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The Farnley Wood Plot
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Did the entire fate of Protestant England rest in the hands of the so called traitor, Joshua Greathead of Gildersome? One would believe so after reading the Leeds Intelligencer's account, published on the eve of the event's bicentennial (below). In 1663, the Leeds area was a hotbed of dissent directed at the government's actions made after the Restoration and at Charles II in particular. It's interesting to note, that after 200 years, the incident still touched a raw nerve.
The following article mentions that Greathead was a resident of Morley, though he was born there he actually resided at Gildersome. To read more about the Farnley Wood Plot, click on the references below: Wikipedia History of Gildersome BBC Legacies |
Above: the only likeness of Joshua Greathead known to be in existence. From a Scatcherd collection on display at the Morley's Town Hall.
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Farnley, Leeds and Vicinity
" THE ORIGIN OF THE FARNLEY WOOD PLOT OF 1663. No prince ever ascended the throne of his ancestors with a greater share the nation's good-will than did Charles Stuart, the son of a deposed king whom the people had begun look upon as a martyr, a sufferer at their own violent and irreligious hands. The two factions which for years had disturbed and harassed the country, which had deluged its fair homes in blood, and which in every sense had inflicted the most miserable calamities upon each other and their common home, were now weary alike of the institutions they had erected and the men whom they had preferred before their king. The genius of Cromwell had fascinated them: his power, once raised, had bound them with an iron yoke; and when death relieved them of the man whom they had by turns loved, feared, and hated, it was the almost the universal wish of the nation that the representative of the old dynasty should take his place upon the throne as their sovereign and lord.
But the nation did not long exhibit that complacent joy to which the Restoration had given birth. There were men still living who had imbibed the grimmest doctrines of the Puritans—men who had made war alike with their Bible and their sword, who had preached their fanatical sermons within the sound of the cannon's dreadful voice, who had smote down their foeman while the prayer for his destruction as God's enemy fell from their lips: and these men soon saw that, by the act they had sanctioned, they had introduced an impiety and profligacy infinitely worse in its extent than anything they had yet experienced. Rupert and his cavaliers had to them been the very incarnation of vice, but though Rupert and his cavaliers wore lovelocks, sang depraved songs, and were
Well pleased to grace the park or play,
And sometimes dance the night away,
it could not said that they showed the most marked contempt for conjugal purity; and the most profligate of them would not have dared to introduce his shameless mistress to his wife whilst that wife was still a bride. Such an infamy was reserved for the newly-restored King, and the event did not escape the notice of the nation. Although the noise of mirth and revelry managed for a short time to drown out the reproaches of that section which discountenanced levity of every kind, the palling joys of pleasure soon fell beneath the example of their purer life, and when political crimes attached themselves to the conduct of the King, bitter enemies sprang up among those whom he had considered fast friends. That morbid fear and hatred, which the nonconforming portion of the community had always entertained against the Roman Catholics, had been again aroused by the King's marriage with a Papist of the most uncompromising kind. The worst recollections of the former strife were again aroused by the execution of three of the regicides, who, after escaping to a foreign asylum which they were content to hold, were basely entrapped and hurried to execution to satisfy the most malignant revenge. And if these things were not sufficient to incite the worst passions of the discontented, the King further aggravated them by ejecting the Presbyterian clergy, then the most popular of the preachers. In one day, on the 24th August 1662, nearly two thousand of them relinquished their cures (Parishes). Homeless and penniless, they were driven to seek charity at the hands of their sympathisers, and they sought it not in vain. Declarations of indulgence might follow; but these, if they were offered in good faith, were not accepted as free-will and peace offerings. They were at once an insult to the injured ministers, and a palpable cloak to cover the introduction of the Papists. The old Puritan spirit of the people revolted against the King's measures, and on the 7th January 1663, within a fortnight of his promise to establish liberty of conscience, news flew to the Court that the fanatics of Yorkshire were arming themselves for an attack upon the King and his Papistical adherents. Sometimes openly, sometimes with secrecy, every preparation was being made. The Quakers and the Fifth-Monarchy men were the most determined in their opposition; but the Government spies reported that other influential people were mixed up in the plot. Ludlow was spoken of as the leader, and some who bore honorable names in Yorkshire were to have subordinate commands. Colonel Lascells and Captain Matthew Beckwith, Captain Lascalls, of Mountgrace, and Major Strangeways, of Pickering, were already engaged in the task of organising, when they were ordered to be arrested. Vengeance of the most dire kind was breathed against Monk, who was called a false villain, and when captured he should be put in an iron cage and set upon St Paul's Church, and there starved death. An indiscriminate slaughter of all the King's adherents was contemplated, and the assassination of the King himself was spoken of. Indeed, one opportunity of doing so had been missed, because no "good man" was there seize it. The headquarters of the conspirators in London were in St Martin's Lane, Clerkenwell, Old Street, and Moor Fields, places resorted to by many of the ejected divines. The conspirators boasted of having partisans in every place where information could be obtained, and that they were ready to oppose force by force. Ludlow was said to have one hundred men under his personal command, that there were five hundred more in St Giles', and on the King going by water privately, "it would have a fine job for any who had it."
