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Food Riot - 1753 - Very bad harvests in 1752 was the cause of fresh rioting four years later in 1753. This time four people were killed and over fifty were injured. After the failed harvest a disease swept through the cattle herds forcing the price of meat up, though the main cause was again the high price of bread. On 21st May 1753 rioters marched from Kingswood to Bristol.
Once again the miners of Kingswood were cited as the main trouble-makers. Most of the crowd dispersed on promises from the council to reduce prices as soon as possible. A major grievance of the crowd was that grain was still being exported through the city while domestic prices were kept high. There was some truth in this as the rioters broke into a ship, The Lamb, that was preparing to sail with 70 tons of wheat to Dublin.
The mob returned to the Council House and smashed most of the windows, but at least one of the rioters was captured. The mob threatened further trouble to release the prisoner. On 25th May 1753, a mob of 900, made up mostly of colliers and weavers, broke into the Bridewell and released the prisoner.
Fighting broke out between the rioters on one side and the constables of the city and a troop of the Scots Greys calvary, who had arrived from Gloucester that morning, on the other. Four rioters were killed, around fifty injured and thirty were captured. The rioters managed to capture five people, the city forces were able to rescue three but the other two were taken to the coalpits.
A couple of days later the two people captured by the rioters were released, the city authorities sent doctors to care for the wounded and a collection was organised for the poorer of the miners. One of the three people captured by the rioters and rescued was John Brickdale. Brickdale was probably targeted by the rioters as he was the man who led charge of citizens and sailors against the Turnpike Rioters in 1749. His troubles were not over with his rescue as he was arrested for the murder of one of the rioters, William Fudge. As in the case of Stephen Freacham in the Weavers Riots of 1729 the Government quashed the charges before he could be tried.
1726 - 30 December - 'Abraham Caines, a notorious robber and housebreaker was apprehended and taken by Mr Shatford, clerk to Justice Trye and John Stock who met him on the highway in the parish of Hullavington. He is impeached by Owen Gane, one of the gang, which consists of eight or more before in custody, of being concerned with him and other in 8 or 10 robberies, in particular of stealing two sheep from Mr Pinker in Bitton and a furnace from Josias Robbin's of the same.
'It seems he made all Endeavours possible to prevent being taken: he broke over the hedge from the highway and made to a farmer's house where they found him in an Ox's stall covered with hay or straw. He begged heartily for mercy owning his life to be at the disposal of Common Justice. There are warrants out for several more of 'em where of some are his own brothers.' Afterwards the robber called Aaron Gane. He turned King's Evidence and went free. The Caines (Caines, Gains) family, a century later, would become notorious in Kingswood as the leading members of the Cock Road Gang.
This is the first time one of their number is mentioned in connection with illegal activities. The Robbins family were living in Siston in 1674, and a Josias Robbins 'came to be clerk of the parish of Bitton on the 22 day of March, 1690'. Josias Robbins, a yeoman of Bitton who was married in 1714 to Martha Holbin of Stapleton, is possibly the Josias mentioned above, and and perhaps a brother of my ancestor, Jonathon Robbins, who was born about 1700.
1727 - 14 January - William Batman and Elizabeth Jones, were arrested and held' in the Bridewell at Lawfords Gate.- William was accused of being the confederate of Abraham Caines, as well as breaking into the house of Ezekiel Cox of Mangotsfield. Elizabeth, described as Caines' mother in law, was also charged with receiving stolen goods.' Abraham Caines married Ann Jones at Bitton on 8 September
1718 - The term mother in law has come to mean exclusively the mother of a wife or husband, but it could mean stepmother too. Elizabeth may indeed have been Abraham's stepmother as well as his mother if law, for a marriage took place between William Caines and Elizabeth Jones of Bitton at Saltford on 17 April 1715.
William Batman married Mary Smith at Bitton on 16 September 1718. As the alleged crimes took place in Gloucestershire, the felons had to be transferred to the county town to take their trial: they were 'conveyed on horseback under sufficient guard' to Gloucester. Abraham Caines, described 'the Captain of their Gang' was already there. 21 January Another member of the same gang unnamed was reported as being arrested whilst in a house of ill-repute upon Lawrence Hill', whilst his companion escaped. 'Divers sorts of suspected goods were found upon Caines, Batman, Jones and Gane, a catalogue of which is intended to be made publick.'
18 March - Abraham Caines and Batman were sentenced to hang at Gloucester for various robberies. Elizabeth Jones was also found guilty and although spared the gallows, was to suffer another barbarous punishment:to be burnt in the hand.
THE TURNPIKE TOLL FEES: A coach and six one shilling A coach and four 8d Any conveyance drawn by less than 4 horses or other animals 4d By one horse or other beast 2d Every horse, mule, ass or other beast of burden, laden or unladen and not drawing 1d Except coal horses, per horse 1d The colliers had desired and half expected total exemption; they were outraged and vowed to pay no tolls at all. Trouble was bound to ensue.
Trouble at the Turnpike The system of coalmining the land was hierarchical. At the top, the landowners, some of whom had added to their domains by illegal encroachments. As we have noted, these men were often the law' in the district. They leased parts of their landholding to adventurers, and exacted a premium from men like Stephen Summerill, the colliers, some of whom acted in consortia, and probably employed a small workforce of coalminers.
The colliers not only sank for coal, but carried it on horseback into market at Bristol. It was hard enough already to eke out a living and they felt unable to swallow the additional burden of a toll on each pack animal, a penny there, and a penny back. First, there was a demonstration. The colliers went to see the Mayor, shouted the odds, and waved clubs and stave's about.
