Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Robert Southey 1795 (courtesy Wikipedia)
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Box's Revolutionary Times, 1813 - 1830 Alan Payne June 2019 Many historians make the point that Britain came close to a revolution in the early years of the 1800s, similar to the dynastic over-throws in mainland Europe in France, Serbia, Greece Italy, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. In Britain some conditions were ripe for revolution. Society had been destabilised after 50 years of warfare, starting with the American War of Independence, 1775 - 1783, up until the wars with France, 1795 - 1802, and against Napoleon, 1803 - 1815. It had led to the suspension of Habeas Corpus in 1794 and the arming of substantial parts of the population. This article looks at the situation in Box and Wiltshire. |
The early years of the 1800s were full of rumour and popular discontent fuelled by unexplained events, such as the Year Without a Summer., 1816.[1] The largest volcanic explosion ever recorded happened at Mount Tambora in the Indonesian Ocean in April 1815, one thousand times stronger that the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano of 2010 which caused the suspension of air traffic. The impact took a year to reach Europe when sulphuric acid particles blocked sunlight and settled on the land destroying crops. In the months of June to August 1816 there was frost in Britain and orange and brown snowfalls. The price of bread doubled and more flour imported from the USA than any other year in history. Memories of Napoleon's battle with Wellington at Waterloo were recent, an outbreak of typhus in Ireland and cholera in London caused outsiders to be feared and in 1816 Mary Shelley, stuck indoors by the weather, wrote the novel Frankenstein. Such was the background to society in Britain.
For a short while Box had a man sometimes thought of as a revolutionary. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was by any standard rather weird. He wrote the dreamy, drug-induced poem about an obscure Chinese Emperor Kubla Khan and his Mongolian palace at Xanadu and theorised about a society based on an utopian commune which he called Pantisocracy. To contemporaries he was much more sinister than that. In the 1790s he was a radical thinker (opposed to all forms of existing government), politically aware and very outspoken. He was considered to be an agent provocateur as shown by the radical political and religious philosophies in his 1798 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.[2]
Coleridge's Views on French Revolution
Like his friend Wordsworth, Coleridge was initially an enthusiastic supporter of the new ideas emanating alongside the French Revolution. These included the principles in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the anti-slavery movement. He strongly opposed Britain's war with Revolutionary France and detested the Prime Minister, William Pitt.
Some critics believe that his poem The Ancient Mariner describes the revolutionary fervour of those times.[3] But the work is very difficult to understand and the plot convoluted. For those who haven't read the poem it involves an albatross, a Christian soul, who is callously, for no good reason, shot by a Mariner to the dismay of the crew. The Mariner doesn't seek to explain his actions, saying: Why look'st thou so? - With my crossbow I shot the albatross.[4] It was a sin to kill the albatross in such a manner, and was followed by the horrific punishment of the Mariner obliged to wear the dead bird around his neck and aimlessly wandering the after-world to tell his story.
Coleridge conceived the poem whilst walking the Quantocks with William and Dorothy Wordsworth at Nether Stowey, Somerset. They discussed a fictional character, Simon Hatley, who shot down a black albatross. The ideas took form and Coleridge wrote the poem. A statue of the mariner was erected in the harbour of Watchet to commemorate the work.
Coleridge changed his views about the French Revolution later in life. Whilst he deplored the excesses of Robespierre's Terror, he was still a champion of liberty for the masses, writing in 1805:
The sensual and the Dark rebel in vain,
Slaves by their own compulsion! In mad game
They burst their manacles and wear the name
Of Freedom, graven on a heavier chain! [5]
Following all this intrigue and notoriety, Coleridge came briefly to live in Ashley, Box.
Coleridge's Views on French Revolution
Like his friend Wordsworth, Coleridge was initially an enthusiastic supporter of the new ideas emanating alongside the French Revolution. These included the principles in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the anti-slavery movement. He strongly opposed Britain's war with Revolutionary France and detested the Prime Minister, William Pitt.
