Source Book of London History, from the earliest times to 1800
History
Source Book of London History, from the earliest times to 1800
London (England) -- History
"On Friday, the good Protestants met in Saint George's-Fields, at
the summons of Lord George Gordon, and marching to Westminster,
insulted the Lords and Commons, who all bore it with great tameness.
At night the outrages began by the demolition of the Mass-house by
Lincoln's Inn. An exact journal of a week's defiance of government I
cannot give you. On Monday, Mr. Strahan, who had been insulted,
spoke to Lord Mansfield (who had, I think, been insulted too) of the
licentiousness of the populace; and his lordship treated it as a
very slight irregularity. On Tuesday night they pulled down
Fielding's house, and burnt his goods in the street. They had
gutted, on Monday, Sir George Savile's house, but the building was
saved. On Tuesday evening, leaving Fielding's ruins, they went to
Newgate to demand their companions, who had been seized demolishing
the chapel. The keeper could not release them but by the Mayor's
permission, which he went to ask; at his return he found all the
prisoners released, and Newgate in a blaze. They then went to
Bloomsbury, and fastened upon Lord Mansfield's house, which they
pulled down; and as for his goods, they totally burnt them. They
have since gone to Caenwood, but a guard was there before them. They
plundered some Papists, I think, and burnt a mass-house in
Moorfields the same night.
"On Wednesday I walked with Dr. Scot to look at Newgate, and found
it in ruins, with the fire yet glowing. As I went by, the
Protestants were plundering the Sessions House at the Old Bailey.
There were not, I believe, a hundred; but they did their work at
leisure, in full security, without sentinels, without trepidation,
as men lawfully employed in full day. Such is the cowardice of a
commercial place. On Wednesday they broke open the Fleet, and the
King's Bench, and the Marshalsea, and Wood St. Compter, and
Clerkenwell Bridewell, and released all the prisoners.
"At night they set fire to the Fleet, and to the King's Bench, and I
know not how many other places; and one might see the glare of
conflagration fill the sky from many parts. The sight was dreadful.
Some people were threatened. Mr. Strahan advised me to take care of
myself. Such a time of terror you have been happy in not seeing.
"The King said in Council 'that the magistrates had not done their
duty, but that he would do his own'; and a proclamation was
published directing us to keep our servants within doors, as the
peace was now to be preserved by force. The soldiers were sent out
to different parts, and the town is now (June 9) at quiet.
"The soldiers are stationed so as to be everywhere within call:
there is no longer any body of rioters, and the individuals are
hunted to their holes, and led to prison; Lord George was last night
sent to the Tower. Mr. John Wilkes was this day in my neighbourhood,
to seize the publisher of a seditious paper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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