In the November of 1830, a number of anxious farmers, and prosperous Marlow citizens gathered for a public meeting in the Upper Crown. The reason for their concern was repeated reports of the "incendiaries" as they called them, who had been targeting the hay ricks in the wider neighbourhood. Farm workers unhappy with their low pay and working conditions, had been making their points by commiting acts of arson, destroying property worth large sums. This was not a meeting to discuss how legitimate any of the grievances were, and the papers stressed it was the principal citizens that were in attendance. The purpose was to decide the best way to protect property. Two courses of action were decided on, to swear in extra special constables, and to mount a foot and horse patrol of the neighbourhood hay ricks. Handbills were also circulated in Hambledon and Medmenham encouraging men to come forward to be sworn as constables to "assist in the preservation of peace."
Those Marlow men who kept a close eye on national news would have been aware that trouble was likely to strike close to home. Throughout the South East there had been so called Swing Riots since the summer. These were named after the fictional "Captain Swing" whose name was used to sign warning letters to local farmers and employers, threatening them with acts of arson and property destruction if they did not give in to paticular demands. One act of rebellion seems to have inspired others, and the focus locally began to be on "machine breaking" or putting out of action threshing machines and other mechanical devices that were reducing employment opportunities. Some of these contentious threshers were made locally, by Marlow ironmonger, engineer and agricultural implement maker John Moss. Reports of the excellent amount of work one of his machines was able to achieve in a short time at a farm in Rickmansworth, may have inspired some farmers locally to invest in one themselves. They could also be hired.
A LETTER IS RECIEVED
Farm labourers looking for threshing work were only too aware of which farms had the threshing machines on hand to partially replace their labour. In November 1830 Mr Wright at the Marlow Paper Mills, Richard Webb at Marlow Bottom Farm, Joseph Biddle of Town Farm/High Wycombe and James Phelps of Temple Farm were amongst a group of local farmers and paper mill owners who recieved a dreaded Swing letter. Their property was threatened unless they did away with the machines that were taking away jobs.
Joseph Biddle had read enough reports of the violence occasioned by a refusal to cooperate with the rioters, and was in no mood to take chances. He immediately had his new threshing machine taken down. He had a large number of ricks in close proximity and said it would be impossible to save the whole should one be ignited. Mr Phelps of Temple followed his lead. Richard Webb was said to have burnt his own threshing machine to pre-empt any action. And then they waited.
A week or two later these letters were followed up by some targeting smaller landowners and gentleman farmers including William Atkinson (Marlow Bottom, Town End and the Rookery farms), Mr Wethered and Mr Lovegrove.
THE NEWS FROM WYCOMBE
Most reports of a Swing Riot starting begin with some mention of suspicious strangers being seen in the town and those at High Wycombe were no exception. Some of the rioters gathered at Flackwell Heath, first in the beerhouse of John Sarney (the Leathern Bottle) and then on the Heath itself before proceeding to attack a number of the paper mills in the vicinity of Loudwater. Some of the mill owners tried to reassure the men that the machines had been taken out of use, but it was usually to no avail and the mills were broken into and equipment destroyed. An 'express message" was sent to the Town Clerk at Marlow, to warn him to prepare for a similar attack on the Marlow Paper Mills. What happened next is subject to wildly different eye witness accounts published within the next few days.
Some accused the town clerk of panic. But this is with hindsight. He had no way of knowing which direction the rioters would come next. He first had to spread word, without the aid of telephone, around the town. So he ordered the alarm bell at the Town Hall to be rung, usually reserved for announcing a fire. We might expect the church bells to be rung, but there is no mention of this. This summoned the town criers to the Crown, who then went to their appointed places to make a public announcement. This was apparently to alert householders to a looming risk to their home and persons, and to request they gather to decide the best course of action. This was considered to be to dispatch a message to Colonel Clayton, the magistrate, at Harleyford. Unfortunately, Clayton had already decided on his own best course of action. That was to go shooting, and leave things to the special constables he had seen sworn in. The differing reports of the rest of the days action can partly be explained by those who seem to support Clayton and were therefore keen to dismiss the riots as over hyped and nothing that justified Clayton staying at home in case he was needed. Clayton said he thought the constables could have dealt with things, and he would not want to burden the parish with any added costs that other protective measures might entail.
But our town clerk needed someone to take charge and so he sent a message to our two MPs, Mr Williams senior and Junior at Temple. They were thankfully at home and immediately came to Marlow and set up at the Crown. They then began to swear in a number of additional Special Constables, and were joined by other magistrates.
