Yorkshire Luddism:  Fiction and commentary 7: Rawfolds Mill: The Aftermath

The aftermath was a brutal as the attack.  John Booth and Samuel Hartley lay wounded in the yard.   According to oral history Cartwright refused their request for water, demanding the names of their leaders in exchange. No information was forthcoming.  Troopers then carried the men off on doors for further interrogation, (Reid, p 115).  According to Kipling and Hall, following Peel's second edition,  the men were first taken to the Yew Tree Inn, (p 41)

Headlands Hall, once The Yew Tree Inn 

This is about a mile from Rawfolds Mill.  A crowd gathered, so the men were moved to The Star in Roberttown. (Kipling/Hall, p 41).  This added another mile to their journey.  In an upper room of The Star they were interrogated further by Rev Hammond Roberson as well as Cartwright and surgery performed.  Booth has his leg amputated and Hartley had a musket ball removed from his chest.  Both died.

The Star Inn,  Roberttown

 The mattresses on which they were treated were stained with nitric acid.  Two rival stories accounted for the stains; that the acid had been used for torture or that it had been used for treating the wounds.  (Reid, p 115/9).  

A plaque on the side of the pub, an official part of the Luddite Trail, records the use of nitric acid 'on the men's wounds'. 

As far as can be gathered, the torture of Luddite suspects carried out by lawyers like J. S. Lloyd consisted mostly of isolation and sleep-deprivation rather than assault.    Within the military assault cannot be ruled out, especially once tough soldiers like Captain Francis Raynes had become involved  (Reid, p 86/191).

 The novels tend to omit these incidents and try to present Cartwright in a better light.   Shirley has Mr Moore and Mr Helstone give ‘directions to have the wounded taken up and carried into the mill,’ (Ch XIX, p 275) not be carried two miles away.  In the following chapter Shirley sends food and linen for defenders and wounded alike.   Only Chapter XXII gives some idea of the commitment to hunt down Luddites that men like the lawyer Lloyd, the soldier Raynes, the mill-owner Cartwright and the clergyman Roberson had .  Chapter XXII mentions ‘the indefatigable, the relentless assiduity, with which he [Moore] pursued the leaders of the riot,’ (p 303).    It is this pursuit that makes him a target for assassins later in the story. 

Daisy Baines has ‘Arkwright’ [Cartwright] tell the wounded Booth: ‘We will take care of you, lad’ , (Chapter XXV, col 3, 18.12.1880).  Sad Times describes the attack on Rawfolds Mill without mentioning the wounded.  Bond Slaves shows ‘Mr Wainwright’ [Cartwright],  ‘hardened by his losses’ refusing to give water to the wounded.  Instead they are given wine and water by Mr Dix (Bond Slaves, Bk III, Chp 4, p 300).   In her retelling the wounded are ‘carried some distance to an inn,’ (Bond Slaves, Bk III, Chp 4, p 301). Through the Fray has ‘the wounded Luddites’ ‘carried into the mill, and Mr Cartwright sending for ‘the nearest surgeon, who was speedily upon the spot’ (Chp XIX, p 128).

Ben o’ Bills is direct about Cartwright and the wounded: ‘But Cartwright wer’ noan for lettin’ him have a drop, not even to wet his lips, till he’d gi’en th’ names o’ those ‘at wer’ th’ leaders,’ (Chp IX, p 207).  It recounts an oral story of Booth’s final repost to Roberson’s questioning in the Star Inn:

‘ “Can yo’ keep a secret, sir?” whispered John

“I can, I can, “ said th’ parson.

“An’ so can I, “ said John with a smile, an’ he put his head back an’ never spak’ no more,’ (Chp IX, p208). 

This story is preserved on the pub plaque (see above).

Not all the novels repeat this story but when they do they often change the tone and the setting.  Daisy Baines has John Booth die at Rawfolds apparently ready to confess, if only he can be released from his misery and killed: ‘kill me, put me out of this pain’, (Chp XXV, Col 2, 18.12.1880).  He accidentally gives away the name of ‘Waller’ [Mellor] :

       ‘Yes, I will say what I know.  Tell –Waller – But – can you – keep a – secret?’

       ‘Yes, yes,’ said Mr. Roberson, bending over the youth.

       ‘So – can I,’ he faintly replied.  His features relaxed their tension, and the gloom of everlasting

        night fell on the face of the dying lad.  His eyes closed and he was dead. 

        (Chp XXV, Col 2, 18.12.1880). 

Surprisingly the story also features in In the Toils of the Luddites.    Here, despite the book’s publication by The Religious Tract Society, sympathies lie with the wounded rebel not the officiating clergyman.  In keeping with the book’s avoidance of historical names the dying Luddite is ‘an intelligent young fellow, who had joined the Luddites from purely sympathetic motives, being deeply touched by the sufferings of the working people,’ whilst the parson is merely ‘a local clergyman,’

    Turning his eyes upon him, with the death-film spreading over them, the young fellow calmly said,  

    “So can I,” and very soon carried the secret with him into the other world. (Chapter VIII, p101).

In Ned Carter in Danger the incident appears, though it has been transferred to the Shears Inn:

‘Keep away from the Shears Inn”

“Why?”

“Your friend Booth’s lying dead there,” (Chp 7, p110)

 The story is retold on p 111-2: ‘I was pleased when I was able to tell him [Robert]  a fine story about Booth,’ (Chp 7 p 111).  Though Booth is named as the narrator, the clergyman remain anonymous and the story remains hearsay.   The ‘tale’ ends: ‘He began to laugh, and as he laughed the blood suddenly poured from his mouth and he died,’ (Chp 7, p 112).  This convincing dramatic, eye-witness detail is immediately thrown into doubt by the next sentence: ‘This tale, whether true or not, revived Robert enormously,’ (Chp 7, p 112).    Booth is not unequivocally established as a hero.

The back of The Shears, from the Roberttown footpath.  

 Kipling and Hall refer to this story as ‘perhaps apocryphal’ (p 41) but it is incorporated on the pub’s plaque that, like Colbeck and Sykes/Walker, remembers the two Luddites as refusing to betray their comrades (see above). 

This Booth is a long way from Bond Slave’s figure of pathos: ‘ Truly, poor, weak, vacillating John Booth was meant for better things,’ who has been betrayed by ‘the reckless friend who had brought him to this dire extremity – and left him in it [italics in original],’ (Bond Slaves, Bk III, Chp 4, p 302).  

In contradiction of the aphorism that history is written by victors 'John Booth Close',

a modern cul-de-sac, stands close to The Star