Radical War
Radical War | |||
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Date | 1–8 April 1820 | ||
Location | Western Central Scotland | ||
Caused by |
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Goals |
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Resulted in |
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Parties | |||
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Lead figures | |||
Non-centralised leadership
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Casualties | |||
Charged | 88 charged with treasons Many leaders executed Absolute pardon granted on 10 August 1835 (15 years later) 20 radicals sentenced to penal transportation |
The Radical War, also known as the Scottish Insurrection of 1820, was a week of
An economic downturn after the wars ended brought increasing unrest, but the root cause was the Industrial Revolution. Artisan workers, particularly weavers in Scotland, sought action to force the government to enact Luddite protective restrictions. Gentry fearing revolutionary horrors recruited militia and the government deployed an apparatus of spies, informers and agents provocateurs to stamp out the movement.
A Committee of Organisation for Forming a Provisional Government put placards around the streets of
It was suspected that government agents had actively fomented the unrest to bring radicals into the open. The insurrection was largely forgotten as attention focussed on better publicised Radical events in England. Two years later, enthusiasm for the
Background
In the 18th century,
Between 1800 and 1808 the earnings of weavers were halved, and in 1812 they petitioned for an increase which was granted by the magistrates, but the employers refused to pay and so the weavers called a strike which lasted for nine weeks with the support of a "
Post war unrest
The end of the
The
The gentry feared that the kind of revolutionary turmoil that had been seen in
The "Radical War"
As 1820 began the government, frightened by the "
On 21 March the Committee met in a Glasgow tavern. The weaver John King left the meeting early, shortly before a raid in which the Committee was secretly arrested. Mitchell reported on 25 March that those arrested had "confessed their audacious plot to sever the Kingdom of Scotland from that of England and restore the ancient Scottish Parliament... If some plan were conceived by which the disaffected could be lured out of their lairs - being made to think that the day of "liberty" had come - we could catch them abroad and undefended... few know of the apprehension of the leaders. . . so no suspicion would attach itself to the plan at all. Our informants have infiltrated the disaffected's committees and organisation, and in a few days you shall judge the results."[citation needed] King, Craig, Turner and Lees would now be repeatedly involved in organising agitation.
At a meeting on 22 March the 15 to 20 people present included the weavers John King and John Craig, the tin-smith Duncan Turner, and "an Englishman" called Lees. John King told them that a rising was imminent and all present should hold themselves in enthusiastic readiness for the call to arms. The next day some of them met on Glasgow Green then moved on to Rutherglen where Turner revealed plans to establish a Provisional Government, got those present to resolve to "act accordingly", then gave over a copy of a draft Proclamation to be delivered to a printer. Lees, King and Turner went round encouraging supporters to make pikes for the battles. On Saturday 1 April Craig and Lees collected the prints which Lees had paid for the previous day. By the morning of Sunday 2 April copies of the Proclamation were displayed throughout Glasgow.
Proclamation
The Proclamation, signed "By order of the Committee of Organisation for forming a Provisional Government. Glasgow April 1st. 1820.", included references to the English
"Friends and Countrymen! Rouse from that torpid state in which we have sunk for so many years, we are at length compelled from the extremity of our sufferings, and the contempt heaped upon our petitions for redress, to assert our rights at the hazard of our lives." by "taking up arms for the redress of our common grievances". "Equality of rights (not of property)... Liberty or Death is our motto, and we have sworn to return home in triumph - or return no more.... we earnestly request all to desist from their labour from and after this day, the first of April [until] in possession of those rights..." It called for a rising "To show the world that we are not that lawless, sanguinary rabble which our oppressors would persuade the higher circles we are but a brave and generous people determined to be free."
A footnote added: "Britons – God – Justice – the wish of all good men, are with us. Join together and make it one good cause, and the nations of the earth shall hail the day when the Standard of Liberty shall be raised on its native soil."
Strike and unrest
On Monday 3 April work stopped, particularly in weaving communities, over a wide area of central Scotland including Stirlingshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, with an estimated total of around 60,000 stopping work.
Reports came in that men were carrying out military drill at points round Glasgow, foundries and forges had been raided, and iron files and dyer's poles taken to make pikes. In Kilbarchan soldiers found men making pikes, in Stewarton around 60 strikers was dispersed, in Balfron around 200 men had assembled for some sort of action. Pikes, gunpowder and weapons called "wasps" (a sort of javelin) and "clegs" (a barbed shuttlecock to throw at horses) were offered for sale.
