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The Gordon Riots: a Study of the Rioters and their Victims

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

George F. E. Rudé
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Extract

THE Gordon Riots made a profound impression on contemporaries. They took place at a time of acute political crisis, at the most dangerous moment of the American war, when the country, after numerous defeats and counteralliances, found itself virtually isolated. At their height, on the night of 7 June 1780, London appeared to onlookers to be a sea of flames. ‘I remember’, wrote Horace Walpole on the 8th, ‘the Excise and the Gin Act and the rebels at Derby and Wilkes’ interlude and the French at Plymouth, or I should have a very bad memory; but I never till last night saw London and Southwark in flames!' Sébastien Mercier, in his Tableau de Paris, wrote nine years before the attack on the Bastille that such ‘terrors and alarms’ as were spread by Lord George Gordon in London would be inconceivable in a city as well-policed as Paris.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 6 , January 1956 , pp. 93 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1956

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References

page 93 note 1 The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, ed. Cunningham, P. (9 vols., 1891), vii. 388Google Scholar.

page 93 note 2 Mercier, L. S., Tableau de Paris (12 vols., Amsterdam, 1783), vi. 22–5Google Scholar.

page 93 note 3 Christie, Ian R., ‘The Marquis of Rockingham and Lord North's offer of a Coalition, June–July 1780’, Eng. Hist. Rev., lxix. 388–407CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 94 note 1 See Burton, E. H., The Life and Times of Bishop Challoner, 1691–1791 (2 vols., 1909)Google Scholar.

page 94 note 2 de Castro, J. P., The Gordon Riots (Oxford, 1926)Google Scholar.

page 94 note 3 Use has also been made of Land Tax and Poor Rate registers in the Bethnal Green, Islington, Shoreditch and Stepney Libraries (see p. no, n. 1 below).

page 94 note 4 House of Lords R.O., Returns of Papists for 1767 and 1780; Catholic Record Society, Papist Return for 1780 (St. Andrew, Holborn).

page 94 note 5 The whole Proceedings on the King's Commission of the Peace, Oyer and Terminer and Goal Delivery for the City of London and…for the County of Middlesex, ed. Gurney, J. (1780), pp. 358–640Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Proceedings (London); and (bound in the same volume) The Proceedings on the King's Special Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the County of Surrey, ed. Gurney, J. (1780), pp. 1–168Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Proceedings (Surrey)).

page 94 note 6 I have generally followed de Castro's account (op. cit., pp. 28–167), except where indicated in the footnotes.

page 95 note 1 The main provisions of the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 were to repeal those portions of an Act of 1699–1700 which condemned Papists keeping schools to perpetual imprisonment and which disabled Papists from inheriting or purchasing land (Lecky, W. E. H., A History of England in the Eighteenth Century (7 vols., 1906), iv. 307)Google Scholar.

page 95 note 2 Howell's, State Trials, xxi. 578Google Scholar.

page 95 note 3 Ibid., xxi. 572

page 95 note 4 Most frequently, during these riots, buildings marked for destruction were pulled down and their movable contents burned in the street. This both made it difficult for the victim to claim insurance money and avoided damage to neighbouring houses. We shall see, however, that there were some notable exceptions to this rule.

page 96 note 1 De Castro's contention that, at this stage of the riots, the City magistrates acted with extreme reluctance—both through fear of reprisals and lack of conviction—is well supported by the State Papers.

page 96 note 2 The Minutes of the Court of Aldermen give more than one instance of the unwillingness of City constables to protect Roman Catholic property: one such case was that of John Bradley, marshalman, who was suspended by the Court for refusing to ‘protect any such Popish rascals’ (Repertory of the Court of Aldermen, no. 184 (1779–1780), p. 209)Google Scholar.

page 96 note 3 A list of ‘Catholic Houses attacked during the Gordon Riots’ is given in the Westminster Diocesan Archives, vol. xli (1758–1781), fo. 227Google Scholar. Further names of Catholic victims are indicated in one of the two registers of claimants for damages drawn up by the Board of Works (P.R.O., Works 6, no. III).

page 96 note 4 Proceedings (London), pp. 615–20Google ScholarPubMed.

page 97 note 1 Ibid. Hyde's country-house in Islington was destroyed the next day (Lewis, S., History and Topography of St. Mary, Islington (2 vols., 1842), i. 164)Google Scholar.

page 97 note 2 Proceedings (London), pp. 442–52, 570–83.

page 97 note 3 P.R.O., State Papers 37, no. 20, fo. 219.

page 97 note 4 Letters, vii. 394.

page 98 note 1 Proceedings (London), pp. 516–19Google ScholarPubMed.