His Worship treated all this as hot air, but nevertheless took the precaution of ordering coal from Wales. He said the colliers were 'a set of ungovernable people, violent in their way, and regardless of consequences.'
26 June - 'On Monday, the first day of paying the toll at the several turnpikes lately erected near the City, the colliers of Kingswood and Bussleton assembled in a body and pulled down four of them, some of which they set on fire and some they threw in the river.
That at Totterdown in the Bath Road being erected again, they went the next day to view it and finding it not done to their minds demolished it again the second time and swear they'll bring no coal into the City nor suffer any turnpikes in their roads till they are exempt from paying the toll.'
3 July - The colliers believed that the poor roads were the fault of the magistrates who had failed to enforce the existing laws for road repair, and did not see why they should have to pay to put the situation right.
8 July - 'The colliers have been very busy since, tho' several have brought in Coals every day this week: But last Tuesday morning the Turnpike at Durdham Down beyond the Gallows was cut down and demolished, and whilst they effecting the same, they made several pay Contribution money for the Turnpike, some half a Crown and others as they thought fit.
The Alarm coming into Town, a Guard of Col. Groves's Regiment was sent in quest of 'em and four were taken asleep under a Hay Rick, one of whom is a young Lad who to save himself we are inform'd has inpeach'd the other three; they are now Prisoners at the Main Guard, in order to their being sent to Gloucester Goal to which Place they'll be attended with a sufficient Guard of Soldiers who are to have each 14 Charges of Powder and Ball and to fire at any that molest em.
On the other Hand, the Colliers swear they'll release their brethren and threaten to pull down the Prison in a Body wherever they are confin'd; and to prevent the town being surprised a Piquet Guard is erected at the Guild-hall besides that of the Main Guard and Parties patrolled all Night about the Borders of Kingswood.
Those that want to be rightly inform'd of the Nature and Validity of the Act of Parliament granted for erecting those Turnpikes may have the same at my Printing House for 3d.
24 July - Attempts were made on the Toghill Turnpike by men disguised in women's clothes, and high crowned hats. The attack was fought off, and the barrier remained in place as a source of grievance.
12 August - No further attempts had been made to rebuild the turnpikes in the immediate vicinity of Bristol, and life went back to normal. For the time being the colliers were victorious. Sam Farley reported 'things continue peaceable on the colliers side, who continue to bring coal into town unmolested.'
30 September - With the Turnpike matter in abeyance, some of the trustees wrote to the Duke of Newcastle complaining of riots and disorders by licentious persons, particularly 'our coal-workers' and asked how they should handle such situations in future, as rumours abounded that the Bristol toll-gates were soon to be rebuilt. A military guard was camped at Toghill, under the sightless gaze of Roger Bryant's chattering corpse.
1728 - 8 October - Although the colliers were relatively quiet, the weavers were in great turmoil. The clothing trade was very depressed, and the employers reduced wages. The Gloucester Journal on this date records that 500 workmen living in the area of Lawford's Gate destroyed and burnt about thirty looms there before proceeding to Chew Magna,
Pensford and Keynsham where they attacked more looms and pulled down a house, presumably one which belonged to master clothier.
During the same week, a ghastly crime took place in a public house call the Boarden (Boarding) House, in Kingswood. Elizabeth Gough, the landlords wife was accused of 'stamping on the body of a woman six months gone with a child, who came to call her husband from the Ale House, of which bruises she died in a few days, and the child within her.'
1731 - The 'Matter of the Turnpike' had lain dormant since the commotions a few years before. No tolls were being collected and the roads continued to deteriorate. A new Turnpike Act came into force, and although coal carrying animals were now exempt from fees on the Bristol roads, no exception was made for Toghill, and trouble broke out again.
In view of the above, the churchwardens and overseers of Bitton looked out the Quarter Sessions order concerning 'assemblies, meetings, fees for warrants, etc' which was 'copied from the old book 1654-92'.
1 July - At Dyrham, Squire Blaithwaite and his retainers caught a number of men attacking the Toghill barrier, and took four prisoners. Soon his great mansion house was surrounded by 'a great body' of colliers who demanded the release of their comrades. He refused, upon which the colliers threatened to tear the house down.
Blaithwaite capitulated, freed the four men, and at the same time handed over a number of casks of strong drink. Jubilant, and in holiday mood, the colliers returned to Kingswood. But it was only the end of round one. Disturbances spread over a wide area, with many turnpikes blown up with the pitmen's gunpowder. When the wooden turnpike bars were destroyed, chains were substituted. These too were cut, and the pieces carried off.
It was rumoured that some of the local gentry encouraged the mayhem. The Kingswood colliers were universally blamed.
15 July - The London Post was stopped for several hours and 'used in a rough manner' by the colliers. Threatening letters were said to have been received by a number of trustees.
3 August - 'Last Thursday new Commissioners of the Peace passed seals for the counties of Dorset, Worcester and Gloucester. Several alterations were made in the latter on account of the rude behaviour of the colliers of Kingswood, relating to the Turnpikes near Bristol.'
12 August - Reinforcements were sent in: 'Bristol. Last week arrived from Scotland the Lord Cadogan's Regiment of Foot. We hear the turnpikes will be erected again, and that the Commissioners are determined to prosecute those who were lately concerned in cutting them down.'
