=Source.=--_Calendar of Home Office Papers, 1773-1775._ Pp. 39-42, and
65.
_13-27 April._--A series of letters and other papers about meetings of
weavers, coalheavers, &c. A printed handbill, calling them together,
was first dispersed in Spitalfields on the 12th April. Next day notice
of it was given to Lord Rochford by Sir John Fielding. The handbill to
the weavers is signed “Ten Thousand,” and exhorts them “to stand up
and carry the truth to the King.” “Let us rise up as one man and wait
humbly upon the King at St. James’ every day. He will then grant the
humble petition of the worthy Lord Mayor and liverymen of London, who
have begged him to have pity upon the poor, and to remove those evil
ministers who will not lower the price of provisions to relieve us,
and who will take no care of our trade. Let us go daily and repeat our
prayer to the King, and he will at length hearken to us, and remove
his evil counsellors. Then shall we and our poor families be able to
gain an honest and comfortable livelihood by a reasonable industry; if
not, our trade will be lost for ever. We all remember that some years
ago more than 20,000 of our trade waited on the King for several days
together, and he was convinced of their distress. N.B.--Do not be
guilty of any disorder; only show yourselves to the King, that he may
see your distress every day.”
The magistrates in Bethnal Green granted a privy search-warrant, to
“set aside all tumults and riots which might happen,” and next day
reported that everything had been quiet the night before.
On the 16th April it was reported that printed handbills, verbatim the
same as those to the weavers, except the address [and the signature,
“One of Two Thousand”] had been distributed among the coalheavers in
Shadwell. Everything was quiet, but (say the justices) “we greatly fear
some evil agents are abroad sowing sedition.”
On the 17th April Mr. Justice Wilmot acquainted Lord Suffolk that
everything was quiet among the Spitalfields weavers, but that he was
afraid the City Marshal was making himself “too busy” among them. Their
intention then was to rise in a body on the 26th and proceed to the
House of Commons. The sworn information of a victualler in Bethnal
Green states that the City Marshal came to his house to inquire into
the grievances of the weavers, that it was agreed that eight or ten
men should meet at the informant’s house to present a petition to the
Lord Mayor; but on his objecting to this proposal, the City Marshal
desired them to meet at any place they thought proper, or come into
the city, and he would protect them, and assured them my Lord Mayor
would serve them so long as they kept peace and good order. The Lord
Mayor’s account is that he sent the City Marshal with the Sheriffs
into Spitalfields, and that the former got himself introduced the same
evening to about 50 weavers, when, the handbill distributed the day
before becoming the subject of conversation, he expostulated with them
on the imprudence and danger of such a proceeding, and convinced them
it must have been some enemy to their well-being who had suggested it.
The City Marshal’s account convinced the Lord Mayor that the intention
of assembling did not originate with the weavers. The Lord Mayor
encloses a letter from “A Citizen,” in a disguised hand, in which the
hope is expressed that his Lordship, now that the people had become
the “messengers of their own distress,” would not use his authority
to interpose “any unnecessary obstruction to the miserable people,”
the success of his own endeavours for the service of his country not
having proved equal to the “honourable part” he had acted, and the
“late remonstrance” having been “treated with a contempt which nothing
but a persuasion of its falsity could justify.” In order to discover
the origin of the hand-bills, Sir John Fielding suggested that they
should be shown to printers who might learn something from the type, he
himself having once been very successful in discovering the forgery of
a banknote by an application to the copper-plate printers, who detected
it to have been done by a gun engraver. He also advised the offer of a
reward from the justices at Hicks’ Hall.
On the 23rd April Mr. Justice Wilmot wrote from the Globe Tavern in
Moorfields that he had just received the handbill which he enclosed,
in consequence of which he had come to Moorfields. He found 300 or
400 weavers gathered, “and by their coming in it’s likely there will
be thousands.” The body of the handbill is in the same terms as
those already referred to, but addressed in this case to the “poor
watermen, porters, and carmen, and their families, &c.,” and signed
“Two Thousand.” There is the same postscript deprecating disorder. A
similar handbill was also distributed, addressed to the weavers as
before. On this occasion the Lord Mayor, being applied to, quitted his
chair at the Old Bailey, took a hackney coach, and went to the scene to
disperse the mob. Before he reached the spot, however, the “three or
four hundred weavers” who had assembled had quietly dispersed. It was
Mr. Justice Sherwood who succeeded in getting the crowd to disperse on
this occasion. He went alone to Moorfields. The weavers could not tell
him what they had come together for. Their only complaint was that they
had a bill before the House of Commons which they were afraid would not
pass. He promised to convey any application they had to make to the
King or the Ministry, a promise which they cheerfully accepted, and
then immediately dispersed.
