Shire Hall was Dorset’s courthouse until 1955
inc 1834 trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs
Shire Hall, Dorset
poster, what year?
Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum Shop
Each Martyr described his experience of transportation in the Horrors of Transportation. George Loveless wrote: “To enumerate the various miseries and evils which prisoners are subjected to, from landing in the colony until their death, is dreadful in the extreme. James Brine wrote: “I was employed to dig post-holes, and having walked so far without shoes, my feet were so cut I could not put them to the spade. I got a piece of an iron hoop and wrapped round my foot to tread upon, for six months. I went without shoes, clothes or bedding, and slept on the bare ground”.
Yet in U.K the men became popular heroes! There was an immediate public react-ion across the country, esp in London, where there were large demonstrations. The government largely ignored popular sentiment, and it was not until Mar 1836 that the sentences were remitted. News of the punishment spread and the UK fledgling unions knew their existence was under attack. They had to overturn the sentence and win the right to organise. Unknown to the 6 farm workers in Australia, their case was being taken to Parliament and onto London’s streets.
As news of the sentence spread, the young trade union movement organised a re-lease campaign. In Mar 1834, there was a meeting called by the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union at leader of the Grand Consolidated Union Robert Owen’s planning. 10,000+ people arrived! The agitation spread and The London Central Dorchester Committee formed to campaign for the pardon. A huge rally was held Ap 1834 when c100,000 people met near King’s Cross London. Fearing chaos, the Government took strong control: Lifeguards, Household Cavalry, detachments of Lancers, 2 troops of Dragoons, 8 battalions of infantry and 29 cannons were mustered. 5,000+ special constables were sworn into this “armed camp”.
By 7am protesters gathered by trade union stewards on horse. A grand parade with banners marched to Parliament. Citizens lining the streets & crowding the rooftops cheered. At Whitehall the petition, carried on unionists’ shoulders, was taken to the Home Sec Lord Melbourne’s office. He hid and didn’t accept the petition! The Government resisted, but agitation for the men’s release mounted. MPs questioned Parliament often; petitions came with 800,000+ signatures.
By mid 1835, 10 months after arriving in penal colonies, conditional pardons had been granted by Home Secretary Lord John Russell. But Russell was premature; legally a convict could not be conditionally pardoned under 4 years. The mail between Whitehall and Sydney & Hobart caused confusion and delay.
Yet in U.K the men became popular heroes! There was an immediate public react-ion across the country, esp in London, where there were large demonstrations. The government largely ignored popular sentiment, and it was not until Mar 1836 that the sentences were remitted. News of the punishment spread and the UK fledgling unions knew their existence was under attack. They had to overturn the sentence and win the right to organise. Unknown to the 6 farm workers in Australia, their case was being taken to Parliament and onto London’s streets.
As news of the sentence spread, the young trade union movement organised a re-lease campaign. In Mar 1834, there was a meeting called by the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union at leader of the Grand Consolidated Union Robert Owen’s planning. 10,000+ people arrived! The agitation spread and The London Central Dorchester Committee formed to campaign for the pardon. A huge rally was held Ap 1834 when c100,000 people met near King’s Cross London. Fearing chaos, the Government took strong control: Lifeguards, Household Cavalry, detachments of Lancers, 2 troops of Dragoons, 8 battalions of infantry and 29 cannons were mustered. 5,000+ special constables were sworn into this “armed camp”.
By 7am protesters gathered by trade union stewards on horse. A grand parade with banners marched to Parliament. Citizens lining the streets & crowding the rooftops cheered. At Whitehall the petition, carried on unionists’ shoulders, was taken to the Home Sec Lord Melbourne’s office. He hid and didn’t accept the petition! The Government resisted, but agitation for the men’s release mounted. MPs questioned Parliament often; petitions came with 800,000+ signatures.
By mid 1835, 10 months after arriving in penal colonies, conditional pardons had been granted by Home Secretary Lord John Russell. But Russell was premature; legally a convict could not be conditionally pardoned under 4 years. The mail between Whitehall and Sydney & Hobart caused confusion and delay.
Book by Doc H Evatt, 1937
federal parliamentary leader of Labour Party
MP Wakeley presented 16 petitions to Parliament! The Tolpuddle men refused to accept conditional pardons and the Government finally agreed in Mar 1836 to a full pardon. By the King! Months passed before orders to free the men reached the Australian authorities but the farm workers would be coming home from penal colonies as free men!!
Few sent to the penal colonies ever returned, because they died OR couldn’t afford the journey home. The Martyrs didn’t return home until years after the infamous Trial. George Loveless was the first to arrive back in the UK in June 1837, welcomed by the London Dorchester Committee. George slipped quietly into Tolpuddle where he wrote The Victims of Whiggery, a strong statement against bad employment practices, and the profits went to the families.
James Loveless, James Brine, Thomas and John Standfield sailed by ship in Sept 1837. They were delayed in New Zealand as the ship took timber onboard, so exactly 4 years post-trial, the ship anchored in Plymouth Sound. People flocked to greet them from the quay and they were taken to an Inn before moving to the prominent local trade unionist James Keast’s home. The Committee of Trades organised a public welcome in March in Plymouth’s Mechanics Institute. The men went by coach to Exeter where another public meeting was held. They stayed in Dorchester at an inn with new clothes, then went to London for a grand Easter dinner at White Conduit House with c2,000 people.