22 September - Lord Codrington and Mr Blaithwaite wrote to the Secretary of State. They realised that troops could not be engaged indefinitely, but gentleman and justices were thin on the ground in an area almost impossible to police without military assistance. The turmoil finally led to the drafting of another new Act, which made the destruction of a turnpike a criminal offence.
A conviction would carry the penalty of seven years transportation beyond the seas.
28 September - Meetings. The trustees to authorise the rebuilding of the turnpike. The colliers desperately trying to think of a way of rescuing the trio who languished in gaol. Someone issued a threat to burn down the whole town of Chippenham.
Nothing came of this sabre rattling. It was widely believed that the colliers would do anything for money. Latimer records that one Richard Baggs ' convicted of 'a filthy offence' 'was sentenced to the pillory. He not only covered his head with an iron skull cap, but wrapped his body thickly in brown paper - And hired 100 colliers to protect him from the attentions of the mob.
1733 - 7 February - 'An anonymous letter was sent to Mr John Stock, tenant of Rogers Holland, threatening firing by night or pulling down Mr Holland's house, and mischief to his person in case he prosecutes the three Kingswood colliers seized by him with the assistance of his neighbours and servants.'
The King's interest was also aroused and he offered 'a most generous pardon and £200 reward to be paid on conviction of the offender. - Two hundred pounds was a huge inducement, but it was not generally Kingswood's way to 'nose' Few of the colliers could write, and everybody must have known who was responsible for writing the letter.
Family business went on, despite the troubles, and also on this day, William Smith, the son of Joseph Smith of Bitton, coalminer, who had been apprenticed to a blacksmith in Bristol was granted a discharge, being 'sick, infirm and not capable of following the trade.' William made his mark, as did his mother Joanna.
22 March - Rogers Holland MP wrote to Thomas Haynes of Wick, a Bristol turnpike trustee: 'The Bill was thrown out at the Third Reading in the House by a great majority. We must now resort to turnpikes again, if we will amend our ways and I cannot suppose they will stand now if you set them up in the middle of Kingswood, since the two ringleaders of the colliers are convicted at Sarum for transportation.
I beg you'll let me know if your gentlemen intend to stir or not, if not we shall throw up our fates towards Bristol, and let the Roads go to Ruin that way again.' Mr Holland apologised for the delay in writing: 'My fatigue at home have been owing to illness of my family. I have lost my only daughter and her mother's affliction has occasioned her to miscarry, which is not all, for she is now ill and a bed of a fever.'
1734 - 5 February - 'A poor collier woman had her purse cut at Bristol Fair.' Purses were worn at the girdle and a determined thief would have to slice through the binding hence the expression 'cut-purse'.
1735 - 9 July - It was claimed that a disorderly Tory mob in Bristol had been assisted by a great number of colliers 'supposed to be hired for that purpose'. Sir William Codrington's wrote to the Secretary of State with an ultimatum that without Government support, the turnpike commissioners would be powerless against 'the villains and God knows where it will all end'.
After which destruction of turnpikes became a capital offence, which stopped the Bristol turnpike disturbances for more than a decade.
6 November - 'We were wedging our coal in an old coal-mine near Two Mile Hill when a sudden and prodigious torrent of water burst out from the veins so begins the narrative of Thomas Hemmings printed as a broadsheet in 1762, when he was forty eight, blinded by the damp of the earth and the only one of the participants still alive. - The Mine was at Two Mile Hill, 234 feet deep, and worked by Joseph Jefferies, Thomas Nash and Edward Wilmot, and held on a lease from Thomas Chester.
The trapped men were Thomas Hemmings, 19, from Mangotsfield; Edward Peacock, of Bitton, aged 38, married to Hannah Wilmot, and the father of several children, including Abraham, aged about ten; Joseph Smith, ,an old man of nearly 70.
The rescuers were, Sampson Phipps or Phillips, Thomas Summers, Moses Reynolds, and Thomas Smith, the son of old Joseph Smith. In the first minute when the water burst through, John Batson was swept away and never seen again. Four boys working near the top heard the roar of the torrent and made for the rope, crying for the people on the surface to haul them up, with the last of the boys clinging to the heels on the one in front of him.
Four miners remained below, in pitch darkness, 'nigh to immediate death, not knowing where to escape for want of their lights which were extinguished by the water, that go which way they would, danger was near them of drowning or breaking their necks; in this distress they crawled on hands and knees from place to place.' The young boy, Abraham was the first to find rising ground, and with great presence of mind tied himself to a 'hatching' - the slant from where coal had been dug, but he 'made such a lamentable moan' that the others 'hearing, came together by calling to one another.'
More hopeful now, they were further cheered by a morsel of food, a bit of bread and beef, which had been dropped by the fleeing boys, and picked up by Edward Peacock. He divided the scrap equally between them. Above ground, news of the disaster spread quickly, and great crowds gathered at the pithead. An immediate rescue attempt failed when the party found 'black damp in the work, which is reckoned the most dangerous as admitting no lighted candles.'
So passed the first day and night. Search parties continued to descend and return, hopelessly driven back by the gas. Days and nights continued to pass. The little party on the ledge had neither water nor food. Peacock sent his nimble young son to climb down in the dark and fetch water in his hat, 'which was but little by the time he returned. Soon the brave boy grew too weak to make further descents.
Joseph Smith foraged along the hatching and found an old basket from which they chewed some chips. With the water now beyond them, and maddened with thirst they were forced to drink their own urine. Old Joe Smith, gnawed his shoe, and became so distressed 'he took a resolution to get at the water.' Twice he left the ledge, and twice Edward Peacock went in after him to save him from drowning. The old man became delirious, and all of them began to decline through weakness.
