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The Agricultural Labourers' Standard of Living in , 179o-184o: Social Protest and Public Order By T L RICHARDSON Abstract In trying to establish what happened to the standard of living of the rural labouring classes in Lincolnshire two statistical variables, the cost of living and the earnings of adult male labourers, have been constructed to determine the long-run trend of real wages. The analysis shows that the cost of living was the dynamic variable in the real wage equation and that in the short-run, as during the French wars, volatile price movements had a devastating effect upon the purchasing power of wages. The level of employment and incomes after I815, though varying between upland and clayland areas, was a potent cause of distress and class conflict. In analysing the shift in emphasis from overt to covert expressions of anger, attention is paid to the collective response of the county's ruling order to the threat from below and the mechanisms of control that were used to restore law and order.

N RECENT years an increasing amount can be satisfactorily resolved. 2 In order to of systematic research has been directed understand the precipitating factors I towards quantifying changes in rural behind the upsurge in overt and covert living standards and identifying the princi- forms of rural protest, for example, much pal causal factors behind the rise in social more statistical information is required on unrest during the later eighteenth and the relationship between wages and the early nineteenth centuries. As a result of cost of living. Similarly, although his- this interest, historians have a much clearer torians know much more than hitherto understanding of the underlying causes of about the timing and scale of the labour- class conflict, the character of social pro- ers' protest movement, very little detailed test, and the incidence of popular disturb- information is available on the mechan- ances in the eastern and south-eastern isms that were created to suppress public counties.' Despite this advance in knowl- displays of anger towards private property edge, however, more area studies need to and the established landed order. In be undertaken before the areas of conten- acknowledging the need for more specific tion which have arisen out of this work information on these issues, this essay will examine the case of the Lincolnshire agri- cultural labourers. In order to obtain a ' T L Richardson, 'The Agricultural Labourers' Standard of Living quantitative measure of the standard of in Kent, 179o-184o', in D Oddy and D Miller, eds, The Making of the Modern British Diet, 1976, pp m3-i6; T L Richardson, living, the same methodological approach 'Agricultural Labourers' Wages and the Cost of Living in Essex, 179o-184o: A Contribution to the Standard of Living Debate', in B A Holderness and M Turner, eds, Land, Labour and Agriculture, : R A E Wells, 'The Development of the English Rural Proletariat 17oo-192o: Essays for Gordon Mingay, E991, pp 69-9o; R A E and Social Protest, 17oo-I85o', A Charlesworth, 'The Develop- Wells, 'Social Conflict and Protest in the English Countryside in ment of the English Rural Proletariat and Social Protest, the early Nineteenth Century: A Rejoinder', in M Reed and 17oo-185o: A Comment', and J E Archer, 'The Wells-Charles- R Wells, eds, Class, Conflict and Protest in the English Countryside worth Debate: A Personal Comment on Arson in Norfolk and 17oo-18oo, 199o, pp 65-81. This article was first published in 1981; Suffolk' in Reed and Wells, eds, op tit, pp 29-53, 54-64, 82-9. j E Archer, By a Flash and a Scare. lncendiarisnl, Animal Mainling, These articles were first published in 1979, t98o, and 1982 and Poaching it1 East Attglia 1815-187o, Oxford, 199o. respectively.

Ag Hist Rev, 4I, x, pp 1-19 I 2 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW to that used in studies of Kent and Essex enhanced the labourers' bargaining power is employed. 3 In particular, the interaction with their employers. According to one of two statistical variables, the wage earn- authority, agricultural wages were 'not ings of agricultural labourers and the fixed by any precise rules', but rather by prices of foodstuffs, is examined in order what the market would bear, and there- to determine the long-run trend of real fore 'the labourer exacts the utmost he wages. Short-run fluctuations in the pur- can get'. 6 The prevalence of this practice, chasing power of wages are then con- especially in areas of low population den- sidered in order to throw more light upon sity such as , wolds, and heath, the nature of socio-economic relationships tended to exert an upward pressure on in the Lincolnshire countryside. wage rates and piece work earnings. As As most studies of Lincolnshire's agri- Arthur Young noted, the 'scarcity of cultural revolution place the landowning hands' invariably raised the price of and farming classes at the centre of their labour, thus making agricultural wages in analysis, the rural labouring classes have Lincolnshire 'higher than in any other long remained neglected figures in the county in the kingdom'. 7 Furthermore, Arcadian landscape. 4 Indeed, most of our the landed classes were celebrated for the knowledge about the agricultural labour- paternalism they showed towards their ers' standard of living is limited to a small work-force. The provision of cow-garths number of contemporary printed sources and allotments, it is emphasized, forged a which invariably depict the labourer in a strong bond between farmers and their somewhat flattering light. The recla- men, and this made for stability and har- mation and enclosure of the county's 'wild mony in the countryside. 8 and trackless' wastelands, and the laying In the light of what is known about the down of the fens, heath, and wolds to incidence of social conflict in the eastern high-yielding labour-intensive tillage and southern counties, it is evident that crops, it is emphasized, made exceptional the conventional portrayal of Lincolnshire demands upon an indigenous labour force rural life can no longer be accepted whose short-run supply curve was rela- uncritically and is therefore in need of tively inelastic. At times, the shortage of revision. Indeed, this essay, in challenging labour on the newly drained fens, and the the traditional view, will argue that over recently enclosed chalk and limestone a large number of years the labouring uplands was so acute that many arable classes experienced, and protested angrily farmers were obliged to recruit gangs of against, a deterioration in their material female and juvenile workers from the standard of living. During this period the populous 'open' , and engage size- Lincolnshire countryside, far from being able numbers of itinerant Irish labourers a place of peace, stability, and communal to perform the more pressing tasks on the harmony, was characterized by violence, land. 5 Long-term and short-term seasonal discord, and class antagonism. imbalances between the demand and supply of labour, it is frequently stressed, I 3Richardson (1976), ot) cit, pp 103-16. Richardson 0991), op tit, The statistical evidence used to construct pp 69-9o. 4j Thirsk, English Peasant Farming. The A~rarian History of Lin- a price index has been derived from a cohtshire from Tudor to Recem Times, reprinted 1981; D Grigg, The Agricultural Revolution in South Lincohlshire, Cambridge, 1966; "T Stone, General View of tire Agriculture of tire County of Lincoln, T W BeastaU, Tire Agricultural Revolution in Lincolnshire, Lincoln, 1794, p "4. 1978. 7A Young, General View of tire Agricultural of Lincolnshire, 1813, s Thirsk, op cit, pp 217, 260, 268, 271,308-9. Grigg, op tit, pp 3-4, p 431. 48, 192. s lbid, pp 4.59-69. THE LABOURERS' STANDARD OF LIVING IN LINCOLNSHII~E, 179o-184o 3 TABLE i derived from the wage labour accounts of Distribution of Household Expenditure on the Ancaster and Monson estates at Stam- Food and Drink , Normanton, and Burton. I2 'In order % to obtain a measure of the purchasing Bread 66. I power of wages, the wage earnings index Meat 14.6 has been deflated by the price index to Cheese 5.9 obtain a real wage index. ~3 Butter 6.8 It is evident from Figure 1 that agricul- Sugar 4.3 tural wages were relatively 'sticky' in the Tea 2.3 short-run and, as in the case of Kent and Total IOO.O Essex, generally failed to keep pace with the more volatile movements in the cost of living. Prices in Lincolnshire moved in number of household and market accounts phase with those in Kent and Essex, with in nine areas of the county: Belton, Stret- major peaks being experienced in 1795-6, ton, Gedney, Doddington, Lindsey, 18oo-i, 18o5, 1812, and 1817, and a deep , , Boston, trough in 1822.14 and . These data embrace the The differential movement of prices and prices of bread (the quartern loaf), meat wages during the Napoleonic wars had a (beef), cheese, and butter. The prices are devastating effect upon the purchasing annual average weekly prices, and have power of wages in many areas of the been weighted according to the amount county. Although the costly agricultural of expenditure laid-out on these items in improvements carried out on the lime- agricultural labourers' household budg- stone uplands and fens made exceptional ets. 9 According to David Davies, two- demands upon the indigenous labour thirds of total household expenditure was force, thus precipitating, at Stamford, a allocated to food and drink, and about rise in agricultural wages from 9s to 12s a ninety-three per cent of this outlay was week between 179o and I81o, real wages spent on bread, meat, cheese, and butter: ~° fell as faster rising prices outstripped agri- The weights derived from this pattern cultural earnings.'5 of expenditure have been applied to the In the country at large, as Wells has price data to produce a simple base (I79O) demonstrated, acute food storages during weighted index of food prices. I1 The data the Napoleonic wars gave rise to a number used to construct an index of agricultural of subsistence crises. 16 A bout of severe earnings, based upon 179o, have been weather in 1794-5, which reduced Lin- ';Lincolnshire Record Office (LRO), Monson 12 Household Bills colnshire's wheat crop by a quarter of its and Vouchers. Ancaster Vll/d/4-5, Miscellaneous Deposits. 15o/1-2, Farm and Household Account Book of J Hutchinson of normal size, '7 resulted in a 37 per cent Gedney. Harris, Ill/A/4/3, Lindsey Insolvent Debtors Account Books I-5. The Lincohl, Rutland and Stan~,rd Mercurl,. The households made regular weekly purchases of small quantities of t:LRO. 2 Anc, 9/15/165-7. 3 Anc, 6/"4-5, Labour Accounts at foodstuffs. The remaining prices are market, or , prices Stamford and Normauton. Monson 12, Wage Accounts at quoted at length each week in the local press. Insolvent Debtor's Burton, 2/2/4/1-7, 1/2/lo/2-3, Io/4B/12-H. 23/8/1. Brace Estate Books include the accounts of local food dealers, especially Accounts at Crowle. retailers, a,ld thereby contain information on local prices, j Black- '~The index of agricultural labourers' wages is an unweighted man, 'The Development of the Retail Grocery Trade in the index based, as in the case of the price index, upon tile year 179o. Nineteenth Century', Business History, IX, 2,Jui'./t967, pp 112-13. '~ Richardson (1976), op oil, p 1o9. Richardson 0990, op cit, p 75. ,o D Davies, The Case of Labourers in Husbandry Stated and Considered, 'SAppendix I. Complai,lts about the 'scarcity of hands' were 1795, p 176. Sugar and tea have been omitted from the index commonplace. Annals of Agriculture, XIX, 1792, pp 57, 188. The owing to a lack of data. Farmer's Magazine, XVll, 18o4, p 119. Young, op ci~, pp 444-5. "In constructing the index, the proportionate cha,~ge in the price '~'R Wells, Wretched Faces, Famine in Wartime 1793-18Ol, of each commodity each year, relative to its price in 179o, is Gloucester, 1988. multiplied by its weight to provide a base weighted index of 'TSir F Hill, Georgian Lincoln, Cambridge, 1966, p 171. A similar price relatives. shortage was experienced in Essex. Richardson (1990, op tit, p 78. 4 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW Index