With the flight of time the number and ferocity of the conspirators seemed to be on the increase. On the 22nd March information reached the Government that for the last six months seditious meetings had continued to be held in Mugglesworth Park, Durham, by many who swore secrecy to their designs. It was to rise against the present Parliament, which made law against liberty of conscience; destroy all bishops, deans, and church ministers, and all gentry that wonld not join them; break down organs, burn prayer-books, seize magazines of arms in Durham and plunder the town. They professed to have correspondence through the nation, and their brotherhood numbered thousands of Independents and Anabaptists, as well as Quakers and other sectaries. They would have risen on the 25th March, but had since determined wait and see if Parliament, of its own free will, would ameliorate their grievances. On the 30th of March the Bishop of Durham was informed of a similar plot at Newcastle. He called to his aid two deputy-lieutenants of the county of Durham, called out the militia, and commenced a raid upon the conspirators. Nine were taken, but they persistently denied the charges against them, especially their frequent meetings. The rest escaped to Scotland, or the remote parts of Northumberland. Espionage discovered Yorkshire to be more deeply implicated than the neighbouring counties. The oath of allegiance was tendered to suspected persons. One refused to take it, and his estates were at once confiscated. Old soldiers of Cromwell, who remembered their darling leader with joy and gratitude, openly denounced the King, speaking of the present "sad times" and the "good laws there were in Oliver's days." 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers were said to be ready to venture life and limb in the attempt to destroy Episcopacy; Ireland and Scotland were ready act at the general rising. The old Parliamentary party were foremost in the cause. It included many desperate and powerful men. They had a horrid watch-word, "The sword hews before the scythe mows." Markets were their meeting places; drovers carried on their designs. They sneered at the power of the trained bands, whose numbers were scattered far and wide, while they were congregated together in knots sufficiently powerful to destroy them before they could join their forces.
