ANNALS OF OLDHAM No. LXXXII 1816 April 10th -Died, James Wild, of Top o’ the’ Moor. Age, about 70 years. The weather still continues extreemly cold. High winds, with storms of hail and snow. Very severe freezing. April 14th – was Easter Sunday, wich was very cold, for last night it froze most severely, and it has been so long and so severely cold that there is not the least apearance of Spring, no kind of vegetation having made the least apearance. Meal, 26s. a load; flour, 45s. a load; pottatoes, 5s. to 8s. a load. At Oldham meal 1s. 6d. and flour 2s. 6d.; pottatoes, 7d. to 9d. a score; old butter, 12d.; cheese, 7d.; bacon, 6d. to 7d. a pond. A deal of merchants are becoming bankrupts wich trows the greatest stagnation on trade, and all sorts of weaving growing dayley worse and worse. A deal of country banks have failed, and more are expected to follow the same example, which trows the greatest distress on the comerce of the country. As showing how faithfully Rowbottom represented the state of the country, I quote the words of Lord Nugent in the House of Commons, in April, 1816, this very month:- “Let us see the state of our country,” said he. “Let us go forth among our fields and manufactories (perhaps Lord Nugent had not heard of the cotton business at Oldham) and let us see what are the tokens and indications of peace. Can we trace them among a peasantry without work, and consequently without bread? Among farmers unable to pay their rents? Among landowners unable to collect their rents? Let us listen to the cry of the country. It is poverty from the proudest castle to the meanest cottage. Poverty rings in our ears, it lies in our path whichever way we turn. It is not in the power of the noble lord (Lord Sidmouth), it is not in the power of this House, to stifle the cry of want, or brave the stroke of universal bankruptcy.” As to the cause of this commercial misery, as I have already hinted, it was the currency question. The persecuted William Cobbett, afterwards member of Parliament for Oldham, had been the true prophet. His “Paper Against Gold” still rung in the ears of England. Government proposed at this time that the Bank of England should lend the Treasury £6,000,000, and in return should receive a prolongation of the period of suspension of cash payments till July 1818, as the sudden contraction of the paper currency had created mischief all over the land. Mr. Francis Horner puts this currency question as affecting the present commercial crisis in its truest light. He says:-“The extensive issue of paper during the war was the cause of the rapid and extraordinary enhancement of prices which then took place in every article, and the still more rapid and disastrous fall of prices which had taken place since the peace was the result of the great contraction of the currency, especially of country bankers, which had ensued from the prospect of immediately resuming cash payments in terms of the existing law on the termination of hostilities, and by far the greatest which impended over the country was the necessity of paying off in a contracted and therefore dear currency during peace, the debts, public and private, which had been incurred during the lavish issue of a plentiful, and therefore, cheap currency during the war,” – See “Life and Times of Palmerston.” April 14th -Died Thomas Travis, of Top-o’-th’-Northmoor. He was blind, and an exalent player on the fiddle. His age about 30 years. Disorder, consumption. |
Musical talent, as well as mathematical skill, as was seen in the case of James and William Travis, seems to have been reposed in the ancient family of Travis. Of this I discoursed in a previous annal. What an inheritance, and how nobly used! Blind Thomas Travis, excellent on the fiddle! A poor man, no doubt, and yet a new gem out of an old mine. What a wealth is thus distributed among our peasantry. If one were disposed to preach a sermon on such a theme – St. Paul would easily find me many a text. Does he not speak of vessels unto honour meet for the Master’s use? Such “treasures have we in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” These words may have another meaning, but they have none truer than this. A people with such treasures reposed in them cannot be a bad people, if only properly understood. Love of music, or rather as in this case, love of a fiddle seems inherent in the ordinary Oldhamer. Who does not remember the old native jigging song expressive of devotion to this instrument:-
And yet the other day I heard an old friend of mine telling one of his choir that she ought not to call a fiddle a fiddle, but a violin. Fiddle-de-dee. If preachers must be successful they must understand and deal with the instincts and tastes of those to whom they ought to preach. Instincts and tastes planted by a Master hand, which sometimes suffer only from over-cultivation, as love of a fiddle, a dog, a pigeon, a horse, a gun,. Is not this the one secret of non-success, whether the preacher preach in a church or in a chapel, or even in a newspaper or on the street? How can pigeon-flyers, dog runners, turf men, and all that ilk be pressed into the kingdom of heaven without bearing this in mind? Do men expect to gather grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles? April 15th -Died, Sally, wife of John Holt, hatter, New-road, Oldham. She was daughter of James Mills, of St. Helens, Northmoor, where she died. Disorder, consumption; age, 20 years. April 15th -Died, James Buckley, of Oldham, late a considerable tradesman. He formerly went by the name of old Parker; age, 53 years; apoplexy. April 15th -Died at Bath, Somersetshire, William Horton, Esquire, son of the late Sir William Horton, and brother to the late Sir Watts, and brother to the present Sir Thomas Horton, baronets, all of Chadderton Hall. He was collonol