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The Bristol Bridge Riot and Its Antecedents: Eighteenth-Century Perception of the Crowd

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Philip D. Jones
Philip D. Jones*
Affiliation:
Bradley University
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Extract

The Bristol Bridge Riot of 1793 was one of the most serious riots, in terms of killed and injured, to occur in Britain during the last half of the eighteenth century. George Rudé lists it as second in violence only to the Gordon Riots of 1780. Yet, because it defies classification, it is rarely listed in the categories of riots so meticulously set out by Rudé and others. It was neither a turnpike riot transferred to an urban setting, nor was it the expression of long-held social grievances. It was a demonstration of dissatisfaction with official incompetence and deception. In many respects it was a riot caused by officials whose perception of the crowd led them to overreaction and violence.

The tendency by recent writers has been to see riotous activity in the eighteenth century as a sort of class warfare between the “people” and the “establishment,” represented by land owners, entrepreneurs, or parliament. This class warfare is presented as taking various forms under the categories of food riot, urban riot, country riot, and the like. While classification of riots may serve useful purposes and there may sometimes be more than a grain of truth in the class-war interpretation, it must be acknowledged that the resulting impression of uniformity in eighteenth-century riots is misleading. In the case of Bristol riots, in particular, it is the differences rather than the similarities that are of significance in understanding the changed perception of the crowd that caused the tragedy of 1793.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , Spring 1980 , pp. 74 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1980

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References

1 Rudé, GeorgeThe Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730-1848 (1964), p. 255Google Scholar.

2 For example, Thompson, E.P., Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of the Black Act (1975)Google Scholar; Hay, Douglaset al., Albion's Fatal Tree (1975)Google Scholar; Foster, John, Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution: Early Industrial Capitalism in Three English Towns (1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 On this point, see Reddy, W.M., “The Textile Trade and the Language of the Crowd at Rouen,” Past and Present (February 1977), pp. 62–89Google Scholar.

4 Except where noted, the following account is taken from “A Full and Impartial Account of the Late Disorders in Bristol, To Which is Added the Compleat Tryals of the Rioters …” (London, 1714) and “The Bristol Riot; Containing I. A Full and Particular Account of the Riot in General with Several Material Circumstances Preceding and Contributing to It; II. The Whole Proceedings Relating to the Tryal …” (London, 1714). The latter pamphlet was apparently published before the trial. I have not seen a copy that contains Part II.

5 Seyer, Samuel, Memoirs Historical and Topographical of Bristol … (Bristol, 1823), II, 563Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., p. 562; Pryce, George, A Popular History of Bristol, Antiquarian, Topographical, and Descriptive (Bristol, 1861), p. 422Google Scholar.

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8 “A Full and Impartial Account …” pp. 18-24.

9 Ibid., p. 10.

10 Latimer, John, Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century, (Bristol, n.d.), pp. 78–79Google Scholar.

11 Sever, , Memoirs, II, 565Google Scholar.

12 Public Record Office (hereafter PRO) SP 36/1.

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14 Letters of Sir William Codrington to the Duke of Newcastle, 21 July 1731 and 11 August 1735, and affidavits, PRO, SP 36/23 and SP 36/35: Colliers' Letter to the Turnpike, 3 July 1727, Gloucester Record Office, D/15/2, also quoted in Albert, William, The Turnpike Road System in England 1663-1840 (1972), pp. 27–28Google Scholar; Journals of the House of Commons, XXI, 828 (2 March 1731 O.S.)Google Scholar.

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22 Letters of Mayor Clements to Newcastle, 21 May and 15 May 1753, and affadavit of John Hones, 21 May 1753, PRO, SP 36/122; Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, 26 May 1753, lists the names of the captured rioters. Opposition to the export of grain was not unusual. Similar riots had occurred in other parts of the country—Rose, R.B., “18th Century Price Riots and Public Policy in England,” International Review of Social History, VI, 287 (1961)Google Scholar.

23 Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, 2 June and 8 September 1753.

24 Letter of Attorney General to Newcastle, 2 June 1753, PRO, SP 36/122; and Hugh Valence Jones to Newcastle, 2 June 1753, BL, Add. Mss. 32732.

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27 Common Council Proceedings, 28 October 1758 and 14 February 1760, BRO.

28 Letter from Mayor Ames and eight councilmen to Smith, 26 February 1760, BRO, AC/JS 96 (8); leaflet of 28 February 1760, AD/JS (11) 6, Miller to Mayor Ames, 1 March 1760, AC/JS 96 (9).

