Qualla: Ely and Littleport Riots of 1816

Ely and Littleport Riots of 1816: Introduction

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John McCullough, CC BY 3.0. On the evening of 22 May 1816, 56 residents of Littleport, Cambridgeshire, met at The Globe Inn to talk about the lack of work and the rising cost of grain. By the end of the night, there were hundreds of them in the streets. They had a horn, borrowed from a lighterman named Burgess, and someone was blowing it outside the inn, drawing villagers out into the darkness. The Napoleonic Wars had ended the previous year, throwing soldiers back onto a labour market that couldn't absorb them. Grain prices had spiked. The harvest had failed. People were hungry — genuinely, dangerously hungry. What began as a meeting became a riot, the riot became a march, and the march ended at the gallows at Parnell pits, where five men were hanged in front of a crowd.

Image: John McCullough | CC BY 3.0

Ely and Littleport Riots of 1816: The Night in Littleport

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John McCullough, CC BY 3.0. The rioters that night worked through the village with a logic born of grievance and alcohol. They smashed windows at Mingey's shop. They threw furniture into the street at Mr Clarke's property, at Josiah Dewey's place, at Robert Speechly's house. At the home of the Reverend John...

Image: John McCullough | CC BY 3.0

Ely and Littleport Riots of 1816: What the Rioters Wanted

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Lawrence, Public domain. At the gates of Ely, they were met by the Reverend Metcalfe, who read the Riot Act and asked what they required. The answer was simple. They wanted "the price of a stone of flour per day." They said that their children were starving and that they wanted a living wage. These were ...

Image: Thomas Lawrence | Public domain

Ely and Littleport Riots of 1816: The Trial and Its Sentences

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John McCullough, CC BY 3.0. Eighty-two people stood before a Special Commission convened at Ely in June 1816. The special assizes lasted from Monday to Saturday. The Bishop of Ely had retained exclusive criminal jurisdiction in the area since 970 CE, and the trial took place under that authority, with two a...

Image: John McCullough | CC BY 3.0

Ely and Littleport Riots of 1816: Legacy of a Quiet Uprising

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John McCullough, CC BY 3.0. A monument in Littleport churchyard commemorates the five men who were hanged: Thomas South, John Dennis, George Crow, Isaac Harley, and William Beamiss. They were agricultural labourers and a licensed victualler, most of them in their twenties or thirties, rising against conditi...

Image: John McCullough | CC BY 3.0