Pre-industrial Britain was mainly dependent on home produced grain and a poor harvest could severely affect the population. Although the maximum price of bread was regulated this did not stop prices rising, food shortages and famine affecting the working and middle classes. The summer of 1756 was one of the “wettest in living memory” not only in this country but in Europe as well, causing a very poor harvest. Although exporting grain was prohibited, food prices rose alarmingly causing civil unrest. Famines hit in the year following a bad harvest, not during the winter months but during the summer and early autumn. 1757 was a fine warm year with a good harvest in prospect but the some of the population of and around Towcester were starving and blaming the millers for the price of flour being so dear. By the end of September they reached breaking point and, as a mob, took matters into their own hands. Two waggons heading towards the town were stopped to see if they had food. The first contained wheat for sowing which they let that pass and the driver of the second wagon declared he carried seed-wheat as well. On checking the wagon they discovered his lie and carried off his cargo of flour. On the following day the mob was reported to have destroyed some flour-mills in the neighbourhood of Towcester but all in likelihood they had seriously damaged them. Alarmed by this uprising, the County Authorities arranged for a squad of soldiers of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards Blue to march from Northampton to Towcester in order to protect the mills etc. in the neighbourhood. The car park and pleasant beer garden of Towcester Mill would have been ringed around with soldiers bearing muskets and bayonets ready to fend off the mob. (The mill would not be the present building but its predecessor). On Monday 3rd September another detachment of guards were sent to surround Towcester and the villages where the rioters lived. With the escape routes blocked they apprehended the ringleaders of the riots, fifteen in all. Under a strong guard these were taken to the County Goal in George Row, Northampton and were committed there by a Justice of the Peace on the grounds of “outrages and felonious acts upon the properties and effects of divers persons” to which they confessed. (I don’t know what happened to the rioters but there may be some court documents surviving which could throw light on this). Concerned that more rioting might continue it was organised that parties of the Horse Guards Blue should patrol the area to keep the peace. The good harvest of 1757 resolved the problem and no further rioting in the area was reported.(Sources: Northampton Mercury 3rd & 10th October 1757, London Chronicle 8th October 1757)
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 08:27:45 +0000
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