The night before Mr. Alderman Oliver had received a letter in a large
feigned hand from “A Citizen,” intimating that nothing was intended
but that the poor people should go in large bodies to convey that
conviction which every gentler method had been so repeatedly yet so
vainly tried to produce, and asking him “if a body of starving people”
should be found assembling in Moorfields, in order to be under the
protection of the city magistrates to consult how to make their sorrows
known to their Sovereign, not to let them be hunted by the ill-timed
zeal of the neighbouring justices who might apply for his assistance
in suppressing a disturbance when the only design was to excite the
emotions of humanity in favour of the wretched. For the discovery of
the writer of this letter and of the one to the Lord Mayor, already
referred to, a reward of 100_l._ was offered, with a pardon to an
accomplice.
On the same day (23rd April) Mr. Robert Pell, chairman of the Tower
Sessions, wrote that after diligent secret inquiry after the printed
handbills said to have been distributed among the coalheavers in the
Tower division, he had been induced to believe that their distribution,
if real, had not been general. He had within the last few days,
however, noticed a person (for some time in the commission of the
peace for the county, but whose name had been struck out on account of
certain transactions with the riotous coalheavers) in better plight
as to garb and outward appearances than he had been seen in since
his disgrace, and in close familiar conference with labouring people
in the streets of the neighbourhood. Upon this man he said he had
set a watch. In this letter is a printed petition signed by several
persons, whose places of residence are also given, addressed “To the
nobility, gentry, &c. who are real lovers of the King and country’s
prosperity,” attributing the distresses of the silkweavers to the
great encouragement given to the importation and wearing of foreign
wrought silks, and imploring their assistance to discountenance such
“impolitic and unnatural” practices by refusing to wear or purchase
such goods.
On 24th April Sir John Fielding proposed that the magistrates of each
division should sit for a week every morning from 8 till 11, having
the high constable and all the petty constables stationed near them
with proper messengers to reconnoitre and inquire. He thought that
nothing else would counteract the endeavours which were being made to
disturb the public peace by inviting ignorant and illiterate bodies to
assemble. He mentioned the plan to “avoid different opinions in the
magistrates, and that the whole might be uniform and the force united.”
Monday, Thursday, and Friday were the particular days of apprehension.
As the general constables were men of business, and must necessarily
lose much time in the execution of this plan, he suggested that Sir
John Hawkins should be authorised to make them amends.
The weavers were summoned to meet again on Monday, 26th April, when
they were promised they should “absolutely see a petition to be
delivered to His Majesty’s person by the hands of people who have no
reason to be ashamed or afraid to appear in behalf of such distress.”
Mr. Wilmot, Mr. Sherwood, and Mr. Pell proceeded to Moorfields, the
place of meeting. After a conference with a posse of about 200 weavers
they succeeded in getting possession of the proposed petition, which
was “artfully drawn up,” and then retired to a public-house while the
weavers elected a committee of six or eight to meet them. These made
certain proposals to the magistrates, who gave an answer next day which
thoroughly satisfied the committee, who sincerely promised on behalf
of their body to have no more irregular meetings on the magistrates’
engaging to consider of some mode of subjecting their wages to the
decision of the magistrates in their quarter sessions.
_Sir John Fielding to the Earl of Suffolk._
_9 July._--Assisted yesterday at the Middlesex General Quarter Sessions
to carry into execution the late Act of Parliament for regulating
the wages of journeymen weavers in Spitalfields, &c.; and the wages
were then settled by a numerous and unanimous Bench to the entire
satisfaction of those masters and journeymen weavers who appeared
there. I sincerely hope this step will prove a radical cure for all
tumultuous assemblies from that quarter. By this statute your Lordship
has conveyed contentment to the minds of thousands of His Majesty’s
subjects. The Act for appointing clergymen with proper salaries to
attend the gaols, according to my proposals, was also carried into
execution. This preventive step will, I am persuaded be attended with
very salutary effects. I hope your Lordship will take advantage of my
Lord North’s leisure to settle the affair regarding my preventive plan
now lying before him for His Majesty’s approbation.