They began to hallucinate. At last even the tough Peacock lost hope of relief. Nine days passed since the breaking in of the water. Still the men on the surface tried to get to them, but were drained by repeated failure. They could not succeed without light, and the gas drenched their candles. As a last hope they decided on a dangerous measure, to carry aloft before them a brazier of lighted coals which 'would draw the damp into it.
By this daring ploy Sampson Phipps, Thomas Summers, Moses Reynolds and Thomas Smith finally found their entombed mates, ten days, ten nights and six hours from the time the water had first flooded the mine. Blind and very weak when brought to the surface, the four were sufficiently recovered to attend a service of thanksgiving at Siston church on 7 December. The Reverend Mr Wells preached a sermon from Psalm 103, verse 4, 'who crown thee with loving kindness and tender mercies'.
Five hundred people attended. Two hundred more were spectators at a special dinner given for the men who were the wonder of the neighbourhood. Because it was all so unbelievable, they swore a statement to the truth of the miracle to Thomas Trotman, the Lord of the Manor of Siston, witnessed by William Saunders and Robert Cann, and in the presence of other gentry, Richard Hart, Henry Creswicke, Thomas Player and Thomas Haynes of Wick. A collection raised £25 - little enough, you might think and ironically, the same amount for which Nathaniel Willis hanged a few months before.
MOSES REYNOLDS - Several men of this name lived in Stapleton parish, and it is worth mentioning that Stapleton extended into Kingswood as far as the Lodge, and Moses probably lived close to the pit at Two Mile Hill. Like the Summers and Phipps families the Reynolds' were politically active, and later we shall meet 'One Reynolds, alias Harborough' in the turnpike protests of 1749.
John Batson - nothing at all is known. I feel his name may have been incorrectly given and that it should be either Batman or Batt, both of which were common in Kingswood. 1737 A young preacher called George Whitefield began his ministry. His first thought was to go to America, but his friends, said George, suggested that 'If I had a mind to convert Indians, I might go amongst the Kingswood colliers and find Indians enough there.' George went to America, anyway, but the seeds had been sown.
1738 - 7 October - Some coal owners reduced the wages of the Kingswood colliers from 4d (about 5p per day.) The ensuing trouble was reported on 11 October by the Bristol correspondent of the Gloucester Journal, though his copy actually appeared on the 17th. 'Bristol our city and suburbs have been strangely disturbed for these several Days past, by the turbulent commotions and insurrections of the Colliers of Kingswood, but chiefly by those that work entirely in the coal mines which proceeded from a grievance among themselves. several persons having rented some old coal works and finding the production capable of improvement have undersold the proprietors of the other works in their small coal which supply the glass-houses, smiths etc.
Those proprietors that were chiefly injur'd by this would fain oblige the pitmen to work for a lower price by sinking their wages from 16d to 4d per day; which was so ill-relished that they absolutely refus'd a compliance and to remedy the evil, gathered by degrees to a considerable body, and those that were unwilling to Join them they forced, and some underwent a sound drubbing etc.
And to prevent their bringing coal to town, have dispersed themselves into several parties, and stopped up their communication to the City on all sides; and forced a collection on the road, by obliging people to give them money, with heavy strokes on refusal; and such as had cheese or bread they took care to lighten of their burden, swearing, It was only bread they wanted.
About 3 o-clock on Monday, a body of about 60 men enter'd a Totterdown public-house, drank up a considerable quantity of liquor, but paid nothing for it; knock'd down the poor Parrot that hung in the Kitchen; wrenched the staff with the wack of a mop handle, wherein which one of the gang threw at the landlady's head, but the mop luckily pointed over her shoulder, and did not hurt her; then they knocked her down, took up her husband, threw up the sash-window, and were for tossing him into the river, but were prevented by some of the most human of them; and then retir'd to the rest of their mutinous company to the number of about 200 in the road.
From thence they proceeded to the village of Brislington, where they forced several of the civiliz'd colliers into their service, and violently beat those who refus'd; enter'd what houses they pleas'd; eat and drank every thing they could come at, with out paying any money; and so returned towards the City on the Bath Road. On their way they stopped at the Goat public-house between Brislington and this City, took the meat out of the cooking pot that was then boiling, and threatened to put the head of the landlady's son therein; knocked down the landlady three times down her cellar-steps and cut her on the arm with one of her case-knives. from thence they decamped to the White Hart public-house in the same road where some of them enter'd the house, demanded liquor, eat up a shoulder of mutton, drank what they pleased and departed towards Bristol, some going into the centre of the City hallowing, others taking boats at the Temple-Backs and passed without paying.
They even threaten the Fire-Engines in Kingswood and Brislington, and to destroy all the locks between Bristol and Bath; they cut what colliers sacks they meet with, and let the coal about the streets, beating the pack'saddles in pieces. Several waggons full of coal have likewise fallen a sacrifice to their rage. 'A very remarkable instance of their resolution to fulfil their revenge may be judged from their inveteracy against one Roger Purnell, who acts as 'This morning they assembled again, and collect on the road what money they want.
All the neighbourhood are in the utmost consternation, and call aloud for the civil or military power to protect them from those outrages. 'These violent commotions have induced the Magistrates of the City to send an express to court with an account thereof. And yesterday the constables were conven'd at the Council-House and receiv'd strict orders not to be absent from their duty.