The Cost of Living \\ ...... Agricultural Labourers' Wages t',

160] i I / I t /' 140 j \ ,~.,. ;-~ / ,_ ..... __\: --- , ...... - ,--- J 12C / \ / , .... /

10C \,V/

8C

60 1790 1795 18b0 1805 18i0 1815 18i0 1~25 18i0 1835 1846 FIGURE I Agricultural Labourers' Wages at Stamford and The Cost of Living, I790= I84O (179o = IOO).

TABLE 2 bread. As one correspondent to the Annals Comparative Changes in the Prices of of Agriculture noted, Foodstuffs and Agricultural Labourers' Wages in Lincolnshire 179o-I8Iz People like to eat wheaten bread of the finest sort; (I790 = I00) though a great many, of all descriptions, use rye and barley bread: but potatoes are much grown, 1795 18oo 1812 and used as an excellent substitute, every where in this county. '`) Quartern Loaf (Wheaten) + 37 + 97 + Io9 Beef (lb) + 29 + 77 + 82 The dietary evidence of the time indicates Cheese (lb) + 36 + 55 + i2o that, as a result of the necessary reordering Butter (lb) + 29 + 24 + 88 of household expenditure, many families Agricultural Wages + I I + 22 + 33 Real Wages 82 63 65 had to subsist on modest amounts of tea, potatoes, and oatmeal, supplemented by small quantities of butter, beef, and increase in the price of bread - the staple mutton 'whenever they can possibly be of the labourers' diet. As prices out-ran obtained'. Bacon also disappeared from wages the index of real wages fell to 82, their tables. As Arthur Young and Eden thus prompting the comment that 'fluc- observed, the rural labouring classes 'con- tuations in the prices of the necessaries of sume very little meat' and eat 'a good life makes what a good day's wage twenty many potatoes'# ° years ago, a starving one now'. '8 In the Various efforts were made, at the circumstances, labouring families were national and local level, to alleviate the obliged to substitute cheaper foodstuffs food shortage and offset the severity of for the more expensive ones in their diet- inflation upon low-income groups ._-1 ary. At , Asgarby, and , for example, bread made from 'gAnnals of Agriculture, XXIV, 1795, pp 122, 127, 280. In south Lincolnshire, rice, potatoes, barley, and oats were substituted for a mixture of potato, barley, and rye flour wheaten flour. Grigg, op cit, pp 38, 77. Indeed, 'The Home Office replaced the much preferred wheaten seized every opportunity to recommend wheat substitutes ... Wells 0988), op cit, p 206. ,SA Native of the County, Essays on Agriculture Occasioned by :°F M Eden, The State of the Poor, ed, A G L Rogers, 1928, Reading Mr Stone's Report on the Present State of that Science in the pp 233-6. Young, op cit, p 460. Wells 0988). op cit, p 62. County of Lincoln, 1796, p 35. :' Wells 0988), op cit, pp 2o2-18. /