page 98 note 2 Works 6, no. 110.

page 98 note 3 Referring to this incident, Walpole wrote: ‘As yet there are more persons killed by drinking than by ball or bayonet’ (Letters, vii. 392).

page 98 note 4 These figures, higher than those given by de Castro, are from the claim for compensation made (by the Hand-in-Hand Fire Office, Works 6, no. in).

page 98 note 5 Langdale received a total compensation in February 1782 of £18,974 (‘Riots 1780’, Corp. Lond. R.O., CR 13A).

page 99 note 1 ‘Papers concerning the riots in 1780’, Corp. Lond. R.O., Alchin Papers, Box H, no. 77.

page 99 note 2 , De Castro, op. cit., p. 263Google Scholar.

page 99 note 3 107 of these were tried at the Old Bailey Sessions of June–July, September and December 1780,50 in Southwark in June—July and 3 at Guildford in August. These and the figures for arrested persons, substantially in excess of those cited by de Castro (op. cit., p. 208), are based on a detailed examination of the Sessions Minute Books (1779–80), Sessions Files: index to persons indicted (1750–92), and Sessions Papers (June–July 1780) in the Corporation of London R.O.; of the Sessions Rolls (nos. 3389–90, June 1780), Calendar of Indictments (1770–85), and Commitment Books (1748–9 and 1771–80) in the Middlesex R.O.; of the Sessions Bundles (1780) in the Surrey R.O.; and of P.R.O., Assizes 35/220 (Indictments Surrey. Summer Assizes, 20 George III 1780). I have found no record of any commitments or indictments connected with the Gordon Riots in Kent, Essex or Hertfordshire (Assizes 35/220).

page 99 note 4 State Trials, xxi. 587–621, 647.

page 99 note 5 Annual Register, xxiii. 262. On 9 June, 36 wounded were brought to St. Bartholomew's, where 8 died (press reports, quoted by , de Castro, op. cit., p. 189)Google Scholar. On 7–9 June, 7 persons ‘with gun shot wounds’ were admitted to the Middlesex, where 3 died (Middlesex Hospital, Apothecary's Book, 1777–82, p. 186). At Guy's, 2 died after receiving burns at the King's Bench (Guy's Hospital, Death Book, 1757–1804). No such records exist or survive for St. Thomas's, the London and Westminster Hospitals.

page 100 note 1 ‘Riots 1780’, Corp. Lond. R.O., CR. 13A; ‘The Gordon Riots’ (account book), Middlesex R.O.

page 100 note 2 Among houses ‘destroyed or substantially damaged’ I have included only those in respect of which £200 or more damages were claimed and, in the case of houses rented at less than £20 a year, those in respect of which claims were made for sums equal to or exceeding 10 times the annual rent. For sources for rents, see p. 110, n. 1.

page 100 note 3 Works 6, nos. 110–11.

page 100 note 4 See, e.g., The Letters of Horace Walpole, vii. 408.

page 100 note 5 Hardy, S., Mes Loisirs, ou Journal des evénéments tels qu'its parviennent a ma connoissance (Bibliothèque Nationale, MSS. francais, nos. 6680–87), iv. 303Google Scholar.

page 100 note 6 Ian R. Christie, loc. cit.

page 101 note 1 S.P. 37, no. 20, fos. 81, 97–8, in, 113–14, 127.

page 101 note 2 Christie, loc. cit.

page 101 note 3 , De Castro, op. cit., pp. 26–7Google Scholar.

page 101 note 4 ‘Proceedings of the Common Council’ (7 June 1780), Corp. Lond. R.O., Box 18, no. 32.

page 101 note 5 Renaut, F. P., L'Affaire Montagu Fox, 1780–1781 (Paris, 1937)Google Scholar.

page 101 note 6 Christie, loc. cit.

page 101 note 7 , De Castro, op. cit., pp. 142, 192–3, 232Google Scholar.

page 101 note 8 S.P. 37, no. 20, fos. 172–3, 278–9, 280–1.

page 102 note 1 See correspondence between Lord Amherst and Alderman Wooldridge (Corp. Lond. R.O., Alchin Papers, Box H, no. 77).

page 102 note 2 State Trials, xxi. 613, 620.

page 102 note 3 Proceedings (Surrey), pp. 105, 125.

