Regency Celebrities: Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood – British Admiral and Mentor to Horatio Nelson

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

502px-Northcote,_Samuel_Hood Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (Butleigh, 12 December 1724 – London, 27 January 1816) was a British Admiral known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars. He acted as a mentor to Horatio Nelson.

Biography
Early Life
The son of Samuel Hood, vicar of Butleigh in Somerset, and prebendary of Wells and Mary Hoskins, daughter of Richard Hoskins, Esquire, of Beaminster, Dorset. In 1740 Captain (later Admiral) Thomas Smith was stranded in Butleigh when his carriage broke down on the way to Plymouth. The Rev Samuel Hood rescued him and gave him hospitality for the night. Samuel and Alexander were inspired by his stories of the sea, and he offered to help them in the Navy. The Rev Samuel Hood and his wife would not allow any more sons to join the Navy as “they might be drowned.” Their third son, Arthur William became Vicar of Butleigh, but died of fever in his 30’s. Another son was drowned in the local river Brue as a boy.

Early Career
Samuel, older brother of Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport, entered the Royal Navy in 1741. He served part of his time as midshipman with George Brydges Rodney on the Ludlow and became a lieutenant in 1746. He was fortunate in serving under active officers and had opportunities to see service in the North Sea during the War of the Austrian Succession.

In 1754, he was made commander of the sloop Jamaica and served on her at the North American station. In July 1756, while still on the North American station, he took command of the sloop HMS Lively.

Seven Years War
At the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1756, the navy was rapidly expanded which benefited Hood. Later that year, Hood was promoted to Post Captain and given command of HMS Grafton. In 1757, while in temporary command of Antelope (50 guns), he drove a French ship ashore in Audierne Bay, and captured two privateers. His zeal attracted the favourable notice of the Admiralty, and he was appointed to a ship of his own.

In 1759, when captain of the Vestal, he captured the French Bellone after a sharp action. During the war, his services were wholly in the Channel, and he was engaged under Rodney in 1759 in the Raid on Le Havre, destroying the vessels collected by the French to serve as transports in the proposed invasion of Britain.

He was appointed in Commander-in-Chief, North American Station in July 1767. He returned to England in October 1770.

In 1778, he accepted a command, which in the ordinary course would have terminated his active career, becoming Commissioner of the dockyard at Portsmouth and governor of the Naval Academy. These posts were generally given to officers who were retiring from the sea.

American War of Independence
In 1778, on the occasion of the King’s visit to Portsmouth, Hood was made a baronet.
The war was deeply unpopular with much of the British public and navy. Many admirals had declined to serve under Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Admiral Rodney, who then commanded in the West Indies, had complained of a lack of proper support from his subordinates, whom he accused of disaffection.

The Admiralty, anxious to secure the services of trustworthy flag officers, promoted Hood to rear-admiral on 26 September 1780, and sent him to the West Indies to act as second in command under Rodney, who knew him personally. He joined Rodney in January 1781 in his flagship Barfleur, and remained in the West Indies or on the coast of North America until the close of the War of American Independence.

The expectation that he would work harmoniously with Rodney was not entirely justified. Their correspondence shows they were not on friendly terms; but Hood always did his duty, and he was so able that no question of removing him from the station ever arose. The unfortunate turn for the British taken by the campaign of 1781 was largely due to Rodney’s neglect of Hood’s advice. If he had been allowed to choose his own position, he could have prevented the Comte De Grasse from reaching Fort Royal with the reinforcements from France in April.

Battle of the Chesapeake
When Rodney decided to return to Britain for the sake of his health in the autumn of 1781, Hood was ordered to take the bulk of the fleet to the North American coast during the hurricane months. Hood joined Admiral Thomas Graves in the unsuccessful effort to relieve the army at Yorktown, when the British fleet was driven off by the French Admiral, the Comte de Grasse, at the Battle of the Chesapeake.

When he returned to the West Indies, he was for a time in independent command owing to Rodney’s absence in England. De Grasse attacked the British islands of St Kitts and Nevis with a force much superior to Hood’s squadron.

Hood made an unsuccessful attempt in January 1782 to save them from capture, with 22 ships to 29, and the series of bold movements by which he first turned the French out of their anchorage at Basseterre of St Kitts and then beat off their attacks, were one of the best accomplishments of any British admiral during the war.

Battle of the Saintes
In 1782 Hood took part in a British fleet under Rodney, which defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet, which was planning an invasion of Jamaica. The French commander De Grasse, who had been responsible for the victory at Chesapeake was captured and taken back to Britain as a prisoner. Hood was deeply critical of Rodney for not pushing home his victory against the retreating enemy fleet. Had they pursued, he suggested, the British might have taken additional prizes and destroyed the French naval presence in the Caribbean.

Battle of the Mona Passage
Eventually Hood was ordered to chase enemy ships at the Mona Passage, and with his division of 12 ships, he captured 4 ships on 19 April thus completing the defeat.

While serving in the Caribbean, Hood became acquainted with, and later became a mentor to Horatio Nelson who was a young frigate commander. Hood had been a friend of Nelson’s uncle Maurice Suckling. In 1782, Hood introduced Nelson to the future King William, Duke of Clarence, who was then a serving naval officer in New York.

Peace
Hood was made an Irish peer for his role in the victory at the Battle of the Saintes on 9 and 12 April near Dominica.

During the peace, he entered the British Parliament as Member for Westminster in the election of 1784, where he was a supporter of the government of William Pitt the Younger. In 1786, he became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth holding that post until 1789. He was promoted to vice-admiral in 1787, and in July 1788, was appointed to the Board of Admiralty under John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, brother of the Prime Minister.

French Revolution
Defence of Toulon
On the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War in 1793, he became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. His period of command, which lasted from May 1793 to October 1794, was very busy.

In August 1793, French royalists and other opponents of the revolution took over the town and invited Hood, whose fleet was blockading the city, to occupy the town. Hood, without time to request for instructions from the Admiralty in London, moved swiftly to take command of the port.

There were two main reasons for the British move. It was hoped that Toulon could be a centre of French resistance to Paris, and also to take possession of the French Mediterranean fleet of fifty-eight warships, which lay in the harbour. It was hoped that depriving the French revolutionaries of their maritime resources would cripple the revolution.

He occupied Toulon on the invitation of the French royalists, in co-operation with the Spaniards and Sardinians. In December of the same year, the allies, who did not work harmoniously together, were driven out, mainly by the generalship of Napoleon. Hood ordered the French fleet burned to prevent them falling back into the hands of the revolutionaries, a task carried out by Captain Sidney Smith. Afterwards, Hood and his British force withdrew to maintain their blockade of the coast, while the French republicans reoccupied the city.

Corsica
Hood then turned to the occupation of Corsica, which he had been invited to take in the name of the King of Britain by Pasquale Paoli, who had been leader of the Corsican Republic before it was subjugated by the French in 1769. The island was for a short time added to the dominions of George III, chiefly by the exertions of the fleet and the co-operation of Paoli.