Some critics believe that his poem The Ancient Mariner describes the revolutionary fervour of those times.[3] But the work is very difficult to understand and the plot convoluted. For those who haven't read the poem it involves an albatross, a Christian soul, who is callously, for no good reason, shot by a Mariner to the dismay of the crew. The Mariner doesn't seek to explain his actions, saying: Why look'st thou so? - With my crossbow I shot the albatross.[4] It was a sin to kill the albatross in such a manner, and was followed by the horrific punishment of the Mariner obliged to wear the dead bird around his neck and aimlessly wandering the after-world to tell his story.
Coleridge conceived the poem whilst walking the Quantocks with William and Dorothy Wordsworth at Nether Stowey, Somerset. They discussed a fictional character, Simon Hatley, who shot down a black albatross. The ideas took form and Coleridge wrote the poem. A statue of the mariner was erected in the harbour of Watchet to commemorate the work.
Coleridge changed his views about the French Revolution later in life. Whilst he deplored the excesses of Robespierre's Terror, he was still a champion of liberty for the masses, writing in 1805:
The sensual and the Dark rebel in vain,
Slaves by their own compulsion! In mad game
They burst their manacles and wear the name
Of Freedom, graven on a heavier chain! [5]
Following all this intrigue and notoriety, Coleridge came briefly to live in Ashley, Box.
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Coleridge in Ashley and Box
Coleridge's opium addiction led him to abandoning a normal life, living on the kindness of supporters and taking cheap accommodation where offered. On 29 November 1813 he set out with Mary Morgan and her sister Charlotte Brent on a coach trip from London to Bath.[6] They stayed overnight in a cottage at Ashley Green, reputedly with a grocer, Mrs Smith. The location of the cottage has never been identified but local anecdotes say he left some possessions in the garage of Ashley Leigh, opposite Ashley Green. On 5 December Coleridge set out to walk to Bath in the rain, having missed the coach there and settled into the Greyhound Inn, Bath.[7] Left: Ashley Leigh Garage (courtesy Carol Payne) |
We can track his movements in the area from his letters to Mr Smith, Ashley, Box, in 1814. Mary and Charlotte moved to Ashley and Coleridge made regular visits to them in June and July 1814. In September that year Coleridge took a property there as joint tenants with Mr Morgan (Mary's husband) of a sweet little cottage at Ashley, half a mile from Box, on the Bath road.[8] He described his days with the Morgans as: I breakfast every morning before nine ; work till one, and walk or read till three. Thence, till tea-time, chat or read some lounge book, or correct what I have written. From six to eight work again ; from eight till bed-time, play whist, or the little mock billiard called bagatelle, and then sup, and go to bed.
Coleridge House, Box Market Place
It is rumoured that, on one of his visits to the area, he stayed at Coleridge Cottage, Market Place, Box, and a story grew up that he hurriedly left his lodgings on discovering that explosives were stored in the room below his bedroom. It was possibly one of the most sensible decisions he made.
Local Defence in Box
In Coleridge's time, Box was defended by two separate armed groups: the militia (the territorial army) and groups of local volunteers (civilians) called up in emergency. The Royal Wiltshire Militia men were often day labourers, selected by ballot of the parish population. They were unpopular locally because their families usually needed considerable support from parish relief (rates) when the servicemen failed to contribute to their families during their three-year duty. Those seen in Box in their regular-army, red uniforms weren't local because militias always served outside their own county.
In addition to the militia was a band of volunteers expected to defend their local hundred (administrative area, of which Box was part of the Chippenham area) against invasion until the arrival of the militia. They were armed civilians, wearing their own uniforms (or none), mostly untrained. (In later years the Home Guard was originally called the LDV, Local Defence Volunteers.)
Between the two services, it has been estimated that two out of every five adult males held arms at the time of the Napoleonic Wars.[9] The fear of the mass arming of these two groups of people led to the over-reaction by the authorities to signs of local unrest.