The watch is doubled, by the addition of several supernumerary constables, who patrol the City from nine at night till six in the morning. The military guard is also doubled throughout the City; and a party of soldiers were last night under arms in the square, lest the tumult should spread so far as to require their immediate Interposition.'
4 November - 'Bristol the reason the colliers of Kingswood give for appearing in the hostile manner they did on Thursday last was to prevent the Justices, who were met at the Lamb-Inn at Lawfords Gate from examining into the damages they had committed in their last rout, and so prevent the injur'd persons from making their appeal, who were appointed that day to attend the general meeting for that purpose: But another cause to second this was one Powell, a pitman, concerned in the late riot being apprehended by a constable on Wednesday night and committed to the county Bridewell, whom they were resolved to rescue, and would have attempted it, had they not made too much noise before-hand and threatened to pull the prison down, as also the Lamb-Inn, where the Justices were assembled at about ten o'clock in the morning.
'The reports of this reaching the magistrates ears, the drums of Brigadier Harrison's Regiment beat to arms, and a company appear'd presently before the Council-House, who at twelve o'clock, with Sir Abraham Elton, in his chariot attended by some of the City officers marched by beat of drum without Lawfords-Gate and sentries were immediately plac'd at the prison door, and the rest of the company were in the New-Inn, under arms.
By one o'clock almost all the regiment, by companies, follow'd by beat of drum, every soldier's piece being loaded, to give the colliers of Kingswood a warm reception, had they been so bold as to come in their way, but by five o'clock they return'd to the City, except 50 of them, who were left to watch the motions of the colliers.
'Yesterday, the justices continued their meeting, both in City and County; and the better to oppose the colliers from fulfilling their threatenings, a large detachment of soldiers march'd into Kingswood, in search of those against whom abundance of informations are made, with orders absolutely to fire on the colliers, if they made any opposition; but instead of that they took to their heels, and fled out of the wood; and the soldiers in searching their houses, seize'd what fire-arms they could find, and made one Samuel Wilmot, a noted ringleader, prisoner, whom they brought to accompany the other collier in Bridewell.
'All the Coal-Works in Sir Isaac Newton's and several other royalties are stopp'd from working. Four pits are fill'd up at Whitehall near the cupolas and the carts, reels, ropes, and other utensils cut and burnt, belonging to Mr Larry Price. Five other pits are also fill'd up at Siston's Bottom, and the utensils destroy'd, belonging to Jerome Ford, George Riddle, Charles Tippet and Henry Monk. Some sav'd their pits by giving them money. This was done at their first rising.
Last Thursday they cast a great many bullets at Grimsbury, and fir'd at the trouble makers killing two men.
4 November - On Tuesday last, brought under a strong guard of soldiers from Bristol to our Castle Powell and Samuel Willmott, two coalminers for being concerned in the late riots in Bristol. One Francis Peacock that was in the said gaol for debt, after his discharge was remanded back in the same account.' Warrants were issued for thirty six others.
According to Latimer, some 60 colliers all told were arrested for the riot. Bristol Council appears to have recouped 51 in fines according to a note in the Corporation accounts.
25 November - The last of the militants once again threatened the river locks on the Avon 'Hanham river', vowing that they had as good be hang'd as they and their families to starve' but it was the last flurry in the affair. The majority had gone back for reduced wages with the original legitimate grievance forgotten by a society whose main concern was the maintenance of the status quo.
A sort of order returned to Kingswood, but extraordinary events were just around the corner. Mr Morgan, 'a serious and awakened clergyman of the Church of England, pitying the rude and ignorant condition' of the colliers preached to them in the fields, and took the lid off the pot for 'The Great Stir' of the next year. The Kingswood colliers were about to be saved.
1739 - The reputation of the Kingswood colliers for lawlessness, depravity and brutality already widespread from the violent political activity of the past decade reached its limit after the riots of 1738. Kingswood, isolated and a law unto itself, was looked on as a very sink of iniquity. This was due, according to contemporary thinking, to the inherent evil of the people: that the poverty and attendant squalor in which the population dwelt were the effects of sin, and not the cause.
George Whitefield finally felt the call to save the colliers' souls. He was twenty four, fair of hair and complexion, with a slight build which would become more rounded in later life; he was nicknamed 'Squintam' for the cast in one of his small periwinkle blue eyes. He favoured a plain diet, with cow-heel pie a rare luxury. He rose each day at four, was rigidly punctual and fanatically neat; his quick temper was just as swift to subside. As soon as this fussy, emotional, mesmeric little man climbed a coal heap, and began to speak, he had come home. Kingswood had an apostle.
17 February - Whitefield wrote 'About one, I went to Kingswood. My bowels have long since yearned towards the poor colliers who are very numerous and as sheep without a shepherd. After dinner, I went up upon a mount. There were upwards of two hundred. Blessed be to God that I have now broke the ice.' This was at Rose Green near the same spot where Mr Morgan had preached the previous year.
Among the assembly was Thomas Mansfield, who would become one of John Wesley's preachers.
21 February - George preached again, and by his reckoning, the audience had increased ten fold. He took as his text John 111.3, one that has been adopted by 'born again Christians' in recent years. 'Jesus answered and said unto him 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.' 'I believe I was never more acceptable to my Master than when I was standing to teach those hearers in the open fields', George recorded.
23 February - He preached at 3 pm, and this time estimated the crowd at four to five thousand! was this was greater than the entire population of Bitton, this figure, and especially later guesses, has to be taken with a pinch of salt. 'Blessed be God for such a plentiful harvest', he wrote.
