The Gordon Riots

The Gordon Riots

1780

The Gordon Riots started when activists opposed to the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 began a protest march from St. George's Fields, Southwark to the Houses of Parliament. Led by Lord George Gordon, an MP and Protestant agitator, the marchers aimed to submit a petition objecting to the end of religious discrimination against Catholics. But the 50,000-strong mob soon got out of hand. Violence and looting broke out and several prisons were burned down including Newgate, Clerkenwell, the Fleet and the Clink. The uproar continued for four days and an estimated 850 people were killed. George Gordon was arrested on a charge of high treason but was acquitted thanks to the brilliant defence of his lawyer. A group of 21 ringleaders were found guilty and hanged.

Dickens's Barnaby Rudge - A tale of the Riots Of 'Eighty tells the story of the Gordon Riots. In the preface of the book, the author writes:.

'No account of the Gordon Riots having been to my knowledge introduced into any Work of Fiction, and the subject presenting very extraordinary and remarkable features, I was led to project this Tale.
It is unnecessary to say, that those shameful tumults, while they reflect indelible disgrace upon the time in which they occurred, and all who had act or part in them, teach a good lesson. That what we falsely call a religious cry is easily raised by men who have no religion, and who in their daily practice set at nought the commonest principles of right and wrong; that it is begotten of intolerance and persecution; that it is senseless, besotted, inveterate and unmerciful; all History teaches us. But perhaps we do not know it in our hearts too well, to profit by even so humble an example as the `No Popery' riots of Seventeen Hundred and Eighty.'

	The Liberty of the Clink

About the Author

Webmistress