Some eyewitness accounts declare there was panic in the streets with woman rushing home with children in their arms, and householders arming themselves with whatever was to hand. Shops were barricaded and shutters closed. Other eyewitnesses, said that while a few "old women" and "gentlemen commonly denominated as dandies" were alarmed, the only panic was seen in the actions of the Clerk and MP (who was a political rival to Clayton). The streets were perfectly quiet they say. On the other hand others stated that it was decided to send a horse and cart to fetch a "depot of muskets kept in the neighbourhood" and they also considered sending for Colonel Clayton's small cannons that were kept at Harleyford and used on ceremonial occasions. These might be taken to the Mills as a deterrent they thought. It isn't clear if this messenger was sent. But an unnamed man was despatched to Reading to fetch the military. Unfortunately he was told he should have gone to Windsor barracks instead so it was after midnight that help arrived in the form of 30 Grenadier Guards and their officer, travelling in a coach, post chaise and cart.
In the end, the rioters never made it on to Marlow. We may never know how many Marlow men travelled to Flackwell Heath or Wycombe to join in. But 21 year old Little Marlow ploughman and agricultural labourer William Knibbs (Nibbs) (born Flackwell Heath) was one of several Buckinghamshire men sentenced to 7 years transportation for role he played in the "riotous assembly" at Loudwater and resisting arrest at the scene. This was an immediate commutation of a death sentence. He left the UK on the ship Proteus with 111 other prisoners on 12 April 1831 and arrived in Van Diemens Land, Australia on 3rd August. He died there age 75 in 1884.
Flackwell Heath's John Sarney (Sawney) received a pardon after spending several years on the prison hulks. He was buried at Marlow in 1840 so presumably had moved there. Aged 53/4 when convicted. John had originally been sentenced to death before it was reduced to transportation for life, and he was moved to the prison hulks for something like 5 years before a decision to pardon him was made. His offence related to machine breaking at the paper making mill of William Robert Davis. A large petition from local residents was presented to the authorities shortly after the conviction appealing for mercy for John and this was followed by a similar letter from many of the mill owners and others who had been attacked or threatened including William Davis and Marlow's Mr Wright. They no doubt felt that calm would better be preserved if mercy was shown to those not considered to be the most strident ringleaders. Farmer Edmund Collins, overseer of Wycombe continued to write campaigning for John's release from his extended stay in the hulks. Edmund said the delay in making a decision in the case had prolonged the torture for wife Sarah who was "almost out of her mind" with stress and worry. Indeed Edmund offered to employ John should he be released.
Other local connections:
(All of the below spent time on the hulk York at Portsmouth before being transported on the Proteus as above, unless stated)
Aylesbury's John Blizzard, whose wife Mary was living "on the parish" at Little Marlow at the time of her husband's trial. He was sentenced to death but this was commuted to transportation for life. He had been involved in the destruction of Zachary Allnutt's paper making machine at High Wycombe.
William Butler was a native of Little Marlow then living in Woburn. A farm labourer, he was sentenced to death commuted to 7 years transportation for his involvement in the machine breaking at Allnutt's paper mill as above.
John Moody - 26 year old ploughman and Little Marlow native. Offence again relates to Allnutt's mill. Death sentence commuted to 7 years transportation.
William Moody age 22, of Little Marlow. Probably brother to above. Death sentence commuted to 1 years imprisonment.
Related Posts
1847 election riots Here
Chartist Edmund Stallwood here
Every mention of an individual here can be found listed in the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu.
SOURCES - a selection
A Guide to Early Modern History, 1830- 1835, Cory, William Johnson. C Paul &Co 1882.
The Life & Times of Swing, the Kent Rick Burner. "Swing, Francis". R Carlisle, 1830.
Berkshire Chronicle - 27 November 1830. Copy from the British Library and accessed via the BNA March 2021
The News (London) 21 November 1830, as above
Reading Mercury 20 September & 29 November 1830, as above
Windsor and Eton Express 28 August, 27 November, 4 & 11 December 1830, as above
Oxford Journal 27 November 1830, as above
Albion and The Star 26 November 1830, as above
Sun (London) 25 November 1830, as above
History Of England from the year 1830- 1874, Volume 1. Molesworth, William M. Chapman & Hall, 1886.
https://convictrecords.com.au/ships/proteus. Accessed April 2021.
Hampshire Machine Breakers, Jill Chambers. (J Chambers 1990)
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