Sheffield and the English Revolutionary Tradition, 1791–1820

F. K. Donnelly; J. L. Baxter

doi:10.1017/S0020859000005034

Sheffield and the English Revolutionary Tradition, 1791–1820

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008

F. K. Donnelly and

J. L. Baxter

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Was there a secret revolutionary movement in England during the early Industrial Revolution and, if there was such a movement, must we accept that its existence would be “unprovable”? Should we agree with a recent writer that no conclusions can be reached on such questions, the existing historical sources being so ambiguous as to allow the historian to impress his own prejudices on them?. We believe that a rigorous study of the historical evidence of a revolutionary tradition in one region can offer an insight into this important area of English social history. The purpose of this essay will be to set the revolutionary aspect of Sheffield's political history against a brief outline of the town's economic development.

Type: Research Article
Information: International Review of Social History , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , December 1975 , pp. 398 - 423

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000005034 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1975

References

^{page 398 note 1} Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class, revised ed. (Harmondsworth, 1968), p. 542.Google Scholar

^{page 398 note 2} Currie, R. and Hartwell, R. M., “The Making of the English Working Class?”, in: Economic History Review, Second Series, XVIII (1965), p. 639.Google Scholar See also the remarks of Chambers, J. D.in History, New Series, LI (1966), pp. 183–88.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 398 note 3} Bythell, D., The Handloom Weavers (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 209–10.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 398 note 4} This study necessitates the use of evidence of spies and informers, some of which is of questionable value. However, we have largely confined our use of such historical material to that which is supported either by subsequent events or independent corroboration.

^{page 398 note 5} Robinson's, JohnA Directory of Sheffield (Sheffield, 1797)Google Scholar lists the following numbers of firms engaged in the major cutlery and tool trades: pen and pocket knives (278), table knives (81), scissors (77), files (50), razors (43), scythes (26), sickles (25), and saws (14). On Sheffield's economic history, see Buckatzsch, E. J., “Places of Origin of a group of Immigrants into Sheffield, 1624–1799”, in: Economic History Review, Second Series, II (1949);Google ScholarLeader, R. E., History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire (2 vols; Sheffield, 1905–1906);Google ScholarLloyd, G. I. H., The Cutlery Trades (London, 1913);Google ScholarPollard, S., A History of Labour in Sheffield (Liverpool, 1959);Google ScholarTaylor, W., The Sheffield Horn Industry (Sheffield, 1927);Google ScholarWatson, A. T., The Sheffield Assay Office (Sheffield, 1890).Google Scholar

^{page 399 note 1} In the second half of the eighteenth century the population of the town probably doubled. By 1821 the population of Sheffield and its five adjacent townships was 65,275.

^{page 399 note 2} Compare the usage of this term in Soboul, A., The Parisian Sans-Culottes and the French Revolution (Oxford, 1964), p. 51.Google Scholar

^{page 400 note 1} This applies to both masters and journeymen who employed apprentices directly or indirectly through a network of sub-contracting. In reality the status of Sheffield workers ranged from wage labourers, through “dependent” artisans, to a smaller group of nearly independent artisans.

^{page 400 note 2} Williams, G. A., Artisans and Sansculottes (London, 1968), p. 58.Google Scholar

^{page 400 note 3} Sheffield Register, 29 July 1791.

^{page 400 note 4} V. Eyre, Agent for the Duke of Norfolk, to Dundas, 31 July 1791, Home Office Papers, 42/19, Public Record Office, London.

^{page 400 note 5} Barker, John to Worsley, Thomas Carill, Esq., 29 July 1791, Manchester Central Reference Library,Google Scholar M 35/2/44/41.

^{page 400 note 6} Sheffield Register, 11 May 1792; Sheffield Iris, 1 July 1796; Sheffield Courant, 28 June 1796.

