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Archiver > GENANZ > 1997-04 > 0860241609


From: Michael Saclier <>
Subject: Re: Machine Breaking
Date: Sat, 05 Apr 1997 12:00:09 +0000


Gary Patton wrote:
>
> I have just come across information relating to an ancestor who was
> deported to Australia for 'Machine Breaking'. In the course of my
> investigations I have discovered quite a number of other 'convicts'
> who were convicted of the same offence.

Ummm...Gary they weren't deported, they were convicted of a crime and
sentenced to transportation. As far as the law was concerned they were
in exactly the same position (in fact a few shades deeper dyed) than the
thieves and scoundrels with whom they travelled. So "convicts" needs no
quotes. I suppose one could parallel the biblical aphorism about a
prophet being without honour in his own country by observing that
martyrs are only seen as such quite a way down the line (time wise).

> Was there a spate of this across the UK in the early 1830's ?.

Indeed there was! It arose from the collision between modern technology
and declining crafts, between the rise of the factory and mass
production and the inefficiencies of cottage industry, between the slow
turning of the seasons and the combination of indoor and outdoor work
(in some cases) and the "modern" ideas of working for a wage, working
for a set number of hours per day in a particular central place and so
on.

It is also inextricably mixed up with Chartism and the demands for
political reform, Poor Law reform and the Anti-Corn Laws agitation and
the wider issue of free trade versus protection. The 1830s and 1840s
were decades of intense turmoil in Britain and indeed throughout Europe
- don't forget they had two perfectly respectable revolutions in Eurpope
in 1830 and 1848 and the British ruling classes were only too well aware
of it.

Hence the transportation not only of the people who rioted and tried to
save their livelihoods by smashing the new factory machinery (the
machine breakers) but also those who later on were transported for
sedition and/or riotous assembly who are known as "The Chartists".

You really ought to go and bone up in the local library. It's not
possible to tell the story here, even if I knew it well enough - it's 35
years or more since I studied it!! Any general or economic history of
the period will give you the information.

> My particular 'case' relates to Wilton, Wiltshire England.

Wilton means carpets to me - whether that is a later industry I don't
know. Perhaps there was a cottage industry producing rugs which was
destroyed by mechanical carpet making?? Certainly I wouldn't have
thought of Wiltshire as being at the centre of this turmoil but it
probably didn't need to be. It was an agricultural county in the early
C19 particularly noted for cheese making. But its soils were poor,
apparently, and later on it became impossible to grow wheat there
economically, much to the detriment of its farmers.

Hope this opens up a few avenues for you.

-
Michael Saclier email:
Noel Butlin Archives Centre phone: 61 6 249 0147
Australian National University fax: 61 6 249 0140
Canberra ACT 0200
Australia I don't speak for them - and vice versa

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