(based on http://www.ludditelink.org.uk/perch/resources/yorkshire-luddism-timeline1.pdf)
*= indicates an incident used in fiction.
11 November 1807: Orders in Council forbid trade with France or her allies. *
1809 Legislation protecting skilled hand-workers by controlling woollen cloth manufacture and
apprenticeships repealed.
11 March 1811: Nottinghamshire: stocking frames smashed. The name ‘Ludd’ and ‘Luddite’
appear. *
15 January 1812: Leeds: Magistrates disperse hostile crowd; some have blackened faces.
19 January 1812: Leeds: Oatlands Mill near Woodhouse Carr has a suspicious fire.
22 February 1812: Huddersfield: Marsh: shearing-frames destroyed in Joseph Hirst’s workshop.
Crosland Moor: James Balderson’s premises attacked. *
26 February 1812: Huddersfield: Leymoor: all machinery destroyed in William Hinchliffe dressing-
shop.
George Inn, committee of owners formed to oppose Luddites
March 1812: Huddersfield: Slaithwaite , Honley and Crosland Moor. Attacks and weapons raids.
Manufacturers’ Committee offers 100 guineas reward for arrest of Luddites.
15 March 1812: Leeds: Dickenson, Carr & Go's workshop attacked and cloth destroyed.
Huddersfield, Taylor Hill, Vickerman's Mill attacked, machines destroyed. *
20 March 1812: Machine-breaking is made a capital offence.
23-25 March 1812: Leeds: Rawdon: William Thompson & Bros shearing-mill attacked;
Machines destroyed and cloth damaged.
1 April 1812: Holmfirth: Smith’s Workshop; dressing-frames and shears damaged.
Honley: James Brook’s; new shearing-frame destroyed.
9 April 1812: Wakefield: Horbury: Joseph Foster’s Mill gig-mills, cropping shears and frames, and
cloth destroyed by armed crowd estimated at 300 to 600.
April ? 1812: Bradley Mill attacked. Attack defeated.
11 April 1812: Liversedge: Rawfolds: William Cartwright’s mill defended against attack by about
150 armed men, possibly led by George Mellor. Luddites Samuel Hartley and John
Booth die of their wounds in The Star Inn, Robberttown. *
14-15 April 1812: Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley: Food riots.
18 April 1812: Liversedge: two men attempt to shoot William Cartwright.
Later April: Milnsbridge: Milnsbridge House: shots fired at men in house of magistrate Joseph
Radcliffe.
21 April 1812: Liversedge: RawfoldsMill: Soldier who refused to fire on the Luddites during the
siege flogged outside the mill. Cartwright stops the punishment after 25 lashes.
27 April 1812: Huddersfield: Crosland’s Moor: Four men ambush and mortally wound William
Horsfall, owner of Ottiwell’s Mill, Marsden. He dies in the Warrener House inn. *
May 1812: Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire. General Maitland takes command .
11 May 1812: London, houses of Parliament. Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, assassinated.
Initially thought to be a Luddite action.
June 1812: Yorkshire: Luddite arms raids continue.
16 June 1812: London: Repeal of the Orders in Council.*
18 June 1812: War with the United States closes down most of trade freed by the repeal.
July 1812: London: legislation; illegal oath-taking subject to the death penalty. Magistrates no
longer need to read the Riot Act to disperse crowds and can search premises for
weapons.
July 1812: Huddersfield: C 1,000 troops billeted in the town.
18 August 1812: Leeds: Corn Market: ‘Lady Ludd’ leads riot of women and boys against food prices.
Sheffield: riots against flour and meal sellers.
3 September 1812: Halifax: Southowram: destruction of gig-mill.
Morley: Gildersome: destruction of Shearing frames.
2 January 1813: York: Castle: trial of Luddites. George Mellor, William Thorpe and Thomas
Smith tried and found guilty of the murder of William Horsfall. Five men
convicted for the attack on Rawfolds. *
8 January 1813: York: Castle: Mellor, Thorpe and Smith executed for the murder of William
Horsfall. *
16 January 1813: York: Castle: Execution of 14 Luddites in two batches. *
March 1813: Bulk of militia withdrawn from Yorkshire.
After May 1842: Yorkshire, Lancashire: The military are moved back in to quell riots and protests
resulting from the rejection of the first chartist Petition for voting reforms.
Factories were often prevented from working by removing the plugs of their steam
engine boilers. This action lead to the disturbances being called ‘Plug Riots’ or
‘Physical Force Chartism’. *