The Dorchester Labourers in Greensted

During the first half of the 19th century, since the ending of the Napoleonic Wars, agriculture had suffered during a period of crisis. Falling wages contributed to hardship for the agricultural labourer. Indeed, wages dropped so much that eventually they fell below a subsistence level. Disaffection led to workers either organising themselves into groups, able to negotiate wages collectively with local farmers, or engaging in more direct action . . . arson. Farmers, landowners and the magistracy, the “establishment”, were, of course, eager to see law and order maintained. Discontent was widespread but there was a need to avoid any over-reaction on the part of the authorities, an over-reaction subsequently and tragically culminating in 1839 at Newport, Monmouthshire, where troops fired directly into demonstrators, killing at least 22 men.

In 1834, farm labourers in Tolpuddle, Dorset, formed themselves into a society called the Friendly Society of Labourers. They were led by the example of other similar, established local societies. Included in the rules of the society, the “union”, were details on the use of a password to enter the “Lodge” and a rule that prohibited obscenities. The society’s rules further stated: “That the objects of this society can never be promoted by any acts of violence, but on the contrary all such proceedings must tend to injure the cause and destroy the society itself”. They swore on oath, before a drawn sword, to carry out the aims of the lodge and to keep secret the rules. The labourers were determined but were high-minded men.

Anxious to counter the threat of such collective action, cautions from magistrates were published locally. Soon after this action, on 24th February 1834, the labourers were arrested by the local constable, a Mr James Brine. Under questioning, the group consistently stated that they were not aware of having violated any law. Various charges were brought against them. The act, which outlawed all forms of unionism, was repealed in 1824, but the principle charge concerned their taking an oath. The evidence against them was selective but scant. Nevertheless, an unrepresentative jury found them guilty. The judge, Judge Williams, sentenced them to be transported for a period of seven years. Furthermore, the judge refused parish relief for the families of the convicted men.

There was much subsequent support for the labourers against their conviction. A large demonstration attended by trade unionists took place in Copenhagen Fields on 21st April 1834 and, after a march, peacefully conducted, through the heart of London, a petition was presented to an absent Lord Melbourne at the Home Office.

Contemporary press correspondence indicated a deep concern. Parliamentary reaction was mixed and strongly polarized. Despite this, there was to be no immediate pardon and James and George Loveless, Thomas and John Stanfield, James Hammet and James Brine were transported on 17th May 1834 to Botany Bay.

Lord John Russell, sympathetic to the cause of the labourers, became Home Secretary in April 1835. Russell believed that George Loveless “had given a very fair . . . and true account of the evidence against him, was agreeable to the fact, but . . . he did not know it was unlawful”. Furthermore, Russell believed that the illegality on which they were committed was contrived. Tellingly, Russell also drew attention to the King’s brother, the Duke of Cumberland, who as Grand Master of the Orange Lodges had himself taken an oath, was similarly “doing the same thing only with more cunning, and deserve at least a more severe punishment”!

Hansard of 14th March 1836 records that, in answer to a parliamentary question, Lord John Russell stated that His Majesty had been pleased to grant the Dorchester Labourers a free pardon. They were also granted a free passage back to England.

It took time for them to arrange the return voyage. Five returned as soon as they were able (James Hammett could not be found at the time). They set sail on 11th September 1837 and arrived in Plymouth on 17th March 1838 a journey of six months. They landed to be greeted by celebrations and demonstrations in Dorset. They attended a procession through London.

On 8th October 1839, The London Dorchester Committee staged a benefit evening for all the labourers in a London theatre, and by then James Hammett had returned. The event was the last stage in an appeal to raise between £400 and £500 which was necessary to purchase small farms. Whatever the final sum, farms were leased in Essex, New House Farm in Greensted and Fenners Farm in High Laver in August 1838. It was now well over three years since the granting of the pardon. The farm in Greensted was leased from John Sympson Jessopp, a lawyer living in Ostend.

Chartism was the concern of those charged with maintaining law and order. In Greensted, the Loveless and Brine families continued to be a focus of some mistrust and prejudice, and this despite behaviour that was invariably honourable. The Morning Post of 17th December 1839 carried a long article “upon which the public may confidently rely”, which reported the arrival of the Dorchester labourers in Essex. “And what was the effect of this Ministerial counter-colonisation from Botany Bay to the rural parishes of Essex?” the paper asks. “The new settlers at Grinstead and High Laver had not been long established among the hitherto quiet and well-conducted population of these parishes before they began to agitate, and to agitate in a manner and with a degree of success which showed but too plainly that their mission of mischief had not been entrusted to unpractised or unskilful hands”. The article further asks “What spot . . . can be supposed free from this foul infection (Chartism), when it is seen to have pervaded even the quiet and secluded hamlets of the county of Essex?” Of course there is a strong political undertone to the article with Lord John Russell, the Minister, the eventual object of the attack.

