GENERAL HISTORY. 



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night of the 9th of June last, a 

 rising took place in Derbyshire, 

 headed by a person who went for 

 that purpose from Nottingham, 

 and was therefore called " The 

 Nottingham Captain.'' The in- 

 surgents were not formidable 

 for their numbers, but they 

 were actuated by an atrocious 

 spirit. Several of them had 

 fire arms ; others had pikes pre- 

 viously prepared for that pur- 

 pose : and as they advanced to- 

 wards Nottingham they plundered 

 several houses of arms, and in 

 one instance a murder was com- 

 mitted. They compelled some 

 persons to join them, and endea- 

 voured to compel others by 

 threats and violence, and parti- 

 cularly by the terror of the mur- 

 der which had been committed ; 

 and they proposed to reach Not- 

 tingham early in the morning of 

 the 10th of June, and to surprise 

 the military in their barracks: 

 hoping thus to become masters of 

 the town, and to be joined by 

 considerable numbers there, and 

 by a party which they expected 

 would be assembled m Notting- 

 ham Forest, and which actually 

 did assemble at that place, as 

 after stated. The disposition to 

 plunder, the resistance they met 

 with, and other circumstances, so 

 delayed their march, that they 

 had not arrived near their place 

 of destination at a late hour in 

 the morning : and the country 

 being alarmed, a military force 

 was assembled to oppose them. 



The language used by many 

 persons engaged in this enterprise, 

 and particularly by their leaders, 

 leaves no room to doubt that 

 their objects were the overthrow 

 of the estiibliglied goverrunent and 



laws ; extravagant as those ob- 

 jects were, when compared with 

 the inadequate means which they 

 possessed. In the course of their 

 march, many of their body felt 

 alarmed at the atrocious projects 

 in which they had engaged, which 

 had actually led to a cruel and 

 deliberate murder ; they found 

 that their confederates had not 

 arrived to their support, as they 

 had been led to expect ; and in 

 the villages through v/hich they 

 passed, a strong indisposition be- 

 ing manifested towards their 

 cause and projects, some of them 

 threw away their pikes and re- 

 tired, before the military force 

 appeared ; and on the first show 

 of that force the rest dispersed, 

 their 4eaders attempting in vain to 

 rally them ; many were taken pri- 

 soners, and many guns and pikes 

 were seized. 



Tliis insurrection, of small im- 

 portance in itself, is a subject of 

 material consideration, as it was 

 manifestly in consequence of 

 measures detailed in the two re^ 

 ports above-mentioned, and ap- 

 pears to have been a part of the 

 general rising proposed to take 

 effect on the 9th or 10th of June, 

 as stated in the last of those re* 

 ports. 



At the assizes at Derby, in the 

 month of July following, the 

 grand jury found bills of indict- 

 ment for high treason against 

 forty-six of the persons charged 

 with having been engaged in this 

 insurrection ; and several of those 

 persons having been taken were 

 arraigned upon the indictment 

 before a special commission issued 

 for that purpose, which sat at 

 Derby in the month of October 

 following. Four of the principal 



offenders 