Rumours spread that England was in arms for the cause of reform and that an army was mustering at
In Paisley the local reformers' committee met under command of their drill instructor, but scattered when Paisley was put under curfew.
Government troops were ready in Glasgow, including the Rifle Brigade, the 83rd Regiment of Foot, the 7th and 10th Hussars and Samuel Hunter's Glasgow Sharpshooters. In the evening 300 radicals briefly skirmished with a party "of cavalry", but no one came to harm that day.
March on Carron
In Glasgow John Craig led around 30 men to make for the Carron Company ironworks in Falkirk, Stirlingshire, telling them that weapons would be there for the taking, but the group scattered when intercepted by a police patrol. By coincidence a detachment of Hussars was waiting in ambush with the intention of catching men marching off from Glasgow to Carron, but was disappointed. Craig was caught, brought before a magistrate and fined, but the magistrate paid his fine for him.
On the next day, Tuesday 4 April, Duncan Turner assembled around 60 men to march to Carron, while he carried out organising work elsewhere. Half the group dropped out, the rest accepted his assurances that they would pick up supporters along the way. Their leader
Sixteen Hussars and sixteen
During 5 April more regiments arrived in Glasgow, causing considerable excitement. Some signs of resistance being organised were reported and the army stood on the alert well into the night, but no radical attack materialised. In Duntocher, Paisley and Camelon people thought to be drilling or making pikes were arrested.
The march from Strathaven
On the afternoon of 5 April, before news of the Bonnymuir fighting got out, "the Englishman" Lees sent a message asking the radicals of
Other Radical disturbances occurred at weaver villages around the central lowlands and the west central Scotland, with less obvious activity in some east coast towns.
Prisoners to Greenock
Large numbers of suspected ringleaders were imprisoned at various jails around the region.[2] The Port Glasgow Volunteers served in Paisley during the strike, and when returning home on Saturday 8 April escorted five prisoners to be taken on to Greenock jail in a cart. On the way through Port Glasgow, their commanders responded to rumours by increasing the escort from 30 to 80 men, and they met with minor hostility while marching through the town of Crawfurdsdyke. They reached Greenock jail, and while handing over the prisoners had to shelter from stones thrown from higher ground to the south of the jail.[3]
A hostile crowd gathered, and shots fired in the air failed to calm the situation. As the Volunteers returned along Cathcart Street, the "mob continued to increase, throwing stones, bottles, &c. from windows and closes." The Volunteers suffered bruising, and as they approached Rue-end Street opened sporadic fire, killing and wounding several of the crowd. The mob pursued the Volunteers into Crawfurdsdyke, then returned to break open the jail. A magistrate urged the crowd to desist, but with no forces to resist them, agreed to release the prisoners who then escaped. A large group set off to burn down Port Glasgow, but were halted at that town's boundary by armed townsfolk who had barricaded the Devol's Glen Bridge. Greenock magistrates arrived, and dispersed the crowd.[2][4]
A List of Killed and Wounded was "collected from the several Medical Practitioners in Greenock, 11th April 1820", describing the wounds sustained and the condition of the survivors. It listed 18 casualties, including an 8 year old boy, and a 65 year old woman. At this time 6 were noted as dead,[2][5] others died later from their wounds, and a report published on 15 July said there were "nine of the mob dead, and nine more dangerously wounded, there are two of the volunteers also wounded."[6]
Flight to Canada
In April 1820, hundreds of young Radicals fled by ship to Canada from Greenock, escaping persecution from
Trials and executions
In various towns a total of 88 men were charged with treason. At both
Five of his colleagues were found Not Guilty, and another was discharged. On 1 August a jury ignored the abrasive judge and refused to convict two weavers.
At Stirling Tolbooth on 4 August the judge advised "To you Andrew Hardie and John Baird I can hold out little or no hope of mercy" since "as you were the leaders, I am afraid that example must be given by you."[8]
James Wilson was hanged and beheaded on 30 August watched by some 20,000 people, first remarking to the executioner "Did you ever see such a crowd, Thomas?".
