motives of shame. He died of a broken heart when want and guilt haunted him like two spectres—and the winds of heaven dispersed his distressed and disconsolate family. Nay the foundation of his house was uprooted, and one of the men who had been cruelly treated through his criminal neglect, strewed pepper and salt upon the earth where it had stood.