Stockport’s most ardent loyalist and fierce enemy of local radicals was the Magistrate’s Clerk, John Lloyd.
Lloyd controlled the Stockport Loyal Volunteers, a force of around 250 men enrolled to guard against a possible French invasion, but were employed to suppress local political unrest.
To the left is a section of a review of Lloyd's Volunteers given in an address in 1797 by Master Mason John Lowe:
"I am confident you will never evince such weakness as to become converts to a cause that betrays such degeneracy and baseness. The incendiaries who may attempt to proselyte you, are deserving of being humbled with the dust. We all unite in a firm wish that your arms may prove successful without being pointed against a fellow countrymen. But if your Brother should become a traitor, every tie of affection is then alienated, and your hand recoils not at the trigger when so justified."
Lowe's speech is striking for his whole-hearted recommendation of violence against the reformers, who he describes as "incendiaries" and "traitors".
The address is preserved in John Lloyd's Scrapbook, which is held in Stockport Heritage Library.
Lloyd also hired his own group of spies who infiltrated several radical societies and told him what the Radicals were planning. He then passed on reports to the Home Secretary Lord Sidmouth, the so-called "Spymaster-General".
The Home Office employed a small army of spies, informers and agents provocateurs that Politician Charles James Fox described as intended to "depress the cause of freedom."
The image to the left depicts a figure that represents officials who, like Lloyd, collected information that the Home Office could use to charge Reformers with sedition and repress the freedom of the press, here described as "the Thing".
It is taken from radical pamphleteer and satirist William Hone's "The Political House That Jack Built", which was published in response to the Peterloo Massacre. This hugely influential pamphlet criticises the Government's attempts to suppress the Political Reform movement. A copy of the pamphlet can be found in
One of Lloyd's most prominent opponents was the Reverend Joseph Harrison, a Stockportian Nonconformist minister and renowned radical orator.
In an address printed in the Stockport Advertiser, Harrison expressed his desire to improve the lives of working people through Political Reform, saying that:
Harrison was deemed a sufficiently important figure of the radical movement to be included in the satiric cartoon "Grand entrance to bamboozl'em". In the cartoon (left), Harrison is depicted with his hands in chains holding up a Cap of Liberty on a spear.
LOYALISTS
VS
RADICALS
As Radicalism spread across the country there was a backlash of Loyalism; an effort by civilians loyal to the Church and King to aid the Government in suppressing the radical cause.
Loyalists would express support for the Government by writing broadsides, newspaper articles, forming anti-radical organisations and sending addresses to the King expressing their loyalty.
This satiric cartoon is entitled "Loyal Address's & Radical Petetions, or the R_ts most gracious answer to both sides of the question at once". Printed in 1819, the cartoon pokes fun at the loyalists' habit of delivering loyalist addresses to the king, in opposition to the radicals who sent petitions demanding political and economic reform.To the loyalists he presents the Royal hand; to the radicals he presents the Royal backside.
This notice (left) describes the resolutions formed by a meeting of Stockport Loyalists in 1792, held in the Methodist Chapel on Hillgate.
The notice expresses the fears of the loyalists who:
"perceiving, with the deepest concern, that attempts are made to circulate opinions contrary to the dearest interest of Britons, and subversive of those principles which have produced and preserved our most invaluable priveleges, feel it as a duty we owe to our country, ourselves, and our posterity, to invite all our fellow-subjects to join with us in the expression of a sincere and firm attachment to the Constitution of this Kingdom."
The notice claims that the above was signed by 1070 people, indicating a significant loyalist presence in Stockport as well as suggesting the extent of the revolutionary threat posed by radicals in the area.
In assembling the meeting, the loyalists may have been reacting to the formation of the Stockport Friends of Universal Peace and the Rights of Man by John Andrew in 1792 and the publication of A Rod For The Burkites.
Following the publication of Harrison’s report of the meeting on the 28th, the arrests of the three Stockport radicals gained the attention of influential reformists from across the country. The Radical Baronet Sir Charles Wolseley and reformist politician Sir Francis Burdett offered to post bail for the three prisoners in Chester Castle.
Soon after, famous orator Henry Hunt visited Stockport and addressed crowds from the Bull’s Head in the Market Place. In a letter to the Home Office, Lloyd complained that Hunt "gave audience to all the ragamuffins in the town".
Hunt was known for his rousing rhetoric and he delivered speeches in favour of Universal Suffrage at radical rallies all over the country. The visit of Hunt was a great coup for the reformist movement in Stockport, demonstrating that Stockport was becoming a nationally recognised hot-bed of Radicalism.
Loyal Address's & Radical Petetions, or the R ts most gracious answer to both sides of the question at once. 1819. ©Trustees of the British Museum
In October 1818, Harrison founded the extremely successful and influential "Stockport Union for the Promotion of Human Happiness". This became the most successful radical organisation in Stockport and may have been supported by as many as 1 in 10 local people.
From the Windmill Rooms on Edward Street the Union also housed its own Sunday School, the first to be organised by a radical group in England and which contained around 2000 pupils at its peak.
