EXECUTION OF ONE OF THE BIOTEKS. 293 



all the assurances of redress and other assistance that the magis- 

 trates, the gentlemen present, and their masters could give them, 

 they would not disperse without the boat was fully delivered to 

 them on the instant, that the flour might he sold there. The 

 magistrates not choosing, out of humanity, to go to extremities, by 

 which there would have been much bloodshed, thought it best to 

 comply ; and so the mob are now selling the flour at their own 

 prices ; but, at the same time, the gentlemen are determined to 

 prosecute the ringleaders to the utmost rigour of the law. Two of 

 the ringleaders are taken and committed to Stafford Gaol." 



The following paragraphs relating to the fate of one of the 

 ringleaders,, Barlow, are from the same paper : 



" On Saturday the assizes ended at Stafford, when the following 

 persons received sentence of death viz., Mary Baker, for stealing 

 from the shop of Thos. Heveningham eight yards of printed linen 

 cloth ; John Crutchley, for stealing two cows, the property of Sarah 

 Biddulph ; James Bagley, for stealing thirteen sheep, the property 

 of E. Cartwright ; Win. Faulkner, for stealing two sheep, the pro- 

 perty of C. Adams ; John Shepherd, for assaulting and wounding 

 John Holmes, and robbing him of a watch and six shillings ; also 

 Stephen Barlow, for assembling with a number of other persons 

 in a riotous manner at Etruria (Barlow was hanged on Monday) ; 

 Thomas Smith and William Smith, for stealing a fork and a 

 quantity of oats ; and James Poole, for assaulting Urn. Watson, 

 to be transported to Africa for seven years ; likewise llalph Udale, 

 for breaking into the shop of Henry Kniveton and stealing fustians, 

 &c., was sent to the Thames for four years. 



"On Monday last, agreeable to the above sentence, Stephen 

 Barlow was executed at Stafford for rioting, &c. He was attended 

 to the tree by a body of militia. The fate of this unhappy man 

 (who is cut off almost instantly), it is hoped, will be a warning to 

 those deluded people who thus daringly assemble in defiance of the 

 law against rioting, which is a capital offence." 



To the peaceable, kindly, gentle, and liberal disposition 

 of Wedgwood, nothing could be more painful than this 

 disorder, happening in his own locality, and by people of 

 liis own calling, among whom lie had lived throughout his 

 whole life. He immediately wrote and published, in form 

 of a pamphlet, which he distributed through the district, 



