Priestley Riots

The Priestley Riots (also known as the Birmingham Riots of 1791 or Church and King Riots) took place from 14 July to 17 July 1791 in Birmingham, England[2][9], targeting religious Dissenters, most notably the politically and theologically controversial Joseph Priestley. The riots began on Friday 14 July 1791, Bastille Day in the Republic of France[2], when mobs gathered to protest against a banquet being held in a Birmingham hotel to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille[4].

Background and Causes

Religious and Political Tensions

The national-level factor that poisoned the atmosphere of civic cooperation in the town after 1785 was undoubtedly the dissenter campaign for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts[8]. This was the legislation dating mostly from the seventeenth century which served to remind dissenters that they had once been actively persecuted minorities[8]. The Test and Corporation Acts restricted Dissenters' civil rights, preventing them from attending the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or from holding public office[19][20].

Motions for repeal were moved in the House of Commons in 1787, in 1789 and in 1790, but they all failed (that of May 1789 by only 20 votes)[8]. Dissenters in Birmingham, in common with their co-religionaries in other big towns, were extremely active in this repeal movement, and there can be little doubt that the campaign stirred up deep-seated sectarian animosities[8].

French Revolution and Edmund Burke

The irritant here was the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, and it is important to remember that the occasion for the rioting in 1791 was the holding of a celebratory dinner on 14 July to mark the second anniversary of the fall of the Bastille[8]. The most conspicuous and voluble supporters of the French revolutionaries in towns like Birmingham were the dissenters[8].

Edmund Burke, in his famously lyrical diatribe against the French revolutionaries, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), likened liberty to a "wild gas" – no accidental choice of metaphor[8]. In 1791, Priestley defended the French Revolution from the critical writings of Edmund Burke[3].

Local Disputes

Birmingham historian William Hutton identified five events that stoked the fires of religious friction: disagreements over inclusion of Priestley's books in the local public library; concerns over Dissenters' attempts to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts; religious controversy (particularly involving Priestley); an "inflammatory hand-bill"; and a dinner celebrating the outbreak of the French Revolution[19][20].

The Riots Begin

The Bastille Day Dinner

The spark that exploded the keg was a dinner held at Dadley's Hotel in Temple Row in the town centre[2]. A number of gentlemen met here to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the French Revolution; they were members of a wealthy and non-conformist/ dissenting elite who were dominant in Birmingham, entrepreneurs, industrialists and free-thinkers[2]. Around ninety people attended the banquet, but as they left angry crowds threw stones before moving in to ransack the hotel[4].

Joseph Priestley, the renowned chemist and Unitarian theologian residing nearby, was slated to preside or propose a toast honoring the Revolution but declined to attend after receiving warnings of brewing opposition from Church-and-King loyalists[15].

The Violence Spreads

The rioters were traditional Birmingham working men, whose cry was "Church & King", ironically people of a similar class to those who were instrumental in overthrowing the established order in France[2]. However, it is certain that they were provoked to riot by the influence of members of the Anglican and royalist establishment in the town who feared for themselves and their way of life should an English Revolution ever take place[2].

The mob moved on, their violence now destroying nearby religious meeting houses associated with Priestley[7]. In total four Dissenting chapels were damaged or destroyed, and twenty-seven homes had been attacked[4].

Priestley's House Destroyed

Priestley was sitting at home in Sparkbrook playing backgammon with his wife on the evening of 14 July 1791 when the news arrived that rioters from Birmingham were heading his way[16]. On learning that the mob was heading in their direction, Priestley and his wife fled[7]. Their son William bravely remained, but the house and laboratory were ransacked and burnt, the content either stolen or destroyed, including 'the most truly valuable and useful apparatus of philosophical instruments that perhaps any individual in this or any other country, was ever possessed of.'[7]

Little or nothing of any consequence was saved from the conflagration at Fairhill: experimental apparatus, books, hand-written sermons, diaries, papers and letter correspondence were either consumed by the flames or looted by the crowd[16].