29 Petition in BRO, AC/JS (12)a; Miller to Smith, 8 March 1760, BRO, AC/JS 96 (11)a. The Merchants turned a deaf ear to the council's request for direct financial aid. Hall Book 8, 16 and 23 January 1759. See McGrath, Patrick, The Merchant Venturers of Bristol (Bristol, 1975)Google Scholar.

30 Minutes of Council's Bridge Committee, 22 April 1760, BRO, AC/JS 96 (16); several citizens to Nugent and Smith, 24 April 1760, AC/JS 96 (17)a. The act (33 Geo II c.52) may be seen in the BRO or the Bristol Reference Library (hereafter BRL), 11539.

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33 Evidence of Hiscoxe, William Collins (Hiscoxe's assistant), and George Webb, Minutes of Committee for Investigating Bridge Affairs, 25 and 29 November 1793, BRL 13065; handbill by Hiscoxe, 29 September 1793, BRL 13084.

34 For the theory of the “legitimising notion” see Thompson, E.P., “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” Past and Present (February 1971), pp. 76–79Google Scholar.

35 “An Account of the Tolls Payable for Passing Bristol Bridge,” 23 September 1793, BRL 11539.

36 Except where indicated, the account of the actual riot is taken from the Minutes of the Committee for Investigating Bridge Affairs, BRL 13065; Rose, John, “An Impartial History of the Late Disturbances in Bristol …” (Bristol, 1793)Google Scholar, BRL and BL; and “An Impartial History of the Late Riots in Bristol” (London, 1793,)Google Scholar BL. According to “The Auction,” BRL 25552, Mr. Rosser, the printer of the Mercury, was the author of the latter pamphlet. Rose was critical of the authorities and Rosser defended them.

37 BRL 13066.

38 BRO, Committee Book, 1757-99, p. 320.

39 Ibid., pp. 321, 323 (10 and 12 October 1793); various handbills of 1 and 3 October 1793, BRL 13074 and 13067; newspaper clipping 2 October 1793, BRL 4560.

40 Newspaper clipping 4 October 1793, BRL 4560; notice from mayor to chief constable, 2 October 1793, and numerous resolutions from parishes, 3 October 1793, BRO correspondence box for 1793.

41 They were last mentioned when they were to have been turned over to the city in 1795. BRO, Common Council Proceedings, 1791-1796, pp. 334-36 (7 June 1795).

42 “A Letter to the Citizens of Bristol on the Conduct of Dr. E.L. Fox Concerning the Late Riots” (Bristol, 1793)Google Scholar, BRL.

43 Announcement by Mayor and Aldermen, 1 October 1793, BRL 4560.

44 PRO, HO 42/26. For the changed attitude throughout the kingdom toward riots following the Gordon Riots in 1780, see Emsley, Clive, “London Insurrection of December 1792; Fact, Fiction or Fantasy,” Journal of British Studies (Spring, 1978), p. 70Google Scholar.

45 Newspaper clipping 1 October 1793, BRL 4560.

46 For instance, handbills of 26 October 1793 and 11 December 1795, BRL 13092 and 13108.

47 Letter from Edwin F. Fox to Francis F. Fox, 4 June 1872, BRL 13064.

48 Minutes of Committee for Investigating Bridge Affairs, BRL 13065.

49 “A Statement of Facts Relative to the Riot which Took Place in Union Street …” (Bristol, 1797)Google Scholar, BRL 9528; BRO, Common Council Proceedings, 1791-1796,” pp. 353-54 (5 September 1795).

50 BRO, Committee Book, 1757-99, p. 256 (11 December 1793) and 343 (8 February 1794); Star, 4 October 1793.

51 BRO, Common Council Proceedings, 1791-96, pp. 7, 24, 41, 60, 165, 178, 291, 353-54; Latimer, , Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century, p. 507Google Scholar.

52 BRL 13069, 13070, 13072, 4554, 4555, 25549.

53 For the notion that we may enjoy the convenience of viewing eighteenth-century riots in terms of class struggle by merely redefining class to include any economic group according to the situation, see Thompson, E.P., “Eighteenth Century English Society: Class Struggle Without Class?” Social History (May 1978), pp. 146–50Google Scholar.

54 The Trial of Charles Pinney (Bristol, 1833)Google Scholar.