While the occupation of Corsica was being effected, the French at Toulon had so far recovered that they were able to send a fleet to sea. In June, Hood sailed in the hope of bringing it to action. The plan, which he laid to attack the French fleet near Golfe-Juan in June, may possibly have served to some extent as an inspiration, if not as a model, to Nelson (who has been recorded as saying that Hood was “the greatest sea officer I ever knew”) for the Battle of the Nile, but the wind was unfavourable, and the attack could not be carried out.

In October, he was recalled to England in consequence of some misunderstanding with the admiralty or the ministry, which was never explained. Richard Freeman, in his book, The Great Edwardian Naval Feud, explains his relief from command in a quote from Lord Esher’s journal. According to this journal, “… [Hood] wrote ‘a very temperate letter’ to the Admiralty in which he complained that he did not have enough ships to defend the Mediterranean.” As a result Hood was then recalled from the Mediterranean. [Freeman, p. 145].

Later Career
Samuel Hood was created Baron Hood of Catherington in 1778 by King George III, an Irish Baron in 1782, and Viscount Hood of Whitley, Warwickshire, in 1796 with a pension of £2000 per year for life. He became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth again in June 1792. In February 1793, he became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. In 1796, he was named Governor of the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich in London, a position which he held until his death in 1816. He was elected as Tory Member of Parliament for Westminster from 1784 to 1788 and from 1790 to 1796, and was Member for Reigate between 1789 and 1790, serving with his younger brother Alexander under Pitt the Younger.

He lived long enough to see Britain triumph in the Napoleonic Wars and was chief mourner at Nelson’s funeral.

A peerage of Great Britain was conferred on his wife, Susannah, as Baroness Hood of Catherington in 1795. Samuel Hood’s titles descended to his youngest son, Henry (1753–1836), the ancestor of the present Viscount Hood. Lord Samuel Hood and his wife had two other sons: Samuel and Thomas. Samuel died in infancy, and many sources suggest Thomas also died similarly, but it is now known Thomas survived until 1800 or so.
There are several portraits of Lord Hood by Lemuel Francis Abbott in the Guildhall and in the National Portrait Gallery. He was also painted by Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.

Legacy
A biographical notice of Hood by McArthur, his secretary during the Mediterranean command, appeared in the Naval Chronicle, vol. ii. Charnock’s Biogr. Nay. vi., Ralfe, Nav. Biog. i., may also be consulted. His correspondence during his command in America was published by the Navy Records Society.

The history of his campaigns will be found in the historians of the wars in which he served: for the earlier years, Beatson’s Naval and Military Memoirs; for the later, James’s Naval History, vol. i., for the English side, and for the French, Troudes, Batailles navales de la France, ii. and iii., and Chevalier’s Histoire de la marine française pendant Ia guerre de l’indépendance américaine and Pendant Ia République.

In 1792, Lieutenant William Broughton, sailing with the expedition of George Vancouver to the Northwest Coast of North America, named Mount Hood in present-day Oregon, and Hood’s Canal in present-day Washington, after Hood. Two US Naval ships were named after Mount Hood, which could be considered mildly ironic as Hood had served against the United States during the American War of Independence.

Two of the three ships of the Royal Navy named HMS Hood were named after him as well, including HMS Hood, sunk by the Bismarck in 1941 during World War II.

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The 1816 Opening of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Bringing Coal to the Busy Western Ports

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of 127 miles (204 km), it crosses the Pennines, and includes 91 locks on the main line. It has several small branches, and in the early 21st century a new link was constructed into the Liverpool docks system.

History
Background
In the mid-18th century the growing towns of Yorkshire including Leeds, Wakefield, and Bradford, were trading increasingly. While the Aire and Calder Navigation improved links to the east for Leeds, links to the west were limited. Bradford merchants wanted to increase the supply of limestone to make lime for mortar and agriculture using coal from Bradford’s collieries and to transport textiles to the Port of Liverpool. On the west coast, traders in the busy port of Liverpool wanted a cheap supply of coal for their shipping and manufacturing businesses and to tap the output from the industrial regions of Lancashire. Inspired by the effectiveness of the wholly artificial navigation, the Bridgewater Canal opened in 1759–60. A canal across the Pennines linking Liverpool and Hull (by means of the Aire and Calder Navigation) would have obvious trade benefits.

A public meeting took place at the Sun Inn in Bradford on 2 July 1766 to promote the building of such a canal. John Longbotham was engaged to survey a route. Two groups were set up to promote the scheme, one in Liverpool and one in Bradford. The Liverpool committee was unhappy with the route originally proposed, following the Ribble valley through Preston, considering that it ran too far to the north, missing key towns and the Wigan coalfield.

A counter-proposal was produced by John Eyes and Richard Melling, improved by P.P. Burdett, which was rejected by the Bradford committee as too expensive, mainly because of the valley crossing at Burnley. James Brindley was called in to arbitrate and ruled in favour of Longbotham’s more northerly route, though with a branch towards Wigan, a decision which caused some of the Lancashire backers to withdraw their support, and which was subsequently amended over the course of development.

An Act was passed in May 1770 authorising construction, and Brindley was appointed chief engineer and John Longbotham clerk of works; following Brindley’s death in 1772, Longbotham carried out both roles.

Ainscoughs mill in Burscough

Ainscoughs mill in Burscough

Construction
A commencement ceremony was held at Halsall, north of Liverpool on 5 November 1770, with the first sod being dug by the Hon. Charles Mordaunt of Halsall Hall. The first section of the canal opened from Bingley to Skipton in 1773. By 1774 the canal had been completed from Skipton to Shipley, including significant engineering features such as the Bingley Five Rise Locks, Bingley Three Rise Locks and the seven-arch aqueduct over the River Aire. Also completed was the branch to Bradford. On the western side, the section from Liverpool to Newburgh was dug. By the following year the Yorkshire end had been extended to Gargrave, and by 1777 the canal had joined the Aire and Calder Navigation in Leeds.

On the western side it reached Wigan by 1781, replacing the earlier and unsatisfactory Douglas Navigation. By now, the subscribed funds and further borrowing had all been spent and work stopped in 1781 with the completion of the Rufford Branch from Burscough to the River Douglas at Tarleton. The war in the American colonies and its aftermath made it impossible to continue for more than a decade.

In 1789 Robert Whitworth developed fresh proposals to vary the line of the remaining part of the canal, including a tunnel at Foulridge, lowering the proposed summit level by 40 feet, and a more southerly route in Lancashire. These proposals were authorised by a fresh Act in 1790, together with further fund-raising, and in 1791, construction of the canal finally recommenced south-westward from Gargrave, heading toward Barrowford in Lancashire.

In 1794 an agreement was reached with the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal company to create a link near Red Moss near Horwich. However by this time, the competing Rochdale Canal had begun construction and was likely to offer a more direct journey to Liverpool via Manchester and the Bridgewater Canal. The company’s experiences running the two sections of the canal had also shown that coal, not limestone, would be its main cargo, and that there was plenty of income available from local trade between the settlements along the route.

