Historic%20Yorkshire

170
THE LUDDITE RIOTS.
in spreading throughout the country. The first indications
of it wereat Nottingham. Among the numberless
mechanical improvements of that inventive period, the
stocking-loom was a principal object of hatred of the
weavers. Mobs assembled, and with most uncontrollable
violence and ferocity attacked the manufactories where
the frames were used, one thousand framesbeingwrecked
inNottingham alone. The mobhere again acted under
the nominal command of a person whom they called
General Ned Lud. FromNottingham the rioters spread
over the county as far north as Mansfield, and thence
gradually carried the agitation into the West Riding of
Yorkshire, the great seat of fabric manufactures. The
Luddites first attacked the mill of Messrs. J. J. and R.
Thompson, at Rawdon. On the morning of the 24th
March, 1812, the Luddites, armed with guns, sticks,
etc., stole silently towards the mills, first capturing the
watchman, and placing a guard over the cottages near,
then entering the factory they completely wrecked the
wholeof the machinery, and cut to pieces the manufactured
webslying there.
On the gth of the following April a party of 300 Luddites
marched upon Wakefield, having a van and rearguard
of horsemen, with drawn swords. They inspired
so much terror that no resistance was made, and they
destroyed numerous mills and other property in the
neighbourhoodof Wakefield. The burning of mills also
at Oaklands, near Leeds, and at Hawksworth, was attributed
to them, and other depredations of a like nature
werecommitted at Huddersfield,Dewsbury, Cleckheaton,
Holmfirth, and Liversedge. The machinery of Messrs.
Dickenson, Carr, and Shann,in Water Lane,Leeds, was
destroyed, and a large quantity of finished cloth. The
Ludditeorganisationnow began to extendits operations,
the first intention of destroying machinery only being
enlarged to a resolution to deprive the masters of their
lives. The Luddites met on commons and moors in the
middleof the night, and there they arranged whatmills