25 February - And still more. 'At Kingswood. At a moderate computation, there were 10,000 to hear me. The trees and hedges were full. All was hush when I began; the sun shone bright and God enabled me to speak with great power, so loud that all could hear me.' He appropriately chose as his theme Matthew V.1, 'And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain....' the opening line of the Sermon on the Mount.
1 March - Again, he preached, and wrote happily 'I have reason to believe that my words have not altogether fallen to the ground.'
3 March - 'Preached on the steps of the Poor House, without Lawford' s Gate.'
4 March - Was hectic, even for George. 'To Hanham Mount. About 4,000 were ready to hear me. The people covered the green fields. In the afternoon, to the Mount at Rose Green, and preached to above 14,000 souls.'
5 March - 'Being invited by many colliers, I went to a place called the Fishponds, where 2,000 were gathered together. The pit wall was my pulpit, and I believe I never spoke with greater power.'
6 March - Kingswood could not have George all to itself. The Gloucester Journal reported 'Last Sunday morning the Rev Mr Whitefield preached, at Brislington two miles from Bristol, but the church would by no means contain the multitude, so he be took himself to a cross in the churchyard and preached from thence, after which there was a sacrament. In the afternoon, he repaired to Kingswood where many thousands attended to the word of God.'
(George would also preach in Bristol at Baptists Mills, the Bowling Green, the Weavers Hall, Temple Backs, and the Brickyard.)
11 March - George was at Hanham Mount and Rose Green again, but the pleasant early spring weather which had so far favoured his mission turned fickle and prevented his going to Siston on the 15th as he had promised, but there was a thaw.
18 March - He again preached at Hanham Mount and Rose Green, and wrote excitedly, 'I really do believe that no less than 20,000 were present.'
25 March - Again at Hanham, and he estimated numbers reached the astonishing figure of 23,000. Possibly the squint affected his eyesight, but there is no doubt he believed it. Of this occasion he wrote the famous lines 'The colliers having no righteousness to renounce, they were glad to hear of a Jesus who was a friend to publicans and came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
The first discovery of their being affected was to see the white gutters made by their tears which fell plentifully down their black cheeks as they came out of their coalpits.'
29 March - Though there were schools in some of Kingswood's peripheral villages, there was none in the heart of the forest. Whitefield was approached by several colliers who 'were willing to subscribe, and I went to dinner with them at a place called Two Mile Hill and collected upwards of £20 in money and above £40 in subscriptions towards building them a school.
Were I to continue here I would endeavour to settle schools all over the wood. It is a pity that so many little ones as there are in Kingswood should perish for lack of knowledge.' It was not all sweetness. The Gentleman's Magazine, which had spotted the fact that if the reports coming from Kingswood were true, then nobody could possibly have been doing any work, given that the entire population, and many from Bristol too were at one long revival meeting, attacked George and his colliers, in a snotty leader:
'The Industry of Inferior people in Society is the great Source of its prosperity. But if one man like the Reverend Mr Whitefield should have it in his power, by his preaching to detain five or six thousand of the vulgar from their daily Labour, what a loss, in a little time may this bring to the publick! For my part I shall expect to hear of a prodigious rise in the price of coals about the City of Bristol if this gentleman proceeds as he has begun with his charitable lectures to the Colliers of Kingswood.'
Snide remarks would not stop Whitefield. He wrote to John Wesley, and acquainted him with the astonishing success of his mission to Kingswood. Wesley was swift to respond, and hastened to Kingswood himself. John Wesley was then in his 38th year. From May 1738 when he first 'saw the light', his whole being was devoted to 'saving souls'. His energy was awe inspiring, his dedication stupendous he would one day confess he had wasted fifteen minutes of his life in the reading of a worthless book.
He was short, strong, brave, resolute and terrifying. He would shrivel fools with a glance of his piercing eyes, and it comes as a shock to learn that a contemporary said 'It was impossible to be long in his company without partaking of his hilarity.' if this was true, then nobody else noticed. He was an excellent organiser, and it was this skill which Whitefield sought to harness.
31 March - Wesley wrote: 'I reached Bristol and met Mr Whitefield there. I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields of which he gave me an example.'
2 April - Whitefield was due to leave Kingswood. The miners gave him a surprise entertainment and asked him to lay the first stone of the school. He was delighted. He wrote 'I would rather preach the Gospel to the unprejudiced ignorant colliers than to the bigoted self-righteous formal Christians. The colliers will enter the Kingdom of God before them.'
8 April - John Wesley: 'At 7 in the morning I preached to about 1,000 at Bristol, and afterwards to about 15 hundred on the top of Hanham Mount in Kingswood. I called to them in the words of the evangelical prophets 'Ho! everyone that thirsted come ye to the waters: come and buy wine and milk, without money & without price.'' Wesley too was afflicted with exaggeration and continued 'About 15 thousand were there in the afternoon at Rose Green on the other side of Kingswood among whom I stood and cried in the name of the Lord: 'If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth in Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow Rivers of living Water.'
17 April - With Kingswood now ablaze with collective passion, there was a distressing development. 'People began to be in agitations etc', John Cennick wrote in his diary. Cennick would not arrive in Kingswood for another two months, but he would later be extremely uneasy about these hysterics which he would not expand on fully.
23 April - Wesley went to see the school foundation stone which Whitefield had laid and pronounced 'It cannot be better placed. 'Tis just in the middle of the wood, two miles every way from either church or school.' According to a later letter, it was on the site of a cock pit.