With this in mind in the same year, the route was changed again with a further Act, moving closer to that proposed by Burdett and the planned canal link did not materialize. Yet more fund-raising took place, as the Foulridge Tunnel was proving difficult and expensive to dig. The new route took the canal south via the expanding coal mines at Burnley, Accrington and Blackburn, but would require some sizable earthworks to pass the former. The completion in 1796 of the 1,640 yards (1,500 m) long Foulridge Tunnel and the flight of seven locks at Barrowford enabled the canal to open to eastern Burnley.

At Burnley, rather than using two sets of locks to cross the shallow Calder valley, Whitworth designed a 1,350 yards (1,234 m) long and up to 60 feet (18 m) high, embankment. It would also require a 559 yards (511 m) tunnel nearby at Gannow and a sizeable cutting to allow the canal to traverse the hillside between the two. It took 5 years to complete this work, with the embankment alone costing £22,000.

Once completed, the canal opened to Enfield near Accrington in 1801. It would be another 9 years until it reached Blackburn only 4 miles away. Following the French Revolution, Britain had been at war with France from 1793 to 1802. The peace proved temporary, with the Napoleonic Wars beginning the following year. High taxes and interest rates during this period made it difficult for the company to borrow money, and the pace of construction inevitably slowed.

The Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal company proposed another link from Bury to Accrington. This new link would have been known as the Haslingden Canal. The Peel family asked the canal company not to construct the crossing over the River Hyndburn above their textile printworks; such a crossing would have required the construction of embankments, and reduced the water supply to their factories. Consequently Accrington was bypassed and the Haslingden Canal was never built.

The latest plan for the route had it running parallel to, and then crossing the isolated southern end of the Lancaster Canal, but common sense prevailed and the Leeds and Liverpool connected with the Lancaster Canal between Wigan and Johnson’s Hillock. The main line of the canal was thus completed in 1816.

There had been various unsuccessful negotiations to connect the canal to the Bridgewater Canal at Leigh but agreement was finally reached in 1818, and the connection was opened in 1820, thus giving access to Manchester and the rest of the canal network. The Bridgewater Canal, like most of Brindley’s designs was for narrow boats of 72 feet (22 m) length, whereas the Leeds and Liverpool had been designed for broad boats of 62 feet (19 m) length. There was naturally a desire by the narrow boats to reach Liverpool and the locks of the westerly end of the canal were extended to 72 feet (22 m) in 1822.

Operation
The canal took almost 40 years to complete, in crossing the Pennines the Leeds and Liverpool had been beaten by the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the Rochdale Canal. The most important cargo was always coal, with over a million tons per year being delivered to Liverpool in the 1860s, with smaller amounts exported via the old Douglas Navigation. Even in Yorkshire, more coal was carried than limestone. Once the canal was fully open, receipts for carrying merchandise matched those of coal. The heavy industry along its route, together with the decision to build the canal with broad locks, ensured that (unlike the other two trans-Pennine canals) the Leeds and Liverpool competed successfully with the railways throughout the 19th century and remained open through the 20th century.

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Let There Be Light…London’s First Streetlights

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Old_Street_Light_-_LamplighterIn describing London at the end of the 1600s, Francis Maximilian Mission, author of Nouveau voyage d’Italie: avec un mémoire contenant des avis utiles à ceux qui voudront faire le mesme voyage (New travel from Italy: with a report containing of the opinions useful to those which will want to make the mesme travel), said, “They set up (at every tenth house) in the streets of London (Mr Edward Hemming was the inventor of them about fifteen or sixteen years ago), lamps, which, by means of a very thick convex glass, throw out great rays of light which illuminate the path…They burn from in the evening until midnight, and from every third day after the full moon to the sixth day after the new moon.”

Mission had erred in his estimation of the use of lighting in the early 18th Century, but the City, obviously, impressed the French writer and traveler. As early as the 17th Century, the law enforced street lighting from Michaelmas (September 29) to Lady Day (New Year’s Day until 1752, but with the adjustment of the calendar from Julian to Gregorian, April 6) each evening until midnight.

In 1417, Sir Henry Barton, Mayor of London, ordained “lanterns with lights to be hanged out on the winter evenings between Hallowtide and Candlemasse.” Paris led the way with lighting the streets. A 1524 order said inhabitants were to keep lights burning in windows, which faced the street. With the regulations of 1668 to improve London’s streets, the residents were “encouraged” to hang out their lanterns each evening. In 1690, an order required residents to hang their own lights before their homes. By an Act of the Common Council in 1716, all housekeepers, whose houses faced any street, lane, or passage, were required to hang out, every dark night, one or more lights, to burn from six to eleven o’clock, under the penalty of one shilling as a fine for failing to do so.

The before mentioned Edward Hemming attempted to set up lights in 1685 Cornwall as an example of his plan to light London with whale-oil lamps. Needless to say, the Companies opposed Hemming’s plan. Those who made tallow chandlers, tinsmiths, and horners saw Hemming’s proposal as a threat to their livelihood.

thomson_lamp

The historian, James Peller Malcolm, recorded that “Globular lights were introduced by Michael Cole, who obtained a patent in July 1708.”  Malcolm went on to describe “a new kind of light, composed of one entire glass of globular shape, with a lamp, which will give a cleaner and more certain light from all parts thereof.” Supposedly, Cole first exhibited the light outside a St James coffee house in 1709.

Cesar de Saussure, who has left an amusing and detailed description of his journey from Yverdon, Switzerland, through the German States and then across the North Sea from Rotterdam to London, describes the London streets of 1725 as, “Most of the streets are wonderfully well lighted, for in front of each house hangs a lantern or a large globe of glass, inside of which is placed a lamp which burns all night. Large house have two of these lamps suspended outside their door by iron supports, and some houses even four.”

The most commonly used fuels until the late 18th Century were olive oil, fish oil, beeswax, whale oil, sesame oil, nut oil, etc. From parish to city parish, a system was put into place to raise a rate from “eligible” households for lighting the streets. Later, a similar system was used for financing paving the streets and establishing a watch. A series of Acts of Parliament established the necessity for proper lighting for London’s streets. A 1736 Act gave the City of London the power to charge the inhabitants for lighting the streets throughout the year.

From Dan Cruickshank and Neil Burton’s Life in the Georgian City, we learn, “The aldermen and common council began by determining how many houses there were in the City, valued them, decided how many lamps were needed and what they would cot to erect and maintain, and then determined what proportions of the total each rateable inhabitant would have to pay. There were, it was calculated, 1,287 houses with rent under £10 per annum; 4,741 with rent between £10 and £20 per annum; 3.045 with rent between £20 and £30 per annum; 1,849 with rent between £30 and £40 per annum; and 3,092 with rent of £40 and upwards per annum. ‘In all, 14,014 houses, then inhabited and chargeable.’ The reference to rent should not be confused with actual rent paid. Rates were calculated on the value of a house that was expressed in terms of the rent it was worth. This is not to say that the occupier was actually paying that rent: he could have been a freeholder, a most rare thing in the eighteenth-century city, paying no rent; a lessee paying merely a nominal ground rent to the landlord; or a sublessee on a short lease paying a rack rent. The committee then established that the number of lamps required was 4,200, exclusive of those wanted in ‘public buildings and void places.’ This was based on the decision that lights should be ‘fixed at 25-yd distance on each side of the way in the high streets, and 35 in lesser streets, lanes, etc.’ The money was calculated and raised in the following manner: The several wards of the City agreed for the lighting them at an average of 41s. per annum per lamp, at which rate the expense of 4,200 lamps amounted to £8,610. The fixing of those on posts and irons, averaged at 14s. 6d. each [equaled] £3,045. ‘Houses under £10 [rent] paid 3s. 6d. per annum; under £20 paid 7s. 6d.; under £30 paid 8s.’ under £40 paid 9s. 6d.; upwards of £40 paid 12s.’”