There was local opposition to changes introduced by the Industrial Revolution to defend jobs against the use of machinery. In 1791 scribbling machines for the clothing industry were destroyed in Bradford-on-Avon and a year later the introduction of a fly shuttle caused riots in Trowbridge.[10] Steam engines were introduced after 1805, powered by coal from the Somerset Coal Canal after 1811. Popular unrest was widespread in 1817 when three thousand colliers from Radstock and Paulton, Somerset, rioted on 4 March, destroying pit buildings and demanding Bread or Blood in support of higher wages. The magistrates read the Riot Act and called up the Bristol 23rd Lancers and the North Somerset Yeomanry until peace was restored.
Local Defence in Box
In Coleridge's time, Box was defended by two separate armed groups: the militia (the territorial army) and groups of local volunteers (civilians) called up in emergency. The Royal Wiltshire Militia men were often day labourers, selected by ballot of the parish population. They were unpopular locally because their families usually needed considerable support from parish relief (rates) when the servicemen failed to contribute to their families during their three-year duty. Those seen in Box in their regular-army, red uniforms weren't local because militias always served outside their own county.
In addition to the militia was a band of volunteers expected to defend their local hundred (administrative area, of which Box was part of the Chippenham area) against invasion until the arrival of the militia. They were armed civilians, wearing their own uniforms (or none), mostly untrained. (In later years the Home Guard was originally called the LDV, Local Defence Volunteers.)
Between the two services, it has been estimated that two out of every five adult males held arms at the time of the Napoleonic Wars.[9] The fear of the mass arming of these two groups of people led to the over-reaction by the authorities to signs of local unrest.
There was local opposition to changes introduced by the Industrial Revolution to defend jobs against the use of machinery. In 1791 scribbling machines for the clothing industry were destroyed in Bradford-on-Avon and a year later the introduction of a fly shuttle caused riots in Trowbridge.[10] Steam engines were introduced after 1805, powered by coal from the Somerset Coal Canal after 1811. Popular unrest was widespread in 1817 when three thousand colliers from Radstock and Paulton, Somerset, rioted on 4 March, destroying pit buildings and demanding Bread or Blood in support of higher wages. The magistrates read the Riot Act and called up the Bristol 23rd Lancers and the North Somerset Yeomanry until peace was restored.
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Local Agitation, 1820
The Bath Chronicle reported extensively on events in 1820 when there was a plot to murder the prime minister of the country and his entire cabinet (the Cato Street Conspiracy). The seriousness of the situation was reflected by the newspaper's dramatic and inflammatory language, Treasonable Conspiracy and Murder - the most diabolical and atrocious conspiracies ever entered into.[11] In 1819 the Peterloo Massacre shocked civilised society when the cavalry charged at unarmed protestors in Manchester. In such heightened political emotion, King George III died in January 1820. The accession of George IV and his desire to secure a divorce from Queen Caroline of Brunswick fanned populist protests throughout England. The playing of God Save the King had to be abandoned at public events because of public outcries for the Queen and at the Bath Theatre Royal plays such as Othello, Coriolanus and King Lear were replaced by comedies to avoid political overtones. Right: Queen Caroline by James Lonsdale (courtesy Wikipedia) |
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A public illumination was held in Bath in November 1820: The letters CR (Caroline Regina) in the shop windows were curiously lighted with gas and the conduct of the populace became so turbulent that it was judged necessary to call out the troop of the 16th Lancers.[12] Caroline accepted a grant to live abroad and died in 1821.