On 8 September Hardie and Baird were executed outside Stirling Tolbooth, watched by a crowd of 2,000.[8] The Sheriff of Stirling, Ranald MacDonald, required that they make no political speech from the gallows, but agreed that they could speak upon the bible. Baird concluded his brief speech by saying "Although this day we die an ignominious death by unjust laws our blood, which in a very few minutes shall flow on this scaffold, will cry to heaven for vengeance, and may it be the means of our afflicted Countrymen’s speedy redemption." Hardie then spoke of "our blood [being] shed on this scaffold... for no other sin but seeking the legitimate rights of our ill used and down trodden beloved Countrymen", then when the Sheriff angrily intervened he concluded by asking those present to "go quietly home and read your Bibles, and remember the fate of Hardie and Baird." They were hanged and then beheaded, in what was the last beheading in the UK, a few months after the Cato Street Plot.
Thomas McCulloch, John Barr, William Smith, Benjamin Moir, Allan Murchie, Alexander Latimer, Andrew White, David Thomson, James Wright, William Clackson / William Clarkson, Thomas Pike/Thomas Pink, Robert Gray, James Clelland, Alexander Hart, Thomas McFarlane, John Anderson, Andrew Dawson, John McMillan and the 15-year-old Alexander Johnstone were in due course transported to the penal colonies in New South Wales or Tasmania. Peter Mackenzie, a Glasgow journalist, campaigned unsuccessfully to have them pardoned, and published a small book: The Spy System, including the exploits of Mr Alex. Richmond, the notorious Government Spy of Sidmouth and Castlereagh.
Eventually, on 10 August 1835 an absolute pardon was granted.
Outcome
The effect of the crushing of this staged insurrection was to effectively discourage serious
At the suggestion of Walter Scott, unemployed weavers from the west of Scotland were put to work on paving a track round Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park adjoining Arthur's Seat. The path is still known as the Radical Road.[10]
The cause of electoral reform continued, and with the
A large memorial stone to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bonnymuir was unveiled in 2021.[11]
See also
- Radicalism (historical)
- 1820 United Kingdom general election
Notes
- ^ Prebble 2000, pp. 364–365
- ^ a b c The Scots Magazine ... Volumes 85–86. Sands, Brymer, Murray and Cochran. 1820. pp. 376–378.
- ^ The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register. H. Colburn. 1820. pp. 610–611.
- ISBN 0-9500687-6-4.
- ^ "Battle Of Bonnymuir and An Account of the Skirmish, which took place at Greenock on Saturday last; betwixt the Port Glasgow Volunteers (escorting five Radical prisoners from Paisley) and the inhabitants; when Nine of the latter were Killed, and 15 dangerously Wounded, Radical tracts RB.m.145 (3) - (4), Glasgow, 1820". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- ^ Niles' National Register: Containing Political, Historical, Geographical, Scientifical, Statistical, Economical, and Biographical Documents, Essays and Facts : Together with Notices of the Arts and Manufactures, and a Record of the Events of the Times. 1820. p. 359.
- ISBN 0-85976-519-9
- ^ a b "Murdered for the cause of justice, truth and liberty. Accounts relating to the execution of Baird and Hardie, 8 September 1820". Stirling Archives. 24 September 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
- ^ Prebble 2000, pp. 9–10, 17, 364
- ^ Gareth Edwards (17 July 2008). "Rock falls at Salisbury Crags close pathway". Edinburgh Evening News. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ Paterson, Kirsty (6 April 2021). "Battle of Bonnymuir 200th anniversary memorial unveiled". BBC.
References
- ISBN 0-00-686027-3
- ISBN 1-84158-068-6
- Mac a'Ghobhainn, Seumas; Ellis, Peter Berresford (2001), The Scottish insurrection of 1820, Edinburgh: John Donald, ISBN 0-85976-519-9
- Pentland, Gordon, Spirit of the Union: Popular Politics in Scotland, 1815-1820 (Pickering & Chatto, 2011) Print ISBN 9781315653594
External links
There are discrepancies between the various accounts. Dates above are taken from Halliday, but others show different dates.
- In depth account of Baird's involvement in the Radical War
- 1820 Insurrection, Debate on 1820 in the Scottish Parliament to mark the anniversaries of their sacrifice for Scottish rights 181 years ago, The 1820 Rising: The Radical War by J.Halliday
- Electric Scotland - The 1820 Rising
- BBC Legacies - The 1820 Rising
- The 1820 Society
- "The Work o' the Weavers" - Researched by David Cramb Wilson, descendant of the 'Leading Glasgow Radical' Andrew Wilson
- Radical Glasgow - 1820 insurrection
- The National Trust for Scotland - Weaver's Cottage, Kilbarchan. Archived 30 October 2005 at the Wayback Machine