In 1726, Stephen Hales procured a flammable fluid from the distillation of coal. From the distillation of “one hundred and fifty-eight grains [10.2 g] of Newcastle coal, he stated that he obtained one hundred and eight cubic inches [2.9 L] of air, which weighed fifty-one grains [3.3 g], being one third of the whole.” However, Hales results passed without notice for several more years.Mulberry_Street_NYC_c1900_LOC_3g04637u_edit

Posted in British history, buildings and structures, Georgian Era, Living in the Regency, Regency era, Uncategorized, Victorian era, White Soup Press | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Regency Unrest: The Ely and Littleport Riots of 1816

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

396px-Proclamtion The Ely and Littleport riots of 1816, also known as the Ely riots or Littleport riots, occurred between 22 May and 24 May 1816 in Littleport, Cambridgeshire. The riots were caused by high unemployment and rising grain costs, much like the general unrest which spread throughout England following the Napoleonic Wars.

The Littleport riot broke out when a group of residents met at The Globe Inn. Fuelled by alcohol, they left the inn and began intimidating wealthier Littleport residents, demanding money and destroying property. The riot spread to Ely where magistrates attempted to calm the protests by ordering poor relief and fixing a minimum wage. The following day, encouraged by Lord Liverpool’s government, a militia of the citizens of Ely, led by Sir Henry Bate Dudley and backed by the 1st Royal Dragoons, rounded up the rioters. In the ensuing altercation at The George and Dragon in Littleport, a trooper was injured, one rioter was killed, and at least one went on the run.

Edward Christian, brother of Fletcher Christian, had been appointed Chief Justice of the Isle of Ely in 1800 by the Bishop of Ely. As the Chief Justice, Christian was entitled to try the rioters alone. The government, in this case via the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, nevertheless appointed a Special Commission, consisting of Justice Abbott and Justice Burrough. The rioters were tried in the assizes at Ely during the week commencing June 1816. 23 men and one woman were condemned, of which five were subsequently hanged. General unrest and riots such as that at Littleport may have been a factor in the government passing the Vagrancy Act of 1824 and subsequently the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829.

Background
In 1815, the government increased taxation on imported wheat and grain to help pay for the costs of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). Poor laws, such as the Speenhamland system, were designed to help alleviate financial distress of the poorer communities, but such systems helped to keep wages artificially low as the farmers knew labourers’ wages would be supplemented by the system. Basic commodities, like cereals and bread, became heavily over-priced, creating widespread social unrest. The worst hit were the families of the men returning from the Battle of Waterloo (1815), who arrived home at a time when unemployment was already high. One reply to a questionnaire circulated by the Board of Agriculture in February, March, and April 1816 reported that “the state of the labouring poor is very deplorable, and arises entirely from the want of employment, which they are willing to seek, but the farmer cannot afford to furnish.”

In early 1816, a quarter (28 pounds) of wheat cost 52 shillings (£153), rising through 76 shillings (£223) in May to 103 shillings (£303) in December. Average wages for the period remained static at 8–9 shillings (£24–£26), per week. In 1815, a pound of bread was quoted at over 4 shillings (£12) and predicted to rise to over 5 shillings (£15).

Rioting
Preceding Events in the Region
There was rioting in the first months of 1816 in West Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. On 16 May riots broke out in Bury St Edmunds and Brandon in West Suffolk and also in Hockwold, Feltwell, and Norwich in Norfolk.

On the morning of 20 May, a meeting was held in Southery, Norfolk. The group, including a Thomas Sindall, marched through Denver to Downham Market to meet with the magistrates at their weekly meeting at The Crown public house. Sindall was the only person known to have been at both the riots at Downham Market and Littleport. He was killed by troopers at Littleport. The mob of 1,500, mainly men but some women, besieged The Crown until the magistrates agreed to allow a deputation of eight rioters inside to make their pleas: to have work and two-shillings (£6) per day. The magistrates acceded to these demands, but they had already called the yeoman cavalry from Upwell, who arrived at 5 P.M. Backed by the troops, the Riot Act was then read in the market place by Reverend Dering, causing further tussles, which subsided after arrests started to be made.

At the Norfolk and Norwich Assizes in August, nine men and six women were sentenced to death. Thirteen of those sentences were commuted, and two of the Downham rioters, Daniel Harwood and Thomas Thody, were hanged on the afternoon of 31 August 1816.

Littleport
Littleport is a large village in Cambridgeshire with a population in 1811 of 1,847. It is just under 11 miles (18 km) south-south-west of Downham Market and just over 4 miles (6 km) north-north-east of Ely.

On 22 May 1816, a group of 56 residents met at The Globe Inn in Littleport to discuss the lack of work and rising grain costs. Fuelled by alcohol, the residents directed their anger at local farmer Henry Martin. He had been overseer of the poor in 1814 and was not well liked by the parishioners. One man went to get a horn from Burgess, the lighterman, and started blowing it outside The Globe Inn, gathering hundreds of villagers to join the first group, and the riot commenced.

The rioters began at Mingey’s shop, where stones were thrown through the windows, and then they invaded Mr Clarke’s property and threw his belongings into the street. Next, at Josiah Dewey’s place, the Reverend John Vachell and his wife arrived to try to calm the rioters. Vachell had been vicar of St George’s since 1795 and was also a magistrate; he was an unpopular man, as he dealt harshly with even minor offences. He read or tried to read the Riot Act without effect, as the crowd “told him to go home.”

The rioters next visited the premises of disabled 90-year-old Mr Sindall, throwing his furniture into the street; his housekeeper, Mrs Hutt, was intimidated by a rioter wielding a butcher’s cleaver. After stopping at the place of Mr Little, “a nice old gentleman,” who gave the mob £2 (£118), they continued to Robert Speechly’s and demolished his furniture. Next they broke into the house of Rebecca Waddelow looking for Harry Martin, her grandson. He had seen them coming and escaped out the back. Rebecca Cutlack was visiting at the time, and they robbed her and removed property worth between £100 and £200 (£5,877–£11,754).

At about 11 P.M., the rioters arrived at the house of the Reverend John Vachell, who, after threatening to shoot anyone who entered his house, was disarmed when three men rushed him. He fled on foot with his wife and two daughters towards Ely. After Vachell had left, the rioters destroyed his goods and chattels and stole some of his silverware. Vachell was later to sue the Hundred of Ely for the damages under the Riot Act. He received over £708 (£41,610), an award which was challenged in the press, as many people complained about the size of the resulting district levies used to pay for it. The rioters then stopped a post-chaise returning with Hugh Robert Evans senior and Henry Martin from a Turnpike Trust meeting in Downham. They robbed Evans of 14 shillings (£41) before allowing them both to proceed. On reaching Ely, Evans alerted the magistrates who sent a carriage for Reverend Vachell, which collected him and his family walking towards Ely.

