One Week in April: The Scottish Radical Rising of 1820

by Maggie Craig

Overview

The acclaimed author of Damn’ Rebel Bitches dives into “the week when [Scotland’s] impoverished, exploited workers said enough was enough” (The Sunday Post).

In April 1820, a series of dramatic events exploded around Glasgow, central Scotland and Ayrshire. Demanding political reform and better living and working conditions, 60,000 weavers and other workers went on strike. Revolution was in the air.

It was the culmination of several years of unrest, which had seen huge mass meetings in Glasgow and Paisley. In Manchester in 1819, in what became known as Peterloo, drunken yeomanry with their sabers drawn infamously rode into a peaceful crowd calling for reform, killing fifteen people and wounding hundreds more.

In 1820, some Scottish Radicals marched under a flag emblazoned with the words “Scotland Free, or Scotland a Desart” [sic]. Others armed themselves and set off for the Carron Ironworks, seeking cannons. Intercepted by government soldiers, a bloody skirmish took place at Bonnymuir near Falkirk. A curfew was imposed on Glasgow and Paisley. Aiming to free Radical prisoners, a crowd in Greenock was attacked by the Port Glasgow militia. Among the dead and wounded were a 65-year-old woman and a young boy. In the recriminations that followed, three men were hanged and nineteen were transported to Australia from Scotland.

In this book Maggie Craig sets the rising into the wider social and political context of the time and paints an intense portrait of the people who were caught up in these momentous events.

“This is an excellent book, the best and fairest account of the Radical Rising I have read.” —Allan Massie, The Scotsman

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788852630
Publisher:	Birlinn, Limited
Publication date:	07/01/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Maggie Craig is the acclaimed writer of the ground-breaking Damn’ Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45, and its companion volume Bare-Arsed Banditti: The Men of the ’45. She is also the author of six family saga novels set in her native Glasgow and Clydebank. She is a popular speaker in libraries and book festivals and has served two terms as a committee member of the Society of Authors in Scotland.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgements xi

Foreword: One Week in April xiii

Part I The Roots of Scottish Radicalism

1 The Strike of the Calton Weavers 3

2 Thomas Muir of Huntershill and the Friends of the People 10

3 The People Are in Great Distress 21

4 Met in the Open Fields: The Thrushgrove Meeting 27

5 Lay the Axe to the Tree of Corruption 35

6 Pestilential Publications and Twopenny Trash 42

7 The Spirit of the Union 51

8 Keep Your Eye on Paisley 56

9 'We're All Radicals Here!' 61

10 Heroines and a Hero of Liberty: The Clayknowes and Dundee Meetings 65

11 Web of Deceit 70

Part II One Week in April

12 Liberty or Death 83

13 'Stop the Work!' - The General Strike 94

14 That Fearful Night 99

15 'I Will Shoot All Glasgow to Please You!' 102

16 The March to Carron 109

17 The Battle of Bonnymuir 114

18 Tae Fecht for the Rights o' Auld Scotland 120

19 Radicals Arrested at Milngavie 129

20 'Remember Manchester!' - The Greenock Massacre 139

Part III Aftermath

21 Levying War against the King 149

22 The Trial of James Wilson 159

23 'We Apprehend You on a Charge of High Treason!' 166

24 'Did Ye Ever See Sic a Crowd, Tammas?' 176

25 'I Die a Martyr to the Cause of Truth and Justice' 182

26 Banish'd Far Across the Sea 194

27 Reform Is Won? 202

28 The Scottish Radicals of 1820 Remembered 209

List of Men Executed, Transported and imprisoned for Their Radical Activities 223

Author's Note 225

Select Bibliography 227

Notes 231

Index 247

Editorial Reviews

I found Maggie Craig's depictions of the lives & sacrifices of the 1820 radicals very moving – [a] good read'

MSP Angela Constance

This is Maggie Craig at her best'

Bookseller

This is an excellent book, the best and fairest account of the Radical Rising I have read'

Scotsman - Allan Massie

Maggie Craig's style is approachable and eminently readable and the [book] casts a clarifying light on an area of Scottish history that really deserves to be better known than it is'

Undiscovered Scotland

It was seven days that shook Scotland, a week when the country's impoverished, exploited workers said enough was enough'

Sunday Post

Despite the swell of support from workers, the Scottish Radical war of 1820 would not only be quashed, it would also be virtually airbrushed out of history ... Maggie Craig’s research unpicks events which saw communities around Scotland unite to end their oppression'

Herald Magazine - Sandra Dick