There were many people across Britain who’s lives were changed by the industrial revolution
in the early 19th century.
The whole of the nation changed greatly with a shift towards machines and factories, with
people moving also to urban areas away from the rural countryside.
But as machines were used to do certain jobs such as making clothes, many British people
lost their jobs and livelihoods as machines could make things at a much greater speed
using mass production.
But there were a number of people who sought to destroy and break machines as they were
angry that their lives were being significant affected by them, and people were losing lots
of money.
But Jeremiah Brandreth has gone down in history as one of the last people to be headed by
an axe after he was hanged for his crimes.
But what is the story behind his execution?
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Jeremiah Brandreth was born in Wilford in Nottingham in 1785, and he was later known
as ‘The Nottingham Captain.’
He became a stocking maker, and married in 1811.
He moved then to Sutton in Ashfield where he worked along with his wife and three children,
and he was known in the area as a Luddite.
These were a secret organisation that protested against the use of machines in the Industrial
Revolution that replaced labour and Luddites were fearful that their skills and their craft
would be wasted and would go extinct.
This was true as machines were replacing their role in industries, and many people were left
unemployed and angry with the new way of working.
The Luddite movement began in Nottingham, and many of these Luddites protested against
the use of machines, and man even broke machines to prevent them being used.
Parliament later had to bring in a new law with the Frame Breaking Act of 1812 meaning
that anyone who broke machines and frames could be sentenced to death for doing this.
But Jeremiah Brandreth was involved in a Luddite raid in a factory in 1811 that resulted in
the death of a Luddite who was shot by the factory owner.
But in May 1817 he met with William J Oliver, also known as Oliver the Spy and the pair
agreed to raise a rebellion.
They planned to raise 50,000 men and then they would storm of the Tower of London.
They wanted to rebel against the government at the time and in particular the Home Secretary
Lord Sidmouth, and their rebellion and revolution began on the 9th June 1817.
Brandreth held a meeting in a.
Pub in Pentrich called the white horse, where he asked fellow conspirators to march to Nottingham
where they would be given 100 igneous, bread, meat and ale.
Following this they would then attack a local barrack, overthrow the government and end
the poverty and suffering.
The rebels led by Brandreth were armed with scythes and pikes and some had guns, and they
wanted to spark a revolution of the working class.
At 10pm on the 9th June, 50 men got together at Hunt’s Barn in South Wingfield and they
then searched for more rebels and weapons.
At one house one woman refused to open up and the rioters broke one of her windows and
Jeremiah Brandreth shot his weapon through a window and killed a servant.
He continued to issue threats and threatened to shoot anyone who tried to leave the rebellion.
The group of revels then went towards the Butterley Company’s factory in Ripley Derbyshire,
and when they got there they were confronted by the factory agent and also a number of
policeman.
There was a stand off and some of the rebels left, but Jeremiah then led his remaining
rebels into the town of Ripley and they forced many of the townsmen to join them.
They continued to march throughout a number of villages and they asked for beer bread
and food, but then the rebellion slowly diminished.
They arrived at the village of Giltbrooke where 20 mounted soldiers confronted them,
and then at the scene 40 men were arrested, and over the next few months Jeremiah Brandreth
was arrested also.
In total 35 people involved in the luddite rebellion were brought to trial at the Old
Bailey in London for what was known as the Pentrich Rising.
Jeremiah Brandreth and two others William Turner and Isaac Ludlum were all convicted
of high treasons and they were then sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
However George the Prince Regent then commuted the quartering part of this sentence, meaning
that Brandreth would be hanged on a gallows and then would be beheaded.
He was kept inside of Derby Jail before the execution took place on the 7th November 1817.
Of his execution it was said that, ‘On the 7th November, Brandreth, Turner and Ludlam
ascended the scaffold.
We feel for Brandreth the less, because it seems he killed a man.
But recollect who instigated him to the proceedings which led to murder.
On the word of a dying man, Brandreth tells us, that "Oliver brought him to this" - that,
"but for Oliver, he would not have been there."
See, too, Ludlam and Turner, with their sons and brothers, and sisters, how they kneel
together in this dreadful agony of prayer.
With that dreadful penalty before their eyes - with that tremendous sanction for the truth
of all he spoke, Turner exclaimed loudly and distinctly, while the executioner was putting
the rope round his neck, "This is all Oliver and the government."
What more he might have said we know not, because the chaplain prevented any further
observations.
Troops of horse, with keen and glittering swords, hemmed in the multitudes collected
to witness this abominable exhibition.
"When the stroke of the axe was heard, there was a burst of horror from the crowd.
The instant the head was exhibited, there was a tremendous shriek set up, and the multitude
ran violently in all directions, as if under the impulse of sudden frenzy.
Those who resumed their stations, groaned and hooted."
So Jeremiah Brandreth was hanged on a gallows by an executioner until he was then killed.
Following this, an executioner cut down his lifeless body from the gallows and then he
got his axe out.
He then cut the heads off the 3 men including Jeremiah and it was said the crowd did not
cheer the death of the traitor, and that the cavalry were on edge if there would have been
any trouble in the crowd.
But today Jeremiah Brandreth is known as the man who helped to raise a rebellion in opposition
to the Industrial Revolution, and planned to storm the Tower of London almost like what
occurred during the Peasants Revolt.
But this never gained traction.
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