Introduction
In October 1833, after his wages had been slashed almost by half, George Loveless of Tolpuddle in Dorset, a farm labourer and father of five, formed a Friendly Society to support struggling families and to remind employers of their moral obligations. The following March, George and five others found themselves up before the Bench in Dorchester under the obscure Unlawful Oaths Act (1797).
I SHALL not soon forget the address of the judge* to the jury, in summing up the evidence; among other things, he told them, that if such Societies were allowed to exist, it would ruin masters,* cause a stagnation in trade, destroy property* - and if they should not find us guilty, he was certain they would forfeit the opinion of the grand jury.* I thought to myself, there is no danger but we shall be found guilty, as we have a special jury for the purpose, selected from among those who are most unfriendly towards us — the grand jury, landowners, the petty jury, land-renters. Under such a charge, from such a quarter, self-interest alone would induce them to say, “Guilty.”
The judge then inquired if we had anything to say.* I instantly forwarded the following short defence, in writing, to him:-
“My Lord, if we have violated any law, it was not done intentionally; we have injured no man’s reputation, character, person, or property; we were uniting together to preserve ourselves, our wives, and our children, from utter degradation and starvation.*
* John Williams (?-1846), King’s Counsel from 1827 and from February 1824 a serjeant-at-law and one of the puisne (‘puny’) barons of the Court of Exchequer. The following month, March, Williams heard the case of the King versus George Loveless. Even as the storms of protest gathered, Williams was knighted on April 16th, transferring days later to the Court of King’s Bench.
* The judge needed to spend more time curled up with Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776). See The Economic Case for Generous Wages.
* George Loveless’s Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers was not a Union of the kind that later grew up under the influence of the violently repressive ideology of London-based Karl Marx (1818-1883), which menaced lives and confiscated property. Loveless emphasised that nobody’s property was under threat, and Rule 23 of the Society stated that “That the object of this society can never be promoted by any act or acts of violence; but, on the contrary, all such proceedings must tend to injure the cause and destroy the society itself. This order, therefore, will not countenance any violation of the laws.”
* Under the justice system of the day, a grand jury of up to twenty-three members brought the formal charge (since 1986, a function performed by the Crown Prosecution Service), and a petty (petit, ‘small’) or trial jury of twelve decided the facts of the case in court. George anxiously noted that the petty jurors were in many cases employees and tenants of the grand jurors.
* The prisoners at the bar were George Loveless, his brother James Loveless and brother-in-law Thomas Standfield, Thomas’s son John Standfield, James Brine, and James Hammett.
* “We meant nothing more, sir,” Loveless told Thomas Mason, a magistrate, on the very day of his arrival in Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania) that September, “than uniting together to keep up the price of labour, and to support each other in time of need.” Mason insisted that Loveless reveal the covert oaths and secret signals of the Union movement, which George protested he could not do because there weren’t any. “That will do,” replied Mason, “I will report you to the governor and you shall be punished.”
Précis
In 1834, George Loveless and five other farmhands who had established a Friendly Society supporting destitute labourers in Dorset’s agriculture industry, were charged with conspiracy by a Dorchester court. After recalling the judge’s biased summing-up, peppered with veiled threats to the jury, Loveless transcribed the appeal he had then made disclaiming any threat to their employers’ safety or property. (59 / 60 words)
In 1834, George Loveless and five other farmhands who had established a Friendly Society supporting destitute labourers in Dorset’s agriculture industry, were charged with conspiracy by a Dorchester court. After recalling the judge’s biased summing-up, peppered with veiled threats to the jury, Loveless transcribed the appeal he had then made disclaiming any threat to their employers’ safety or property.
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