Ely
Ely, Cambridgeshire, is a city with an 1811 population of 4,249 people. The city is nearly 15 miles (24 km) north-north-east of Cambridge and 67 miles (108 km) north-north-east of London. When Vachell arrived in Ely, he alerted fellow clergymen and magistrates Reverend William Metcalfe and Reverend Henry Law who dispatched Thomas Archer, as a messenger, to Bury.

The rioters in Littleton had in the interim stolen a wagon and horses from Henry Tansley and equipped it with fowling guns, front and back. Most of the Littleton mob, armed with guns and pitch-forks, then began the march to Ely, arriving three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) north of the city between 5 and 6 A.M. on 23 May. The Reverend William Metcalfe met them, read the Riot Act, and asked what the mob required. On being told that they wanted “the price of a stone of flour per day” and that “our children are starving, give us a living wage,” the Reverend agreed but stated that he would have to converse with the other magistrates. He asked everyone to return to Littleport, but they marched on. Metcalfe implored them to go to the market place and many did go there, where they were joined by Ely citizens. Recognising the needs of the rioters, the Ely magistrates, the Reverends William Metcalfe, Peploe Ward and Henry Law drafted a response, offering poor families two-shillings per head per week and ordering farmers to pay two-shillings (£6) per day wages. On hearing the proclamation, the mob cheered. The magistrates then “gave the men some beer, told them not to get drunk and tried to persuade them to go home.” Some took the advice, whilst others continued the rampage, intimidating shopkeepers, millers and bankers and stealing from some. However, most of the rioters, marching with their wagons and guns, left the city for Littleport before the arrival of the military from Bury.

Meanwhile, the magistrates delegated Henry Law to go to London to discuss the matter with Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary. On the way, Law stopped at the barracks of the Royston troop of volunteer yeomanry cavalry and requested they go to Ely. Law was unable to convince Sidmouth of the seriousness of the situation, and Sidmouth asked Reverend Sir Henry Bate Dudley to return with Law and report on the matter.

Restoring Order
A detachment of 18 men of the 1st Royal Dragoons, commanded by Captain Methuen, arrived in Ely from Bury on May 23 in the late afternoon. They marched through the streets as a show of force, remaining all night. The following afternoon, 24 May, the troops marched on Littleport, led by Sir Henry Bate Dudley and John Bacon, a Bow Street constable. They were followed by the Royston troop of volunteer yeomanry cavalry summoned earlier by Henry Law, and a militia of gentlemen and inhabitants of Ely.

Before arrival at the Ely Road, a small detachment of troops were ordered across the Hemp Field to enter the village from the east. The larger group then charged at a hard gallop down the Mill Street incline through to Main Street. The rioters were found making a stand in The George and Dragon near the west end of Station Road. The militia were called to the front when the rioters would not come out after being ordered to by Bate Dudley. Thomas South, shooting from a window, hit trooper Wallace in the forearm. The militia got the rioters out of the public house and assembled them in the street, surrounded by the troopers. Thomas Sindall attempted to take a musket from trooper William Porter but was not successful. Sindall ran away, and when he did not stop after being called on to do so by Porter, he was shot through the back of the head. Thomas Sindall was killed; he was the only person known to be at both Downham Market and Littleport. The result of this shooting was to subdue the rest of the rioters. Those captured were taken to Ely gaol and the rest of the rioters were rounded up.

The home secretary, Lord Sidmouth, had dispatched three troops of cavalry (100 men), two six–pounder cannons and three companies of the 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot under Major General Byng to help capture the leading rioters.

Two rioters were hidden in Lakenheath by a labourer who eventually betrayed them for £5 each (£294). One rioter, William Gotobed, a bricklayer, escaped and was eventually pardoned a few years later. He returned to Littleport after seven years and then went to America. The rioting spread to nearby areas such as Little Downham, Cambridgeshire, although such areas were not as badly affected. It took until 10 June before the areas were finally cleared of trouble and all of the rioters had been captured.

Trial
The assizes for the 82 persons, 73 of whom were in prison and nine on bail, lasted from Monday 17 June 1816 through to the following Saturday.

Special Commission
Since 970 AD, and until 1837, the Bishop of Ely retained exclusive jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, and was also keeper of the records (Custos rotulorum). As part of this right, the Bishop appointed a Chief Justice of the Isle of Ely; Edward Christian had held the post since 1800. In these special assizes, the crown, via Lord Sidmouth, created a Special Commission. Sidmouth appointed two judges, Mr Justice Abbott and Mr Justice Burrough to preside over it. Christian, nevertheless, felt he should attend and indeed was in attendance throughout. After the trial Christian said, “It was suggested to me in London, … that it would be more conducive to the great object of the Commission, … if I declined my rotation of duty, and left the trial of all the prisoners to them [the appointed commissioners].”

Execution
On Friday 28 June 1816 at 9 A.M., the condemned men, William Beamiss, George Crow, John Dennis, Isaac Harley and Thomas South, were driven from the gaol at Ely market place in a black-draped cart and two horses costing five-pound five-shillings (£309) accompanied by the bishop’s gaol chaplain, John Griffin, in a hired chaise and pair costing 13 shillings (£38). In submitting his expenses on 29 June, chief bailiff F. Bagge noted, “We have no power of pressing a cart for the purpose, and ’tis a difficult matter to get one, people feel’s so much upon the occasion.”

The men arrived at the gallows at Parnell pits around 11 A.M., and were hanged after praying with the crowd for some time. Griffin was unofficially given the ropes, which cost one-pound five-shillings (£73), after hanging, which he kept; he left a collection to his housekeeper, who sold them as a cure for sore throats. Following the hanging, the bodies were placed in coffins and displayed in a cottage in Gaol Street, where many people came to visit. They were buried the next day in St Mary’s Church, Ely, with the vicar’s blessing. As a warning to others, a stone plaque was installed on the west side of St Mary’s Church; it concludes, “May their awful Fate be a warning to others.”

In 1816, there were a total of 83 people executed in England: 80 men, including the five Littleport rioters, and three women.

Aftermath
A few days after the execution, the ten condemned prisoners who had had their sentences commuted to twelve months’ imprisonment were transported to the prison hulk Justitia, moored at Woolwich on the River Thames. Such ships were used as holding areas prior to convicts being transferred to a regular vessel for penal transportation to, at this time, Australia. Residents of Ely tried to hold meetings to complain at this apparent extension of the prisoners’ sentences. Despite, or because of, media attention—newspapers of the time took sides depending whether they supported the government or not—the prisoners were returned to Ely gaol; it may all have been a simple mistake by the clerk of the assizes.

On 3 April, 1816, lieutenant-colonel William Sorell was appointed lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania. He sailed on the Sir William Bensley, the same ship transporting the rioters sentenced to penal transportation. Leaving England on 9 October 1816, the ship arrived in New South Wales 152 days later on 10 March 1817. Soon after, Sorrel sailed to Hobart arriving on 8 April 1817, where he distinguished himself as the third lieutenant-governor.

