The Swing Riots - 1830

The short period of unrest in southern England in the autumn of 1830 became known as the Swing Riots, after the name used in some letters to landowners and farmers, signed "Captain Swing".

The apparent cause of the riots was the threat posed to winter working by the introduction of threshing machines, which could thresh corn more quickly (and presumably more cheaply) than manual labour. As the labouring poor were suffering harsh poverty in this period after the Napoleonic War, the threat to their lifeline in winter was real.

As context, around the events of 1830 were:

1773 - Inclosure Act took away rights of peasants to graze and otherwise use the countryside "wastes" although this had little impact in south-eastern England.

1790-1815 - Napoleonic disruption to grain imports raised prices

1815 - Waterloo effectively ends the Napoleonic War, resulting in demobilisation of large numbers of soldiers into an already full rural labour market.

Lord Liverpool passed the Corn Laws to keep prices artificially high.

1820 - Poor Law Amendment Act passed, providing a top-up to minimum wages. This allowed farmers to pay low wages as the parish paid a subsidy. Although workhouses were not formalised until 1834, these were already being built to accommodate the poorest.

1828,1829,1830 - three wet summers, and 1829/30 was a cold winter.

1830 - 16th November - Duke of Wellington was replaced by Earl Charles Grey as Prime Minister.

1832 - Great Reform Act

1832 - Allotments Act

1834 -  Poor Law Amendment Act

1834 - Tolpuddle "martyrs"

1836 - Tithe Commutation Act

1838 - George Courtenay's "army" defeated in the Battle of Bossenden Wood

It has been generally accepted that the first attack on threshing machines was in Lower Hardres on 28th August 1830, but this has been challenged after work done by the Elham Historical Society showed that there was an earlier event, on the 24th, at Wingmore in the Elham Valley. 

There were 13 attacks in the area in the next few weeks, while the unrest spread (or perhaps occurred spontaneously) elsewhere in southern England; west Kent, Sussex and across Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset were all affected.

In total, 154 events including arson, wage riots as well as machine-breaking were attributed to this outbreak in Kent, and 1475 in England.

Punishments were initially lenient (Sir Edward Knatchbull was criticised for his clemency) but most were harsh. Of 102 accusations in Kent, 4 were executed, 48 imprisoned and 25 transported to Australia, mostly to Van Dieman's Land. The equivalent figures for England were 1952 accused, 19 executed, 644 jailed and 491 transported.

In one of the enquiries, the Rev. Tho. D'Usoe stated that the rioters were "like Worzel-snouts" in their actions.

William Cobbett wrote of his sympathies for the rioters and was tried but acquitted for complicity.

As a result of the Riots, some wages were increased slightly, and some attempts were made to improve rural conditions.  Threshing machines mostly went out of use, partly through fear of labourers' reprisals and partly as the surplus of labour reduced their economic benefit.

In evidence to the Poor Law committee, the curate of Westwell said "they say, Ah them there riots and burnings did the poor a terrible deal of good".

https://premium.weatherweb.net/weather-in-history-1800-to-1849-ad/

http://www.ehsdatabase.elham.co.uk/Stories/SwingRiots.pdf

https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/34503575/DX223381.pdf