THE LABOURERS' STANDARD OF LIVING IN LINCOLNSHIRE, 179o-184o 5 Bakers were urged to make brown bread large extent the anger shown by the rural instead of white, whilst county magistrates populace was conditioned by the large sitting at the Midsummer Quarter Ses- scale movement of farm produce out of sions, on the receipt of a circular letter the county. Indeed, by the time of the from Pitt, agreed to implement the rec- French wars Lincolnshire was linked, via ommendations of the Privy Council and a well-developed network of road and reduce their consumption of the best water communications, to a vast market wheaten flour 'so as to leave a larger area which reached from to York- supply of the necessary Article of Food shire. Each year prodigious quantities of for the People ... and relieve them from cereals, potatoes, poultry, and butchers' their present Difficulties'?~ Elsewhere in meat were sent to this market. 27 This the county the magistrates pursued the 'export' trade had two main effects upon government's policy of weaning con- the standard of living. First, food prices sumers away from fine wheaten bread in in Lincolnshire moved into line with those order to encourage the consumption of in the wider London-dominated market. bread made from mixed grains? 3 At the As Thomas Stone noted, mutton, pork, Lindsey Quarter Sessions, for example, beef, and bread in Lincolnshire were the magistrates, on two occasions, resolved 'nearly as dear as in London'? s Secondly, to consume 'only mixed Bread, of which the large scale movement of foodstuffs out no more than two-thirds shall be made of of the county seriously diminished local wheat ... and prohibit in our families the food supplies at a time when they were use of wheaten flour in pastry'?* In already at a low level. This intelligence addition to public spirited declarations was the cause of considerable resentment such as these, a number of well- amongst the local community. As one intentioned steps were taken to retail rice, critic pointed out, such was the profit- potatoes, and herrings to distressed famil- ability of the corn trade that Lincolnshire ies at subsidized prices. Public subscription farmers were unwilling to retail corn to funds were established in many parts of their labourers, 'even for ready money', the county in order to provide cheap because they could get more by selling bread and flour to the poor. In this way, their crop in bulk to the wholesale trade? 9 rice could be had for 3d a pound at As Thompson and Wells have shown, Stamford, whilst the labouring classes of in the belief that scarcity was the product South Ormsby, 'relieved by subscriptions of human artifice, the popular response to from the opulent', were sold bread 'much those who were perceived to be violating under its value according to the price the traditional values of the 'moral econ- of corn'Y omy' often took an uncompromising Despite these attempts to temper the form. 3° In many parts of Lincolnshire, at worst effects of the food scarcity, soaring a time when violent demonstrations were prices and falling real wages in Lin- breaking out in many counties, butchers, colnshire resulted, as in other parts of the country, in a souring of social relationships and sporadic outbreaks of unrest. ~6 To a •7 C W J Grainger and C M Elliott, 'A Fresh Look at Wheat Prices and Markets in the Eighteenth Century', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd series, XX, 2, 1967, pp 257-65. Grigg, op cit, pp 46, 71, x62. ': The Stamford Mercury, 24-3I July 1795, pp 2-3. Stone, op tit, pp 3o, 44-5, 61, 95. J A Clarke, 'On the Farming :3 Wells (1988), op tit, p zlo. of Lincolnshire',JRASE, XIl, 1851, pp 334-67. "LRO, Lindsey Quarter Sessions, Kirton, xSJuly I795 and , :s Stone, op tit, pp 25, 44-5. 14 January I796, The Stamford Mercury, 5 February 1796, p i. :gA Native of the County, op tit, pp 33-4. :5 Annals of Agriculture, XXIV, I795, p 28o. Tt,e Stamford Mercury, 3o E P Thompson, 'The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in 14 August x795, p 2; 27 May 1796, p 3- Hill, ot, tit, p 171. the Eighteenth Century', Past and Present, 5o, February 1971, :6 Wells 0988), op tit, passim. pp 76-136. Wells 0988), op tit, p 80. 6 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW millers, bakers, butter dealers, and the Wainfleet area high food prices provoked carriers and shippers of farm produce were an attempt to raise agricultural wages? 2 frequently the victims of the crowd's hos- As far as the farming and commercial tility/ ~ At Grantham, for example, a classes were concerned, such attempts to crowd of angry women attempted to interfere with the free working of the prevent the corn waggons from leaving market were abhorrent because, as a the area, whilst at Stamford the corn correspondent to the Stamford Mercury put dealers were verbally abused and pelted it, 'The Law of God forbids it, The Law by an outraged mob. Similarly, following of Man punishes it, and the Devil takes the circulation of a number of'inflamatory delight in it'. 33 handbills' in Gainsborough, a crowd of In many parts of the country a fresh women, led by a drummer, assembled to wave of rioting broke out in 18oo, even hold-up the corn barges on the Trent. though the national food supply was The actions of forestallers and regraters better placed than in 1795 .34 In Lin- were also the cause of some resentment. colnshire the prices of meat, cheese, and A riot broke out at fair, for bread, as shown in Table 2, soared to new example, when a regrater was observed heights, thereby reducing the real wage buying large quantities of butter; and index, at sixty-three, to its lowest point butter dealers were also attacked, and had of the war. The authorities, with memor- their wares confiscated, by an incensed ies of 1795 in mind, reaffirmed their adher- crowd at Gainsborough. In view of these ence to traditional trading practices. public displays of violence, the county Magistrates meeting at Holland, Bourne, magistrates waged a campaign against and Quarter Sessions in January anyone who interferred with the free I8OO, for example, prohibited the making working of the market economy. In the and sale of any bread that was superior in case of Stamford, where millers had been quality or higher in price than the standard assaulted by an angry crowd, the mayor wheaten loaf. Public subscription funds and magistrates threatened to imprison were established to provide cheap corn 'any person or persons [who] shall obstruct and soup to the poor, and various Associ- the sale of any corn, or any other com- ations for the Prosecution of Forestallers modity, raise any manner of disturbance, were set up to monitor trading standards. or take any one step to hinder the business Despite these efforts, sporadic outbursts of •and dealings of people'. The authorities violence were reported in a number of were also concerned over intimidatory areas. A threatening situation developed acts aimed at lowering food prices. An at Stamford, for example, when a mob anonymous letter, sent to a miller in assembled to protest against the 'extrava- , for example, threatened gant price of provisions' and the small size the destruction of his mill if the price of of the loaf. Shop windows were smashed flour was not lowered. At a during the disturbance and the local Vol- large crowd assembled to demand a unteer Infantry were called out to help reduction in the price of bread and meat. the civil authorities restore order. Three The gathering so alarmed the authorities days later, anticipating more trouble, IOO that the Long Sutton and Spalding Troops special constables were sworn-in by the of Yeomanry Cavalry were hastily called out to restore order. Similarly, in the J"The Stamford Mercury, 15 May 1795, p 4; 24-31 July 1795, pp 1-3; 7 August 1795, p 3; 26 February 1796, p 3; 18 March 1796, p 3. Grigg, op tit, p 38. ~' Wells (1988), op tit, p 113. Richardson (1991), op tit, pp 79-8o. 33 The Stamford Mercury, 7 August 1795, p 3. The Stamford Mercury, 24 July 1795, p 3. J4 Wells (1988), op cit, pp 99, I lg. Richardson (199Q, op cit, pp 81-2. THE LABOURERS' STANDARD OF LIVING IN LINCOLNSHIRE, 1790-1840 magistrate to supplement the existing Sheep stealing Twenty guineas forces of law and order. Similarly, a 'viol- Firing stacks and stealing Five guineas livestock ent demonstration' took place against the Stealing poultry or grain Two guineas shopkeepers of Brank Broughton, and Damaging farm implements One guinea other protest meetings took place in and Robbing gardens and breaking One guinea around , Boston, Lincoln, Slea- hedges ford, and elsewhere.35 Over the latter years of the French war If the period between 1795 and 18oo the number of collective forms of social was characterized by an upsurge in collec- protest declined dramatically. From that tive acts of overt protest, it was also point until at least the 184os, covert forms accompanied by a determined effort by of protest, as Wells has argued in a wider the authorities to establish an effective context, became the 'most enduring mode system of social control) 6 This control of protest' in Lincolnshire. 4° was achieved in two main ways. In order to strengthen the existing forces of law and order, volunteer cavalry units were II established over a large part of the county; If the war years were a period of falling units such as the South Holland Troop of living standards and rising social tension, Yeomanry Cavalry - a 'formidable body the first two decades of the peace were of men, ready to act in the defence of equally distressing. 4' Farm prices, after their vicinity'. Other Cavalry Troops reaching their war-time peak in 1812, fell were raised at Louth, Lincoln, Bourne, continually (except for a brief rise in 1817) Grantham, Spilsby, Horncastle, Folk- to reach a trough in 1822; a year which ingham, Stamford, Sutton, and Holbeach. came to be known in Lincolnshire as 'the On numerous occasions this 'massive force most disastrous year in living memory'. 42 of armed amateurs', along with large By the end of the hostilities wheat prices numbers of hastily sworn-in special con- were half their war-time peak and it was stables, were called upon by the Justices widely believed that the landed interest to disperse rioting crowds and restore faced ruination. Arable farmers in many order) 7 Secondly, in order to curb the areas- Louth, Horncastle, Spalding, widespread prevalence of non-protest , Thorney, Spilsby, Long rural crime, such as poaching, arson, and Sutton, and elsewhere - complained bit- theft, a large number of Associations for terly over the 'depressed state of the price the Protection of Property and the Pros- of grain' and began to cut back on their ecution of Felons was established in the labour force and reduce wages. As one county) s Rewards to attract informers observer noted, were published in the local press: a') Agricultural labourers have yet felt nothing of the pressure; let them also, as well as the Landlords, ~ The Stan~,rd Mercury, 5-12 September 18oo, p 3; I9 September live rather worse ... It is now the labourers' turn: 18oo, p 3. The Farmer's Magazine, IV, 18oo, p 478. Wells 0988), let the wages be reduced in nearly an exact ,,11 cit, p 162. proportion to the corn; and if families cannot be 3¢'Wells (1988), ap tit, p 134. 17 lbid, The Stan~Jrd Mercury, 7 August z795, p 3; 7 July 1795, p 3; supported, let the parishes do the rest.43 5-12 September 18oo, p 3. ~s lbid, I7January 18oo, p t. Associations were formed at Horncastle, 4° Wells 0979), op tit, p 29. Kirton, Grantham, Folkingham, Bourne, Sleaford, Louth, Spald- 4, A J Peacock, Bread or Blood. A Study of the Agrarian Riots in East ing, , , Heckingtor:, Boston, Spilsby, Anglia in zSJ6, 1965. EJ Hobsbawm and G Rud6, Captain Swing, Market Rasen, Alford, Grimshy, Barton, , Holland 1973. Richardson (1976), op tit, Archer 099o), op tlt, Richardson Fen, Wainfleet, Tattershall, South Cliff, Coninsby, and elsewhere. (1990, op tit. Wlbid, The Association for the Prosecution of 4: Grigg, op tit, pp 117-18, 122. Felons advertised a similar scale of rewards in 1795. The Stamford 411bid, The Stamford Mercnry, 27 January 18x5, p 2; 3 February Mercury, 3 April 1795, p 4. 18t5, p 3; 17 February 1815, p 4. 8 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW The demand for farm servants at the 1834-7, agricultural earnings at Stamford statute fairs fell away, as indeed did the and Normanton were maintained at 12s a level of their wages, whilst the day labour- week throughout the post-war period and ers were said to be 'starving for the want therefore real wages rose (Appendix I). of employment'. 44 In the circumstances, However, whilst estate labourers in reg- wage cuts were difficult to resist as magis- ular employment experienced a rise in trates in many parts of the county resolved living standards, field labourers in the 'not to sanctions any [poor] relief being disadvantaged farming areas, such as the given to the sons or daughters of hus- central clay vale, were said to be 'without bandmen who have refused to take such the means of independently and profitably wages as the present depressed state of the earning their bread'. 47 In addition to long- times will allow the farmers to give'. 4s run cyclical factors, short-run seasonal In considering the agricultural labour- changes also exerted a profound influence ers' socio-economic position after 1815, it upon the labourers' position. A run of bad is important to note that the impact of weather, especially during the 'three the post-war agricultural depression varied deplorable years' between 1826 and I829, from one part of the county to another. badly damaged the corn harvest and seri- On the whole, the dramatic fall in prices ously reduced the demand for labour. The was much less serious for farmers on the I826 corn harvest, which was described as lighter upland soils than on the heavy 'the most oppressive and the most appal- undrained clays. According to one auth- ling ... within the recollection of the ority, in the former case low prices 'seem oldest man', was accompanied by a rise in to have acted as a stimulus to improve- unemployment and a fall in wages as ment', and therefore most of the agricul- farmers sought to cut their costs and tural progress which took place up to the minimize their losses. According to a local middle of the century, such as the wide- report, 'The demand for labourers spread adoption of an 'elegantly inter- declines: many men are getting on the locking system' of crop and stock roads as many farmers who still have the husbandry, tended to be confined to the power to pay them are determined to lay heath, cliff, and wolds rather than the out as little as possible in temporary or inhospitable cold clays. In view of this permanent improvements'. 48 The cold differential pattern of advance, agricultural spring of 1828, and the heavy rains which employment and incomes on the chalk followed, devastated corn crops once and limestone uplands fared better than more, as indeed did the wet, cold weather on the relatively unprofitable claylands.46 of I829. Inevitably, these adverse con- As the post-war fall in farm prices ditions brought considerable distress to the brought the cost of living down with a low-lying claylands and marshlands and run, agricultural labourers in full employ- led to the 'almost total stagnation' of ment were well placed to see an improve- markets. The demand for farm servants at ment in the purchasing power of their the hiring fairs fell away and large num- wages. Apart from the years 1822-4 and bers of field labourers were 'thrown out of regular employ' and on to the roads. At times a third of the labour force, or 44lbid, z2 May 1815, p 3. Board of Agriculture, The Agricultural State of the Kingdom, 1816, reprinted 197o, pp z5o-2, 156-7. about half the number of day labourers, 4s The Stamford Mercury, I Dece,nber 1815, p 4. Labourers who were out of work in some clayland par- suffered from low incomes were reduced to a diet of bread, potatoes and a small anaount of lnutton fat. Ibid, 3 November 1815, p I. 4~'Thirsk, op tit, pp 198, 217, 257-60, 268, 3o7-8. Grigg, op tit, 47 The Stamford Mercury, 7 June 1822, p 2. pp 117, 126-8, H7, 144-5, 152-3, 178-9, 191-2. 4Slbid, 16June 2826, p 4. THE LABOURERS' STANDARD OF LIVING IN LINCOLNSHIRE, 1790-1840 9 ishes - thus raising the poor rate there to numbers of poultry were stolen from a level that was, at times, twice that found farms during the winter months, whilst on the fens, heath, and wolds. Indeed, the the theft of foodstuffs - corn, potatoes, agricultural sector was so depressed by the eggs, meat, and dairy produce - from hen autumn of 1829 that it was said that 'all roosts, larders, and outhouses took place is doubt, anxiety and alarm ... there was 'almost nightly' in the villages?~ never recalled any harvest time like the In addition to the ubiquitous prevalence present - the farmers impoverished and of petty subsistence crime, a disturbing alarmed, the labourers dissatisfied and number of overt forms of protest, such as grumbling'. According to the Stamford sporadic attacks upon property and per- Mercury, 'those who cannot procure farm- sons, were also being reported in the local ers' employment are increasing in number press. Indeed, throughout the 182os the every day', whilst those who were in rural labouring classes reacted vehemently work had their wages reduced to 9s and against anything which appeared to lOS a week. In many areas of the county threaten their livelihood or reduce their agricultural wages were said to be 'very standard of living. Factors such as a rise indifferent' and it was widely believed in the cost of living, or a fall in wages that work would be 'difficult to procure, due to unemployment or underemploy- even at low wages' during the winter of ment, were bitterly denounced and 1829-3o. 4'J In the circumstances it is per- responded to with violence. At times, as haps not surprising that when the agricul- during the W9os and I8OOS, the price of tural labourers' protest movement began bread was the cause of some public out- some twelve months later a disproportion- rage. When the bakers of Spalding refused ately large number of the disturbances to retail bread at the price stipulated by took place on the lowland clays. 5° the magistrates, an angry crowd assembled The rise in social distress amongst the and smashed their shop windows. 53 rural working classes during the 182os was The annual influx of alien workers into accompanied by a 'frightful contagion of Lincolnshire, who were extensively pauperism and crime' throughout the east- engaged by farmers on the clays and the ern counties. In Lincolnshire, as in nearby fens, was another source of contention. Norfolk and Suffolk, covert forms of The fact that the earnings of the indigen- poverty-induced crime, such as the theft ous labour force were 'remarkably pre- of foodstuffs from fields, barns, and game carious, depending on the arrival and reserves, was endemic - and had been assistance of many or few Irish labourers', since at least the time of the Napoleonic invariably led to a rise in social tension in wars. sl In many areas, such as Claxby and the years when the local take-home pay Alford, the poaching of rabbits, hares, and was low. After the poor harvest of I829, game birds was rife, as was sheep stealing for example, it was noted in the Stamford on Sutton Marshes. Around Tattershall Mercury that owing to the presence of and , and in and around the large numbers of Irish harvesters in the 'open' village of , 'immense' county 'the price of reaping wheat has been lower than for some years, and this