The Reverend John Vachell stayed on as vicar of St George’s Littleport in title until 1830; he appointed a curate, George Britton Jermyn from 1817. Some of the St George’s church registers were destroyed during the riots. The remaining registers start from 1754 (marriages), 1756 (burials), and 1783 (baptism). General unrest and riots such as that at Littleport may have been a factor in the government passing the Vagrancy Act of 1824. Due in part to some difficulties in enforcing the law and to continued public unease, the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 was created, leading to the first modern police force.

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Regency Era Unrest: The Spa Fields Riots, the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, and the Treason Act of 1817

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

The Spa Fields Riots were public disorder arising out of mass meetings at Spa Fields, Islington, England, on 15 November and 2 December 1816. Revolutionary Spenceans, who opposed the British government, had planned to encourage rioting and then seize control of the government by taking the Tower of London and the Bank of England. Arthur Thistlewood and three other Spencean leaders were arrested and charged with high treason as a result of the riot; James Watson was on trial during June 1817 with Messrs Wetherell and Copley as their defence counsel. Watson was acquitted and the other three were released without trial.

The first Spa Fields meeting, on 15 November 1816, attracted about 10,000 people and passed off peacefully in the main. Its official object was to seek popular support for the delivery of a petition to the Prince Regent, requesting electoral reform and relief from hardship and distress. Henry Hunt addressed the meeting and was elected to deliver the petition, along with Sir Francis Burdett, although the latter subsequently declined to go.

The second meeting, on 2 December, was called after Hunt was refused access to the Regent to deliver the petition, and may have been attended by 20,000 people. Hunt spoke as planned, and most of the crowd listened to him, but some disorder broke out according to the Spenceans’ agenda. A group of protesters moved away from the main crowd, accompanying James Watson and his son toward the Tower of London, looting a gun shop along the way. They were met by troops at the Royal Exchange and dispersed or were arrested. One man was stabbed during the disturbances, and a John Cashman was later found guilty of stealing weapons from the gun shop, and sentenced to death. The main witness to the ‘plotting’ was a government spy, John Castle, who had infiltrated the Spenceans. He may have been working as an agent provocateur, and his character and reliability were discredited at the trial of the first accused, James Watson. Watson was acquitted and the case against the other arrested men was dropped.

Henry Hunt’s role in the events is disputed. He claimed afterwards not to have known about an uprising and tried to distance himself from events.

The Spa Fields meetings were one of the first cases of mass meetings in public, and contributed to the government’s conviction that revolution was possible and action must be taken. The Gagging Acts were passed in February and March 1817, and the Blanketeers march followed in the same month.

The Treason Act 1817 (57 Geo 3 c 6) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It made it high treason to assassinate the Prince Regent. It also made permanent the Treason Act 1795, which had been due to expire on the death of George III.

All the provisions of this Act in relation to the Treason Act 1795, except such of the same as related to the compassing, imagining, inventing, devising or intending death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maim or wounding, imprisonment or restraint of the persons of the heirs and successors of George III, and the expressing, uttering or declaring of such compassings, imaginations, inventions, devices or intentions, or any of them, were repealed by section 1 of the Treason Felony Act 1848.

Sections 2 and 3 were repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1873.

The Acts of 1817 and 1795 were repealed by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1817 (57 Geo. III, c. 3) was an Act passed by the British Parliament.

The Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, introduced the second reading of the Bill on 24 February 1817. In his speech he said there was “a traitorous conspiracy…for the purpose of overthrowing…the established government” and referred to “a malignant spirit which had brought such disgrace upon the domestic character of the people” and “had long prevailed in the country, but especially since the commencement of the French Revolution”. This spirit belittled Britain’s victories and exalted the prowess of her enemies and after the war had fomented discontent and encouraged violence: “An organised system has been established in every quarter, under the semblance of demanding parliamentary reform, but many of them, I am convinced, have that specious pretext in their mouths only, but revolution and rebellion in their hearts”.

The Act was renewed later in the parliamentary session (57 Geo. III, c. 55). In autumn 1817 Sidmouth went through the list of all those detained under the Act and released as many as possible, personally interviewing most of the prisoners. He also tried to alleviate some of their conditions: “Solitary confinement will not be continued except under special circumstances.” The Act was repealed in February 1818 by the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1818 (58 Geo. III, c. 1).

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Regency Personality: Arthur Thistlewood, British Conspirator

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Arthur Thistlewood and the Cato Street Conspiracy play a minor role in my Work in Progress, A Touch of Love. Here is a bit about each…

ArthurThistlewood Arthur Thistlewood (1774–May 1, 1820) was a British conspirator in the Cato Street Conspiracy.

Early Life
He was born in Tupholme the extramarital son of a farmer and stockbreeder. He attended Horncastle Grammar School and was trained as a land surveyor. Unsatisfied with his job, he obtained a commission in the army at the age of 21. In January 1804 he married Jane Worsley, but she died two years later giving birth to their first child. In 1808 he married Susan Wilkinson. He then quit his commission in the army and, with the help of his father, bought a farm. The farm was not a success and in 1811 he moved to London.

Beginning of Revolutionary Involvement
Travel in France and the United States of America exposed Thistlewood to revolutionary ideas. Shortly after his return to England, he joined the Society of Spencean Philanthropists in London. By 1816, Thistlewood had become a leader in the organisation, and was labelled a “dangerous character” by police.

Spa Fields
On December 2, 1816, a mass meeting took place at Spa Fields. The Spenceans had planned to encourage rioting at this meeting and then seize control of the British government by taking the Tower of London and the Bank of England. Police learned of the plan and dispersed the meeting. Thistlewood attempted to flee to North America. He and three other leaders were arrested and charged with high treason. When James Watson was acquitted, the authorities released Thistlewood and the others as well.

Lord Sidmouth
When police arrested Thistlewood after the Spa Fields meeting, he had already bought tickets to travel to the United States. Thistlewood wrote to the Home Secretary Lord Sidmouth in 1817 to demand reimbursement. When Sidmouth failed to respond, Thistlewood challenged him to a duel and was imprisoned in Horsham Jail for 12 months.

Cato Street Conspiracy
On February 22, 1820, Thistlewood was one of a small group of Spenceans who decided, at the prompting of George Edwards, to assassinate several members of the British government at a dinner the next day. The group gathered in a loft in the Marylebone area of London, where police officers apprehended the conspirators. Edwards, a police spy, had fabricated the story of the dinner. Thistlewood was convicted of treason for his part in the Cato Street Conspiracy and, together with co-conspirators John Thomas Brunt, William Davidson, John Ings and Richard Tidd, was publicly hanged and decapitated outside Newgate Prison on May 1, 1820.

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Georgian and Regency Revolutionary: Thomas Spence, British Radical and Advocate for Common Ownership of Land

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

ThomasSpence Thomas Spence (June 21 Old Style/ July 2 New Style, 1750 – September 8, 1814) was an English Radical and advocate of the common ownership of land.

Life
Spence was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, and was the son of a Scottish net and shoe maker.

