John
Knight was born in Yorkshire in 1763 but as a young man moved to the
Manchester area. After serving his
apprenticeship he became a handloom weaver in the village of Saddleworth.
Knight developed a successful business but felt angry about his lack
of political rights. Strongly influenced by the ideas of Tom
Paine, John Knight's views on parliamentary reform brought him
to the attention of the local magistrates and in 1794 he was arrested
and sent to prison for two years for making a seditious speech at
Royton.
John Knight, like most handloom weavers, found it difficult to compete
with the new textile factories. In June 1812 John Knight organised
a meeting for weavers at a public house in Manchester.
As the meeting was coming to an end Joseph Nadin,
Deputy Constable of Manchester, arrived and arrested Knight and thirty-seven
other weavers. Knight was charged with "administering oaths to
weavers pledging them to destroy steam looms" and they were accused
of attending a seditious meeting. At their subsequent trial all thirty-eight
were acquitted.
Later that
year Knight had to accept defeat and ceased work as a handloom weaver.
Knight now became a schoolmaster in Oldham.
He also became involved in journalism and in 1816 began editing the
Manchester Political Register
and secretary of the Manchester Constitutional Society.
In 1812 Major John Cartwright founded
Britain's first Hampden Club in London.
Four years later, John Knight founded the first Hampden Club in Lancashire.
In 1818 John Knight became co-ordinator of Lancashire's Hampden Clubs
and was now known as the 'Cartwright of the North'. It was Knight's
idea to ask Major John Cartwright to speak at the St. Peter's Field
meeting on 16th August, 1819. Cartwright, who was seventy-nine at
the time, was unable to attend, and Henry Orator
Hunt, became the main speaker instead.
At the meeting at St. Peter's Field on 16th
August, John Knight led the Oldham contingent. It included two hundred
women dressed in white and according to John
Tyas, the Oldham banner's were "by far the most elegant displayed
during the day. They were inscribed 'Major Cartwright's Bill, Annual
Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, and Vote by Ballot'. Knight was on
the platform during the meeting and was named by William
Hulton as one of the four men to be arrested.
Knight and the other men were charged with "assembling with unlawful
banners at an unlawful meeting for the purpose of inciting discontent".
Henry Orator Hunt was found guilty and received
two years and six months, whereas Samuel Bamford,
Joseph Johnson and Joseph
Healey were each sentenced to one year in Lincoln Prison. John
Knight was acquitted of the Peterloo
charge but found guilty and received two years imprisonment for his
attendance at a meeting in Burnley on November 15th 1819.
After his
release from prison John Knight concentrated on trade union activities.
In 1830 he became an organiser for the National
Spinners Union and three years later for the Ten
Hour Association. Just before his death in 1838, John Knight was
appointed to the salaried position as treasurer of the Oldham Poor
Relief Fund.
(1)
James Wroe of the Manchester
Observer described the attempted arrest of John Knight.
The people
in the crowd were so compact and stood to firm that they could not
reach the hustings without halting. Few, if any of the meeting, even
yet, supposed that this martial display was intended for anything
more than securing Hunt, Johnson, Knight and Moorhouse, for whom they
had warrants. Mr. Hunt was called upon to deliver himself up, which
he offered to do to a Magistrate, but not to the Manchester Yeomanry
Cavalry. A gentleman in the commission presented himself, and Mr.
Hunt acknowledge his authority, and departed for the rendezvous of
the Magistrates; where Mr. Johnson and Mr. Saxton were taken, and
from thence conducted, along with Mr. Hunt to the New Bayley prison;
Mr. Knight escaped, but was afterwards arrested at his own house and
Mr. Moorhouse was soon after taken into custody at the Flying Horse
Inn.
(2)
In his book Personal Recollections of Manchester, Archibald
Prentice commented on Joseph Nadin's treatment of radicals.
The radical
movement had its origin in 1812, but had for a time been repressed,
by the same unjust means which had been employed to put down the movement
for reform and peace. Some working men, probably on the suggestion
of the shrewd old John Knight, a manufacturer in a small way, thought
it advisable that an opportunity should be afforded to the friends
of peace and parliamentary reform to express their sentiments on those
subjects, which they conceived to be the two measures most calculated
to relieve their present sufferings. On 11th June, 1812, the men met
at the Prince Regent's Arms.
"On our arrival," says Knight, in a preface to the report
of the subsequent trial, "we were shown into a room capable of
accommodating forty or fifty people, and after waiting a considerable
time, while the company assembled and got some refreshment, we proceeded
to business, about a quarter before ten o'clock. I began by inquiring
the residences and occupations of the individuals who composed the
meeting, and then proceeded to read the petition that had been prepared.
I afterwards made some observations on the deplorable circumstances
of the labouring classes. I recommended frequent and general petitioning,
which I endeavoured to enforce as the best method of obtaining relief.
At eleven o'clock we began the financial part of our business, and
Mr. Oldham had just laid £1 2s. on the table, which I was taking
up, when Nadin entered, with a blunderbuss in his hands, followed
by a great number of soldiers, with their guns and bayonets fixed.
Nadin advancing to the table at which Washington and I sat, inquired
for what purpose we were there assembled, on which Washington, handling
him a copy of the resolutions, replied, that our object was peace
and parliamentary reform. Nadin said, "I do not believe you;
that is only a pretence." He then searched our persons, ordered
our names, occupations, and residences to be put down, our hands to
be tied, and ourselves to be taken to the New Bailey. I said he surely
could not think of preventing us from going home. He showed no warrant,
but said we should be examined immediately, as the magistrates were
sitting."
So firm, shrewd old John - not shrewd enough to fear that the legality
and constitutionally of his meeting were any protection from the rough
hands of Joseph Nadin - was marched off with his thirty-seven compatriots,
a gallant guard of soldiers accompanying the manacled men to to the
prison-house.
(3)
John Knight, speech reported in the Manchester Advertiser (25th
September 1834)
The making
and administering of the laws is exclusively enjoyed by the men of
property, and, therefore, in the promotion of their own interests
they are continually diminishing the rights of all the labouring classes.
In all disputes between employers and workmen the magistrates almost
invariably protect the employers. Such is the power opposed to the
working class that until their influence does actively preponderate
in the House of Commons, there is no possibility of their circumstances
being bettered.
(4)
John Knight, speech reported in the Northern
Star (7th July 1838)
The ministers
of the government have granted the Queen an income of more than £1,000
a day while hundreds of thousands of her subjects were starving on
2d and 1d per day.
(5)
John Knight, speech reported in the United Trades Cooperative Journal
(3rd July 1830)
I am not
an admirer of the system upon which the Sunday schools were at present
conducted. They were supported by the rich. And, in the end, what
was the substance of the institution? Why, they were taught to toil
as hard as they could and to live upon as little as they could - the
doctrine of passive obedience and submission to those who possessed
wealth and power. In a word, instead of teaching the poor, or endeavouring
to excite a free and independent spirit among them, the conductors
of these schools might be considered as preparing children for slavery
and degradation.
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