A local magistrate wrote to the Morning Post on 28th December 1839:

“I must request your insertion of the following remarks . . . It is true that some half dozen radicals in Ongar subscribe certain weekly halfpence to take in that immaculate print the People’s Charter.

It is true that a wagon load of delegates from some political union in London came down one day some six months ago, with ribbons in their buttonholes, to endeavour, I presume to get some beer and bread and cheese out of their Chartist brethren, in which praiseworthy object however, I believe they failed as signally as they did in endeavouring to enlist the people of Essex under the banner of Chartism.

It is true that these firebrands, the dreaded Dorchester labourers, are four poor ignorant creatures, who literally do not know how to plough the land they occupy.

And lastly it is true (and let me tell them they are marked men) that if these half dozen democrats (neither Essex men nor true agriculturalists are they) should attempt to disturb the peace of the county, they would be put down, not by military forces as at Newport, not by an armed gendarmerie of rural police, but by the good sense and strong arm of the TRUE agricultural yeoman and labourers of Essex (and I would stake my existence on the fact) would follow their landlords to the last drop of blood in defence of the cause – the cause of religion, their laws, and their own firesides, -
I am sir,
A Conservative magistrate for the County of Essex”.

The letter, with its irony, says much about local feelings towards the Dorchester Labourers amongst one sector of society. There is some evidence to suggest that these local feelings were echoed by the Reverend Philip Ray, the long-serving Rector of Greensted.

New House Farm was auctioned on 8th October 1840 in Waltham Abbey. A posting bill for the sale advertises the Farm as being a freehold estate and “situated in a delightful part of the County of Essex, and most respectable Neighbourhood, being at the rural and romantic Village of Greensted about 2 miles from the Market Town of Chipping Ongar, a fine sporting part of the Country.” Apparently, it was “a Neighbourhood of first respectability”. The farm comprised land of a little over 76 acres extent. Despite the suggestion that George Loveless may have offered a higher rent for the property than might have been expected at the commencement of the lease, the particulars of the sale state that:
“This Lot is under lease to Mr. Loveless, which expires at Michaelmas 1845. when the present Rental may reasonably be expected to be doubled, the lease having been granted when Agriculture was at its very lowest point in the depression, previous to which time it was let at £120 per annum”.
Perhaps, the anticipated rise in the rent for the farm was another factor in the further move of the families.

Greensted parish registers record the marriage of James Brine to Elizabeth Standfield on June 20th, 1839. James was stated to be 26 years old and Elizabeth was 21. Witnesses to the marriage were John Standfield, Joseph Brine, Charity Standfield and Susan Standfield, all of whom appear to have written their own name in the register.

The National Census of 1841 records the families of Loveless and Brine living in New House Farm. Entries refer to:
James (30 years old) and Sarah Loveless (25) and a son (10), whose first name is not easily read;
George (40) and Elizabeth Loveless (40) and their children George (11), Robert (10), Thomas (10), Louisa (2) and Louise (7 months);
James (25) and Elizabeth Brine (20) and their daughter Mary Jane (1).

(There was a tendency to round ages on early census forms to a multiple of five years, with ladies more likely to round downwards!)

The baptismal register of Greensted shows that Mary Jane Brine was born on 26th December 1839. Susanna Standfield Brine followed, born on 6th February 1842. The baptisms of Louisa and Louise Loveless were not recorded in the parish registers of Greensted, Bobbingworth or Stanford Rivers. Their absence may have been the consequence of the conversion of George Loveless to Methodism.

The Dorchester Labourers emigrated to Canada in two groups in 1844 and 1846. It may be surmised that this was the result of continuing difficulties in agriculture, local opposition and rising rents. The Brine, Loveless and Standfield families settled around London, Ontario. John Standfield ran a hotel and became Mayor of East London. George Loveless helped build the local Methodist church and preached there. James Brine was highly respected and died only in 1902 at the age of 89. James Hammet was honoured near Tolpuddle 41 years after his transportation.

Their accusers were politically motivated. Their treatment was harsh. They had farmed in three continents in a little over ten years. They were high-minded men.