On the 18th June a Quaker wrote to the King rebuking him for the greatness of his sins and the profaneness of his Court. He begs that Parliament may be dissolved, the Council made purely Protestant, and four peaceable Prelates, four Presbyters, and four Independents summoned to establish Church government. The zealot further requests that the King will live chastely with his Queen, and that lying spirits may be put to silence. The good Quaker did not approach his Majesty with peaceful expressions alone; he more than hinted at the "sword, famine, and pestilence" which would follow the neglect of his advice. Charles was, however, too busy with his mistresses to notice the fanatic's reproof. But two days later news more dreadful in its nature was forwarded to the secretary. Bands varying in number from 300 to 800 had met in suitable places, and practised their drill. They were armed in various manners; some possessed horses and arms, others were "lusty men, having stout cudgels." This happened in Kent; the next post brought intelligence of similar meetings in Cumberland; a month later, on the 24th July, Secretary Bennett receives information that all are ready in Yorkshire, and the four northern counties, to rise in a few days. The Quakers are engaged to a man. Fairfax, it was said, would be their chief, but that information proved false. Cheshire and Lancashire had joined the rebels, and increased their numbers by 20,000 horse and 30,000 foot. These reports, of course, were not believed, but fears were entertained on account of the great number of old soldiers who were among the rebels. On the Ist Aug, several Fifth Monarchy men, officers under Cromwell, met at Brooke's house, Hatfield, others at Doncaster, and in the Isle Axholme, and other solitary places where their deliberations would not be disturbed. It was known that a ship had arrived at Sunderland with arms concealed in it for their use. York was quiet, but preparations were made to meet the worst. Sir Thomas Gower reported that around York there were 1500 men, inured to discipline and victory, and ready to strike, and they were waiting for reinforcements from Scotland. Treasonable correspondence was intercepted, suspicions were seized, small armed parties were noticed passing hastily over Bramham Moor, and it became known that it was the design of the rebels to seize York, when the judges and sheriffs were out of the town. Various preparations were made by the authorities; the militia and yeomanry of Cumberland and Westmoreland were assembled, and kept constantly on duty. Secret orders were issued to the commanders of the Royal troops to march under the Duke of Buckingham to the north. No sooner were the orders issued than, to the amazement of the Court, they were known to the rebels. The authorities in Yorkshire were warned of the treachery, and recommended to be on the alert. By a bribe they gained over one of the men who had fought by the side of Cromwell, and had gloried in his deeds. Major Greathead, of Morley, one of the most desparate fanatics of his day, and the ancestor of that historian of Morley who has told the story of his achievements with the most boastful triumph, was the man to perpetrate this infamy. He was of the party, cognizant of their secrets, but when suspected he turned hired informer and published their schemes. The 3rd October had been appointed as the day for rising, when they intended seize Newcastle and Skipton Castle, York, Carlisle, Appleby, and other strong places. About the 20th of September a meeting had been held at Leeds, to arrange the general rising; but dissensions appear to have crept into their councils, and Greathead, who was suspected of having betrayed them, was promised the punishment which he deserved. The day appointed for the rising found the rebels unprepared to meet the forces opposed to them, and so it became necessary to delay. The 12th was then named, by Jeremy Marsden, an Anababtist preacher, who held an assembly at Gildersome on the 6th, but in the meantime the Government spies had enabled the authorities to seize many of the most important plotters. Among those examined by Sir Thomas Gower, the High Sheriff, was Greathead, who seems to have been suspected and shunned by those he had betrayed, for now his intelligence is worthless. Signals were fixed by the authorities to give notice of the rising; populous boroughs were ordered to mount musketeers; and trusty gentlemen to watch the highways and their suspicious neighbours.