^{page 401 note 1} On the history of the SSCI, see Armytage, W. H. G., “The Editorial Experience of Joseph Gales, 1786–1794”, in: North Carolina Historical Review, XXVIII (1951);Google ScholarFearn, E., “Henry Redhead Yorke – Radical Traitor”, in: Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, XLII (1968);Google ScholarSeaman, A. W. L., “Reform Politics at Sheffield, 1791–1797”, in: Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, VII (1957);Google ScholarBrown, P. A., The French Revolution in English History (London, 1918);Google ScholarMitchell, A. V., “Radicalism and Repression in the North of England, 1791–97” (unpublished Manchester University M.A. thesis, 1958).Google Scholar

^{page 401 note 2} Letters of C. Hundley of Leeds Constitutional Society, 28 May 1795, and John Harrison of SSCI, 19 March and 22 July 1793, in Treasury Solicitor 11/953/3497, Public Record Office.

^{page 401 note 3} De Lancey to Dundas, 13 June 1792, HO 42/20.

^{page 401 note 4} Memoirs of the Life and Writings of James Montgomery, ed. by J. Holland and J. Everett (London, 1854), I, p. 168. However, there is evidence that at least one, and perhaps two, organisations were formed in Sheffield by the more “respectable” inhabitants “to put a stop to those levellers”. See Thomas Ward to John Moore, 4 December 1792, British Museum, Add. Mss 16920.

^{page 402 note 1} Deposition of William Broomhead before Privy Council, 28 May 1794, Treasury Solicitor 11/963/3509, and before Sir Richard Ford, 23 June 1794, ibid. 11/956/ 3561.

^{page 402 note 2} Deposition of W. Broomhead, 28 May 1794, ibid. 11/963/3509.

^{page 402 note 3} Sheffield Iris, 14 August 1795; see also the evidence of Sgt Hinde in “Crown Briefs”, contained in James Montgomery's papers MD 1092, Sheffield Central Library.

^{page 402 note 4} “C.D.X.N.”, “Formation and Mutiny of Cameron's Regiment in Sheffield in 1795”, in: Sheffield Times, 4 October 1851. The pay dispute was settled quickly, but the regiment was moved from the town, and soon after it was broken up on account of its rebellious disposition in Sheffield.

^{page 403 note 1} Leeds Mercury, 15 August 1795. Other evidence of attempts to subvert the troops in Sheffield appears in De Lancey to Dundas, 13 June 1792, HO 42/20; Harrison, John, A Letter to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas M.P. Secretary of State (Sheffield, 1792);Google Scholar Zouch to Fitzwilliam, 13 May 1792, Fitzwilliam Papers 44(a), Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments, Sheffield Central Library, which are cited by permission of the Sheffield City Librarian, Earl Fitzwilliam and his trustees (hereafter F); Historical Manuscripts Commission, Dropmore, II, pp. 3447ndash;45.

^{page 403 note 2} The Songs of Joseph Mather, ed. by Wilson, J. (Sheffield, 1862), pp. 38–40.Google Scholar For a contemporary comparison of the “Peterloo” massacre with the 1795 disturbance in Sheffield, see J. Wood to Sidmouth, 24 August 1819, HO 42/193.

^{page 404 note 1} J. Wilkinson to Dundas, 11 August 1795, HO 42/35.

^{page 404 note 2} Thelwall, J., The Rights of Nature (London, 1796), p. 20.Google Scholar

^{page 404 note 3} An open letter from the “Friends of Liberty” at Sheffield to the LCS dated 15 May 1797, Place Newspaper Collection, Set 38, Vol. I, f. 67, British Museum.

^{page 404 note 4} Dewsnap, a razor grinder, and Carnage, a leather inkstand maker, were veterans of the SSCI. See Treasury Solicitor 11/956/3561.

^{page 405 note 1} J. WiElkinson to Portland, 7 August 1797, HO 42/41.