James Hammett was the last returnee, arriving at New House Farm in Aug 1839. He was given a public welcome in Sept at the Victoria Theatre/Old Vic. Hammett did not write his experiences; he was the only one with a criminal record pre-arrest and he fell foul of the law in NSW. He remained in Tolpuddle, quitting farm work to become a builder’s labourer. His life story only emerged in 1875 when he was honoured by the Agricultural Labourers’ Union leader.
Tolpuddle Martyrs plaque London Ontario, 2014
Wiki Commons
The London Dorchester Committee raised funds with public support to buy farms leases in Essex for the returning men. Five still campaigned for working men’s rights, supporting the Chartist movement. They organised a Chartist association in Greensted, based on The People’s Charter: 1. Manhood Suffrage 2. secret voting 3. MP payments 4. Annual Parliaments and 5. Equal electoral districts.
The Greensted Vicar in Essex preached against the Chartists’ activities, saying: the foundations of decent society were being undermined; paternal order where all knew his proper place had to be restored. He alerted the Home Office. Essex Standard said “George Loveless, instead of quietly fulfilling his station, is still dabbling in the dirty waters of radicalism and publishing pamphlets to keep up the old game”. Pressure from landowners forced the others to seek lives in Ontario Canada, as farmers.
The Greensted Vicar in Essex preached against the Chartists’ activities, saying: the foundations of decent society were being undermined; paternal order where all knew his proper place had to be restored. He alerted the Home Office. Essex Standard said “George Loveless, instead of quietly fulfilling his station, is still dabbling in the dirty waters of radicalism and publishing pamphlets to keep up the old game”. Pressure from landowners forced the others to seek lives in Ontario Canada, as farmers.
Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum, Wiki
Portland stone sculpture in front by Dagnall, 2001
Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum was a library in Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Memorial Cottages, built 1934. The library had a collection of historical documents & collectables but in time, a display telling the Martyrs' story made it into a Museum about workers’ rights, trade unionism and human freedoms.
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11 comments:
Hello Hels, Seemingly not much has changed since the time of the Tolpuddle Martyrs and today, except the wealth disparity between the employers and those they want to control. The early 19th century tortures you describe were more direct and brutal, but compare that to the huge numbers today who work full time for the worlds wealthiest people and most profitable companies, but still have to subsist on food stamps and similar programs, all while sinking lower and lower below the level of poverty.
Not long ago I read Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford, and while it is a charming and mostly light book, it shows how 19th century English laborers in agricultural villages worked incredibly hard, got by on pennies, and if there was any financial slip, they ended up in the work house.
--Jim
Nearly two hundred years later most working people in the western world have a much better living standard than back then, but the disparity between capital and labour remains, and with the gap between the rich and poor growing ever wider and faster. We owe great gratitude to the Martyrs.
In 1929 Doc H Evatt was appointed King’s Counsel and quit state politics the following year to devote his attention to the law. His practice became one of the largest in the state. Before late1930 he was appointed a justice of the High Court of Australia. Injustice Within the Law, was his book about the Tolpuddle martyrs, published in 1937.
He entered federal parliament in 1940 and the following year he became Attorney General and Minister for External Affairs in John Curtin's government.
Was Australia responsible for its own vile treatment of British citizens sent to the penal colonies in NSW and Tasmania? Did we ever apologise?
Parnassus
that is quite true... the farmers not convicted of a crime and not sent to a penal colony might have struggled anyhow, had they been allowed to live in peace on the farms. But I was much more upset about the unjust use of the laws, police, courts, condemned ships and British colonies than I was about relative poverty in the UK. Since when did the British treat its own citizens like animals, especially if they had not been criminals?
Andrew
I think the gap between the rich and poor is far less than it was in the 19th century for those countries that have universal health care, quality government school education, livable pensions etc etc. But I still worry about workers' ability to unionise strongly and productively.
Maitland
Thank you for the reference which I added to my blog post.
Federation Uni Review of Evatt, The Tolpuddle Martyrs: Evatt was best known for his role in forging the United Nations, defending the Communist Party in the High Court, and for not winning office during his term as Labor leader (1951-60). This new edition of his The Tolpuddle Martyrs is a timely reminder of the brilliant and energetic intellect behind Evatt's more public activities. In 1834, in the midst of concerns over the rising tide of trade union and reform activity, six Dorset labourers were charged under the 1797 Illegal Oaths Act and sentenced to 7 years transportation to the Australian colonies.
Transportation as a form of criminal punishment emerged in the British legal system from the early 17th century as an alternative to execution. Many crimes that today would be considered minor offences were punishable by hanging.
From 1788-1868 more than 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia. A small proportion of convicts were political prisoners, including Irish home rule insurgents, the unionist Tolpuddle Martyrs, anti-industrialising Luddites, Canadian rebels and political reforming Chartists. The other convicts were transported as punishment for crimes committed in Britain and Ireland. In Australia their lives were hard as they helped build the young colony. When they had served their sentences, most stayed on and some became successful settlers.
Oh my, the law back in those days was rather brutal, and the trip out to Australia dreadful. I've read many ship Doctor's reports on the voyages and other peoples from the past. It's pleasing that some returned to their homeland and were pardoned, so few were, Hels.
Margaret
agreed. However I wish the so-called criminals weren't 'pardoned, forgiven or mercy offered'. They committed no crime in the first place, so I would love the courts to apologise profoundly for their nasty charges and their nastier sentences.
And substantial compensation should have meant financial payments to cover medical recovery costs, loss of family life for years, harassment and emotional suffering
The story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs is a powerful reminder that many of the workplace rights we take for granted today were won through extraordinary sacrifice, courage, and the determination of ordinary people to stand up for fair treatment.
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