On Sunday, October 11th, all were alert. York, Richmond, Yarm, and some less important places, were occupied by the authorities in sufficient force. The Duke of Buckingham was then quartered in Pomfret and Ferrybridge, with 1,000 of the Guards and Militia. Another traitor, Col. Smithson, had gone over to the authorities, giving them valuable information, but, "as he has great credit among them," his name should be kept secret. Like Greathead, he was afraid of the vengeance of his deluded partisans. The treachery of their companions completely thwarted the intentions the plotters. The rising did not take place, although some of the rebels appear to have hurried to their rendezvous. Edward Copley writes from Leeds on the 13th that the danger is not yet over, for many passed through Leeds on horseback last night, and were joined by 40 from Holbeck, Hunslet, and the neighbouring villages. Three hundred of them were in Farnley Wood. They intend to take Skipton Castle. It was said they were commanded by Captain Oates, of Morley, an old Parliamentary soldier. Three or four hundred were in Halifax. On the 15th, several parties were seen in the neighbourhood of Tadcaster, no doubt some of the fugitives were from Farnley, for, after the meeting, 100 horse marched direct to Bradford, and the rest dispersed. After the dispersion the Duke of Buckingham dismissed the militia, for the chief men of the plot had fallen into the hands of the Government. Old Oates, the Morley veteran, was captured and bound in £1000, the meaner sort were held in custody to await their trial. It was discovered that arms had been smuggled into York in a coal ship, and that the revolt would have been formidable indeed had there not been traitors to their cause among the rebels. Major Greathead was ordered to London for examination; Robert Joplin, John Atkinson, the "stockinger" (who appears afterwards to have escaped), were imprisoned in the Tower. The depth of Greathead's treachery can only be estimated when we know "that he was thought so absolutely necessary to the military part that nothing could be done without him, and therefore was fully trusted." Yet, though he had been of such signal use in the detection the plot, the traitor feared that he might meet the reward due to a spy. Ere he durst encounter those appointed to interrogate him, he sought the protection the High Sheriff of Yorkshire, whom he had served, and received a certificate, to the effect that he had effectually contributed to the discovery the late plot. and thereby its prevention. On the 10th of November a proclamation appeared at Whitehall for the apprehension Richard Oldred, of Dewsbury, John Atkiuson, "the stockinger," Captain Atkinson, the leader of the Westmoreland conspirators, Edward Wilkinson, of Hunslet, Christopher Dawson, of Leeds, and others who had been concerned. The examination of witnesses is continued, and it's not a little amusing to hear the results. One worthy, Periam Corney, of Leeds, mentions as one the grievances of the brotherhood, their dislike of Episcopacy, "whose wide throat and large belly the whole nation was too little suffice." Another declared that the throne was alone supported by "housebreakers and robbers, and the Duke of York's Irish rogues, and that it was better when Oliver's troops were there." A third, Alderman Matthew Hardy, of Lambeth, discovers the utmost decree of republican ferocity. He been present at the execution of Charles I, leaning over the wall of St James's Park, and, according information, he had told some of his co-conspirators "that his heart leapt for joy when he saw the blow given to chop tne King's head off." Throughout the country the magistrates readily committed the suspected for trial before the higher courts; but at York especially juries were found to be composed of the friends and allies of the prisoners, and while the Government was seeking packed juries many of the witnesses absconded. To some extent the plans of the Government were thereby defeated. Yet a miserable retribution fell upon those whom the law comdemned. Twenty-one were condemned for treason: of these eighteen were hanged at York, the remaining three at Leeds.
The infamous treachery of Major Greathead to the cause in which he had involved himself, was of the highest service to the Government. As a soldier the rebels had given him the position of their most skilful leader, and he had abused his power by giving false counsel. When Buckingham's expedition to the north became known, Greathead advised the rebels to fight him on his march, and then advance towards London, where the citizens and the soldiers were ready to join them. The business of this advice is proved by his subsequent conduct, and by the knowledge that the south was not so determined or so far advanced in their preparations as the north. To scatter the rebels was to weaken their power. To send them from their homes before their designs were fully matured, was to sever them from friends on whom they could rely, and to place them in the hands those who might be bitter enemies or lukewarm partisans. His treachery became known too soon for his advice to be acted upon but his defection had left the cause hopeless, for it had left it without a leader. Greathead saw his victims dragged off to the scaffold, and quaked with fear lest too he should be called upon to follow them. He, John Dickinson, and Joseph Crowther petitioned the King to pardon them, and their petition was successful. After a time, when he was established in the royal favour, a desire to turn his position to the best advantage soon discovered itself. He sought for further remuneration in the shape of a Government appointment, and soon obtained it. On the 21st of December the King orders Lord Treasurer Southampton to grant him the collectorship of excise in Yorkshire, when that office should be vacant. Before many months, perhaps weeks, had expired, the office fell to him, and we afterwards find him a diligent supporter of an institution he had once borne arms to destroy.