4,) The Staniford Mercury, 7 June 1822, p 2; 19 May-8 l)ecember has caused great dissatisfaction amongst 1826, p 4; 25 January J828, p 4; 30 January-23 October t829, p 4; 22 January 183o, p 4. Beastall, op eit, pp 117-.18. Thirsk, op eit, ~" The Stan#,rd Mercury 4 January 1827, p 4; 8 February t828, p 4; pp 271,308. 2-3ojanuary 1829, p 3. Beastall, op tit, pp 126-7. Rj Olney, ed, ~o See Figure 2. Labouring Life on the Lincohtshire Wolds. A Study of Binbrook in the ~' The Stamford Mercury, 3 April 1795; 17January 18oo; September-- Mid-Nineteenth Century, Occasional Papers in Lincolnshire History October 18o6; 7 August 18o7; 15 April 18o8; August-September and Archaeology, Sleaford, t975, p 26. 18o9, passim. Archer, op cit. pp 12-16, 87. ,3 The Stan~,rd Mercury, 6 February 1829, p 3. IO THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW the labouring classes ... and in some cases III has produced ill-treatment of the Irish by Social distress appeared to be on the them'. 'Murderous attacks' were made increase in Lincolnshire towards the end upon the Irish, and continued to be made of 1829 owing to the partial failure of the upon them throughout most of the I83OS, corn harvest; a harvest which was in many parts of the county. According described in one local report as 'the most to the local press, a certain amount of unpleasant one this country has had since 'mischief' was also committed against the 1799, which it has greatly resembled, wet, property of farmers who employed cold and windy') 7 From that point until them) 4 the onset of the Swing disturbances the Other types of violence also indicated number of labourers out of work multi- how antagonistic social relationships had plied. 'Farmers seem disposed to dispense become in the Lincolnshire countryside. with the labours of domestic servants as Sporadic outbreaks of incendiarism, much as they possibly can', noted one although not as serious as those experi- observer, 'Wages have fallen to 9s and IOS enced, in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, ... for regular labourers; and those who Suffolk, and Essex during the I82Os, cannot procure farmers' employment are revealed the lengths the labouring classes increasing in number every day'. The lack were prepared to go to in order to punish of work in the Sleaford area was the cause their perceived oppressors) 5 Indeed, so of much hardship, whilst at Horncastle an serious was the number of criminal 'alarming rise' in poverty forced the poor offences against private property and per- law authorities into considering building sons that the commander of the Louth a larger workhouse. It is perhaps signifi- Troop of Yeomanry Cavalry, in an address cant that both these localities were sub- to the gentry and magistrates of Lindsey jected to incendiary attacks some months in 1827, was moved to denounce the 'race later.: of riotous and evil disposed people' who During the early summer of 183o the 'exercise the most disorderly and brutish agricultural sector experienced another conduct amongst us' and 'take every poss- setback when a bout of wet weather ible opportunity of committing dep- damaged the corn crop and raised fears redations'. The commander, Captain that the harvest would be worse than that Chaplin, a wealthy landowner with an of 1829. These fears were realized during estate of some 23,000 acres, emphasized September when it was discovered that the Yeomanry Cavalry's long established the wheat, barley, oat, and bean crops role in the county in maintaining law and were 'backward and deficient' and the order and keeping 'such dispositions in turnip crop was 'almost a total failure'. proper subjection'. In view of the cres- As on previous occasions, some farming cendo of civil unrest that was to unfold areas fared better than others. While the in the winter of 183o, the captain's obser- harvest on the heath and cliff was vation that 'a domestic foe is more to be 'unusually productive', the wolds suffcred dreaded by us than a foreign enemy' was a late and deficient harvest, the fens a indeed prophetic.: 'defective crop', whilst the harvest on the cold claylands was 'the worst that has