Captain Swing Riots, 1830
Letters threatening death and destruction started to appear throughout the country in 1830, all reputed to have been sent by Captain Swing, such as (not local): We now inform you to destroy your horse-mill in your brewery eminently. We have a plan, and it will take only a few minutes. Swing.[13]
In a newspaper article about local rioting, there were reports about labourers setting fire to hay ricks in Wiltshire at Amesbury (riotous men, in bodies of from 200 to 500, breaking machines to pieces), at Collingbourne (the appalling sight of six fires around them) and at Winterslow (Mr Gaby expects his manufactory will be beaten to pieces).[14] Some of the letters seem rather ridiculous. A Corsham man, Henry Harren, a coal dealer, wrote letters to customers who had ended his coal contract.[15]
The authorities clamped down with the Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry mobilised at Devizes and Bristol. Special Commissioners were called up in Wiltshire trying cases speedily and, in many instances, giving sentences of 7 years transportation or execution. There is an appalling report of the trial of Peter Withers (age 23) and James Lush (40 years) given in the Bath Chronicle: the groans of the prisoner were dreadful .. his face assumed a death-like paleness .. he leaned over the bar in a state of indescribable anguish.[16] The evidence against both of them was flimsy and both were due to be executed a few days later on 25 January.[17] In the event, a Radical Petition was started and their sentence commuted to life transportation.[18] The whole issue was divisive and heckling from the crowd common, such as shouting at a convicted prisoner, Your (pregnant) wife is dead and the baby is dead too.[19] By the end of January, three hundred Wiltshire labourers had been tried, mostly for destruction of agricultural machinery. The Wiltshire Special Commissioners executed 2 people, passed a further 42 death sentences, transported 3 people for 14 years, 102 for 7 years, imprisoned 42, discharged for lack of identification 18 and acquitted 24.[20] It was a sudden and rash exercise of authoritarian control. It may have been effective in Wiltshire but there are reports of further riots in Bristol and Bath in 1831.
Position in Box
There are no reported cases of riot in Box during these years which begs the question, Why not? Box was significantly different to its surrounding agricultural areas, having moved into a self-sustaining village economy with shops, workshops and employment potential for labourers. The development of the stone industry in the late Georgian village was significant even before the Box Tunnel led to incremental growth.
Nothing more distinguishes us today from the people in 1838 than the Chartist movement wanting electoral reform, including: votes for every man, secret ballot, payment of Members of Parliament, removal of MP's property qualification, equal electoral districts and annual parliaments. Feargus O'Connor advocated smallholdings for the labouring classes. Many textile areas supported the Chartists and Box could have been susceptible to agitation with Coleridge, local machine breaking and abundant militia activity. But in Box many people had sufficient gardens to cultivate produce and the opportunity to enjoy significant income through the stone trade. In Box there was no need to support riots or Chartism.
Captain Swing Riots, 1830
Letters threatening death and destruction started to appear throughout the country in 1830, all reputed to have been sent by Captain Swing, such as (not local): We now inform you to destroy your horse-mill in your brewery eminently. We have a plan, and it will take only a few minutes. Swing.[13]
In a newspaper article about local rioting, there were reports about labourers setting fire to hay ricks in Wiltshire at Amesbury (riotous men, in bodies of from 200 to 500, breaking machines to pieces), at Collingbourne (the appalling sight of six fires around them) and at Winterslow (Mr Gaby expects his manufactory will be beaten to pieces).[14] Some of the letters seem rather ridiculous. A Corsham man, Henry Harren, a coal dealer, wrote letters to customers who had ended his coal contract.[15]
The authorities clamped down with the Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry mobilised at Devizes and Bristol. Special Commissioners were called up in Wiltshire trying cases speedily and, in many instances, giving sentences of 7 years transportation or execution. There is an appalling report of the trial of Peter Withers (age 23) and James Lush (40 years) given in the Bath Chronicle: the groans of the prisoner were dreadful .. his face assumed a death-like paleness .. he leaned over the bar in a state of indescribable anguish.[16] The evidence against both of them was flimsy and both were due to be executed a few days later on 25 January.[17] In the event, a Radical Petition was started and their sentence commuted to life transportation.[18] The whole issue was divisive and heckling from the crowd common, such as shouting at a convicted prisoner, Your (pregnant) wife is dead and the baby is dead too.[19] By the end of January, three hundred Wiltshire labourers had been tried, mostly for destruction of agricultural machinery. The Wiltshire Special Commissioners executed 2 people, passed a further 42 death sentences, transported 3 people for 14 years, 102 for 7 years, imprisoned 42, discharged for lack of identification 18 and acquitted 24.[20] It was a sudden and rash exercise of authoritarian control. It may have been effective in Wiltshire but there are reports of further riots in Bristol and Bath in 1831.