Although the strength of the rebels was thus broken, the bitterness of their hatred was increased rather than diminished. As soon as they became dispersed fugitives they also became thieves and robbers, not indeed of the common sneaking cut-purse type, nor that class of romantic highwaymen who stopped ladies' carriages, plundered the occupants and then invited them a dance upon the soft greensward ere they bade them adieu. Their depredations were committed in the spirit of the deepest malignity. They hated the man whom they robbed infinitely more than they lusted for his goods. And yet they did not seek their revenge solely in the abuse of his person. His barn or his money-bags offered them a chance of injuring him which they were incapable of throwing away. For three years after the dispersion of the plotters, their intrigues and depredations continued a source of serious alarm to the Government. Leeds was their home and head-quarters, the place where rich, devoted, and influential friends were to be found, and towards Leeds the authorities cast a sharp and watchful eye. In September 1666 arrests were made at Leeds, but instead of crushing, this course seems to have been the means of increasing the feeling of hatred towards the Government. Two months later it became necessary to garrison Leeds, and an order was issued by the Lord General for foot and a troop of horse to secure the town, which was reported to be the most dangerous part Yorkshire."
But the nation did not long exhibit that complacent joy to which the Restoration had given birth. There were men still living who had imbibed the grimmest doctrines of the Puritans—men who had made war alike with their Bible and their sword, who had preached their fanatical sermons within the sound of the cannon's dreadful voice, who had smote down their foeman while the prayer for his destruction as God's enemy fell from their lips: and these men soon saw that, by the act they had sanctioned, they had introduced an impiety and profligacy infinitely worse in its extent than anything they had yet experienced. Rupert and his cavaliers had to them been the very incarnation of vice, but though Rupert and his cavaliers wore lovelocks, sang depraved songs, and were
Well pleased to grace the park or play,
And sometimes dance the night away,
it could not said that they showed the most marked contempt for conjugal purity; and the most profligate of them would not have dared to introduce his shameless mistress to his wife whilst that wife was still a bride. Such an infamy was reserved for the newly-restored King, and the event did not escape the notice of the nation. Although the noise of mirth and revelry managed for a short time to drown out the reproaches of that section which discountenanced levity of every kind, the palling joys of pleasure soon fell beneath the example of their purer life, and when political crimes attached themselves to the conduct of the King, bitter enemies sprang up among those whom he had considered fast friends. That morbid fear and hatred, which the nonconforming portion of the community had always entertained against the Roman Catholics, had been again aroused by the King's marriage with a Papist of the most uncompromising kind. The worst recollections of the former strife were again aroused by the execution of three of the regicides, who, after escaping to a foreign asylum which they were content to hold, were basely entrapped and hurried to execution to satisfy the most malignant revenge. And if these things were not sufficient to incite the worst passions of the discontented, the King further aggravated them by ejecting the Presbyterian clergy, then the most popular of the preachers. In one day, on the 24th August 1662, nearly two thousand of them relinquished their cures (Parishes). Homeless and penniless, they were driven to seek charity at the hands of their sympathisers, and they sought it not in vain. Declarations of indulgence might follow; but these, if they were offered in good faith, were not accepted as free-will and peace offerings. They were at once an insult to the injured ministers, and a palpable cloak to cover the introduction of the Papists. The old Puritan spirit of the people revolted against the King's measures, and on the 7th January 1663, within a fortnight of his promise to establish liberty of conscience, news flew to the Court that the fanatics of Yorkshire were arming themselves for an attack upon the King and his Papistical adherents. Sometimes openly, sometimes with secrecy, every preparation was being made. The Quakers and the Fifth-Monarchy men were the most determined in their opposition; but the Government spies reported that other influential people were mixed up in the plot. Ludlow was spoken of as the leader, and some who bore honorable names in Yorkshire were to have subordinate commands. Colonel Lascells and Captain Matthew Beckwith, Captain Lascalls, of Mountgrace, and Major Strangeways, of Pickering, were already engaged in the task of organising, when they were ordered to be arrested. Vengeance of the most dire kind was breathed against Monk, who was called a false villain, and when captured he should be put in an iron cage and set upon St Paul's Church, and there starved death. An indiscriminate slaughter of all the King's adherents was contemplated, and the assassination of the King himself was spoken of. Indeed, one opportunity of doing so had been missed, because no "good man" was there seize it. The headquarters of the conspirators in London were in St Martin's Lane, Clerkenwell, Old Street, and Moor Fields, places resorted to by many of the ejected divines. The conspirators boasted of having partisans in every place where information could be obtained, and that they were ready to oppose force by force. Ludlow was said to have one hundred men under his personal command, that there were five hundred more in St Giles', and on the King going by water privately, "it would have a fine job for any who had it."
