Holy thread drift Veek
A reminder of how unions came about, and why we still need them, regardless of who they support financially.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs
The Dorset countryside is beautiful but in the 1830s life in villages like Tolpuddle was hard and getting worse. Workers could not bear more cuts to their pay. Some fought back by rioting but this brought harsh punishments.
In 1834, six farm labourers from the tiny village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, England, were transported to the hellhole that was the Australian penal colonies. Their crime? They had banded together to seek a wage that would fend off starvation for them and their families.
But in fact it was they who were the victims of the crime, a monstrous conspiracy between the British Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne, a corrupt judge and James Frampton, a local landowner who was outraged when the men took a stand against their pitiful wages.
The men were led by George Loveless, a man of high moral principles who had taught himself to read and write and would go on to become a Methodist preacher. His comrades were his brother James, Thomas Stanfield and his son John, James Hammett and Joseph Brine.
Two years earlier, trade unions had become legal in England and in 1833 the men formed the Tolpuddle lodge of the Agricultural Labourers Friendly Society after meeting beneath a giant sycamore in the village. This followed cuts in their wages from a miserable 10 shillings to seven shillings and threats to cut them further if they made trouble. At a meeting in Stanfield's cottage the group held an initiation rite based on a medieval ceremony which involved an oath of brotherhood. They hoped for an affiliation with the fledgling National Consolidated Trades Union.
The oath-taking ceremony was their big mistake. They could no longer be prosecuted for forming a trade union but Frampton and Lord Melbourne found another way. Back in 1797, sailors of the Royal Navy had staged mutinies in protests against wretched conditions and brutal officers. An Act of Parliament had been rushed through, banning secret oaths on pain of seven years transportation to the colonies and it was decided that this little-known law would be ideal to trap Loveless and his comrades.
Frampton found eight fellow magistrates to support him and they posted notices in and around Tolpuddle, warning against the taking of oaths. Two days later, the six men were seized and charged.
The trial, at nearby Dorchester, was a travesty. Judge John Williams knew exactly what was expected of him and he made it clear that the defendants should be found guilty.
As the jury members were all local landowners who were quite happy to continue paying starvation wages, the judge was pushing against an open door. The guilty verdict was a formality, the men were sentenced to seven years transportation and the judge later became a baron.
A reminder of how unions came about, and why we still need them, regardless of who they support financially.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs
The Dorset countryside is beautiful but in the 1830s life in villages like Tolpuddle was hard and getting worse. Workers could not bear more cuts to their pay. Some fought back by rioting but this brought harsh punishments.
In 1834, six farm labourers from the tiny village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, England, were transported to the hellhole that was the Australian penal colonies. Their crime? They had banded together to seek a wage that would fend off starvation for them and their families.
But in fact it was they who were the victims of the crime, a monstrous conspiracy between the British Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne, a corrupt judge and James Frampton, a local landowner who was outraged when the men took a stand against their pitiful wages.
The men were led by George Loveless, a man of high moral principles who had taught himself to read and write and would go on to become a Methodist preacher. His comrades were his brother James, Thomas Stanfield and his son John, James Hammett and Joseph Brine.
Two years earlier, trade unions had become legal in England and in 1833 the men formed the Tolpuddle lodge of the Agricultural Labourers Friendly Society after meeting beneath a giant sycamore in the village. This followed cuts in their wages from a miserable 10 shillings to seven shillings and threats to cut them further if they made trouble. At a meeting in Stanfield's cottage the group held an initiation rite based on a medieval ceremony which involved an oath of brotherhood. They hoped for an affiliation with the fledgling National Consolidated Trades Union.
The oath-taking ceremony was their big mistake. They could no longer be prosecuted for forming a trade union but Frampton and Lord Melbourne found another way. Back in 1797, sailors of the Royal Navy had staged mutinies in protests against wretched conditions and brutal officers. An Act of Parliament had been rushed through, banning secret oaths on pain of seven years transportation to the colonies and it was decided that this little-known law would be ideal to trap Loveless and his comrades.
Frampton found eight fellow magistrates to support him and they posted notices in and around Tolpuddle, warning against the taking of oaths. Two days later, the six men were seized and charged.
The trial, at nearby Dorchester, was a travesty. Judge John Williams knew exactly what was expected of him and he made it clear that the defendants should be found guilty.
As the jury members were all local landowners who were quite happy to continue paying starvation wages, the judge was pushing against an open door. The guilty verdict was a formality, the men were sentenced to seven years transportation and the judge later became a baron.
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