Spence was one of the leading English revolutionaries of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Spence was born in poverty and died the same way, after long periods of imprisonment in 1814.

The threatened enclosure of the Town Moor in Newcastle in 1771 appears to have been key to Spence’s interest in the land question and journey towards ultra-radicalism. His scheme was not for land nationalization but for the establishment of self-contained parochial communities, in which rent paid to the parish (wherein the absolute ownership of the land was vested) should be the only tax of any kind. His ideas and thinking on the subject were shaped by a variety of economic thinkers, including his friend Charles Hall.

At the centre of Spence’s work was his Plan, known as ‘Spence’s Plan.’ The Plan has a number of features, including:
The end of aristocracy and landlords;

All land should be publicly owned by ‘democratic parishes’, which should be largely self-governing;

Rents of land in parishes to be shared equally amongst parishioners;

Universal suffrage (including female suffrage) at both parish level and through a system of deputies elected by parishes to a national senate;

A ‘social guarantee’ extended to provide income for those unable to work;

The ‘rights of infants’ to be free from abuse and poverty.

Spence’s Plan was first published in his penny pamphlet Property in Land Every One’s Right in 1775. It was re-issued as The Real Rights of Man in later editions. It was also reissued by, amongst others, Henry Hyndman under the title of The Nationalization of the Land in 1795 and 1882.

Spence may have been the first Englishman to speak of ‘the rights of man.’ The following recollection, composed in the third person, was written by Spence while he was in prison in London in 1794 on a charge of High Treason. Spence was, he wrote,

the first, who as far as he knows, made use of the phrase “RIGHTS OF MAN,” which was on the following remarkable occasion: A man who had been a farmer, and also a miner, and who had been ill-used by his landlords, dug a cave for himself by the seaside, at Marsdon Rocks, between Shields and Sunderland, about the year 1780, and the singularity of such a habitation, exciting the curiosity of many to pay him a visit; our author was one of that number. Exulting in the idea of a human being, who had bravely emancipated himself from the iron fangs of aristocracy, to live free from impost, he wrote extempore with chaulk above the fire place of this free man, the following lines:

Ye landlords vile, whose man’s peace mar,
Come levy rents here if you can;
Your stewards and lawyers I defy,
And live with all the RIGHTS OF MAN

Spence left Newcastle for London in 1787. He kept a book-stall in High Holborn. In 1794 he spent seven months in Newgate Gaol on a charge of High Treason, and in 1801 he was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment for seditious libel. He died in London on 8 September 1814.

His admirers formed a “Society of Spencean Philanthropists,” of which some account is given in Harriet Martineau’s England During the Thirty Years’ Peace. The African Caribbean activists William Davidson and Robert Wedderburn were drawn to this political group.

Spence explored his political and social concepts in a series of books about the fictional Utopian state of Spensonia.

Spence’s Phonetic System
Spence was a self-taught radical with a deep regard for education as a means to liberation. He pioneered a phonetic script and pronunciation system designed to allow people to learn reading and pronunciation at the same time. He believed that if the correct pronunciation was visible in the spelling, everyone would pronounce English correctly, and the class distinctions carried by language would cease. This would bring a time of equality, peace and plenty: the millennium. He published the first English dictionary with pronunciations (1775) and made phonetic versions of many of his pamphlets.

You can see examples of Spence’s spelling system on the pages on English from the Spence Society.

The Rights of Children
Spence’s angry defense of the rights of children has lost little of its potency. When his The Rights of Infants was published in 1796 it was ahead of its time. Spence’s essay also expresses a clear commitment to the rights of women (although he appears unaware of Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 Vindication of the Rights of Women’).

Selected Publications
The Real Rights of Man (1793)
End of Oppression (1795)
Rights of Infants (1796)
Constitution of Spensonia (1801)
The Important Trial of Thomas Spence (1807)

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Posted on July 27, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

This post comes from Julie Bosman and The New York Times.

William Lynch was brimming with the enthusiasm of a start-up entrepreneur. It was January 2012, and Mr. Lynch, Barnes & Noble’s chief executive, was showing off the company’s shiny Palo Alto, Calif., offices, a 300-person outpost that was the center of its e-reader operations.

He and other executives proudly displayed their new devices, talked about plans to expand and promised that the bookstore chain could go head-to-head with the giants of Silicon Valley.

“We’re a technology company, believe it or not,” Mr. Lynch said.

But only 16 months later, Barnes & Noble’s digital plans are crumbling. Last month, a disastrous earnings report coincided with the company’s announcement that it would no longer manufacture color tablets. And on Monday, Barnes & Noble announced that Mr. Lynch, the young, tech-savvy architect of the company’s digital strategy, had abruptly resigned. A new chief executive was not named.

To read the complete article, please visit…
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/business/fork-in-the-road-for-a-bookseller.html?_r=0

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History of Lacemaking Before the Regency Period

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

In my Work in Progress (WIP), A Touch of Love, there is a simple scene in a mercantile where the women are discussing the purchase of lace, which sent me on a hunt for the history of lacemaking. Below is some of what I have found:

 
796px-Bobbin_lace_5054_Nyplätty_pitsi_C Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was not made until the late 15th and early 16th centuries. A true lace is created when a thread is looped, twisted or braided to other threads independently from a backing fabric.

Originally linen, silk, gold, or silver threads were used. Now lace is often made with cotton thread, although linen and silk threads are still available. Manufactured lace may be made of synthetic fiber. A few modern artists make lace with a fine copper or silver wire instead of thread.

Types
The Chancellor of Oxford University. The robes of some high officers of state and university officials are trimmed with gold plate lace or gold oakleaf lace.
There are many types of lace, classified by how they are made. These include:

Needle lace; such as Venetian Gros Point is made using a needle and thread. This is the most flexible of the lace-making arts. While some types can be made more quickly than the finest of bobbin laces, others are very time-consuming. Some purists regard needle lace as the height of lace-making. The finest antique needle laces were made from a very fine thread that is not manufactured today.

Cutwork, or whitework; lace constructed by removing threads from a woven background, and the remaining threads wrapped or filled with embroidery.

Bobbin lace; as the name suggests, made with bobbins and a pillow. The bobbins, turned from wood, bone or plastic, hold threads which are woven together and held in place with pins stuck in the pattern on the pillow. The pillow contains straw, preferably oat straw or other materials such as sawdust, insulation styrofoam or ethafoam. Also known as Bone-lace. Chantilly lace is a type of bobbin lace.

Tape lace; makes the tape in the lace as it is worked, or uses a machine- or hand-made textile strip formed into a design, then joined and embellished with needle or bobbin lace.

Knotted lace; including macramé and tatting. Tatted lace is made with a shuttle or a tatting needle.

Crocheted lace; including Irish crochet, pineapple crochet, and filet crochet.

Knitted lace; including Shetland lace, such as the “wedding ring shawl,” a lace shawl so fine that it can be pulled through a wedding ring.

Machine-made; any style of lace created or replicated using mechanical means.

Chemical lace; The stitching area is stitched with embroidery threads that form a continuous motif. Afterwards, the stitching areas are removed and only the embroidery remains. The stitching ground is made of water-soluble or non heat-resistant material.