The objects of the union were Universal Suffrage, annual parliaments and secret ballots. In a letter to the famous orator Henry Hunt, Union member G.L. Bolsover said that the Union's object was "to obtain a great and positive good, viz. Equal right, equal laws, equal justice; and our weapons being reason, discussion and persuasion".
The union began with a meeting in which radicals discussed the arrests of the local radicals Bagguley, Drummond and Johnston and to establish the rules of the union. This model would become the foundation of several new reformist societies keen to replicate the success of the Stockport Union.
Harrison published an account of the meeting, including a petition to send to the Prince Regent, and sent it to various national radical publications (left).
"Report of the proceedings of a numerous and respectable meeting", 1818. Reform Meeting S/F.
Bagguley, Drummond and Johnston had been arrested on charges of sedition after delivering strongly worded and gin-soaked speeches at a radical meeting on the 1st September. Bagguley urged reformers to arm themselves and Johnston rashly joked that he would "blow out the brains" of Castlereagh, Sidmouth and Canning.
These three Government ministers were hated by radicals for their roles in suppressing reform. As Home Secretary, Sidmouth had been responsible for some of the most repressive measures for dealing with social unrest. These measures included the suspension of Habeas Corpus in 1817, the Gagging Acts and the Six Acts in 1819. He also made machine breaking punishable by death following the Luddite Riots.
Canning was involved in the founding of The Anti-Jacobin, an alternative to the journals and periodicals that were stirring up radical ideas across the country. War Secretary Castlereagh was hated so much that when he died, Lord Byron simply wrote "Here lie the bones of Castlereagh: Stop, traveler, and piss".
George Cruickshank’s image of the guilty trio is taken from “The Political House that Jack Built”. It depicts the guilty trio; Sidmouth, holding an enema and a Constable's staff; Castlereagh, holding a cat o' nine tails; and Canning, squaring up for a fight.
The Guilty Trio, from "The Political House That Jack Built". ©Trustees of the British Museum.
John Lloyd's Scrapbook. Reference: S/A 63 Strong Room.
Grand Entrance to Bamboozl'em, 1821. ©Trustees of the British Museum.
The Public Informer, from "The Political House That Jack Built". In Peterloo and Radical Reform, S/E17.
Manchester Bull Hunt, 1819. ©Trustees of the British Museum..
The scrapbook reveals the depths of Lloyd's loyalist enthusiasm. Here, Lloyd includes a a notice awarding him a silver cup for his services to the country "at a most critical and alarming period". Lloyd's reply thanks the sender profusely, expressing his extreme gratitude for the recognition of his "humble and individual exertions of loyalty and patriotism".
Lloyd's scrapbook collates a variety of pro-loyalist materials celebrating the glory of the monarchy and the victories of Wellington’s army over Napoleon. An advert for the Jubilee celebrations promises a number of odd amusements, including a contest awarding the prize of 5 shillings to “the best of any number of old women who shall, in the least time, crack one pint of woodland nuts. --- N.B. The candidates not to have more than two teeth on each side.”
John Lloyd's Scrapbook. Reference:S/A63 Strong Room.
Resources
J. L. Hammond and Barbara Hammond. The Skilled Labourer, 1927.
Robert Glen. The Working Classes of Stockport During the Industrial Revolution, 1978.
Joseph Harrison information folder, S/E90.
Lloyd was frequently called upon to enforce the measures issued by the Home Secretary and repress manifestations of radical rebellion. In 1817 local radicals proposed a march to London to issue a petition to the Prince protesting about the poverty and starvation of the cotton workers due to high rents, high taxes, the Corn Law of 1815 that kept food prices high, Governmental spending and the depression of the cotton trade.
The marchers were called “Blanketeers” due to the blankets they carried for the long journey to London. Each Blanketeer carried his petition tied around his right arm with a bow of right tape. Copies of these petitions were sent to the Home Office and can be found in the National Archives (left).
The Blanketeers gathered at Manchester for a meeting on the 10th of March and were addressed by hot-headed Stockport radicals John Bagguley and Samuel Drummond. The meeting was broken up by magistrates and military, and Bagguley and Drummond were arrested along with 25 others.
Those who had started the march to London got no further than Stockport. John Lloyd had assembled a group of Yeomanry and special constables and took up position on Stockport’s Lancashire Bridge to detain the marchers.
He managed to arrest 48 though many avoided the military by wading across the river Mersey. As Lloyd moved into Stockport centre more marchers swarmed across the bridge. About 170 were finally held in the Market Place and taken back to Manchester while Lloyd held a further 28 in Stockport for questioning.
In this letter to the Home Office (left), Lloyd gives his own account of the march, saying: “For the honour of Stockport, not a man crossed our bridge, [...] and I am proud to have had the opportunity of seizing the first man”.
As the Blanketeers had marched unarmed in small groups of 10, they had committed no crime. Lloyd suggested they be charged with vagrancy. While the Blanketeers were being rounded up, cabinet maker John James had been watching the hubbub from his garden when he was struck on the head by one of the Yeomanry and killed. A coroner’s inquest returned a verdict of willful murder but the assailant was never identified.
Letter from Lloyd to Beckett, March 11th 1817. HO 42//161