With the flight of time the number and ferocity of the conspirators seemed to be on the increase. On the 22nd March information reached the Government that for the last six months seditious meetings had continued to be held in Mugglesworth Park, Durham, by many who swore secrecy to their designs. It was to rise against the present Parliament, which made law against liberty of conscience; destroy all bishops, deans, and church ministers, and all gentry that wonld not join them; break down organs, burn prayer-books, seize magazines of arms in Durham and plunder the town. They professed to have correspondence through the nation, and their brotherhood numbered thousands of Independents and Anabaptists, as well as Quakers and other sectaries. They would have risen on the 25th March, but had since determined wait and see if Parliament, of its own free will, would ameliorate their grievances. On the 30th of March the Bishop of Durham was informed of a similar plot at Newcastle. He called to his aid two deputy-lieutenants of the county of Durham, called out the militia, and commenced a raid upon the conspirators. Nine were taken, but they persistently denied the charges against them, especially their frequent meetings. The rest escaped to Scotland, or the remote parts of Northumberland. Espionage discovered Yorkshire to be more deeply implicated than the neighbouring counties. The oath of allegiance was tendered to suspected persons. One refused to take it, and his estates were at once confiscated. Old soldiers of Cromwell, who remembered their darling leader with joy and gratitude, openly denounced the King, speaking of the present "sad times" and the "good laws there were in Oliver's days." 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers were said to be ready to venture life and limb in the attempt to destroy Episcopacy; Ireland and Scotland were ready act at the general rising. The old Parliamentary party were foremost in the cause. It included many desperate and powerful men. They had a horrid watch-word, "The sword hews before the scythe mows." Markets were their meeting places; drovers carried on their designs. They sneered at the power of the trained bands, whose numbers were scattered far and wide, while they were congregated together in knots sufficiently powerful to destroy them before they could join their forces.
On the 18th June a Quaker wrote to the King rebuking him for the greatness of his sins and the profaneness of his Court. He begs that Parliament may be dissolved, the Council made purely Protestant, and four peaceable Prelates, four Presbyters, and four Independents summoned to establish Church government. The zealot further requests that the King will live chastely with his Queen, and that lying spirits may be put to silence. The good Quaker did not approach his Majesty with peaceful expressions alone; he more than hinted at the "sword, famine, and pestilence" which would follow the neglect of his advice. Charles was, however, too busy with his mistresses to notice the fanatic's reproof. But two days later news more dreadful in its nature was forwarded to the secretary. Bands varying in number from 300 to 800 had met in suitable places, and practised their drill. They were armed in various manners; some possessed horses and arms, others were "lusty men, having stout cudgels." This happened in Kent; the next post brought intelligence of similar meetings in Cumberland; a month later, on the 24th July, Secretary Bennett receives information that all are ready in Yorkshire, and the four northern counties, to rise in a few days. The Quakers are engaged to a man. Fairfax, it was said, would be their chief, but that information proved false. Cheshire and Lancashire had joined the rebels, and increased their numbers by 20,000 horse and 30,000 foot. These reports, of course, were not believed, but fears were entertained on account of the great number of old soldiers who were among the rebels. On the Ist Aug, several Fifth Monarchy men, officers under Cromwell, met at Brooke's house, Hatfield, others at Doncaster, and in the Isle Axholme, and other solitary places where their deliberations would not be disturbed. It was known that a ship had arrived at Sunderland with arms concealed in it for their use. York was quiet, but preparations were made to meet the worst. Sir Thomas Gower reported that around York there were 1500 men, inured to discipline and victory, and ready to strike, and they were waiting for reinforcements from Scotland. Treasonable correspondence was intercepted, suspicions were seized, small armed parties were noticed passing hastily over Bramham Moor, and it became known that it was the design of the rebels to seize York, when the judges and sheriffs were out of the town. Various preparations were made by the authorities; the militia and yeomanry of Cumberland and