page 103 note 1 Of 66 rioters brought to trial, whose addresses are reasonably clearly established, 46 lived in the locality in which the offence with which they were charged was committed, 10 lived within a mile of the incident concerned and 10 as far as 2–4 miles distant (most of the latter cases relate to the firing of Newgate and the King's Bench Prison). The point is further emphasized by the frequent recognition of prisoners by local witnesses: thus, Hull, a publican of Arundel Street, claimed to recognize ‘all the mob’ at Sir John Fielding's; and Bradbury, a publican of Golden Lane whose house was attacked, testified: ‘I know all the prisoners.’ (Proceedings (London), pp. 360, 621.)

page 103 note 2 Ibid., pp. 516–19, 484–6, 409–13.

page 103 note 3 S.P. 37, no. 20, fo. 200.

page 104 note 1 Letters, vii. 391.

page 104 note 2 George, M. D., London Life in the XVIII Century, pp. 118–19Google Scholar.

page 104 note 3 Corp. Lond. R.O., Newgate and Clerkenwell Bridewell Calendars, June 1780.

page 104 note 4 Surrey R.O., Insolvent Debtors' Books (King's Bench Prison, 1780).

page 104 note 5 In 1728, a committee of enquiry into the state of the prisons reported that there were ‘at least 1,000 prisoners’ at the Fleet (Commons Journals, xxi. 274 ff.); in 1830–4, there were between 700 and 884 prisoners (Ashton, J., The Fleet (1888), p. 313)Google Scholar. In June 1780, there were only 27 prisoners in the New Gaol, Southwark, and about 30 in the Marshalsea (Surrey R.O., Insolvent Debtors' Books); 23 were released from the House of Correction, Surrey, and 40 from the New Gaol (Surrey R.O., Sessions Bundles, Midsummer-Michaelmas 1780).

page 104 note 6 Journals of the House of Lords, xxxvi. 155–6.

page 104 note 7 They were Henry Wadham and Edward Doreman, the latter a sailor on H.M. Serapis (Proceedings (Surrey), pp. 29–40; S.P. 37, no. 21, fos. 300–1, 356–8).

page 104 note 8 Proceedings (London), pp. 429–30.

page 104 note 9 Proceedings (London and Surrey), passim; see also numerous petitions and declarations in State Papers 37, no. 21, fos. 194–410.

page 105 note 1 Proceedings (London), pp. 584, 621, 579–83; Assizes 35/220 (Indictments Surrey, Summer Assizes 1780).

page 105 note 2 The only specific accusations on this score appearing in the State Papers are those made by Benjamin Bowsey, a negro cook, while awaiting execution after conviction for taking part in the assault on Newgate (S.P. 37, no. 20, fos. 316–18, 320; no. 21, fos. 367, 376–7, 380–1).

page 105 note 3 A plasterer's labourer, arrested at Langdale's, was reported to have said, ‘he made better there than he did at work’ (Proceedings (London), pp. 558–60).

page 105 note 4 Ibid., pp. 514–16, 555–60, 583, 603–6, 632–4.

page 105 note 5 Apart from the 160 actually brought to trial, occupations are known in the case of 13 out of 14 arrested at the Sardinian and Bavarian chapels (A Narrative of the Proceedings of Lord George Gordon (1780), pp. 7–9, 20) and of 24 out of 49 arrested in the ruins of Newgate on 8 June (Corp. Lond. R.O., Alchin Papers, Box H, no. 77). These are, almost without exception, wage-earners—a large proportion of them journeymen and apprentices.

page 106 note 1 Dickens, Charles, Barnaby Rudge (1894), p. 133Google Scholar.

page 106 note 2 Letters, vii. 387, 388, 390, 391, 400.

page 106 note 3 It should be noted, however, that there were no fatal casualties among the victims of the rioters.

page 106 note 4 Letters, p. 400.

page 106 note 5 Guildhall Lib., MS. 3638.

page 106 note 6 See e.g. Burton, E. H., The Life and Times of Bishop Challoner, ii. 250Google Scholar.

page 107 note 1 Works 6, nos. 110–11; West. Dioc. Arch., vol. xli, fo. 227.

page 108 note 1 Works 6, no. 111; Minutes of the Hand-in-Hand Fire Office, xxvii (May 1780 to July 1783), 131–2 (Guild. Lib., MS. 8666/24).

page 108 note 2 Works 6, nos. 110–11; H. of Lords R.O., Return of Papists for 1780 (return for 1767 in the case of St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey).

page 109 note 1 Included in this total are all Catholics (13,379) appearing in the return made by the Bishop of London and those made for Southwark and Bermondsey by the Bishop of Winchester (390). In using the term ‘metropolis’ or ‘metropolitan area’ I have generally followed the boundaries suggested by Dr. George (pp. cit., p. 329).

page 109 note 2 Quoted by , de Castro, op. cit., p. 218Google Scholar.