12 May - Wesley laid the first stone of the chapel in Broadmead, Bristol, the first Methodist chapel in the world.
14 May - Wesley, the organiser, had second thoughts about the site of the school in Kingswood, and despite all that had gone before, found 'a proper place... .pitched between the London and Bath roads.' Meanwhile, John Cennick, twenty years old and boiling with enthusiasm, went to London along with his sister Sally, and Kezia Wilmot, and was accepted into the Society at Fetters Lane.
When I heard of the awakening at Bristol and Kingswood, I felt an inexpressible desire to see it. I asked the brethren if I might have leave to visit Bristol...' but even better 'Mr Whitefield told me both his design of building a school for the colliers' children and also wished that I would go and be one of the masters. I consented with all my heart.'
10 June - Whitefield dined with Wesley at Two Mile Hill, and discussed progress; presumably the imminent arrival of Cennick as schoolmaster was raised.
11 June - Cennick could not afford transport, and set out to walk to Bristol and Kingswood. He left Reading on this wet June morning with a companion, Dr Perne and 'walked the same day to Sandley Lane, and because it was late we were obliged to sleep upon straw at an outhouse at night.'
12 June - 'We came through Bath to Bristol in the afternoon, but Mr Wesley had gone to London Mr Purdy, a tailor from London... .received us very kindly.' (This must surely have been the father of Victory Purdy, famous as 'the Walking Bible' - see Kingswood Annals 1776-95)
14 June - Mr Cennick, Mr Purdy, Perne, Tommy Catfield and Mr Norman of Bristol walked three miles to Kingswood to see the colliers. In the afternoon, Sammy Wathen, an apprentice to a surgeon in Corn Street had begun to visit the colliers and to read to them, and was to have come about three or four o'clock but as he stayed later than ordinary and the people were a little impatient, my company entreated me to expound a chapter, and also to speak to the souls.'
The numbers were rather more modest: 'I stood under a sycamore tree and spoke to several hundreds.' James Stone, later Cennick's brother in law, calculated there were about four or five hundred gathered: 'I was one of the colliers under the sycamore tree and I thank God I heard the first discourse of the Rev John Cennick in 1739.'
Cennick: 'We went aside into a little cottage near where the foundation of the school was laid and there we kneeled down simply and asked our Saviour to manifest his mind.' The new foundation stone was laid on a small piece of land bought by Wesley with his own money 'being able to procure none any other way'.
The school had 'a fine hall for preaching, and four rooms at each end, and two handsome houses.' 'My preaching was heard all over Kingswood so that I could not avoid preaching again, at Whitehall on the morrow. From this time in many places and was universally received, but I did not appear like a preacher etc, still wearing either a dark coloured coat or else a very light one'
3 July - Wesley was preaching fortnightly above Conham and at Hanham Mount, and now that the school site had been settled, progress was rapid. Whitefield dined with Wesley at Two Mile Hill and was delighted: 'The schoolhouse has been carried on so successfully that the roof is ready to be put up - as well as young are instructed.
A great and visible alteration is made in the behaviour of the colliers. Instead of cursing and swearing, they are heard to sing hymns about the woods.' This metamorphosis was confirmed by the Gloucester Journal of 17 July which reported an incident whereby a Sheriff's Warrant was served on one William Haynes of Kingswood, and congratulated: 'This may be deemed a great favour, no officer within the memory of the oldest man living has been able to affect an undertaking in so peaceable a manner' - but Cennick worried.
17 July - 'People began to fall into fits under the discourses, especially as Mr Wesley began to preach perfection. At first no-one knew what to say, but it was called the pangs of the new birth, the work of the Holy Ghost, the Bruising of the Serpent's head, casting out the Old Man, etc and some were offended and entirely left the societies when they saw Mr Wesley encouraging it.
I often doubted it was not of the Enemy when I saw it, and disputed with Mr Wesley for calling it the work of God I have seen people so foam and violently agitated that six men could not hold one but he would spring out of their arms or off the ground and tear himself in hellish agonies. Others I have seen sweat uncommonly and their necks and tongues swell and twisted out of all shape.
Some prophesied and some again uttered the worst blasphemies against our Saviour.' Wesley himself wrote: 'I was pressed to visit a young woman at Kingswood and found her on the bed, two or three persons holding her. Anguish, horror and despair appeared in her pale face. A thousand distortions of her whole body showing that the dogs of Hell were gnawing at her heart.
The shriek's intermixed were scarce to be endured; she screamed out 'I am damned, damned, lost for ever. Six days ago you might have helped me but it is past, I am the Devil's now, I have given myself to him, His I am, him I must serve, and if I must go to Hell, I will be his, I will serve him, I will go with him to Hell, I cannot be saved, I must, I will, I will be damned.'
She then began praying to the Devil. We began 'Arm of the Lord, Awake, Awake? She immediately sank down as if asleep, but as soon as we left off, broke out again with inexpressible vehemence 'Stony heart, break, I am a warning to you, break, break poor stony heart. I am damned but you may be saved, you need not be damned though I must.'
She then fixed her eyes on the corner of the ceiling and said 'There be is, come good Devil, come. You said you would dash my brains out ' come do it quickly, I am yours, I will be yours.' We interrupted her by calling again upon God, upon which she sank down as before, and another young woman began to roar as loud as she had done. My brother now came in, it being about nine o' clock.
We continued in prayer until past eleven, when God in a moment brought peace to the souls, first to the first tormented, then to the other, and they both joined in praise to Him who had killed the enemy and the avenger.' In this frenzied atmosphere, James Rogers 'a leader of the colliers in wildness and sin' was converted, and became 'more eminent in a religious way than previously in folly and wickedness'.