Organization and Coordination

Priestley and other Dissenters blamed the government for the riots, believing that William Pitt and his supporters had instigated them; however, it seems from the evidence that the riots were actually organized by local Birmingham officials[19][20]. Some of the rioters acted in a co-ordinated fashion and seemed to be led by local officials during the attacks, prompting accusations of premeditation[19][20].

The "disciplined nucleus of rioters", which numbered only thirty or so, directed the mob and stayed sober throughout the three to four days of rioting[19][20]. Unlike the hundreds of others who joined in, they could not be bribed to stop their destructions[19].

End of the Riots and Aftermath

The riots continued until the 16th of July and only ended when Dragoons were drafted in from Nottingham to quell the riots[3]. The destruction and damage caused by the rioters was extensive, with an estimated cost of £60,000 which is equivalent to £9,668,115 today[3].

Only seventeen of the rioters were charged, and out of these only four were convicted. One was pardoned, one was transported to Botany Bay in Australia and two were hanged[3]. Although William Pitt's government instructed the Birmingham magistrates to prosecute the ringleaders, officials were deeply reluctant to act. Only four of the fifty men eventually charged were convicted[4].

Impact on the Lunar Society of Birmingham

The Society's Connection to the Riots

The rioters burned not only the homes and chapels of Dissenters, but also the homes of people they associated with Dissenters, such as members of the scientific Lunar Society[12]. The Birmingham Lunar Society was an informal group of friends including some of the most prominent figures of The West Midlands Enlightenment such as Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley and James Watt[14].

The answer lay in the identity of a figure central to the aforementioned Lunar Society, a man whose house was one of those destroyed in the rioting, and a man who was not-coincidentally Minister at one of those four wrecked Dissenting chapels[5]. The primary focus for the crowd gathered outside the Hotel that night was the singular fact that the dinner in question was an open celebration of the French Revolution by a group of men – many members of the 'Lunar Society' – known for their liberal views on matters political, social, scientific and theological[5].

Damage to Society Members

William Withering's house was attacked by rioters, and Matthew Boulton and James Watt had to arm their workers to protect their factory[11]. The Priestley Riots of July 14–17, 1791, marked a pivotal external pressure, as mobs targeted Joseph Priestley and other Dissenters associated with the society, destroying his home, laboratory, and church in Birmingham[13].

The Society's Decline

The Priestley riots in Birmingham in 1791 really hurt the society. Joseph Priestley was forced to leave town and moved to the United States in 1794[11]. The violence, fueled by anti-French Revolution sentiment and opposition to Dissenters' campaigns for political rights, prompted Priestley to relocate to London and later the United States in 1794, while instilling caution among survivors like Matthew Boulton and James Watt, who distanced public activities to avoid further backlash[13].

The Birmingham riots had far reaching repercussions across the nation for they turned the tide of opinion against would-be reformers of all persuasions – religious, political and scientific[16]. Even some of Priestley's friends in the Lunar Society adopted a pained stance, implying in their demeanour that he had, in part, been the author of his own misfortunes[16].

In a revealing letter to his Lunar friends, Priestley wrote: "There are few things I regret [more] in consequence of my removal from Birmingham than the loss of your society. It both encouraged and enlightened me, so that what I did there of a philosophical kind ought in justice to be attributed almost as much to you as to myself."[16]

Younger generations of the families of original members tried to keep the meetings going. These included Gregory Watt, Matthew Robinson Boulton, Thomas Wedgwood, and James Watt junior. Meetings continued into the 1800s, but the strong teamwork that made the society famous was mostly gone. The society officially ended by 1813[11].

Long-term Consequences

The riots therefore announced a new climate of aggressive loyalist sentiment that was sharpened further by the outbreak of war between Britain and France in 1793[4]. Joseph Priestley never lived in Birmingham again, moving first to London, before settling in Pennsylvania for the last ten years of his life[7].

The Priestley Riots of 1791 exemplified widespread popular resistance to perceived radical subversion, bolstering conservative efforts to preserve established ecclesiastical and monarchical institutions against Dissenters' campaigns for political inclusion. The riots' targeted destruction of Dissenting properties and assemblies effectively halted this momentum, as survivors fled and public sympathy shifted toward defenders of the status quo, delaying substantive reform until 1828[15].