Robert
Wedderburn was born in Jamaica in 1762. His father, James Wedderburn,
had been born in Scotland and owned a large
sugar plantation on the island. His
mother, Rosanna, was a slave owned by Wedderburn. When she was pregnant,
Wedderburn sold her to Lady Douglas, stipulating that the child that
she bore should be free from birth. That child was Robert Wedderburn.
He
was brought up on the estate of Lady Douglas. He later recalled that
as a child he witnessed both his mother and grandmother being whipped.
As
soon as he was old enough Wedderburn left the plantation and became
a sailor. He arrived in England in 1778 and soon afterwards found
work as a tailor. Wedderburn was converted to Christianity by a Wesleyan
preacher. Later he became involved in the Unitarian
movement.
The Unitarians
drew their membership to a large extent from the scientific professions
and their outlook tended to be rational and individualistic. The most
important aspect of Unitarianism is the right of individuals to develop
their own religious opinions. Therefore the bond between them consists
more in their anti-dogmatism than in any uniformity of belief. However,
Unitarians tend to believe that Jesus Christ was a human religious
leader to be followed but not worshipped. Unitarians argued that Jesus
is the "great exemplar which we ought to copy in order to perfect
our union with God".
Unitarians believed that social evils were humanly created, not God
inflicted, and therefore could be remedied by human efforts. Unitarians
were strong advocates of democracy and argued that each congregation
should manage itself without outside control. This included the power
to select and discharge ministers.
In 1812
Robert Wedderburn met Thomas
Spence,
the unofficial leader of those radical reformers who advocated revolution.
Spence did not believe in a centralized body and instead encouraged
the formation of small groups that could meet in local public houses.
At the night the men walked the streets and chalked on the walls slogans
such as "Spence's Plan and Full Bellies" and "The Land
is the People's Farm".
When Spence
died in September 1814 he was buried by "forty disciples"
who pledged that they would keep his ideas alive. This group of men
formed the Society of Spencean Philanthropists
and continued to meet for the next six years. As well as Wedderburn
the group included Thomas Preston, John Hopper, Thomas Evans, Allen
Davenport, Arthur Thistlewood, James
Ings, John Brunt, William
Davidson and Richard Tidd.
The government
became very concerned about this group and employed a spy, John
Castle, to join the Spenceans and report on their activities.
In October 1816 Castle reported to John Stafford,
supervisor of Home Office spies, that the Spenceans were planning
to overthrow the British government.
On 2nd December 1816, the Spencean group organised a mass meeting
at Spa Fields, Islington. The speakers at
the meeting included Henry 'Orator' Hunt
and James Watson. The magistrates decided
to disperse the meeting and while Stafford and eighty police officers
were doing this, one of the men, Joseph Rhodes was stabbed. The four
leaders of the Spenceans, James Watson, Arthur Thistlewood, Thomas
Preston and John Hopper were arrested and charged with high treason.
Watson
was the first to be tried. However, the main prosecution witness was
the government spy, John Castle. The defence
council was able to show that Castle had a criminal record and that
his testimony was unreliable. The jury concluded that Castle was an
agent provocateur (a person employed to incite suspected people
to some open action that will make them liable to punishment) and
refused to convict Watson. As the case against Watson had failed,
it was decided to release the other three men who were due to be tried
for the same offence.
In 1817
Thomas Evans, considered to be the leader of the Society
of Spencean Philanthropists was arrested and charged with high
treason. Wedderburn responded to this by establishing the journal,
The Forlorn Hope. In the first
edition Wedderburn argued that the journal would "establish something
in the shape of a free press". It also included an article on
the imprisonment of Thomas Evans and his 20 year old son.
Government
spies who infiltrated the Spenceans claimed that Wedderburn was now
the leader of the group. One spy attended a meeting held at the Mulberry
Tree tavern. In his report he claimed that 150 people attended the
meeting. As well as making a speech Wedderburn read from the writings
of William Cobbett, William
Sherwin and Jonathan Wooler.
Robert
Wedderburn also opened his own Unitarian
chapel in Hopkins Street, Soho. Government spies were soon reporting
that Wedderburn and Allen
Davenport were making
"violent, seditious, and bitterly anti-Christian Spencean speeches."
In 1819 it was reported that up to 200 people were paying 6d. a head
to attend debates organized by Wedderburn. He also gave sermons every
Sunday, or in the words of Wedderburn: "lectures every Sabbath
day on Theology, Morality, Natural Philosophy and Politics by a self-taught
West Indian".
A government spy claimed
that at one meeting Wedderburn argued that a slave had the right to
kill his master. This resulted in Wedderburn being arrested and charged
with sedition and blasphemy. He was sent to Newgate
Prison but was later released when his followers raised £200
bail money.
In
the summer of 1819
the Manchester Patriotic Union Society
invited Major Cartwright, Henry
Orator Hunt and Richard Carlile to
speak at a public meeting in Manchester.
