'CHURCH AND KING' RIOTS
| On July 14th 1791 began four days of rioting whose chief aim was
to burn the homes and loot the property of Birmingham's leading Dissenters.
The mobs were actuated by no love of the Anglican Church and George
III in their harrying of supposed advocates of revolution on the French
model, but by envy, greed, grudge, and delight in destruction. One
party went to the Ship Inn (re-named by F. Wood who had become tenant
six years earlier) where they drank all night at his expense. Next
morning a gang led by Francis Field went to Bordesley Hall, home of
John Taylor II who was fortunately away when they burst in: a party
of gentlemen hurriedly sworn in as special constables were led by
Captain Carver to the Hall, where they managed to contain the rioters
in the wine-cellars while Taylor's documents and valuables were taken
to safety. A larger gang then approached and refused an offer of a
hundred guineas to spare the house.
'When the night set in, flames appeared through the roof and the beautiful and spacious mansion, the greatest part of its superb furniture, its stables, offices, and ricks were totally destroyed excepting the walls'. Another mob had burnt the two meeting houses in the town, then gone to Fair Hill House (between Priestley and Erasmus Roads). This was the home of Dr. Joseph Priestley, scientist and philosopher, who had organised the celebratory dinner which sparked off the riot. He fled to Showell Green leaving his library, apparatus, and records to be burnt and the house reduced to a shell. Moving on, the mob reached 'Farm'. Incredibly Sampson Lloyd III, offering soft words and refreshments, was able to persuade the rioters to leave his property intact ! They plundered George Humphries' elegant Sparkbrook House near the Angel tollgate before following Priestley to his temporary refuge, the Russells' home. The arrival of cavalry from Nottingham ended four days of destruction. As Birmingham was not a corporate borough the victims were obliged to bring suit against the ancient Hemlingford Hundred. Field was executed as was John Green, and some prison sentences were awarded: only about a third of the claims for damage were allowed. The Bordesley mansions were duly restored: the Hall lasted until the estate was sold in 1840; Fair Hill (re-named The Larches), last home of William Withering, doctor and chemist, lasted about three decades longer as did Sparkbrook House. That mansion stood midway along a drive that became Gladstone Road, facing east. |
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