Before his conversion he had played the fiddle, scraping away on the few occasions when the colliers and their families enjoyed themselves. Now with this harmless entertainment considered sinful, he 'broke and burnt his fiddle, as it had previously been associated with his drunken carousals'.
It is difficult to forgive those who piously applauded this pathetic sacrifice. Another convert met a miserable end, seen as an example of God's mercy, at the instant of his conversion. According to Wesley, 'a serious young Kingswood miner pleaded with an older companion. They laid aside their tools and the black walls resounded with entreaty and prayer. And not in vain, for in penitence, the wanderer returned to the Shepherd of Souls'.
Upon which 'the sides of the pit caved in and crushed him to death in a moment.' Cennick continued to record ill effects, noting that he saw people 'sweat uncommonly, and their necks and tongues swell and twisted out of all shape.
Some prophesied and some uttered the worst of blasphemies'. I have seen Ann Roberts, a servant of Dr Deschamps, without Lawford' s Gate fall down after and become lifeless and continue so for 24 hours, and then come to herself singing a hymn.
Besides her was Lucretia Smith, a Quaker Gentlewoman, Thomas Kaxfield, a toymaker. now a field preacher with Mr Wesley who has been, as he said, possessed of the devil, that he once conversed with a Saint in Heaven in his fits, Tommy Hamilton, a Tailor's boy, Mr Whitehead, a gentleman who favoured the French prophets etc.
Mr Wesley prayed with them and they recovered and sang hymns, and declared before all that they had received the Holy Ghost, but afterwards the same persons were afflicted again and grew intolerable, and tho' they prayed with them whole nights, they were rather worse and worse.'
The rioters of 1738 were still being mopped up: John Newman of Bitton, coalminer, was bound over in the large sum of 200 and Thomas Pontin and Thomas Hawkins, also coalminers, both of St Philip & St Jacob, 'severally in 100 shillings, that the above bound John Newman shall personally appear at the next gaol delivery to answer for a riot and that he shall not leave court without leave. Signed William Jefferies, mayor.' Samuel Edwards of Bitton, coalminer, was also bound over to appear in court in the sum of forty shillings to give evidence against John Newman for the riot.
11 August - Daniel Britton of Bitton, coalminer, and Daniel Britton, Junior, bound over in the sum of 100 shillings to be of good behaviour.
23 October - The methodical hauntings persisted on......Cennick went to an extraordinary meeting held by Wesley at Two Mile Hill where 'they began to cry out. At first I took no notice of it, but its easing forward caused me all I could do to prevent it. I believe that more than twenty roared and shrieked together in the New School and all at the same time.
Tho' it was winter it thundered, lightninged, rained and blew such a tempest that I was frightened and had no doubt but the whole was a delusion. The chief persons that were affected were Sarah Robins, Betty Summers, Sarah Jones and a brother of Betty Jones. The three former confessed that they were demoniacs. Sarah Robins could not read, yet could answer at any time if persons talked to her in Latin or Greek, etc. They could tell who was coming in to the house tho' they were held down upon the floor: they said who would be seized next and what was doing in other places. 'One said her name was Satan, the other Beelzebub, the third Legion.
All the times cursed and blasphemed our Saviour, gnashing their teeth and at times sang the Gloria Patris and Lord's Prayer in the same tones. If any prayed with them they tried by the most comical inventions to make them laugh and hinder them. If any named Jesus, they trembled and cursed him. Mr Wesley asked Betty Summers how the devil entered her? She said 'By thy Gospel, thou Toad.'
But experience proved the more questions they asked, the stranger they grew, and were more violent so that I resolved never to ask them anything or suffer them to and little by little it came to nothing in Kingswood.' How did these naughty youngsters get away with it? Seizing the moment of an electrical storm, chanting half remembered bits of the Catholic mass, cursing and swearing, even insulting Mr Wesley, and having a whale of a time.
For all that treated with serious respect by the earnest preachers' even questioned in Latin and Greek! The case of two afflicted brothers living at Westerleigh also concerned Cennick. Today they would have been a case for social services. Both had eaten nothing for several days, nor slept. Their hair was sadly dishevelled and they were dirty, with a horrid melancholy look.
They held each of them an old Bible in their hands and seemed to read. I said 'In the name of the Lord' and one said his brother was the head, and he might not speak without his leave. I got the people to separate them, and soon after, he that spake, died, and the other continued a particular man, but recovered.'
Cennick obviously dispirited, recorded, 'I myself went far away from my first simplicity, walked by myself in the wood and wept before the Saviour and got again a sensible feeling and determined there from to teach nothing but Him and His Righteousness, so all crying and fits ceased whenever I came, and a blessing attended my labours, only this opened the way for me and Mr Wesley to Jar and dispute often, because first I would not preach perfection, and secondly resolved only to render the Righteousness of Christ.'
27 November - A letter from John Wesley, Few people who have lived long in the West of England have not heard of the Colliers of Kingswood; a people famous from the beginning hitherto for neither fearing God nor regarding man. So ignorant of these things of God that they seemed but one remove from the beasts that perish and therefore utterly without desire of instructions as well as without the means of it.'
22 December - Henry Legg of St Philip & St Jacob, coal driver, perhaps another minor participant in the riot, was bound over to be of good behaviour. Charles Bragge, nephew of Arthur and Thomas Player, then a minor, was in this year left the Player property in Mangotsfield, including Cleve Hill.
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