Westmoreland were assembled, and kept constantly on duty. Secret orders were issued to the commanders of the Royal troops to march under the Duke of Buckingham to the north. No sooner were the orders issued than, to the amazement of the Court, they were known to the rebels. The authorities in Yorkshire were warned of the treachery, and recommended to be on the alert. By a bribe they gained over one of the men who had fought by the side of Cromwell, and had gloried in his deeds. Major Greathead, of Morley, one of the most desparate fanatics of his day, and the ancestor of that historian of Morley who has told the story of his achievements with the most boastful triumph, was the man to perpetrate this infamy. He was of the party, cognizant of their secrets, but when suspected he turned hired informer and published their schemes. The 3rd October had been appointed as the day for rising, when they intended seize Newcastle and Skipton Castle, York, Carlisle, Appleby, and other strong places. About the 20th of September a meeting had been held at Leeds, to arrange the general rising; but dissensions appear to have crept into their councils, and Greathead, who was suspected of having betrayed them, was promised the punishment which he deserved. The day appointed for the rising found the rebels unprepared to meet the forces opposed to them, and so it became necessary to delay. The 12th was then named, by Jeremy Marsden, an Anababtist preacher, who held an assembly at Gildersome on the 6th, but in the meantime the Government spies had enabled the authorities to seize many of the most important plotters. Among those examined by Sir Thomas Gower, the High Sheriff, was Greathead, who seems to have been suspected and shunned by those he had betrayed, for now his intelligence is worthless. Signals were fixed by the authorities to give notice of the rising; populous boroughs were ordered to mount musketeers; and trusty gentlemen to watch the highways and their suspicious neighbours.
On Sunday, October 11th, all were alert. York, Richmond, Yarm, and some less important places, were occupied by the authorities in sufficient force. The Duke of Buckingham was then quartered in Pomfret and Ferrybridge, with 1,000 of the Guards and Militia. Another traitor, Col. Smithson, had gone over to the authorities, giving them valuable information, but, "as he has great credit among them," his name should be kept secret. Like Greathead, he was afraid of the vengeance of his deluded partisans. The treachery of their companions completely thwarted the intentions the plotters. The rising did not take place, although some of the rebels appear to have hurried to their rendezvous. Edward Copley writes from Leeds on the 13th that the danger is not yet over, for many passed through Leeds on horseback last night, and were joined by 40 from Holbeck, Hunslet, and the neighbouring villages. Three hundred of them were in Farnley Wood. They intend to take Skipton Castle. It was said they were commanded by Captain Oates, of Morley, an old Parliamentary soldier. Three or four hundred were in Halifax. On the 15th, several parties were seen in the neighbourhood of Tadcaster, no doubt some of the fugitives were from Farnley, for, after the meeting, 100 horse marched direct to Bradford, and the rest dispersed. After the dispersion the Duke of Buckingham dismissed the militia, for the chief men of the plot had fallen into the hands of the Government. Old Oates, the Morley veteran, was captured and bound in £1000, the meaner sort were held in custody to await their trial. It was discovered that arms had been smuggled into York in a coal ship, and that the revolt would have been formidable indeed had there not been traitors to their cause among the rebels. Major Greathead was ordered to London for examination; Robert Joplin, John Atkinson, the "stockinger" (who appears afterwards to have escaped), were imprisoned in the Tower. The depth of Greathead's treachery can only be estimated when we know "that he was thought so absolutely necessary to the military part that nothing could be done without him, and therefore was fully trusted." Yet, though he had been of such signal use in the detection the plot, the traitor feared that he might meet the reward due to a spy. Ere he durst encounter those appointed to interrogate him, he sought the protection the High Sheriff of Yorkshire, whom he had served, and received a certificate, to the effect that he had effectually contributed to the discovery the late plot. and thereby its prevention. On the 10th of November a proclamation appeared at Whitehall for the apprehension Richard Oldred, of Dewsbury, John Atkiuson, "the stockinger," Captain Atkinson, the leader of the Westmoreland conspirators, Edward Wilkinson, of Hunslet, Christopher Dawson, of Leeds, and others who had been concerned. The examination of witnesses