of 2nd Lancashire Militia. He was born Oct. 21st, 1767. April 18th -Last night the warehouse of Messrs. Hadfield, Barker, and Taylor’s was broke open, and a large quantity of beaver was stolen therefrom; and early this morning one James Shaw was aprehended with a large quantity of beaver in his possession. He was committed to the New Bayley for tryal; as was James Ogden, late keeper of the White Hart public-house, Maygate-lane, on a charge of the above robbery. Genuine beaver hats were at this time much affected by the better class of people. I am told by an old boy of that period that he remembers his eldest brother having a new beaver hat which cost a guinea, and which was looked on by the family quite as an investment. The material from which these hats were made was the hair of the beaver, and was worth at that time a guinea an ounce. Such a robbery as is mentioned in this annal would no doubt arouse the wonder of the town on account of the precious nature of the loot. About the middle of this year, the government gave orders for the discontinuance of the local militia. A few days since, one Susanna Holroyd, of Charlestown, Ashton-under-Line, was commited to Lancaster on a charge of poisoning her husband and two children. |
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ANNALS OF OLDHAM No. LXXXIII 1816 Flour took a rapid rise as much as 10s. a load last week art Manchester. On the 27th as much as 63s. a load was asked in the morning, but at the conclution of the market it sold at 55s. Meal and pottatoes little alteration. This rise in the price of flour, it must be remembered, was in the beginning part of the year, April. It would most seem as if there was a conspiracy to force up the price of flour. Speculators were evidently at work on the prospect of a bad harvest. This is clear from the fluctuating prices here quoted. The “corn bill” had placed the poor at the mercy of the rich. There was no reason why a corn ring should not purchase all the flour that England could grow. Perhaps someone will say there were no rings in those days.. If not there must have been grasping, avaricious men. The late Mr. John Edward Taylor, of the Guardian tells us that, “the giving of a fictitious value to the price of corn to enable the landed interest to pay the impositions to which it was subjected, was a measure that produced a deep and lasting irritation in the minds of the labouring classes.” And well it might, when corn was going up 10s. a day. William Horton, Esquire, of Chadderton Hall, died at Bath in Somersetshire, April 15th. Arived at Chadderton Hall on the 30th was intered at Oldham on Satuerday, May 4th. He was in the 49th year of his age, being born Oct. 21st, 1767. He was leiutennant-collonol to the 2nd Royal Lancashire Militia. His late father, Sir Wm. Horton, barronet, died Feb. 25th, 1774, age 61 years. The lady of Sir William died May 19th, 1778, her age 47 years. The late Sir Watts died November, 1811, nearly 58 years of age. Mr. Horton was the third brother of Sir Watts Horton. May 7th -Died, Ann, widow of the late Adam Ogden, of Burnley-lane; disorder-consumption. And died, Mally, wife of John Buckley, of Mount Pleasant, near Chadderton Mill: disorder, consumption. May 1st - Manchester sessions commenced, when James Ogden for receiving a part of the beaver stolen from the warehouse of Messrs. Hadfield, Barker and Taylors, transported for 7 years. James Shaw, for breaking into said warehouse, tryal put off until next sessions. Sarah Gordon, acquited: her husband Alexander Gordon, not yet taken. |
Lamentable and distressed situation of the poor weavers is behind all comprehention. Velveteens, cords, &c. are wove at from 18d. to 20d. per pond, and all other sorts of fustian goods in proportion. Light goods are still worse if posable; a deal of kinds are wove at one-third than they were two years ago, and to meet all this flour is taking a rapid rise. The poor hand-loom weavers were evidently being ground between the upper and the nether millstone – corn speculations and machinery improvements. No wonder that discontent was bred in the mind of the suffering population. Flower is selling at the advanced price of 3s. 1d. to 3s. 3d. a peck; meal, from 1s. 10d. to 2s. a peck; pottatoes, 7d. to 9d. per score. Weaving is every day worse. The general wages now paid is from 16d. to 18d. a pond, 24 hanks;some indeed for exalent work will get up to 19d. a pond. Tabbys must be very good ones wich are 20s a c…… Light goods are worse if posable than strong fustians, and a deal of weavers out of employ. The weather still continues extreemly cold, and all kinds of vegetation late. June 4th -was the prize ringing at Preston, when the first prize for changes (12 guineas) was woon by the Bolton ringers; the second prize for changes (8 guineas) was woon by the ringers of St. John’s, Manchester; the prize (6 guineas) for the best round peal was woon by the ringers of St. John’s, Manchester. Several sets rung from Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, &c. June 17th -Was intered at Oldham, John Marsland of Oldham, hat manufacturer. His age 49 years. He ordered eight poor men one pound each, who carried him to his grave. This John Marsland must not be mistaken for John Marsland, a soldier, who was intered at St. Peter’s Chapel, over whom a curios epitaph was inscribed, describing him as having been twelve years in the wars and as fighting many battles, yet free from shots and scars. June 18th -Was intered, John Marlor, shoemaker and leather cutter; he was far advanced in years. June 19th -Was intered, Robert Marlor, son to the above John Marlor, both of Oldham. Robert was master of the King’s Arms public-house, Oldham. This is the first mention I have seen of this popular hostelry. |
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