^{page 405 note 2} Sylvester's authorship was reported by the informer Barlow to Sir Richard Ford, 19 September 1799, Privy Council l/44a/161, Public Record Office. This claim is substantiated by Wilson, op. cit., p. 103. A copy of the original, Anon., Poems on Various Subjects (Sheffield, 1797),Google Scholar is in Sheffield Central Libiary. Sylvester was a journeyman silversmith, and his career is documented in Inkster, Ian, “The Development of a Scientific Community in Sheffield, 1790–1850”, in: Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, X, Pt 2 (1973), pp. 99–131.Google Scholar For Crome's career, see Baxter, J. L. and Donnelly, F. K., “The Revolutionary Underground in the West Riding: Myth or Reality?”, in: Past & Present, No 64 (1974).CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 405 note 3} See Baxter, J. L., “The Great Yorkshire Revival, 1792–6: A Study of Mass Revival among the Methodists”, in: Sociological Yearbook of Religion in Britain, VII (1974).Google Scholar

^{page 405 note 4} On the evidence of spies and informers see Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class, pp. 533–39.Google Scholar

^{page 405 note 5} Barlow to Ford, September to November 1799, Privy Council l/44a/161 and 164.

^{page 405 note 6} Thompson to Ford, 5 November 1799, ibid. l/44a/164; see also the Further examination of James Dixon, 7 May 1798, ibid. l/42a/143, for evidence of direct contact between the United Englishmen in Manchester and Sheffield radicals.

^{page 405 note 7} Sheffield Iris, 6 and 13 November 1799.

^{page 406 note 1} Sheffield Iris, 1 May, 28 August and 4 September 1800.

^{page 406 note 2} HO 42/51; F 44(d).

^{page 406 note 3} Anon., Good news for Poor People (Sheffield, 1800),Google Scholar copy in Sheffield Central Library. The next year Crome reprinted an old SSCI anti-war handbill, Anon., War (Sheffield, 1801), Bancroft to Portland, 29 June 1801, HO 42/62.

^{page 406 note 4} W. Taylor to Fitzwilliam, 21 October 1800, F 45(a). A copy of the handbill was enclosed.

^{page 406 note 5} Lt. Col. of Norfolk Militia to Portland, 3 November 1800, HO 42/53.

^{page 406 note 6} J. Lowe to Fitzwilliam, 1 December 1800, F 44(e).

^{page 406 note 7} Printed handbill dated 2 December 1800, F 44(e).

^{page 407 note 1} Examination of William Warris, 2 December 1800, F 44(f).

^{page 407 note 2} J. Lowe to Fitzwilliam, 8 December 1800, F 44(f).

^{page 407 note 3} See various reports in HO 42/55 and 42/61 which suggest the growth of the United Englishmen in Lancashire and the adoption of similar forms of oigani-sation across the Pennines in the West Riding.

^{page 407 note 4} Fitzwilliam to Portland, 18 April 1801, HO 42/61. This followed urgent letters from West Riding magistrates, see F 45(a).

^{page 407 note 5} Bancroft to Portland, 23 June 1801, HO 42/62. These, who were unnamed, were probably Robinson and Bent. They were called “A” and “B” at this time.

^{page 408 note 1} Bancroft to Portland, 29 June 1801, HO 42/62. This was the report of an agent designated “C”.

^{page 408 note 2} From a six-point “Plan for conducting the business without incommoding it by Flustration”, enclosed in one of Bancroft's of 29 June 1801. It was alleged to be the Wakefield plan similar to the Sheffield and Leeds plan. “C” sent a similar “Plan for conducting the business without being Flustrated”, enclosed in Fletcher to Portland, 6 July 1801. Both in HO 42/62.

^{page 408 note 3} Walker, J. of Halifax, land tax commissioner, to Addington, 13 07 1801, HO 42/62.Google Scholar

^{page 408 note 4} Fitzwilliam to Portland, 1 August 1801, HO 42/62. He enclosed a report from the Mayor of Leeds of “a midnight meeting near Leeds addressed by a man on horseback who claimed that the time would come when they must strike the blow or repel force by force”.

