by Mushroom

Created on: October 03, 2010

           BLOOD SPILT ON THE STREETS OF SPITALFIELD

From the mid eighteenth century the silk weavers of Spitalfield and Bethnal Green were suffering extreme hardship due to the revolutionary new changes to their industry brought about by the importation of cheap French silk.  This was not the first time the streets of Spitalfield began to seethe with resentment by the way in which the weavers were forced to  work longer hours and for poorer wages. It was the journeymen weavers who organised a scare campaign which began with a communique to high light their discontentment via an ultimatum delivered to their masters demanding higher wages. When their demands were not met vandalism ensued, having broken down the door of a master's house the silk was torn from the looms and then the looms themselves were destroyed. As a further act of defiance the weavers in the masked parade shouted and jeered through the streets of Spitalfield as they wheeled their cart laden with the effigy of their master. Their mock  and scorn was followed with the sacrificial burning of their master's effigy. The demonstration of 1765 rallied support to persuade the government to introduce a total ban on imported French silk but to no avail. The revolt came to a head in 1769 when Lewis Chauvet a wealthy handkerchief manufacturer not only cut his workers wages, but also refused his workers to join a union. Consequently there followed serious rioting and this action was directed at Chauvet's workers where seventy six of his looms were smashed. As an act of retaliation and to vent his grievance Chauvet offered a £500 reward for the arrest of the culprits. A few weeks later the names of two Irish men were given to the authorities and arrests were made.  The two Irish men were now facing the death penalty but there was little evidence to prove that these two men were solely responsible for breaking into Chauvet's house.  The ring leaders of the rebel union had no doubt that comrades had been made scapegoats by the authorities. There followed a meeting of the weavers union who met at the Dolphin tavern to discuss support for their fellow comrades. Little did they know that Sir John Fielding had been granted military support to quell the popular uprising. Before the soldiers raided the tavern the  weavers were asked to surrender, but one of the ring leaders opened fire killing one of the soldiers. When the soldiers returned fire they killed two of the Dolphin's customers. But in the barrage of bullets that followed all the weavers managed to escape.  The two Irish men were now to be hung at the Salmon and Bull public house. However as the gallows was being built dumbfounded by the miscarriage of justice local people vented their anger with verbal abuse and the throwing of stones. Having been led to the gallows standing on the scaffold one of the Irish men muttered a few words of disbelief trying to come to terms with the  crime with which he had been held responsible. In April 1773 the authorities were said to have been alarmed at the growing unease by the widespread distribution of hand bills persuading other sections of the work force to join their campaign. Three months later this change of tactics led to the Spitalfield act which meant the weavers could look forward to a reasonable standard of living for the next fifty years.

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