~4lbid, 14 August-25 September 1829, pp 3-4. Beastall, op cit, p 1x8. Thirsk, op tit, pp 2x7, 271. ~s Archer, op cit, passim. Richardson 0990, op tit, p 86. Beastall, op 571bid, 23 October 1829, p 4. tit' p 126. ~Slbid, 9 October 1829, p 4; 15-22 January 183o, p 4; 19 February ~' The Stamford Mercury, 15 june t 827, p 4. 183o, p 3. /

THE LABOURERS' STANDARD OF LIVING IN LINCOLNSHIRE, 1790-1840 II

~sbyo~ , I .... diary Attacks T Thrashing Hachlnes L Threatening Letters W Wage Demands kh ~ Grim A Armed Association•

~k Butterwick ~ Cai•torA ~ /.I h,.. k ~,~

L • Gainsborough/ A \h Market } £• Louth k II H~ ~ "~. \ {, I I CLIFF "% ~ \ ) l( Bn=her \

"--, ~ L <..a ~" spi~.y / / ~/ "~.--' I I / st~d j \ I HEATH i"- ) / I Leake /

3 Sleaford • • Fries/ A• WA • L Boston •

Sedgebrook Don~gton Grantham A • Folkingham I • L FEN i Rippingsle Weston T • • T Long Sutton Iq , • • A A °Spalding • A Bourne

Miles A• FEN S / ~--~ _ Dee~in~ St James

Stn'-Wmford North F•n

FIGURE 2 Distributiou of Labourers' Disturbances and Armed Associations in Lincolnshire I83o-I. been known for many years'} 9 It is evi- east of the Limestone Heath between Slea- dent from Figure 2, which shows the ford and Bourne; and the Holland and spatial distribution of the labourers' dis- fenlands. Within these disadvan- turbances and the armed associations that taged areas, according to a local agricul- were formed to suppress them, that the tural report, there was no 'anxious desire worst-affected areas lay on the clays of to thrash out as has been the prevailing the Central Vale, especially along the practice' and 'the enormous wages that western margins of the Wolds; the Middle have been usually demanded upon a press- Marsh and the outer marshlands along the ure of rapid ripening of the corn have this eastern margins of the Wolds; the clays season been unknown'. 6° and miscellaneous soils lying to ~.he south- Unemployment and low wages lay at

~9lbid, 18 June 183o, p 4; x7 September ,83o, p 4; [9 November ,830, p 4. '~lbid, 17 September 183o, p 4. I2 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW the heart of the labourers' disturbances of letter sent to another farmer carried a I83O. In the Spilsby area, where some of grim warning: 'Stevens, you may think it the worst incidents were to take place, it a great favour that we write before we was said that 'the most industrious man fire ... and if fire will not do we will can seldom find employment without dredge poison on your turnip shells'. In a claiming it of his , nor in many letter signed 'Bread or Blood or Fire and cases will his wages alone suffice for the Smoke', William Green, a farmer and maintenance of a numerous family'. Evi- overseer of the poor, was advised that if dence of social deprivation in the adjacent his attitude towards the poor did not marshlands, owing to the lack of work, improve he would have to 'sleep with one was 'not wanting' as the condition of the eye open' as he could 'expect a visit some labouring classes in that deprived area was night' and 'a bullet'. John Thorp of South regarded as 'still more degrading'. 6I Simi- was accused of 'pulling down lar conditions to these prevailed in the wages' and 'ruining the low class', whilst more populous 'open' parishes of the clay- another letter, addressed to 'the grinder lands:, especially in the larger townships of the poor', pointedly asked 'Who is it and villages such as Louth, Horncastle, that holds you up, is it the poor or is it Caistor, Market Rasen, and . The the rich'? The labourers' concern over the agricultural labourers at Heckington were decline in their standard of living, and so dissatisfied with the inadequacy of their the indifference shown towards their con- earnings that a crier was sent around the dition by their social superiors, was stated parish to announce that a wage meeting with some clarity in a threatening letter would be held on the village green. About sent to the Rev William Waters of Rippin- fifty labourers attended the meeting and gale, near Bourne: agreed that they would not work 'at any We have suffered so much povcrty and distress lower or less rate than two shillings and that we ... will not put up with it any longer for sixpence for the day for any master or you have been A hard task Master laying more employer whatsoever'. Similar wage poverty upon us that we are Able to bear ... when thc Poor has comc to you for Justicc it has not meetings took place at Swineshead and in been done ... we find charity very cold and I the villages around Boston:-" would remind you concerning the Poor Men that It is evident from the violent language is Obliged to work at Parish Work for A Man used in threate1~mg letters sent to farmers, and his Wifc cannot livc under 9s per Week and clergymen, and overseers of the poor what those that have families accordingly ... and so if there is Nothing considered for thc poor you may the labourers' grievances were and what Expect Fire and the Farmers likewise.63 their response would be if there was no improvement in their socio-economic Many distressed labourers believed that condition. 'Mossop you are damd baden', winter unemployment and low wages stated one letter, aggrieved over the fact were caused by labour-saving machinery. that the farmer used machinery rather 'Thrashing mills', which had been intro- than hand-labour to thresh his corn, 'blast duced into Lincolnshire during the French and buger your eyes ... we will burn you war to offset the labour shortage, were in in your bed'. Similarly, an anonymous regular use throughout the I820s and by the eve of the Swing riots they were said