^{page 409 note 1} Fletcher to Portland, 31 August 1801, HO 42/62. The report claimed that every committee member was called a “conductor” and had a “commission” to bring in 100 men. Inferior officers were to command smaller groups to collect names in a register called “numbers” and to collect subscriptions.

^{page 409 note 2} Fletcher to Pelham, 7 January 1802, HO 42/65. This letter referred again to Caleb Taylor of Royton and his activities. Taylor was an active radical into the 1820's.

^{page 409 note 3} William Wolstenholme, a member of the “Tom Paine” or New Connexion Methodist Congregation at Scotland Street chapel, baptised one of his sons Septimus Bonaparte in 1801. Birth and Baptism Register of Scotland Street chapel, 1797 to 1837, Public Record Office, RG 4/2018.

^{page 409 note 4} Enclosed in Fletcher to Pelham, 3 April 1802, HO 42/65. Bent also provided a list of the members of the Manchester Central Committee and the Wakefield and Almondbury Committee.

^{page 410 note 1} R. Walker to Fitzwilliam, 13 June 1802, F 45(d).

^{page 410 note 2} Anon, of Halifax to Fitzwilliam, 27 July 1802, F 45(d), warned of “the Grand business of the Revolution to be begun and completed in London”.

^{page 410 note 3} F 45(d).

^{page 410 note 4} W. Cookson to Fitzwilliam, 19 August 1802, F 45(d).

^{page 410 note 5} For the Despard affair see Howell, T. B., State Trials, XXVIII (London, 1820), pp. 34587–528;Google Scholar Privy Council 1/3552 and 3553; Treasury Solicitor 11/332, Pt 1.

^{page 410 note 6} Examination of Thomas Windsor in Howell, op. cit., pp. 398, 427.

^{page 411 note 1} Deposition of William Simnet of Chesterfield, 25 November 1802, HO 42/66. The discovery of the arms was reported in Parker to Fitzwilliam, 1 December 1802, HO 42/66.

^{page 411 note 2} Deposition of John Wilbone of Chesterfield, 23 November 1802, HO 42/66.

^{page 411 note 3} Depositions of William Lee and William Ronksley, n.d., F 45(d). Copies also in Fitzwilliam to Pelham, 7 December 1802, HO 42/66.

^{page 411 note 4} Leeds Mercury, 26 March 1803. In the Newcastle Courant of 19 March 1803 it was noted that “the design of these persons seems to have some connection with Colonel Despard, as they received orders from chiefs and conductors”. Of one of Despard's supporters in Sheffield more will be heard below.

^{page 411 note 5} Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class, pp. 494–96.Google Scholar

^{page 412 note 1} James Montgomery to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sheffield, 16 December 1808, Dove Cottage Manuscripts, Grasmere. We are indebted to Mr E. P. Thompson for this reference, which is quoted by permission of the Trustees of Dove Cottage.

^{page 412 note 2} Annual Register, 1812, p. 56; Sheffield Iris, 21 April 1812.

^{page 412 note 3} Leeds Mercury, 2 May 1812.

^{page 412 note 4} Depositions of Thomas Wilson and John Poynton, Assize 45/46, Pt 1, Public Record Office.

^{page 413 note 1} Memoirs of the Life and Writings of James Montgomery, II, p. 331.

^{page 413 note 2} Sheffield Iris, 28 July 1812.

^{page 413 note 3} Deposition of Thomas Flather, Sargeant in Sheffield Militia, Assize 45/46, Ft 1.

^{page 413 note 4} Sheffield Iris, 21 April 1812.

^{page 413 note 5} Wortley to Sidmouth, 18 April 1812, HO 42/122.

^{page 414 note 1} Grey to Sidmouth, 18 April 1812, HO 42/122. Contradicting Geneial Grey's opinion was a report that Sheffield men had travelled to Barnsley in an attempt to organise a similar attack on that town. See Francis Wood and Lt. Col. Standle to Home Office, 15 April 1812, HO 42/122. Other accounts appear in Sheffield Iris, 21 April 1812, and Francis Fenton to Sidmouth, 18 May 1812, HO 50/291.