Position in Box
There are no reported cases of riot in Box during these years which begs the question, Why not? Box was significantly different to its surrounding agricultural areas, having moved into a self-sustaining village economy with shops, workshops and employment potential for labourers. The development of the stone industry in the late Georgian village was significant even before the Box Tunnel led to incremental growth.
Nothing more distinguishes us today from the people in 1838 than the Chartist movement wanting electoral reform, including: votes for every man, secret ballot, payment of Members of Parliament, removal of MP's property qualification, equal electoral districts and annual parliaments. Feargus O'Connor advocated smallholdings for the labouring classes. Many textile areas supported the Chartists and Box could have been susceptible to agitation with Coleridge, local machine breaking and abundant militia activity. But in Box many people had sufficient gardens to cultivate produce and the opportunity to enjoy significant income through the stone trade. In Box there was no need to support riots or Chartism.
References
[1] Podcast In Our Time, 21 April 2016
[2] For more consideration of the contemporary impact see Peter Kitson, Coleridge, The French Revolution and the Ancient Mariner on-line at http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/MembersOnly/kitsonFrenchRev.html
[3] http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/membersonly/kitsonFrenchRev.html
[4] You can read the full text of the poem at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834
[5] Peter Kitson, Coleridge, The French Revolution and the Ancient Mariner
[6] Ken Watts, The Wiltshire Cotswolds, 2007, The Hobnob Press, p.197
[7] Ken Watts, The Wiltshire Cotswolds, p.198
[8] According to Coleridge's own letters recorded at http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924104096536/cu31924104096536_djvu.txt and https://archive.org/stream/cu31924104096973/cu31924104096973_djvu.txt
[9] Margaret Bird, Trust the People, University of Hertfordshire, U-Podcast
[10] J De L Mann, The Cloth Industry in the West Of England, 1640 - 1880, p.129 and 140
[11] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 2 March 1820
[12] The Bath Chronicle, 23 November 1820
[13] The Bath Chronicle, 23 December 1830
[14] The Bath Chronicle, 2 December 1830
[15] The Bath Chronicle, 23 August 1832
[16] The Bath Chronicle, 13 January 1831
[17] The Bath Chronicle, 20 January 1831
[18] EJ Hobsbawn and George Rudé, Captain Swing, 1969, Penguin Books, p.223
[19] The Bath Chronicle, 27 January 1831
[20] The Bath Chronicle, 27 January 1831
[1] Podcast In Our Time, 21 April 2016
[2] For more consideration of the contemporary impact see Peter Kitson, Coleridge, The French Revolution and the Ancient Mariner on-line at http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/MembersOnly/kitsonFrenchRev.html
[3] http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/membersonly/kitsonFrenchRev.html
[4] You can read the full text of the poem at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834
[5] Peter Kitson, Coleridge, The French Revolution and the Ancient Mariner
[6] Ken Watts, The Wiltshire Cotswolds, 2007, The Hobnob Press, p.197
[7] Ken Watts, The Wiltshire Cotswolds, p.198
[8] According to Coleridge's own letters recorded at http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924104096536/cu31924104096536_djvu.txt and https://archive.org/stream/cu31924104096973/cu31924104096973_djvu.txt
[9] Margaret Bird, Trust the People, University of Hertfordshire, U-Podcast
[10] J De L Mann, The Cloth Industry in the West Of England, 1640 - 1880, p.129 and 140
[11] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 2 March 1820
[12] The Bath Chronicle, 23 November 1820
[13] The Bath Chronicle, 23 December 1830
[14] The Bath Chronicle, 2 December 1830
[15] The Bath Chronicle, 23 August 1832
[16] The Bath Chronicle, 13 January 1831
[17] The Bath Chronicle, 20 January 1831
[18] EJ Hobsbawn and George Rudé, Captain Swing, 1969, Penguin Books, p.223
[19] The Bath Chronicle, 27 January 1831
[20] The Bath Chronicle, 27 January 1831