Etymology
The word lace is from Middle English, from Old French las, noose, string, from Vulgar Latin laceum, from Latin laqueus, noose; probably akin to lacere, to entice, ensnare.

History
In the late 16th century there was a rapid development in the field of lace. There was an openwork fabric where combinations of open spaces and dense textures form designs. These forms of lace were dominant in both fashion as well as home décor during the late 1500s. For enhancing the beauty of collars and cuffs, needle lace was embroidered with loops and picots.

Objects resembling lace bobbins have been found in Roman remains, but there are no records of Roman lace-making. Lace was used by clergy of the early Catholic Church as part of vestments in religious ceremonies, but did not come into widespread use until the 16th century in northwestern part of the European continent. The popularity of lace increased rapidly and the cottage industry of lace making spread throughout Europe. Countries like Italy, France, Belgium, Germany (then Holy Roman Empire), Czech Republic (town of Vamberk), Slovenia (town of Idrija), Finland (town of Rauma) England (town of Honiton), Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Russia, Spain, Turkey and others all have established heritage expressed through lace.

In North America in the 19th century, lace making was spread to the Native American tribes through missionaries.

St. John Francis Regis helped many country girls stay away from the cities by establishing them in the lacemaking and embroidery trade, which is why he became the Patron Saint of lace-making. In 1837, Samuel Ferguson first used jacquard looms with Heathcoat’s bobbin net machine, resulting in endless possibilities for lace designs.

Traditionally, lace was used to make tablecloths and doilies and in both men’s and women’s clothing. The English diarist Samuel Pepys often wrote about the lace used for his, his wife’s, and his acquaintances’ clothing, and on May 7, 1669, noted that he intended to remove the gold lace from the sleeves of his coat “as it is fit [he] should,” possibly in order to avoid charges of ostentatious living.

Industrial Revolution
With the passage of time and an increasing demand in the market for lace, the way the world produced goods changed. This led to the production of machine lace. In 1768, John Heathcoat invented the bobbin net machine. This machine made the production of complex lace designs more quickly. This Industrial Revolution was the downfall for the handmade lace industry. The teaching of handmade lacemaking disappeared in schools as emphasis shifted from trades to academics, which paved the way for lacemaking to become a hobby instead of the business it once was.

Military Uniforms
The term ‘lace’ is used by the British to refer to the gold bands sewn onto the sleeves of naval officers’ uniforms to indicate rank, and to name the similar decoration elsewhere on other uniforms (such as Italian caps and Polish collars) because of the procedure used to make it. In America, the term is not used for this purpose because the bands are metal compactly sewn, while ‘lace’ seems to imply cloth sewn into patterns with holes in them.

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Regency Personalities: Sir Richard Onslow, 1st Baronet, Naval Commander

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Sir Richard Onslow, 1st Baronet GCB (23 June 1741 – 27 December 1817) was an English naval officer who played a distinguished role at the Battle of Camperdown.

Naval Career
He was the younger son of Lt-Gen. Richard Onslow and his wife Pooley, daughter of Charles Walton. Onslow’s uncle was Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the British House of Commons, and he enjoyed considerable interest as he rapidly rose through the Navy.

He was made fourth lieutenant of the Sunderland on 17 December 1758 by V-Adm. George Pocock, fifth lieutenant of the Grafton on 3 March 1759, and fourth lieutenant of Pocock’s flagship, the Yarmouth on 17 March 1760, upon which he returned to England.

Onslow became commander of the Martin on 11 February 1761, cruising in the Skagerrak until his promotion to captain of the Humber on 14 April 1762.[1] He joined the Humber in June, but she was wrecked off Flamborough Head while returning from the Baltic in September. Onslow was court-martialed for her loss, but was acquitted, the pilot being blamed for the wreck. On 29 November 1762, he was appointed to command the Phoenix.

Onslow did not receive another command until 31 October 1776, when he was appointed to the St Albans. He took a convoy to New York City in April 1777 and joined Lord Howe in time for the repulse of d’Estaing on 22 July 1777 at Sandy Hook. Onslow sailed for the West Indies on 4 November 1778 with Commodore Hotham and took part in the capture of Saint Lucia and its defense against d’Estaing that December at the Cul-de-Sac. In August 1779, he brought a convoy from St Kitts to Spithead.

He was placed in command of the Bellona, in the Channel Fleet under Admiral Francis Geary, in February 1780, and captured the Dutch 54-gun ship Prinses Carolina on 30 December 1780. Onslow took part in the Relief of Gibraltar under Admiral Darby in April 1781, and again under Howe in October 1782. The Bellona captured La Solitaire in the West Indies before Onslow returned home and took half-pay in June 1783.

In early 1789, he was appointed to command the Magnificent at Portsmouth, but was out of employment again in September 1791. He was promoted rear-admiral of the white on 1 February 1793 and vice-admiral on 4 July 1794. In 1796, he was made port admiral at Portsmouth, and in November, he went aboard the Nassau to act as second-in-command of the North Sea Fleet under Admiral Duncan.

During the Spithead and Nore mutinies, Onslow suppressed a rising aboard the Nassau, and was sent by Duncan to quell the Adamant. When the Nassau refused to sail on 26 May 1797, Onslow moved his flag to the Adamant and until the end of the mutiny, Duncan (in the Venerable) and Onslow maintained the blockade off the Texel alone, making signals to an imaginary fleet over the horizon. Onslow moved his flag again to the Monarch on 25 July 1797, and it was aboard her that he took part in the Battle of Camperdown on 11 October 1797.

His flag captain, Edward O’Bryen, supposedly warned him that the Dutch ships were too close together to get between, to which Onslow replied “The Monarch will make a passage.” Indeed, Monarch was the first to break the Dutch line and attack the Jupiter of 72 guns, flagship of Vice-Admiral Reyntjes, who subsequently surrendered to Onslow.

For his exertions at Camperdown, Onslow was created a baronet and presented with the Freedom of the City of London. He became Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in 1796.

He went on sick leave on 10 December 1798 and retired as Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth a few weeks later. He was promoted Admiral of the Red on 9 November 1805 and received the GCB in 1815. He died in 1817 at Southampton.

Family
In 1765, Onslow, known for his conviviality, was a founder of the Navy Society dining club. On 18 January 1766, he was appointed to command the frigate Aquilon in the Mediterranean, which he did until 1769, and from 12 October 1770, commanded the Diana in the West Indies. Admiral Rodney gave him command of Achilles on 18 January 1773, in which he returned to England, where he acquired an estate and married Anne, daughter of Commodore Matthew Michell. They had three sons and four daughters:

Matthew Richard Onslow (d. 1808), married Sarah Seton in 1805 and had two daughters
Sir Henry Onslow, 2nd Baronet (1784–1853)
Capt. John James Onslow (d. 1856)
Frances Onslow (d. 1844), married V-Adm. Sir Hyde Parker
Anne Onslow (d. 1853), married Francis Lake, 2nd Viscount Lake (d. 1836) in 1833; married Henry Gritton in 1837
Elizabeth Onslow (d. 1861), married Robert Lewis (d. 1840)
Harriet Onslow (d. 1860), married J.N. Creighton

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