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The Age of George III |
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| 1811 | Outbreak of first Luddite disturbances in Nottinghamshire and the smashing of stocking frames. | |
| 1812 | February | Meetings of Yorkshire croppers; secret societies
are formed and their members begin smashing cropping frames in the Spen
Valley and environs; secret meetings are held at the St Crispin Inn,
Halifax with the old radical and republican John Baines. The frightened manufacturers form a Committee for the suppression of the disturbances. |
| March | Attacks on cropping frames become an almost
daily occurrence at the smaller mills across the
West Riding. There is a massive groundswell of opinion behind
the Luddite attacks. The manufacturers' Committee offers 100 guineas for information leading to arrests. The magistrate for the Huddersfield area Joseph Radcliffe petitions the Home Office to send military support. |
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| April | Several attacks on mills in the district 11th: Cartwright's well-defended Rawfolds Mill is attacked and the attackers are driven off, two Luddites dying of their wounds and several others wounded despite the fact that one of the militiamen defending the mill refuses to fire on the attackers and is court martialled. This is the first rebuff the Luddites have received; for several days the whole area seems on the brink of open rebellion 18th: Cartwright is shot at but not hit 21st: the militiamen who refused to fire during the defence of Rawfolds are flogged outside the mill, Cartwnght intercedes on the man's behalf and the punishment is halted after 25 lashes 28th (evening): William Horsfall, the owner of Ottiwells Mill who once said he would 'ride up to his saddle girth in Luddites blood' is shot on the way home from Huddersfield market, later dying of his wounds. |
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| May | Numerous reports of men seen drilling and
several raids for arms Radcliffe is given a personal militia escort 11th: the Prime Minister. Spencer Perceval, is assassinated at Westminster; a new government is formed by Lord Liverpool; Viscount Sidmouth is appointed Home Secretary and pursues a hard-line policy determined to smash all forms of civil disturbances throughout the country. |
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| June | Repeal of the unpopular Orders in Council begins a slow revival in the manufacturing industries but this is partly offset by declaration of war with America | |
| Summer | While armed raids continue, Radcliffe steps up the use of spies and informers to try to find evidence against the local ringleaders: 1000 troops are brought into the Huddersfield area, at least 30 to every public house; whole area virtually under martial law, spies and informers everywhere. | |
| October | Mellor, Thorpe, Smith and others are arrested
for the murder of Horsfall, partly on the evidence of the informer
Ben Walker: the tide turns against the Luddites John Baines arrested for administering an illegal oath |
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| 1813 | January | Trial of Mellor, Thorpe and Smith and 63 others before a special Commission held in York; Mellor, Thorpe and Smith are found guilty and executed before a silent crowd; 14 other Luddites including John Baines are transported to the colonies; only seven men are acquitted; the bodies of those executed are returned to their families; the Luddite rising in Yorkshire is over; within a few years the cropping frames at the centre of the dispute are replaced by newer, more sophisticated machines; cropping as a trade almost disappears by 1820. |
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Last modified
12 January, 2016
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