19 August 1748 – 25 August 1748

I rode with Mr. Grimshaw to Roughlee. At half-hour after twelve I began to preach. I had about half finished my discourse when the mob came pouring down the hill like a torrent. After exchanging a few words with their captain, to prevent any contest I went with him as he required. When we came to Barrowford, two miles off, the whole army drew up in battle array before the house into which I was carried with two or three of my friends. After I had been detained above an hour, their captain went out, and I followed him and desired him to conduct me whence I came. He said he would; but the mob soon followed after; at which he was so enraged that he must needs turn back to fight them, and so left me alone. A further account is contained in the following letter, which I wrote the next morning— Widdop, Aug. 26, 1748 “Sir,--Yesterday between twelve and one o’clock, while I was speaking to some quiet people without any noise or tumult, a drunken rabble came with clubs and staves, in a tumultuous and riotous manner, the captain of whom, Richard B., by name, said he was a deputy-constable and that he was come to bring me to you. I went with him; but I had scarcely gone ten yards when a man of his company struck me with his fist in the face with all his might; quickly after, another threw his stick at my head: I then made a little stand; but another of your champions, cursing and swearing in the most shocking manner and flourishing his club over his head, cried out, ‘Bring him away!’ “With such convoy I walked to Barrowford, where they informed me you were, their drummer going before to draw all the rabble together from all quarters. “When your deputy had brought me into the house, he permitted Mr. Grimshaw, the minister of Haworth, Mr. Colbeck, of Keighley, and one more, to be with me, promising that none should hurt them. Soon after you and your friends came in and required me to promise I would come to Roughlee no more. I told you I would sooner cut off my hand than make any such promise; neither would I promise that none of my friends should come. After abundance of rambling discourse (for I could keep none of you long to any one point), from about one o’clock till between three and four (in which one of you frankly said, ‘No; we will not be like Gamaliel, we will proceed like the Jews’), you seemed a little satisfied with my saying, ‘I will not preach at Roughlee at this time.’ You then undertook to quiet the mob to whom you went and spoke a few rods, and their noise immediately ceased. I then walked out with you at the back door. “I should have mentioned that I had several times before desired you to let me go, but in vain; and that when I attempted to go with Richard B., the mob immediately followed, with oaths, curses, and stones; that one of them beat me down to the ground; and when I rose again, the whole body came about me like lions and forced me back into the house. “While you and I went out at one door, Mr. Grimshaw and Mr. Colbeck went out at the other. The mob immediately closed them in, tossing them to and fro with the utmost violence, threw Mr. Grimshaw down, and loaded them both with dirt and mire of every kind; not one of your friends offering to call off your bloodhounds from the pursuit. “The other quiet, harmless people, who followed me at a distance to see what the end would be, they treated still worse; not only by the connivance, but by the express order, of your deputy. They made them run for their lives, amidst showers of dirt and stones, without any regard to age or sex. Some of them they trampled in the mire and dragged by their hair, particularly Mr. Mackford, who came with me from Newcastle. Many they beat with their clubs without mercy. One they forced to leap down (or they would have thrown him headlong) from a rock, ten or twelve feet high, into the river. And when he crawled out, wet and bruised, they swore they would throw him in again, which they were hardly persuaded not to do. All this time you sat well pleased close to the place, not attempting in the least to hinder them. “And all this time you were talking of justice and law! Alas, Sir, suppose we were Dissenters (which I deny), suppose we were Jews or Turks, are we not to have the benefit of the laws of our country? Proceed against us by the law, if you can or dare; but not by lawless violence; not by making a drunken, cursing, swearing riotous mob both judge, jury, and executioner. This is flat rebellion against God and the King, as you may possibly find out to your cost.” Between four and five we set out from Roughlee. But observing several parties of men upon the hills and suspecting their design, we put on and passed the lane they were making for before they came. One of our brothers, not riding so fast, was intercepted by them. They immediately knocked him down, and how it was that he got from among them he knew not. Before seven we reached Widdop. The news of what had passed at Barrowford made us all friends. The person in whose house Mr. B. preached, sent and begged I would preach there; which I did at eight, to such a congregation as none could have expected on so short a warning. He invited us also to lodge at his house, and all jealousies vanished away.