^{page 414 note 2} Wakefield County Archives, Quarter Session Rolls, Informations and Examinations of April 1812 presented at Rotherham Sessions of August 1812.

^{page 414 note 3} For a different interpretation of this event, based on an incomplete examination of the sources, see Thomis, M. I., The Luddites (Newton Abbot, 1970), pp. 83–84 and 98.Google Scholar

^{page 414 note 4} Annual Register, 1812, p. 104; Sheffield Iris, 25 August 1812; Sheffield Mercury, 22 August 1812.

^{page 414 note 5} Ward, T. A., Peeps into the Past (Sheffield, 1909), p. 189.Google Scholar

^{page 415 note 1} T. A. Waid, op. cit., p. 192.

^{page 415 note 2} Ibid., p. 196; Sheffield Mercury, 28 November 1812.

^{page 415 note 3} For the formation of Hampden Clubs, see HO 40/3.

^{page 415 note 4} Parliamentary Debates, XXXV, pp. 415–17 and 532–33.Google Scholar

^{page 415 note 5} Sheffield Iris, 15 October 1816.

^{page 416 note 1} Sheffield Iris, 10 December 1816; Sheffield Mercury, 7 December 1816; The Times, 9 and 10 December 1816.

^{page 416 note 2} Wortley to Sidmouth, 3 December 1816, HO 42/156; Assize 45/50.

^{page 416 note 3} Blackwell was tried and imprisoned in York Castle for two years.

^{page 416 note 4} Wortley to Sidmouth, 7 December 1816, HO 42/156. See also the reports from the other towns in this same bundle.

^{page 416 note 5} Fitzwilliam to Sidmouth, 7 December 1816, HO 42/156.

^{page 416 note 6} Ibid.

^{page 417 note 1} L., J. and Hammond, Barbara, The Skilled Labourer (London, 1919), pp. 353–57;Google ScholarThompson, E. P., The Making ol The English Working Class, pp. 713–21.Google Scholar

^{page 417 note 2} Information of Thomas Bradley, 21 May 1817, HO 42/165.

^{page 417 note 3} Those arrested were imprisoned without trial; they included two grinders, a hatter, a turner, employed as an optician's assistant, two cutlers and a mason, and two of these were on parish relief. Cases of prisoners from Sheffield, HO 42/165, and Parker to Hobhouse, 5 March 1818, HO 42/175.

^{page 417 note 4} Marginal notation of some official on “Information of Thomas Bradley”, 21 May 1817, HO 42/165. Wolstenholme's sons, James and Thomas, were among those arrested in 1817.

^{page 418 note 1} J. L. and Barbara Hammond, op. cit., p. 355.

^{page 418 note 2} Fremantle, A., “The Truth about Oliver the Spy”, in: English Historical Review, XLVII (1932), pp. 601–16.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 418 note 3} The Times, 10 December 1816.

^{page 418 note 4} Sheffield Iris, 7 January 1817.

^{page 418 note 5} Examination oi W. Wolstenholme, 31 May 1817, HO 42/165.

^{page 418 note 6} Parker to Sidmouth, 30 March 1817, HO 42/162.

^{page 418 note 7} Information of Thomas Bradley, 21 May 1817, HO 42/165; see also Examination of Bradley 16 June 1817 before H. Parker, HO 40/10, where he states that the plan existed before Oliver's arrival in Sheffield.

^{page 418 note 8} Examination of John Cope of Butterly, 15 June 1817, HO 42/167. The links between Sheffield and Pentrich must have been strong, because one of the Pentrich rebels escaped from the authorities for a while by hiding in Wolsten-holme's house. See Lockett to Hobhouse, 10 September 1817, HO 42/170.

^{page 419 note 1} Information of Thomas Bradley, 21 May 1817, HO 42/165; 3 June 1817, HO 42/164; 29 June 1817, HO 42/167. For Sheffield contacts with London Spenceans see Information of “G.R.”, 29 January 1817, HO 42/158.

