February 28th – This day the supplementary Militia for Manchester were swore in at the New Bailey. Substitutes in general fetched from six to ten guineas per man. March 3rd – Rochdale: This day the supplementary Militia where swore in here. Substitutes fetched from 6d. to eight guineas: and one, Thomas Tetlow, a constable for Chadderton, found guilty of making false lists in numbering for the Suplementary Militia, by screening his son, was, by the magistrates, fined £5, but was mitigated to 40s. March 4th – John Butterworth, commonly called Jack-o’th’-Orders, was for striping a clothes edge near Glodwich, committed to the New Bailey. March 2nd. – John Walwork, joyner and carpinter, died in consequence of the wounds received on the 28th of February last, by a piece of wood falling on him. He was an elderly man. This I suppose would be the person alluded to in the following note by Butterworth:- Wallwork Fold – a few houses adjacent to Barker-street – received its name from Mr. John Wallwork, a person of considerable substance in his day, and a farmer at Royley, in Royton, in 1752. This individual was remarkable for the great number of cottages he erected in Oldham as speculations of his own, at the time the cotton manufacture was becoming fully developed by aid of machinery.
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March 7th – Joseph Buckley (son of James Buckley, formerly of Busk) died. This yong man about four years ago entered in the 16th Regiment of Light Dragoons. Being of a delicate habit and being confined in camps and barracks brought on a consumption. Age, 21 years. He died at Bull Stake, at Alder-root. March 8th was observed as a general fast through England and Wales. March 11th – At Oldham this day meal sold at 13d. per peck; exalent good, 14d. ditto; flower, 21d.; malt, 17d. per peck. March 13th.– Uncomon cold, frosty weather, and as been so for several days; the wind north-east. March 11th – Manchester, this day potatoes sold 3s. 9d. per load; meal, 21s.; flower, 36s. March 18th – New Warehouse, Oldham, good meal, 13d. per peck; flower, 20d. per peck; old butter scarce and selling single pounds 10d. This “new warehouse”, according to E. Butterworth, was originally formed in July, 1795, for the purchase of food and other necessaries on as economical a scale as possible. This association possessed a warehouse in Yorkshire-street, and was styled the “United Friendly Society”. The prices of provisions being high in 1802-3, a number of the inhabitants revived it as a joint stock company. The committee became involved in litigation with their creditors in 1804, and in 1808 the undertaking seems to have been dissolved. This is surely the first “co-operative store” in Oldham, if not in the country. |
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ANNALS OF OLDHAM No. XXIII March 22nd – Thomas Jackson, of Priest-hill, Oldham, intered in the new burying ground, Methodist Chapel. Victorys obtained last month. – February 14th, Admiaral Sr. John Jervis, with 15 sail of the line, defeated the Spanish Fleet of 27 sail of the line. On the 18th, Admiaral Harvey and Sr Ralph Abercromby captured the Island of Trinadad, took one 74-gun ship, and the enemy burnt an 84 and two 74-gun ships to prevent them falling into the hands of the English. The victorious General Buonapart, at the head of the Invinceable Republicans, totally defeated the Austrian Army, and captured the impregnable city of Mantua. Hone says:- “When in the midst of unexampled national distress and an almost general mutiny of the sailors the English fleet under Sir John Jervis engaged and beat the much superior fleet of Spain off Cape St. Vincent, February 14th, 1797. Sir John Jervis had fifteen ships of the line and a few frigates. The Spanish fleet contained twenty-seven men-of-war, four of which Sir John took, besides sinking others. Spain had joined France in the war. The island of Trinidad, in the West Indies, was taken form the French by the English under Abercrombie, February 13th, 1797, and ceded to them by the treaty of Amiens, March 25th, 1800. Mantua, in Lombardy, was taken by Napoleon Bonaparte, after a siege which lasted from June 14th, 1796, to February 2nd, 1797, and erected into the chief town of the department of the Mincio. The Austrians regained possession July 30th, 1799.” Green says:- “The year 1797 saw Lombardy conquered in a single campaign, and Austria was forced to purchase peace in the treaty of Campo Formio by the cession of the Netherlands and Milanese to the French Republic. England was left without a single ally. Her credit had sunk to the lowest ebb, and the alarm of a French invasion brought about a suspension of cash payments on the part of the bank, while a mutiny of the fleet, which continued three months, was ended by humiliating concessions. It was in this darkest hour of the struggle that Burke passed away, protesting to the last against the peace which, in spite of his previous failures, Pitt tried in 1797 to negotiate at Lille. But the Minister’s efforts were again foiled by the unquenched hatred of the two nations.” It is well to note here that I am quoting the words of John Richard Green, the Radical historian. Some people never tire of painting Pitt as the “War Minister” – many historical treatises are written in this colour.
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Even these Annals give this impression, and they may be taken as representing the popular mind on the subject, I cannot help but think that at that time there were two Pitts – one a personal Pitt, a man of peace; and one a ministerial Pitt, a creature of the war party. This party was by no means confined to the Tories; it was almost as much Whig as Tory. The peace party was composed of Jacobins or Radicals, strictly so called. Whosever was the responsibility of plunging this country into this war, it was a fearful responsibility. It hardly comes within the scope of a paper like this to discuss the question at length. The best information I have been able to get on this subject has been derived from “Three Letters” by Richard Cobden, entitled “1793 and 1853”, on a sermon preached on the death of the Duke of Wellington, in 1852. Every student of English history should read these letters. They are a masterly achievement, and written in Cobden’s best style. If the case be as stated by Cobden, this war, which lasted practically for 22 years, was a blunder and a crime, or a blunder which was worse than a crime. It is not a question as to who first declared war, or whether Pitt was a peace minister or a war minister. These annals show – none more truly – the nature of the virgin soil; perhaps no town in England, for the size of it, during this war raised more soldiers than Oldham. Cobden says of England that “we have been the most combative and aggressive community that has existed since the days of the Roman dominion.” Froissart said that “we loved war better than peace.” “Nor”, says Cobden, “must we throw upon the aristocracy the entire blame of our wars. An aristocracy never governs a people by opposing their ruling instincts.” Who was to blame for this war, it is not for me to say; but we have the largest national debt in the world as a monument of the pugnacity of a patriotic people on the one hand, and the guidance, or misguidance, of aristocratic leaders – Whig or Tory – on the other. March 30th – Meal 15d., flower 21d. a peck, butter 10½ d. per pound. Mar 25th – James Colier, of Northmoor, opened his hush house, viz., selling malt liquor without a license. March 31st – Fine weather, and as been for some days past; some days before the fine weather commenced it was frosty and cold. All sorts of weaving very bad, especially light goods, such as nankeens, wich where wove for 9s. a cut, calicoes where wove as low as 2s. 6d. a cut. April 21st – Ended the great main of cocks at Manchester between Sir Watts Horton, of Chaderton, and Sir Rowland Wynne, of Nostle, near Waykfield, which was won by Sir Watts. |
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