page 109 note 3 Works 6, nos. 110–11.

page 110 note 1 Guild. Lib., Sewer Rate (1779), MS. 2137/13–16; Riot Rate (Feb. 1782) for St. Andrew Holborn and St. Bride Fleet Street, MSS. 9073, 3427/1–10; Poor Rate (1779–80) for Allhallows London Wall, St. Botolph Aldgate, St. Botolph Bishopsgate, St. Giles Cripplegate, St. Sepulchre London, St. Stephen Coleman Street, MSS. 5347/3, 2534/367/77, 5419/317, 6104/ 160–4, 3120/24, 2433/8–9. Midd. R.O., Land Tax duplicates (1780–2) for St. Catherine's, Christchurch Spitalfields, St. George Middlesex, St. Luke Old Street, St. Mary Whitechapel, nos. 5205, 5258, 5314–5, 2134–5, 2196, 2248, 6137. London County Council R.O., Surrey and Kent Commissioners of Sewers (1779–85), nos. 102, 113, 127–8, 137, 158, 176, 412, 454. West. City Arch., Poor Rate (1774–80) for St. Anne, St. George Hanover Square, St. James Piccadilly, St. Martin in the Fields, St. Paul Covent Garden (A 276, C 355, D 101, F 574, H. 105); Riot Rate (Feb. 1782) for St. Clement Danes (B 934). Holborn Lib., Poor Rate (1780) for St. George Bloomsbury, St. George the Martyr, St. Giles in the Fields; Church Rate (1780) for Liberty of Saffron Hill. Bethnal Green Lib., Land Tax assessments (1779–81) for St. Matthew B. Green. Islington Lib., Poor Rate (1780–4) and Church, Lamp and Watch Rate (1770–6) for St. Mary Islington. Shoreditch Lib., Land Tax assessments (1778–81) for St. Leonard Shoreditch. I hope to elaborate this point elsewhere.

page 110 note 2 Trevelyan, G. M., History of England, p. 608Google Scholar; see also George, M. D., op.cit., pp. 117–19Google Scholar.

page 110 note 3 Proceedings (Surrey), pp. 67–70.

page 110 note 4 Proceedings (London), pp. 459–60.

page 111 note 1 M. D. George, loc. cit.

page 111 note 2 H. of Lords R.O., Return of Papists for 1767 (that of 1780 gives no details of households); Report from the Select Committee on the Education of the Lower Orders in the Metropolis, p. 261, H.C. (1816), IV, 1Google Scholar.

page 111 note 3 Works 6, no. 111.

page 111 note 4 Proceedings (Surrey), p. 11.

page 111 note 5 Proceedings (London), pp. 446–52.

page 111 note 6 Ibid., pp. 479–83.

page 111 note 7 S.P. 37, no. 21, fo. 225.

page 112 note 1 Proceedings (London), pp. 471–2,409.

page 112 note 2 Lecky, , op. cit., iv. 299–300Google Scholar.

page 112 note 3 See Magee, B., The English Recusants (1938), pp. 195–6Google Scholar.

page 112 note 4 The Government found it necessary, in the course of the riots, to reassure ‘many well-disposed Protestants’ that Catholics were still liable to severe penalties for keeping schools, saying mass, etc. (S.P. 37, no. 21, fos. 28, 141).

page 113 note 1 The riots revealed considerable hostility to foreigners: Hardy wrote (on hearsay, it is true) that no Frenchman dared show his face in the streets (Journal, iv. 303); and the Italian, Thomas Lebarty, was threatened with the words: ‘I will have your house down, you outlandish bouger’ (Proceedings (London), p. 509).

page 113 note 2 Vide a letter to Lord Stormont of 13 June: ‘The doctrine said to be got among the soldiers that, having taken an oath that they were Protestants, it would be a breach of their oaths to assist the Catholics, and that therefore they would not fire on any persons destroying Roman chapels …’ (S.P. 37, no. 21, fo. 64).

page 113 note 3 A letter of 15 June from the mayor of Bath to Lord Hillsborough dis-counted the suggestion that anyone had come from London to provoke the riots that took place in Bath on 9–10 June (S.P. 37, no. 21, fos. 155–6).

page 113 note 4 A letter of 10 June from Alton, Surrey, to Lord Hillsborough runs: ‘I am sorry to say when the unhappy commotions in London reached the country, the lower class of the people seemed inclineable to join them…’ (S.P. 37, no. 21, fo. 77).

page 113 note 5 The prices of cereals and of bread, in London and Middlesex at least, appear to have been comparatively low for the time of year and had not risen since March (Gentleman's Magazine, xlvii-li (1777–81), passim).