The assizes of April 1820 which tried McGuiness and Bruce also heard the case against Harrison and Wolseley who had been charged with sedition as a consequence of their speeches delivered at the Sandy Brow meeting.
Perhaps unable to resist the opportunity to exercise his oratorical prowess, Harrison represented himself, speaking ‘with the utmost composure, and with a violently methodistical twang’, according to the Edinburgh Annual Register’s account of the trial.
The jury debated for forty-five minutes and delivered a verdict of guilty. The King’s Bench later sentenced both men to eighteen months imprisonment. On 18th April, Harrison came to trial for two other indictments for seditious sermons delivered on 15th August and the 5th December 1819. He was found guilty on both counts and for each he received 12 months, making his total jail time 3 1/2 years.
The image to the left is taken from radical bookseller Thomas Dolby’s satirical pamphlet: The Total Eclipse: A Grand Politico-astronomical Phenomenon, which Occurred in the Year 1820. Possibly a portrayal of the trial of Wolseley and Harrison, it depicts two prisoners standing before four frowning judges and a group of scowling yeomanry with their swords drawn. Behind them floats the drunk looking figure of Justice, with one eye bandaged and her scales unbalanced. Dolby’s point is that the prosecutions of Wolseley and Harrison and of other prominent Radicals, were unjust, unconstitutional and imposed by a prejudiced and violently suppressive legal system.
Lloyd quickly began a search for the assailants. The next day William Pearson, a weaver, and James George Bruce, an assistant at Harrison’s school, were arrested but both claimed not to be the shooter. The public notice on the left was preserved by Lloyd in his Scrapbook.
It describes the investigation of the shooting and attributes the crime to "The wicked Conspiracy which has been entered into by certain Individuals in the Town, to involve the characters of innocent persons, because they are loyal."
Likewise James Norris the Manchester magistrate believed the shooting to be have been part of a radical conspiracy. In a letter to the Home Office he wrote:
"I learn that the deed has been approved among these radical reformers which I would not have doubted if I had not heard it. Harrison himself I hear preached in the Streets of Stockport on Sunday and appeared in Rochdale where he spoke on Monday notwithstanding all that had occurred. This sufficiently denotes the hardened depravity of this monster."
Birch had been unpopular and it was suspected that the people of the town were hiding the shooter. Constable Birch was possibly the Birch who was described in Bamford's poem on "The Fray at Stockport" as trying to take the reformers' flags at Sandy Brow.
THE SHOOTING OF BIRCH
In the confusion that followed, the wounded Birch managed to flee, jumping over the fence of Lloyd's garden in Loyalty square. Birch's screaming as he passed caused alarm to Lloyd's family, who were eating supper at the time.
Birch was taken to his father's house in Little Underbank under armed escort. According to Lloyd’s letter to Hobhouse (left), Birch was examined by several surgeons who could not find a bullet. It was determined that the bullet was was stuck in the breastbone between Birch’s lungs.
Local radicals, perhaps fearing public sympathy turning against them, began to spread tales that Lloyd’s son had shot Birch, that he had been shot only with cotton wadding, or that he had not been shot at all.
When Birch had died of natural causes an autopsy was performed to quash the conspiracy theories and the bullet was found still lodged in his breastbone. The breastbone encasing the bullet was removed and is now in the possession of Stockport Museum.
As the reform movement was gaining a wider national audience in the early months of 1819, the forces of law and order were becoming more active in the Greater Manchester district and especially at Stockport. According to Giles, "the Government was by now as fully convinced as Lloyd of the people’s intention to create an insurrection". The Under Secretary of State, Hobhouse, urged Lloyd to make an example of Wolseley and Harrison.
Lloyd sent William Birch and a second constable to arrest Wolseley at his home in Staffordshire, then proceed to a Radical rally in London with a warrant for Harrison who was arrested only moments after delivering a speech. Harrison was then escorted back to Stockport and at Constable Birch’s house on the 23rd July.
The police had tried to keep Harrison’s arrival in Stockport a secret but word got out and an angry crowd of thousands formed around Birch’s house, “anxious to be near the esteemed firm and undaunted friend and advocate of their rights and liberties” (Black Dwarf, 498).
As Lloyd questioned Harrison, Birch kept watch outside. He was approached by three men demanding to know why Harrison had been arrested. While they were talking, one of the men took out a pistol and shot Birch in the chest.
When questioned, Pearson claimed that it had been two Irish brothers that had joined Bruce in the shooting, James and Jacob McGuiness, and that Jacob had fired the pistol.
Pearson’s information led to the discovery of Jacob McGuiness on 23rd August in Ireland, hiding in his Aunt’s bed with a woman’s cap on. This disguise failed to fool the constables however and he was arrested and taken to Chester Castle.
McGuiness was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to death. While awaiting execution he wrote a memoir, giving his account of the crime and of his religious conversion in prison: "Jacob M'Guinness; or, A Memoir of the Extraordinary Life and Wonderful Conversion of an Infidel, Atheistical Reformer", which is available to read on Google Books.
Constable Birch's breastbone. Stockport Museum.
Lloyd to Hobhouse, dated 31st July 1819. HO 42/189.
The Courts Below. 1820. Thomas Dolby. From The Total Eclipse: A Grand Politico-astronomical Phenomenon, which Occurred in the Year 1820.
John Lloyd's Scrapbook. Reference: S/A 63 Strong Room.
