3SS ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



at a meeting of delegates from 

 several places it had been resolved, 

 that the manufactory at West 

 Houghton, in that neighbourhood, 

 should be destroyed, but that at 

 a subsequent meeting it had been 

 determined, that the destruction of 

 this manufactory should be post- 

 poned. On the 24th of April, 

 however, the destruction of this 

 manufactory was accomplished. 

 Intelligence having been obtained 

 of the intended attack, a military 

 force was sent for its protection, 

 and the assailants dispersed before 

 the arrival of the military, who 

 then returned to their quarters ; the 

 rioters takingr advantage of their 

 absence, assailed and forced the 

 manufactory, set it on fire, and 

 again dispersed before the military 

 could be brought again to the 

 spot. 



Symptoms of the same spirit 

 appeared at Nevvcastle-under-Lyne, 

 Wigan, Warrington, and other 

 towns ; and the contagion in the 

 mean time had spread to Carlisle 

 and into Yorkshire. 



In Huddersfield, in the. west 

 riding of Yorkshire, and in the 

 neighbourhood, the destruction of 

 dressing and shearing machines and 

 shears began early in February ; 

 lire arms were seized during the 

 course of March, and a constable 

 was shot at in his own house. In 

 March a great number of machines 

 belonging to Mr. Vicarman were 

 destroyed ; and in April the destruc- 

 tion of Bradley mills, near Hud- 

 dersfield, was threatened, and 

 afterwards attempted, but the mills 

 were protected by a guard, which 

 defeated the attempt. About the 

 same time the machinery of Mr. 

 Rhodes's mill at Tentwistle, near to 

 Stockport, was utterlj- destroyed. 



and Mr. Horsfall, a respectable 

 merchant and mill-owner, in the 

 neighbourhood of Huddersfield^ 

 was shot about six o'clock in the 

 afternoon, in broad day-light, on 

 the 28th of April, returning from 

 market, and died on the 30th of 

 the same month, 



A reward of 2,000/. was offer- 

 ed for the discovery of the mur- 

 derers, but no discovery has yet 

 been made, though it appears that 

 he was shot by four persons, each 

 of whom lodged a ball in his body ; 

 that when he fell, the populace sur- 

 rounded and reviled him, instead 

 of offering assistance, and no at- 

 tempt was made to secure the assas- 

 sins, who were seen to retire to an 

 adjoining wood. Some time after 

 a young woman was attacked in 

 the streets of Leeds, and nearly 

 murdered, her skull being fractur- 

 ed ; and the supposed reason for 

 this violence was an apprehension 

 that she had been near the spot 

 when Mr. Horsfall was murdered, 

 and might therefore be able to give 

 evidence which might lead to the 

 detection of the murderers. 



The town of Leeds had for some 

 time before been much alarmed 

 by information that attackswere in- 

 tended to be made on places in the 

 town and its neighbourhood, which 

 induced the magistrates to desire a 

 strong military force, and to ap- 

 point a great number of respectable 

 inhabitants of the town special 

 constables, by which means the 

 peace of the town was in a great 

 degree preserved. 



Early, however, in the morning 

 of the 24th of March, ths mills of 

 Messrs. Thompsons, at Raw don, a 

 large village about eight miles from 

 Leeds, was attacked by a large 

 body of armed men, who proceed- 

 ed 



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