The Gordon Riots: Background and Scale
In June 1780, London experienced five days of very serious rioting which, it is estimated, led to some 285 people being killed, 173 wounded, and 139 arrested. Most of the casualties were among the rioters after the army was called in to quell them on Wednesday, the 7th of June.
The riot started after Lord George Gordon, a retired navy lieutenant and president of the Protestant Association, led a crowd variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people to the House of Commons to present a petition for the repeal of the 1778 Roman Catholic Relief Act on Friday, the 2nd of June. The purpose of this Act was to repeal the severely anti-Catholic laws passed in the late 1600s.
All those who went to Parliament in procession with Gordon wore blue cockades and carried blue flags with the legend “no popery.” The protest quickly got out of hand, and in the evening, the mob began attacking prominent Catholic churches. Early victims were the Sardinian chapel near Lincoln’s Inn Fields and the Bavarian chapel in Warwick Street. The windows were broken, the doors forced, and once inside, the rioters wrecked the interior and set fire to the furniture, resulting in the complete destruction of some buildings. Only the efforts of soldiers and bystanders managed to save the Bavarian chapel from total devastation.
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Escalation of Violence and Government Response
Later, the rioters turned their attention to the homes and business premises of Catholics and also attacked some major public buildings such as the Bank of England, the King’s Bench Prison, Newgate, Fleet, and Marshalsea prisons. On Wednesday night, it was reported that standing on London Bridge, no less than thirty-six different buildings could be seen on fire. Fortunately, it was a still summer’s evening and the fires did not spread too much. It was not until a week later, on Friday, the 9th of July, that the rioting was finally put down.
Initially, the government had been slow to react to the rioting. The first meeting to discuss it did not take place until the Monday, three days after it had started, and even then, there was a very half-hearted response. Parliament sat on Tuesday, the 6th of June, and was disrupted by the mob’s protests. Some of the magistrates sided with the Protestant Association; some were simply not brave enough to read the Riot Act, which was a prerequisite to ordering soldiers and constables to disperse the mob.
It wasn’t until Wednesday that King George intervened and ordered the army to intervene and start shooting rioters and arresting them. The casualties were severe, as stated earlier. By Thursday evening, the Gordon Riots were all but over, leaving a huge trail of damage and destruction to repair.
Lord George Gordon’s Trial and Later Life
Lord George Gordon was tried for high treason, but his defence by renowned advocate Thomas Erskine led to an acquittal, and he carried on his duties as an MP. He was later imprisoned for libelling Marie Antoinette and died in Newgate prison in 1793.
Mary Roberts and Charlotte Gardiner: Arrest and Charges
Two of the prisoners who had been arrested were Mary Roberts and Charlotte Gardiner, who were subsequently charged with riot and pulling down the house of a Mr. John Lebarty on the 8th of June. Mr. Lebarty was an Italian gentleman who kept a public house and shop in St. Catherine’s Lane.
Mary Roberts had been a former neighbour of Mr. Lebarty, and he had had her removed from her lodgings by the parish constables for her anti-social behaviour. Mary still lived quite close by in an adjoining street and clearly had reason to hold a grudge against Mr. Lebarty. When she turned up outside his house on Monday evening, she abused him and promised to destroy his property as she said it was a Papist house. She repeated these threats on Tuesday and then on Wednesday put them into practice with the help of others. The threats were also heard by Mr. Lebarty’s neighbours. By the early hours of Thursday, Mary and her co-defendant, Charlotte, had taken over the remains of the property and were seen throwing things out of the house.
The Trial of Mary and Charlotte
The two women were tried together on the 28th of June 1780 before Lord Chief Baron Skynner. Mr. Lebarty, his maid—fifteen-year-old Elisabeth Frazer—and several of his neighbours appeared for the prosecution. They gave the court clear evidence of identification for Mary and recounted the events of Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Charlotte was probably quite unusual at the time in that she was a black girl. Witnesses testified to her very active role in the destruction and how she rallied the other rioters to help in it. Elisabeth Frazer gave the court a detailed account of Mary’s activities and how she had helped pull the pub bar down and tossed Mr. Lebarty’s goods out into the street. Letitia Harris, who lived opposite Mr. Lebarty, told the court that she had seen Charlotte in Mr. Lebarty’s house and saw her carry a bed out on her shoulders from it. Mrs. Harris testified that Charlotte had been encouraging the others to burn down the house and that she had worked, as she put it, “like a horse” in the process, even taking off her shoes and stockings.