~'lbid, 31 December 183o, p 2. ~lbid, 1o December 183o, p 3. LRO, Bourne Quarter Sessions, 4 January 1831. Sleaford Quarter Sessions, 6 January 183x, B A ~,3 The Stamford Mercnry, 3-x7 December 183o, p 3; 7 January-18 Holderness, ' "Open" and "Closed" Parisbes in England in the February 1831, pp 3-4. LRO, Bourne Quarter Sessions, 5 April Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', Ag Hist Ret,, XX, 1972, t831. Klrton Quarter Sessions, 8 April 183t. Sleaford Quarter pp 13o. Beastall, op tit, p ~ I 3. Sessions, 6 January 183 i. THE LABOURERS' STANDARD OF LIVING IN LINCOLNSHIRE, 1790-1840 13 to be 'busily employed in all directions'. 64 It is clear from Figure 2 that the number The labouring classes, however, regarded of incendiary attacks upon farm property the use of these machines as being morally greatly exceeded the number of disturb- indefensible, as it deprived them of work ances aimed at raising wages or destroying during the winter quarter of the year, and agricultural machinery. Indeed, the they therefore reacted to the machines, number of acts of collective overt protest and the farmers who used them, with during the Swing disturbances was negli- some violence. Threshing machines were gible. Compared with the eastern count- attacked and destroyed, invariably by fire, les, the number of threshing machines in a number of areas: , Folk- destroyed in Lincolnshire (9) was much ingham, Barrow-on-, Grantham, lower than the number destroyed in Nor- North Fen, Weston, Mouhon, Kirton folk (29) , Kent (37), and Essex (I5), but Meers, and Deeping St James. 65 A farmer higher than the number destroyed in at Barrow-on-Humber who continued to Yorkshire (2) and Cambridgeshire (I). 68 use his threshing machine despite being Furthermore, the machines in Lincolnshire warned not to do so, and who used 'strong were destroyed by fire rather than by language' on his labourers, had three of physical attacks carried out by marauding his corn stacks set on fire. The local bands of labourers. Most acts of rural populace, who turned out to watch the protest in the county, as Wells has argued blaze, 'looked on with the most perfect in a wider context, were essentially covert indifference'. Similarly, a letter sent to a in character. Incendiarism, in particular, farmer at , near Horncastle, far from being peripheral to the labourers' warned 'If you have a machine in your movement, was a central and 'enduring yard, we will set fire to the stacks the first mode of protest' in the Lincolnshire opportunity ... you and all the farmers countryside. 69 As Hobsbawm and Rud6 must give better wages to the labourers, have noted, apart from a few threatening or we will fire'. 66 Indeed, the nocturnal letters, 'the emphasis was all on arson', v° destruction of threshing machines, corn Compared with the eastern counties, the stacks, and farm buildings by fire was number of incendiary attacks in Lin- regarded as a particularly vindictive form colnshire (c 5o) greatly exceeded the of protest and was the cause of consider- number recorded for Norfolk (28), able alarm amongst the ranks of the lan- Suffolk (I9), Cambridgeshire (7), and downing and farming classes: Essex (8). Only Kent (61) exceeded Lin- The panic among the Lincolnshire farmers is uni- colnshire. As Archer has emphasized, in versal, particularlysuch as have threshing machines his analysis of East Anglia, arson was 'the on their premises. Many have received threatening prime weapon in the rural war'. v' letters and the breaking of machines, and the Although a small number of fires broke conflagration of property form the unvarying theme of conversation amongst all ranks of out in Lincolnshire during September and society.6v October 183o, the majority of the incendi- ary attacks, which amounted to about