is continued, and it's not a little amusing to hear the results. One worthy, Periam Corney, of Leeds, mentions as one the grievances of the brotherhood, their dislike of Episcopacy, "whose wide throat and large belly the whole nation was too little suffice." Another declared that the throne was alone supported by "housebreakers and robbers, and the Duke of York's Irish rogues, and that it was better when Oliver's troops were there." A third, Alderman Matthew Hardy, of Lambeth, discovers the utmost decree of republican ferocity. He been present at the execution of Charles I, leaning over the wall of St James's Park, and, according information, he had told some of his co-conspirators "that his heart leapt for joy when he saw the blow given to chop tne King's head off." Throughout the country the magistrates readily committed the suspected for trial before the higher courts; but at York especially juries were found to be composed of the friends and allies of the prisoners, and while the Government was seeking packed juries many of the witnesses absconded. To some extent the plans of the Government were thereby defeated. Yet a miserable retribution fell upon those whom the law comdemned. Twenty-one were condemned for treason: of these eighteen were hanged at York, the remaining three at Leeds.
The infamous treachery of Major Greathead to the cause in which he had involved himself, was of the highest service to the Government. As a soldier the rebels had given him the position of their most skilful leader, and he had abused his power by giving false counsel. When Buckingham's expedition to the north became known, Greathead advised the rebels to fight him on his march, and then advance towards London, where the citizens and the soldiers were ready to join them. The business of this advice is proved by his subsequent conduct, and by the knowledge that the south was not so determined or so far advanced in their preparations as the north. To scatter the rebels was to weaken their power. To send them from their homes before their designs were fully matured, was to sever them from friends on whom they could rely, and to place them in the hands those who might be bitter enemies or lukewarm partisans. His treachery became known too soon for his advice to be acted upon but his defection had left the cause hopeless, for it had left it without a leader. Greathead saw his victims dragged off to the scaffold, and quaked with fear lest too he should be called upon to follow them. He, John Dickinson, and Joseph Crowther petitioned the King to pardon them, and their petition was successful. After a time, when he was established in the royal favour, a desire to turn his position to the best advantage soon discovered itself. He sought for further remuneration in the shape of a Government appointment, and soon obtained it. On the 21st of December the King orders Lord Treasurer Southampton to grant him the collectorship of excise in Yorkshire, when that office should be vacant. Before many months, perhaps weeks, had expired, the office fell to him, and we afterwards find him a diligent supporter of an institution he had once borne arms to destroy.
Although the strength of the rebels was thus broken, the bitterness of their hatred was increased rather than diminished. As soon as they became dispersed fugitives they also became thieves and robbers, not indeed of the common sneaking cut-purse type, nor that class of romantic highwaymen who stopped ladies' carriages, plundered the occupants and then invited them a dance upon the soft greensward ere they bade them adieu. Their depredations were committed in the spirit of the deepest malignity. They hated the man whom they robbed infinitely more than they lusted for his goods. And yet they did not seek their revenge solely in the abuse of his person. His barn or his money-bags offered them a chance of injuring him which they were incapable of throwing away. For three years after the dispersion of the plotters, their intrigues and depredations continued a source of serious alarm to the Government. Leeds was their home and head-quarters, the place where rich, devoted, and influential friends were to be found, and towards Leeds the authorities cast a sharp and watchful eye. In September 1666 arrests were made at Leeds, but instead of crushing, this course seems to have been the means of increasing the feeling of hatred towards the Government. Two months later it became necessary to garrison Leeds, and an order was issued by the Lord General for foot and a troop of horse to secure the town, which was reported to be the most dangerous part Yorkshire."
Leeds Intelligencer 12 Sep 1863
Transcription from an article found in:
British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Transcription from an article found in:
British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
