*/Sharon Cunningham wrote:/* I have just found a copy of A document that was signed back in 25 Sept.1819 from Newmills by a lot of men from that area pledging to be special Constables to protect the parish and neighbourhood. Not sure what its all about. ------------------------------------------------------ Hi Sharon, 1819, shortly after the Napoleonic Wars was a time of social discontent and radical organization. The Irvine Valley, with its string of weaving towns like Newmilns stretching from Kilmarnock towards Glasgow, was a hotbed of this unrest. Radicals like James 'Pearly' Wilson of Strathaven were products of this area and era. Colonel Alexander Boswell, son of diarist James Boswell, was a cavalry officer in the region. He called Galston and nearby Newmiln the most contaminated villages in Ayrshire - contaminated by the 'Irish disease' of rebellion, which he considered 'poison' and 'evil'. For sure those special Constables in Newmilns were recruited by the local powers-that-be to help suppress or at least keep an eye on the radical movement. I have a couple of quotes to illustrate what was going on: As Irene has pointed out, on 16th August, the St. Peter’s Fields Massacre, ‘Peterloo’, occurred in Manchester, England. There, the local yeomanry - sorta like special constables on horses -attacked a huge but peaceful rally of weavers and their families, killing eleven. Solidarity protests broke out immediately in Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire, notably in Paisley in mid-September 1819(18,000). On 18^th September 1819, near Morton Place, Kilmarnock, 7,000 demonstrators gathered carrying large Scottish thistles, demanding universal suffrage. Here's an eyewitness account of the preparations the authorities made. It's dated Kilmarnock 18th September 1819, from the Caledonian Mercury : "Every man was in readiness to suppress rioting. A troop of hussars arrived this morning from Ayr and stationed here having been called to Paisley at the beginning of the week. The constables convened at the Town Hall, where the Magistrates and Justices of the Peace were [gathered]. After deliberating, they came to the determination that, if no violence was offered, or if law and order was not violated, that they should allow people to meet and say what they chose. But that if flags with seditious inscriptions should be displayed, they had persons to note their designs, and if reprehensible to bring the bearers afterwards to account for so doing. It is well that there was no occasion for the intercession of the public authorities, for the much-feared Kilmarnock Meeting of Radicals has just turned out what I suspected - a quiet, peaceable assembly. .." An even bigger demonstration was organized in Kilmarnock again on 20^th November, as “vast crowds” from nearby Ayrshire towns marched through the streets to a rally. According to James Paterson in his 1871 'Autobiographical Reminiscences' p63-72: "It was soon arranged that a series of out-door meetings should be held near Kilmarnock, at which the lovers of freedom all round should be invited to attend. The first of these was truly a ‘monster meeting’. Bands of men, and women, too, might be seen approaching in all directions, marshaled in long lines of procession, with banners flying, bagpipes playing, and drums beating, with a vigour and clamour that well might have struck dismay into less hardened hearts than that of Lord Castlereagh, the chief helmsman of the Government at the time. Almost all business was suspended on the occasion. The first movement, of course, began with the Kilmarnock Reformers themselves. But it far exceeds my* *power to portray either the scene or the effect produced. “Colonel Osborne,” who had once been a drum-major in the militia, led the van as marshal. Then came the music, piper, drummers, fifers, clarioneters, and the bass-drum, beat with Herculean power, by a brawny carpet weaver, who h! ad once done the same duty in defiance of the French; then the members of the various committees and clubs, and the principal promoters of the movement. The banners and inscriptions were innumerable – comprising the most gaudy, flaunting colours, and expressed in the pithiest sentiments of pure and unadulterated patriotism: “Radical Reform in Kilmarnock,” “Lay the axe to the tree of corruption,” “No Lords, no Bishops,” “The big loaf” carried upon a pole by a baker, “Down with Places and Pensions,” etc.; but the greatest novelty, perhaps, was “the cap of liberty,” carried on a pole by a masculine, good-looking amazon, whose husband [Archibald Craig] took an active part in the proceedings of the day, and afterwards became a bailie of the burgh. In later years, she would have given the world that the “cap of liberty” had remained in France. ..... When fully assembled round the platform, the immense multitude, with so many banners and devices displayed, had an imposing appe! arance. The harangues delivered were of an earnest and impassi! oned nat ure – urging the people never to rest until the Augean stable had been thoroughly cleaned out, and the working men represented in Parliament. There was, however, a careful abstaining from all appeal to physical force, which no doubt was implied. Some foolish persons raised the cry of “the soldiers are coming!” which created an uneasy sensation for a few moments, but all kept their ground; and ultimately the crowd dispersed, marching back, under their respective banners, in the same order as they had arrived.” Finally, this is some of what Mairtin O'Cathain says of this area in a 1997 article entitled 'The Irvine Valley, a Scottish Republic Heartland": * “*In the small village of Newmilns, about six miles east of Kilmarnock on the road to Strathaven in the Autumn of 1819, a local weaver named Cuthill at a large meeting on the Green drew a line with his stick on the ground with the challenge that "all who will march in the cause of liberty had to cross". The message was clear and the crowd proceeded to Pate's Mill just outside the village in order to sharpen their pikes. Revolution was in the air and the Scottish republicans of this tiny, remote weaving settlement on the River Irvine were readying themselves for it with relish...." "The villages of the Irvine Valley followed with many meetings hard on the heels of Kilmarnock , and in 1819 particularly saw a plethora of mass demonstrations in Galston, Newmilns and Darvel. One in Galston on October 23rd seems typical. Held at the "Baur Ailley", .. crowds assembled from various places. 100 came from Mauchline at the head of a red flag; something over 1500 from Kilmarnock carrying four flags and a cap of liberty; 1200 from Newmilns and Darvel with two flags and a cap of liberty, and about 500 people from outlying rural areas. It was further estimated that 1500 men, women and children from Galston itself were present and it was noted that the females of Galston itself presented a red cap of liberty and flag to the committee on behalf of 270 reformers, and delivered a paper to the chairman expressing their radical sentiments. Proudly republican speeches were made, preparation for the coming struggle was declared paramount and "Scots Wha Hae" was adopte! d and sung as the nationalist battle anthem. Later, when flags and banners were banned by the hysterical authorities, large Scottish thistles were waved instead by the people of the Irvine Valley. It was even discovered that an old Covenanting standard flown at the battle of Drumclog was waved at a radical meeting in Kilmarnock.” All this radical ferment fizzled out with the abortive West-of-Scotland Uprising of April 1820, Bonnymuir etc, but it did recover steam again somewhat in the push to pass the 1832 Reform Bill. But obviously, there were big social divisions within communities like Newmilns, with radicals opposed by staunch defenders of the status quo. Which is where the volunteer constables would come in. John */ /*“I// 6^th