"4Young, op cit, pp93-7. The Stan~rd Mercury, J3 September fifty, took place between mid-November 1822, p 3; 15 April 1824, p 3; 5 January 1827, p 4; IO October and the following March. During Nov- 1828, p 4; 12June 1829, p 3. e,s lbid, t October-24 December 183o, pp 2-3; 7 January 1831, p 4. LRO, Bourne Quarter Sessions, Easter 1831. See also R C ¢,xHobsbawm and Rud6, op tit, p 262- 3. Somewhat different figures Russell's review of E J Hobsbawm and G Rud,~, Captain Swing, are given on p 167. in Ag Hist Rev, XVIII, 197o, p 175. :~Wells 0979), op tit, p 29. ¢,e, The Stamford Mercury, io December 183o, p 2. R C Russell, Stack 7°Hobsbawm and Rud6, op cit, p H6. See also Russell 097o), op Burning and Discontent in Lincolnshire--the 183o's. Notes for Dis- tit, p 174. cussion. Unpublished private communication from the author. v, Hobsbawm and Rud6, op tit, pp 17o, 262-3. Archer, op cit, e,v The Stamford Mercury, io December 183o, p 2. pp 69-7o. I4 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ember, for example, a number of corn the landed order. Attitudes towards the stacks were fired at Easton, , labouring classes hardened, and the magis- , , Burwell, Irby, South tracy and gentry, aided an abetted by the Reston, and Spalding. As one alarmed farming classes, moved together in order observer noted, in a letter to the Kesteven to present a united front against, what magistrates, 'the feelings of the lower was sometimes perceived to be, an insur- classes in general is not favourable, and rection from below. To a large extent the when this will end it is not easy to foresee closing of ranks, and the policies adopted ... it is a dreadful state of things'. 7~ By to suppress the labourers' movement, was the first week in December the Stamford prompted by a stream of directives from Mercury could report that 'the incendiary Lord Grey's Whig government to the proceedings which have agitated other county authorities. On the 25 November counties' have begun to spread to a 'con- Lord Melbourne, in a letter to Lord siderable extent' into the hitherto unaffec- Brownlow, the Lord Lieutenant, ted areas of the county. Arson attacks expressed his alarm over the recent took .place at Grantham, Spilsby, Spald- upsurge of 'outrage and violence' in the ing, Moulton, Deeping, Market Rasen, county and urged him to adopt 'with the Horncastle, Sutton, Leake, , and least possible delay ... such measures as Butterwick. County magistrates, in the may be effectual for the repression of hope that they might bring an end to the tumult, the preservation of the public 'conflagration of property', offered sub- peace and the protection of property'. TM stantial rewards for information that Within a few days of its arrival the Home would lead to the arrest of the 'diabolical Secretary's letter had precipitated an ener- incendiaries'. Despite this initiative, the getic response. At numerous public meet- fires of discontent continued to burn, as ings held up and down the county the at Ulceby, , Moulton Marsh, landed classes agreed to 'stand by each Stickford, Harbling, Swineshead, Leake, other in &fence of themselves and their , Spilsby, and Folkingham, neighbours, to protect property of every throughout the winter of 1830-1 and kind from either secret injury or open beyond. Low and inadequate wages lay violence, and to resist every demand behind most of these burnings. The incen- made upon them by persons illegally diary fire at Folkingham, for example, combined' .75 was the direct result of a wage dispute, The farming classes, for example, whilst the firing of three corn stacks at opposed the labourers' demand for higher Swineshead took place because the labour- wages, whilst in the law courts the magis- ers were 'very dissatisfied with the wages trates dealt firmly with those who were offered by the farmers'. 73 found guilty of 'conspiring and combining unjustly to increase and augment the wages of themselves and other labourers'. IV Lord Melbourne, in a letter to the county's The unrest which swept over the Lin- judiciary, emphasized with some force the colnshire countryside during the winter fact that magistrates 'are invested with no of I83O, by posing a threat to the sanctity general legal Authority to settle the of private property, provoked a swift and Amount of wages of Labour' and that 'any effective response from the judiciary and 74 LRO, General Proceedings and Correspondence, Kesteven, 183o. v2 LRO, General Proceedings and Correspondence, Kesteven, 183o. Letter from Lord Melbourne to Lord Brownlow, 25 Nov- Letter from W Thompson to W Forbes, 29 November 183o. ember 183o. 7~ The Stamford Mercury, 3 September I83O-18 March 183L pp 3-4. 7s The Stamford Mercury, 3 December ]83 o, p 2. THE LABOURERS' STANDARD OF LIVING IN LINCOLNSHIRE, 1790--1840 15 Interference in such a Matter can only have highly organized network of control the Effect of exciting Expectations which across the length and breadth of the must be disappointed and of ultimately county. Perhaps the most important mani- producing, in an aggravated Degree, a festation of this policy was the mobiliz- renewed Spirit of Discontent and Insubor- ation of a number of Yeomanry cavalry dination'. The county's landowners, far- units and the establishment of various mers, and magistrates readily put the armed associations, such as the Association Home Secretary's advice into practice. Sir for the Preservation of Public Peace and Robert Sheffield, for example, a wealthy the Protection of Property and the Associ- landowner with a 9ooo-acre estate in Lind- ation of Gentlemen Farmers and Graziers sey, opposed the labourers' attempts to on Horseback, to assist the civil authorities raise their wages. 'The Wages in this Part in the supression of the 'tumultuous are 2s a day', he informed Lord Brown- assemblies'. The membership of these low, the Lord Lieutenant, 'and if any associations consisted of the 'most respect- refractory spirit should show itself here able Yeomanry', especially those 'who among the Labourers it will be for an could furnish themselves with horses', and increase of Wages ... but a stand will be various 'graziers, tradesmen, and their made at present at two shillings'. The confidential servants'. Public subscription magistrates were equally opposed to any funds were launched in order to finance form of 'collective bargaining by riot'. their operations and reimburse the more The labourers of Heckington who dared ordinary members for participating in the to organize a wage meeting, and demand day and night patrols. Once the 200 or so 2s 6d a day, were found guilty of 'not members of each association were being content to work and labour at the assembled together, they were divided usual rates for which they and other labou- into mounted and unmounted sections rers were accustomed to' and were sen- with the task of arresting 'all suspicious tenced to three months hard labour in the characters and persons who may be found Folkingham House of Correction. The assembled for the breach of the peace'. 7s women of Heckington, who also Large rewards were offered in the hope assembled to protest over the high price they would attract informers. The Stam- of flour, received the same sentence as their ford Association for the Prosecution of menfolk for their riotous behaviour. 7a Felons, for example, in an advertisement Richard Tomlin, who threatened to fire in the Stamford Mercury, drew the reader's the stacks of farmers who did not pay their attention to the £5oo reward offered by labourers 'wages whereby they could Royal Proclamation and the fact that, maintain their families', was given six Any person discovering the authors, abettors or months hard labour by the magistrate. 77 perpetrators of outrages in riots or tumultuous In order to bring a stop to the destruc- assemblies, dictating to employers the giving of tion of stacks, barns, and farm machinery certain wages by force or violence, and compelling destruction of agricultural property, is entitled to by fire, the county authorities, building a reward of Fifty Pounds, besides a free pardon, upon the experience gained during the in case such persons discovering may be liable to subsistence crises of 1795-18oo, built up a be prosecuted for the same.79