The meeting was held at St. Peter's Field
on 16th August. The local magistrates
were concerned that such a substantial gathering of reformers might
end in a riot. The magistrates therefore decided to arrange for a
large number of soldiers to be in Manchester on the day of the meeting.
At about 11.00 a.m. on 16th August, 1819 William
Hulton, the chairman, and nine other magistrates met at Mr. Buxton's
house in Mount Street that overlooked St. Peter's
Field. Although there was no trouble the magistrates became concerned
by the growing size of the crowd. Estimations concerning the size
of the crowd vary but Hulton came to the conclusion that there
were at least 50,000 people at the meeting.
At
1.30 p.m. the magistrates came to the conclusion that "the town
was in great danger". William Hulton
therefore decided to instruct Joseph Nadin,
Deputy Constable of Manchester, to
arrest Henry Hunt and the other leaders of
the demonstration. The
Manchester & Salford Yeomanry entered
St. Peter's Field along the path cleared by
the special constables. As the yeomanry moved closer to the hustings,
members of the crowd began to link arms to stop them arresting Henry
Hunt and the other leaders. Others attempted to close the pathway
that had been created by the special constables. Some of the yeomanry
now began to use their sabres to cut their way through the crowd.
When Captain
Hugh Birley and his men reached the hustings
they arrested Henry Hunt, John
Knight, Joseph Johnson, George
Swift, John Saxton, John
Tyas, John Moorhouse and Robert Wild. As well as the speakers
and the organisers of the meeting, Birley also arrested the newspaper
reporters on the hustings.
Lieutenant Colonel L'Estrange reported
to William Hulton at 1.50 p.m. When he
asked Hulton what was happening he replied: "Good God, Sir, don't
you see they are attacking the Yeomanry? Disperse them." L'Estrange
now ordered Lieutenant Jolliffe and the
15th Hussars to rescue the Manchester &
Salford Yeomanry. By 2.00 p.m. the soldiers had cleared most of
the crowd from St. Peter's Field. In the process, eleven people were
killed and about 400, including 100 women,
were wounded.
Wedderburn
was quick to condemn the Peterloo Massacre
and on the 13th September he held a special meeting on the subject
at his Hopkins Street chapel. Wedderburn argued that "an act
of murder had been committed by the magistrates and yeoman".
The following month Wedderburn told an audience that the revolution
was about to begin and that all working men "should learn to
use the gun, the dagger, the cutlass and pistols".
Wedderburn
also continued his campaign against slavery. He was particularly concerned
with the role that the Church played in the slave system. He published
a pamphlet on the subject, A Critical, Historical
and Admonitory Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Wedderburn was also opposed to the idea of sending missionaries to
the West Indies, arguing that they would be used "to preach passive
obedience to the poor black slaves".
In November
1819 Wedderburn criticised radical reformers such as Henry
Orator Hunt and
Sir Francis Burdett. He argued that revolution
rather than reform was what was needed. His vision was of simultaneous
revolution of the poor in Europe and the black slaves in the West
Indies. However, Wedderburn opposed the Cato
Street Conspiracy
and argued that the planned insurrection was premature. On
28th April 1820, Arthur Thistlewood,
James Ings, John Brunt,
William Davidson and Richard
Tidd were found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death.
Wedderburn was eventually
charged with "blasphemous libel". In court he told the jury:
"Where, after all, is my crime? It consists merely in having
spoken in the same plain and homely language which Christ and his
disciples uniformly used. There seems to be a conspiracy against the
poor, to keep them in ignorance and superstition; the rich may have
as many copies as they like of sceptical writers; but if I find two
most decided contradictions in the bible, I must not in the language
of the same book assert that one or the other is a lie." Found
guilty he was sentenced to two years in Dorchester Prison.
On his release Wedderburn
published The Horrors of Slavery
(1824). He continued to campaign for freedom of speech and in 1831,
at the age of 68, he was arrested and sent to Giltspur Street Prison.
While in prison he wrote a letter to Francis
Place. It was the last time Wedderburn appeared in the archives
and it is not known when he died.
(1)
Robert Wedderburn, Axe Laid
to the Root (1817)
Oh, ye Africans and relatives
now in bondage to the Christians because you are innocent and poor;
receive this the only tribute the offspring of an African can give,
for which, I may ere long be lodged in a prison; for it is a crime
now in England to speak against oppression. I am a West-Indian, a
lover of liberty, and would dishonour human nature if I did not show
myself a friend to the liberty of others.
Prepare for flight, for
the fate of St. Domingo awaits you. Get ready your blood hounds, the
allies which you employed against the Maroons. You will have need
of all your strength to defend yourself against those men, who are
now scheming in Europe against the blacks of St. Domingo.
(2)
Robert Wedderburn, speech (4th
October, 1819)
I am not such a fool to
suppose nor to advise that the poor and half starved part of the population
should meet the regular army of the Borough mongers in the field because
they would have no chance, one party being armed & the other not,
but arms are now preparing as fast as the means of paying for them
will admit.