^{page 419 note 2} Leeds Mercury, 8 and 15 April 1820; Leeds Intelligencer, 10 and 17 April 1820.

^{page 420 note 1} “Account of the Trial of Blackwell”, in: Sheffield Mercury, 22 July 1820; Assize 45/53, Pt 2.

^{page 420 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 420 note 3} Sheffield Iris, 25 July 1820.

^{page 420 note 4} Sheffield Iris, 18 April 1820; Depositions of Waterfall and Marshall, constables of Sheffield, Assize 45/53, Pt 2.

^{page 420 note 5} Hobhouse to Parker and Brown, 4 February 1818, HO 41/4; Hobhouse to Parker, 28 April 1820, HO 41/6.

^{page 420 note 6} T. A. Ward, op. cit., p. 266; Sheffield Mercury, 20 April 1839.

^{page 420 note 7} Sheffield Mercury, 22 April 1820; also a copy in HO 40/12.

^{page 421 note 1} Enclosure in Fletcher to Pelham, 3 April 1802, HO 42/65.

^{page 421 note 2} Narrative of Oliver, 1817, HO 40/9. Hostile accounts of Scholes's career appear in HO 42/174 and 176. His papers were seized in 1817 and are in HO 40/9(3). Smaller was “a notorious stealer of arms in 1812”, F 45(j).

^{page 421 note 3} Burland, J. H., “Annals of Barnsley”, Vol. 1 (1881), p. 278,Google Scholar manuscript in Barnsley Reference Library. Burland records that in 1802 “Adherents of Colonel Despard held secret political meetings at Carr Green, in the township of Darton”. A rising had been planned for 12 December 1802 and the Wath Yeomanry were called out. A number of pikes were discovered 35 years later at Clayton West, and these were supposed to have been used on this occasion. See also Hoyle, Eli, History of Barnsley (Barnsley, 1924),Google Scholar ch. CIX.

^{page 421 note 4} E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, passim.

^{page 421 note 5} Parssinen, T. M., “The Revolutionary Party in London, 1816–20”, in: Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XLV (1972), pp. 281–82.Google Scholar On the communistic ideas of the Spenceans, see Rudkin, Olive D., Thomas Spence and his Connections (London, 1927),Google Scholar and “Thomas Spence”, in: Essays in Honour of William Gallacher, ed. by Kemp-Ashraf, P. M. and Mitchell, J. (Berlin, 1966).Google Scholar

^{page 421 note 6} Foster, J., Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution (London, 1974), ch. 5,CrossRef Google Scholar “Class Struggle and Social Structure”.

^{page 422 note 1} Smith, A. W., “Irish Rebels and English Radicals, 1798–1820”, in: Past & Present, No 7 (1955);CrossRef Google ScholarPakenham, Thomas, The Year of Liberty (London, 1969), pp. 124–25.Google Scholar

^{page 422 note 2} E. P. Thompson, op. cit., p. 924. Of course the “disaster-dogged” revolutionaries whose careers can be documented are probably the incompetent or unlucky members of some larger group of conspirators, whose numbers can only be guessed at. Certainly the Home Office papers are filled with the names of individuals and organisations which appear only once in the records of the authorities. Doubtless there were many others whose revolutionary commitment went undetected.

^{page 423 note 1} On these subjects generally refer to Thompson. For specific topics, see Musson, A. E., “The Ideology of Early Co-operation in Lancashire and Cheshire”, in: Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, LXVII (1958);Google ScholarParssinen, T. M., “Association, Convention and Anti-Parliament in British Radical Politics, 1771–1848”, in: English Historical Review, LXXXVIII (1973), pp. 504–33;CrossRef Google ScholarProthero, I., “William Benbow and the Concept of the ‘General Strike’”, in: Past & Present, No 63 (1974), pp. 13271.CrossRef Google Scholar

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