7~ LRO, Bourne Quarter Sessions, 4 January 1831. Sleaford Quarter Sessions, 6 January 1831. General Proceedings and Correspon- 7x LRO, General Proceedings and Correspondence, Kesteven, 183o. dence, Kesteven, 183o. Letter from Lord Melbourne, 8 December Circular letter from the Chief Constable for Kesteven, l 183o. R J Olney, Rural Society and County Govetnnlent in Nine- December 183o. Circular Letter from W Forbes to the Magistrates teet,tl,-Century Lincohlshire, Lincoln, 1979, p 84. of tile County, -'9 November 183o. The Stamford Mercury, 7 77j Hughes, 'Tried Beyond Endurance', The Land Worker, Nov- January 1831, p 3. ember 1954, p 9. 7,J The Stan~rd Mercury, 7 January 183t, p t. I6 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW The role played by the armed associ- Protection of Property in Stamford, for ations in containing the labourers' move- example, were sub-divided into five sec- ment was effective because it was tions and placed under the command of a disciplined and well organized. In a letter captain or a lieutenant, s' to the county magistrates on the 25 Nov- The Market Rasen Corps of Volunteer ember, the Home Secretary suggested that Cavalry, under the command of Ays- the Duke of Richmond's 'Sussex Plan', cough Boucherett of Willingham House, which had been employed to put-down a wealthy landowner with a 6ooo-acre the agricultural labourers in that county, estate in Lindsey, provided a military pres- should be used in Lincolnshire to subjugate ence in the central claylands. Indeed, it is the 'tumult' and restore the 'public tran- evident from Figure 2 that the spatial quillity',s° The county authorities distribution of the Yeomanry Cavalry responded to the Home Secretary's units and the labourers' disturbances were suggestion with some alacrity. In Kes- closely correlated. Most were located on teven, clusters of four to five parishes were the claylands and marshlands; especially grouped into districts and placed under along the eastern and western margins of the direction of a Superintendent. Within the wolds, the eastern margin of the heath, each district farmers, 'their confidential and on the southern fenlands: Servants and respectable Labourers, Pen- Alford Folkingham sioners and Tradespeople' were sworn-in Horncastle Grantham as special constables, armed with staves, Market Rasen Stamford and instructed to 'apprehend all suspicious Caistor Deeping Characters'. Similarly, the Grantham dis- Brigg Spalding Long Sutton trict, which embraced the parishes of Little Barton Heckington and , Manthorpe, and Barrow Sleaford Grantham, had a volunteer force of 247 Gainsborough Lincoln special constables at its disposal. Sixty- Bourne Holland Fen nine men formed the Mounted Section The North Wold Troop covered a large whilst I78 formed the Dismounted Sec- area of Lindsey and had detachments based tion. In the event of an incendiary attack at various centres such as Caistor, Brigg, or a riot, bugles and church bells were Barton, and Winterton. s-" The mounted sounded and the constables were detachments were a particularly formi- assembled at various pre-determined dable force because they were armed with points, such as the town hall or the market sabres, pistols, and muskets. The Sleaford cross, before moving on to engage the Association of Volunteer Horsemen, for labourers. Day and night patrols were example, acquired ioo 'scymetar' swords, established, fire appliances were given a leather belts, scabbards, and a quantity of mounted escort, and each constable was muskets from the Royal Ordnance Store instructed to 'retain in his memory the at Hull. Major Handley of the Folkingham Names of as many of ... [the rioters] as Yeomanry obtained Ioo 'sycimitar' swords he possibly can in order that they may be from the same source, whilst the Gran- afterwards apprehended'. Men with mili- tary experience were frequently put in s, LPL. UP IOSl. Printed Rules and Regulations for the Preservation charge of the operations. The I25 mem- of Peace and tile Protection of Property in Kesteven. l December 183o. LRO, General Proceedings and Correspondence. Printed bers of the Armed Association for the List of Special Constables in the Grantham District, 13 December 183o. Printed List of the Armed Association for the Protection of Property at Stamford. December 183o. s° LRO, General Proceedings and Correspondence, Kesteven, 183o. "~ The Stamford Mercury, al January-8 July 1831, p I-3. R J Olney, Circular Letter from Lord Melbourne, 25 November 183o. Lincolnshire Politics 1832-z885, Oxford, 1973, p 15. THE LABOURERS' STANDARD OF LIVING IN LINCOLNSHIRE, I790-I840 I7 tham Yeomanry Cavalry acquired I50 harvesters that a riot broke out and local sabres from the Weedon army barracks in magistrates had to provide them with an Northampton. As one volunteer noted, in escort to the fens. Irish labourers at Hol- a letter to the Kesteven magistrates, the breach were rounded up and driven out cavalry kept a vigil in the countryside of the area by local labourers wielding whilst 'those of us who had no horses ... pitchforks and clubs, and similar attacks [were] ready to start on foot with our took place at Spalding and Long Sutton. guns all day'. 83 Such was the state of tension between alien and denizen workers that it was said V that 'Many farmers have refused to Despite the array of forces before them, employ them ... the country labourers in the form of an unsympathetic govern- threatening gross assaults to the Irishman, ment, a hostile judiciary, and the collective and still worse to those farmers who may opposition of a well armed coalition of engage them', s5 landowners, farmers, and tradespeople, the Apart from these overt expressions of agricultural labouring classes continued to anger, throughout the I83OS there appeared make their presence felt throughout the to be no 'disposition to acts of tumult or remainder of the decade. During I83 I-2, riot amongst the labourers, nor any orgained for example, the labourers appeared to system of outrage'. Discontent, however, redirect their grievances over unemploy- on the question of low wages, and the ment and poor wages from the farming practical implementation of the I834 Poor classes to the itinerant Irish. The fact that Law Amendment Act, continued to fred the Irish competed for work in the local expression in covert acts of intimidation. labour market, and were prepared to Farmers who paid their men poor wages, accept low wages, caused considerable such as those in the area, continued friction within the Lincolnshire country- to receive threatening letters: side. According to one local report, the Firing is no warning to you at Laceby; you must Lincolnshire labourers were 'not well satis- not try the poor so any longer, for they will not fied' with the competition posed by the submit to working for Is a day; young men are Irish and that 'the farmers are somewhat fools to stand it any longer; they mean trying it; to blame in rather restricting the Wages they would not if you would allow anything fair -- you might sleep comfortable; if you do not raise of our Men'. Indeed, their wages, you must suffer by the consequence.86 Many, though civil, are gloomy and discontented. In populous villages, where they are less restrained, Elsewhere in the county, the curtailment of dark hints and threats to those who may employ outdoor poor relief, at a time when farm Irish-men to reap in harvest are not unusual; and, wages were low, was said to be the cause in some instances, some of these unfortunates ... of a number of 'diabolical acts'. 'Their have been greatly maltreated and assaulted/4 minds are so excited ... against any curtail- Irish labourers making their way to the ment of what they consider their rights', fenlands ran a gauntlet of abuse in the noted one observer, 'that they will do any- villages, as at Willoughby, Newton, Dun- thing'. Reports of 'numerous instances of stan, , Whittering, and Malicious Injury to cattle' was a particular Spalding. The populous around Boston cause of concern, as was the 'atrocious crime' were so incensed by the influx of Irish of arson. Indeed, throughout the remainder of the decade incendiarism remained a seri- x~ LRO, General Proceedings and Correspondence, Kesteven 183o. Letter from W Thompson to W Forbes, 29 November 183o. Letters of Indenture and Receipt of Arms. The Stan~rd Mercury SSlbid, 5 August-9 September 183,, pp 3-4; ,0-26 August 1832, z4 December ,830, p 3. PP 3-4. x4 The Stamford Mercury, 29July 183,, p 4. ~'lbid, 13 Marcia 1835, p 2. 18 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ous problem in Lincolnshire. As the Stamford regular employment on the Ancaster and Mercury noted, 'The county appears Tran- Monson estates experienced a notable fall quil, but that dreadful fiend of incendiarism in their standard of living between 1794 is not yet satiated'. 87 and 1818. Elsewhere in the county, spiral- ling prices and falling real wages during VI the French wars, and the onset of unem- The foregoing analysis suggest that the ployment and low wages up to I83o, existing model of Lincolnshire rural life especially in the clayland parishes, precipi- can be revised in two main ways. First, tated an upsurge in class antagonism and although agricultural wages were high, civil disobedience. The Lincolnshire they progressed only very slowly in the countryside, far from being a place of long-run and, until the i820s, were peace and social harmony, witnessed a invariably out of phase with variations in marked deterioration in class relations and the cost of living. Given the stability of the waging of a hitter struggle that was earnings, volatile short-run fluctuations in only partly resolved by the force of arms. the prices of common foodstuffs proved Although most overt expressions of dis- to be the dynamic variable in the real content were suppressed, the labourers' wage equation. In view of the dichotomy anger was not extinguished and continued between prices and wages, labourers in to surface in the guise of covert acts of

.7 lbid, 7 January 1831, p 4; 18 March 1831, p 4. LRO, 3 Anc violence against landed property until at 7/23129-3211-9. least the I84OS.

APPENDIX I Indices of Agricultural Labourers' Wages, the Cost of Living and Real Wages in Lincolnshire, I79o-184o (1790 = IO0) Year Cost of Agricultural Staoford Real . Year Cost of Agricultural Stamford Real Living Labo,lrers' Wage Wage Living Labourers' Wage Wage Index Wages Index Index Index Wages It,dex hldex

I79O IOO 9s Id too 1oo 1816 131 12s od I32 IOl I79I 1oo 9s id IOO Ioo 1817 I54 12s od 132 86 I792 IOO 9s Id Ioo 1oo 1818 I48 12s od 132 89 I793 99 9s Id IOO lO1 1819 13o 12s od 132 lOI I794 IO3 9s 1od IO8 1o5 182o 12o 12s od I32 11o I795 135 IOS id 1II 82 182I IiO 12s od 132 12o I796 I36 IOS 6d II5 85 1822 89 lOS od ilO i23 1797 io8 IOS 6d 115 1o6 I823 1o2 lOS od iio 1o8 I798 1o9 IOS od 11o 1oi 1824 I16 lOS od 11o 95 I799 I4I IOS od 11o 78 1825 I26 12S od 132 104 1800 19I IIS od I21 63 1826 117 12s od 132 113 180I I79 IIS od 121 68 1827 I16 las od 132 114 1802 142 II$ od 12I 85 1828 118 125 od 132 112 I803 IIS od 121 1829 12I 12s od 132 109 I8O4 II$ od 121 I83O I19 12s od 132 Ili 18o5 167 II$ od 12I 72 1831 123 laS od 132 1o7 18o6 142 II$ od I21 85 1832 III 125 od 132 I19 1807 I48 tlS od 121 82 1833 IO8 12s od I32 I22 I808 162 II$ od I2I 75 1834 los od 11o 18o9 I72 IiS od I21 7o I835 IOS od tlO ISIO I74 I2S od I32 76 1836 10s od 11o I81I I7o I2S od 132 78 1837 IOS od 1IO 1812 204 I2S od 132 65 1838 I20 12S od i32 iio 1813 I86 I2S od 132 71 I839 112 12s od 132 117 1814 140 I2S od 132 94 184o II 4 12s od 132 I15 1815 I26 IZS od I32 1o 5 Rural History Economy, Society, Culture Editors Liz Bellamy, University of East Anglia Keith D. Snell, University of Leicester Tom Williamson, University ofEast Anglia Rural History is recognised as a stimulating forum for interdisciplinary exchange. Its definition of rural history ignores traditional subject boundaries to foster the cross-fertilisation which is Society and place in nineteenth-century essential for an understanding of rural - Charles Rawding society. It stimulates original scholarship, Mangles, muck and myths: rural history and provides access to the best of recent museums in Britain - Gaynor Kavanagh research. The main emphasis of the Subscription information journal is on the English-speaking world Rural History is published twice a year in and continental Europe, but it also April and October. Volume 4 in 1993: includes material on other areas which are £39 for institutions; £20 for individuals; of methodological, theoretical or airmail £9 per year extra. comparative importance.

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