(3)
Robert Wedderburn, speech (6th
October, 1819)
We must
all learn to use the gun, the dagger, the cutlass and pistols. We
hall then be able to defy all the Yeomanry
of England.
(4)
Robert Wedderburn, speech in court
(1820)
Where, after all, is my
crime? It consists merely in having spoken in the same plain and homely
language which Christ and his disciples uniformly used. There seems
to be a conspiracy against the poor, to keep them in ignorance and
superstition; the rich may have as many copies as they like of sceptical
writers; but if I find two most decided contradictions in the bible,
I must not in the language of the same book assert that one or the
other is a lie.
As to my explanation of
the doctrines of Christ, I must still maintain it to be particularly
faithful. He was like myself, one of the lower order, and a genuine
radical reformer. Being poor himself, he knew how to feel for the
poor, and despised the rich for the hardness of their hearts. His
principles were purely republican; he told his followers they were
all brethren and equals, and inculcated a thorough contempt for all
the titles, pomps, and dignities of this world.
As nature has blest me
with a calm and tranquil mind, I shall be far happier in the dungeon
to which you may consign me, than my persecutors, on their beds of
down.
(5)
Judgement on Robert Wedderburn
(9th May, 1820)
The Defendant having been
found guilty of uttering a blasphemous libel at the sittings after
Hilary Term, appeared pursuant to a notice he had received from the
Solicitors to the Treasury, to receive judgment.
The Lord Chief Justice
went through the notes he had taken on the Trial, recapitulating minutely
the words of the libel as stated in the indictment, and as given in
evidence by each of the witnesses William Plush and Matthew Matthewson
The Defendant was then
asked if he had any affidavits to put in, to which he replied in the
negative, but said he had something to say to the court, and proceeded
to state:
That however long the counts
of the indictment against him might be; and however strongly they
had been sworn to, yet he did not think he had said so much, or at
least in the manner precisely as stated by the evidence.
That in consequence of
his being thrown into prison, his chapel was shut up and his congregation
dispersed, which circumstances had prevented him from seeking from
amongst them evidence to contradict or invalidate the testimony on
the part of the Crown. As for himself his memory was extremely bad,
and it was impossible for him to recollect all he might have said
on the occasion. Every observation he made arose spontaneous on the
spur of the moment; his sermons or speeches were never the result
of previous contrivance, but he did certainly remember to have spoken
upon the story of the Witch of Endor.
His impression on this
subject arose from the circumstance of seeing his aged grandmother,
a poor black slave in the island of Jamaica, several times most cruelly
flogged by order of her master, a white man and a christian, for being
a witch; now as he, when a child, had frequently picked her pocket
of sixpences and shillings, he was well convinced she could not possess
the qualities and powers attributed to witches, or she must have detected
his petty depredations. When he came to be a Christian, and read the
story of Saul and the Witch of Endor, with these impressions upon
his mind, that witches must be bad people, he could never bring himself
to believe that such characters could work miracles and raise the
dead.
The Defendant was proceeding
with similar illustrations to show the origin of his scepticism, but
the court considered his language was of a nature which they could
not tolerate.
He then said, it might
save time and prevent him wounding the ears of the court, if the paper
was read that he had in his pocket, which was in the nature of a motion
in arrest of judgment. He then put in a brief, which was read by one
of the officers of the court as follows.
May it please your Lordships.
I am well aware that the gentlemen of the bar will smile, at what
they will call the vanity and presumption of a humble individual like
myself, in attempting to address the court on an occasion like the
present. They are welcome to smile, but I will tell them that the
most brilliant efforts which the ablest of them could make, were I
capable of employing them, would, be equally as useless in this place,
and on this subject, as what I am now going to offer.
However humble I may be
as a member of society, and whatever efforts may be made to degrade
me and render me contemptible in the eyes of the world, I have nevertheless
the pride, and the ambition, to flatter myself, that even my simple
exertions will one day or other be of no mean importance to the cause
I am embarked in, which is that of Religious Liberty and the Universal
Right of Conscience.
If we would obtain the
privileges to which we are entitled, neither death nor dungeons must
terrify us; we must keep in mind the example of Christ and his apostles,
of Penn and the primitive Quakers, who all promulgated what they considered
was true and beneficial to mankind, without the slightest regard to
the evil consequences which such, their bold, independent, and disinterested
conduct might bring down upon themselves. What was the result? Christianity
in the first instance, and Quakerism in the second, were established
by the very opposition that they met with.
The early Quakers were
a stern and stubborn set of men, determined both to risk and to suffer
persecution in the attainment of their object; and by this means they
ultimately secured, and do still enjoy, greater religious liberties
than any other sect without the pale of the state religion.
(6)
Erasmus Perkins, The Trial of
Reverend Robert Wedderburn (1820)
Thrust into a solitary
dungeon for two years, to live upon grey pease, and barley broth,
merely because he differed in opinion from the State religion, and
had too much honesty, and too little education to wrap his sentiments
up in that cautious, decent, and guarded manner which the Solicitor-General
said he could tolerate.