Another neighbour, Elisabeth Jolliffe, was also able to testify against Charlotte. She told the court that she had seen Charlotte with two men who broke into the house and who were shouting, “down with Popery, down with Popery.” Mrs. Jolliffe confirmed to the court that she had seen Charlotte going in and out of the house several times and that she was swearing and cursing and calling for more wood for the fire.
Mary Roberts’ Defence and Verdict
Mary Roberts questioned some of the witnesses and offered the court a defence. She said that she came home around eleven o’clock to see the mob breaking down Mr. Lebarty’s door. When they saw her, they asked if she was a Catholic, to which she said no. She alleged that she was threatened with being smothered if she did not help them loot the house. It wasn’t until the next morning that she heard about the fire and how it had destroyed the building.
She also called a Mr. Thomas Buddin, who testified that he had spoken to her that night and asked why she was apparently helping the mob. He claimed that she told him she was trying to rescue some of Mr. Lebarty’s property and was going to return it to him in the morning. To this end, he told the court, she had informed the parish bellman that she had some of the items for Mr. Lebarty to collect. Mary’s sister-in-law, also Mary, gave her a character reference.
Charlotte did not enter any defence. After a short deliberation, the Second Middlesex Jury found them both guilty, as was the expression.
Sentencing and Executions
The June Sessions of the Old Bailey were extremely busy as a result of the Gordon Riots. In all, thirty-five men and three women were sentenced to death, including Mary and Charlotte. Of these, only three men were condemned for offences other than riot, and all three were hanged. Of the rioters, fifteen men were reprieved, including Edward Dennis, London’s hangman. Dennis claimed that he had been recognised by the mob in Holborn and had been threatened with death if he did not help them pull down the house of a Mr. Edmund Boggis. The remaining 19 were hanged at various places—in some cases where their crime was committed. A further 34 were tried and condemned at the Special Sessions held at the Sessions House on St. Margaret’s Hill in Southwark, and of those, six were executed on Monday, 14th August.
At this time, judges could order that a person be executed at a suitable place near where the crime was committed. This was done in the cases of all the rioters, and none were hanged at Tyburn, which was still the usual place of execution in London.
Mary and Charlotte were taken to Tothill Fields Prison to await their fate. They were hanged together with one man, William McDonald, on Tuesday, the 11th of July 1780, on a specially constructed gallows erected on Tower Hill—this being the nearest convenient place close to St. Catherine’s Lane. Edward Dennis’ assistant, William Brunskill, is believed to have officiated at all these executions. It was very unusual for hangings to take place here; most executions on Tower Hill were by beheading.
Other Rioters Who Were Hanged
| Date (all in 1780) | Name | Place of Execution |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 11th July | William Brown (age 22) | Bishopsgate Street |
| William Pateman (age 20) | Coleman Street | |
| William McDonald | Tower Hill | |
| Mary Roberts | Tower Hill | |
| Charlotte Gardiner | Tower Hill | |
| Wednesday 12th July | James Henry | Hatton Garden Holborn |
| Richard Roberts (age 17) | Bow Street | |
| Benjamin Taplin | Bow Street | |
| Thursday 13th July | Enoch Fleming | Woodstock Street |
| Thursday 20th July | James Jackson | Old Bailey |
| John Gamble | Bethnal Green | |
| Samuel Solomons | Whitechapel | |
| Friday 21st July | George Staples | White’s Alley Moorfields |
| Jonathan Stacey | White’s Alley Moorfields | |
| Benjamin Waters | Old Street opposite Golden Lane | |
| Thomas Price | Old Street opposite Golden Lane | |
| James Burns | Old Street opposite Golden Lane | |
| Saturday 22nd July | John Gray | Bloomsbury Square |
| Charles Kent | Bloomsbury Square | |
| Monday 14th August | Robert Lovell | St. George’s Fields near the King’s Bench (Imprisoned in the New Jail) |
| Edward Dorman | ||
| Mary Cook (age 25) | ||
| Oliver Johnson | ||
| Elizabeth Collins (age 17) | ||
| John Bridport (age 17) | ||
| Wednesday 23rd August | Henry Penny (respited from 14/08) | |
| Wednesday 22nd November | Mary Gardner | Tyburn |
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