I have posted previously on the life of my Swing Rioter ancestor, Robert Smith of Attleborough, Norfolk, in The Man with the Mattock and The Man with the Mattock II.
In January 1831, my three-times great-grandfather, Robert Smith, stood at the bar of the Norfolk Quarter Sessions. At just 24 years old, he was convicted of spearheading a night of tumultuous rioting across the parish on the 4th and 5th of December 1830. The court records paint a vivid picture of his defiance: he led an assault on the local parish workhouse, breaking windows and terrorising its governor for bread and cheese; he systematically smashed agricultural machinery across neighbouring farms; and, most dramatically, he cornered the local rector, the Reverend Fairfax Franklin, holding him hostage inside his own church vestry for hours.
Brandishing a mattock in the face of the exhausted clergyman, Robert delivered a pair of truly revolutionary speeches to the crowd, declaring that "this is only the beginning, we have begun at the foot and will go up to the head," and triumphantly proclaiming that the working men "were the strongest party and would always be so." “that that devil was fled”
The AI reconstruction above visualises the scene in the vestry.
The British establishment’s response to the Swing Riots was famously brutal. Across the country, 19 men were executed and nearly 500 were transported to Australia, essentially a lifetime banishment under brutal conditions. My ancestor Robert Smith had:
- Smashed machinery.
- Attacked a workhouse. Threatened its governor with harm.
- Cornered and threatened a member of the clergy with a weapon while giving speeches about starting at the foot and going to the head.
- On the Sabbath (Saturday and Sunday)
- A French tri-colour had been reported.
Yet he was not executed, not transported. Rather, the Quarter sessions held at Norwich were more lenient - two and a half years imprisonment. The stiffest penalty handed out to the Attleborough rioters, yet still, a mild punishment for the time.
But even that punishment was to be reduced.
Translation of the above letter (presented both sides in a Posthaven Gallery):
This petition was then elevated to the Home Secretary, Viscount Melbourne, who responded with:To the Visiting Justices of the County Gaol.
Gentlemen
I beg leave to recommend to your particular attention the cases of Robert Smith, Samuel Smith, and James Stacy, convicts in that Gaol, in consequence of Riots at Attleborough last December whose respective terms of Imprisonment I, as Prosecutor anxiously wish should be shortened, as soon and as much as you may think, consistent with the purposes of public Justice and Individual reformation –
When making this application to You, I will briefly state that tho’ these Men were amongst the most active on that occasion, I am quite convinced that they were greatly influenced by the instigation of others, and that the first and last of them, who are both Young had always before that time conducted themselves peaceably and that their friends and Relations have behaved with much propriety ever since their Convictions, and that the other Convict
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(Samuel Smith) has a Wife and Six Children, who, tho’ they have never yet been chargeable to the Parish, stand much in need of their Fathers exertions for their future support – I have reason to believe that Mr Johnson will certify to You the general good conduct of these Convicts –
I have the honor to remain Gentlemen Yours obdt G [obedient Servant] Fairfax Francklin
Attleborough July 25. 1831 –
As Committing Magistrate I beg leave to support the foregoing application. T. P. Slapp
As one of the witnesses I beg to do the same Henry Dover
This is a line-by-line transcription of the official response from the Home Office, sent from Whitehall and signed by the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, John Phillipps.
The letter is addressed to Henry Dover, Esq., confirming that the Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne, has reviewed the petition and advised King William IV to grant the early release.
Henry Dover Esq } Aylsham }
Whitehall 30 Novr 1831
Sir,
Viscount Melbourne having caused inquiries to be made into the case of Robert Smith, Samuel Smith and James Stacey who were convicted at the Quarter Sessions for the County of Norfolk in January last of Riot, and sentenced to various terms of Imprisonment, in whose behalf you transmitted some documents in your Letter of the 27 ultimo, I am directed to inform you that under all the circumstances his Lordship has felt himself warranted in advising His Majesty to grant James Stacey a Remission of the remaining part of his sentence, & proposes to pursue the like course with respect to the other Prisoners when they have undergone one Years imprisonment from the Date of their Conviction.
I am, Sir, Your obdt Servant
S. M. Phillipps
It reads like pure fiction. This was, after all, the very same Viscount Melbourne who routinely had men hanged to make an example of them, and who famously transported the Tolpuddle Martyrs merely for forming a friendly society. If I were to read in a novel that a radical rioter like Robert was simply 'let go' after a mere twelve months, I would dismiss the plot as entirely improbable. Yet, the archival evidence is right there on the page: it happened.
