Arthur Burnett Thistlewood
(Bapt.) 1774 - 1820
Lithograph after Scharf's 1817 painting. Courtesy British Museum ImagesBorn in Horsington, Lincolnshire to Ann Burnett (no. 14 in the family tree, below) and William Thistlewood (no.13) The Burnetts are shopkeepers, the Thistlewoods influential land agents and farmers.
An early fascination with politics - or with the stories of his grandfather’s employer, leads Arthur in directions that bewilder his family and the surrounding community.
The historical Thistlewood is apprenticed to an apothecary, reputedly in Newark, not (as in my story) Horncastle, where he has attended the Grammar School.
Arthur Thistlewood is familiar with several influential and controversial characters in the town, which is about ten miles from Tupholme Hall and Farm, where Arthur Thistlewood spends most of his youth,
THE THISTLEWOOD FAMILY and THEIR RELATIONSHIPS TO ARTHUR
Tupholme Hall before demolition, about 1980, source unknown.Arthur Thistlewood moves to Tupholme Hall with his mother, Ann (no 14 in the family tree) after permission is given for William’s (no 13) marriage. Perhaps Farmer John (no 6) needs domestic support following the death of his first wife (no 7) and the marriage in 1772 of his daughter, Mary (no 12) to John Innett. Or perhaps Farmer John perceived in the infant Arthur (no 16) a likely successor, his older son John (no 11) having drowned without legitimate issue, while visiting Thomas (no 4) in Jamaica.
Tupholme Hall is built by the Vyner family in 1700, replacing a Tudor mansion and close to a ruined abbey. The Vyners’ land agents and tenant farmers, the Thistlewood family live in the hall from about 1730. The building falls into disrepair, perhaps after Arthur Thistlewood’s younger brother, John (No 19 in family tree) moves to Louth.
In the mid to late 20th century, the grounds become a popular site for pop concerts. the most famous is on 27th May, 1972, when musicians like the Beach Boys and Rod Stewart perform there. Tupholme Hall is at the rear right of the photograph below by (untraceable) Peter Dawson.
Research snapshots by the author, 2007 and 2014. From top left:, across:
Cottage in Horsington, where - according to Lincolnshire archives Thistlewood is born in 1770 (baptised 1774). His parents are Ann Burnett (no 14 in family tree) and William Thistlewood (no 13).
The ruins of Tupholme Abbey, are close to the site of the Thistlewoods’ home. Built 1155-1165, it is destroyed by 1538 during the dissolution of the monasteries ordered by Henry VIII.
Horncastle Grammar School, which the historical Arthur Thistlewood is believed to have attended. Replaced by the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Horncastle, the building is in use as a café / community centre.
Marked by a blue plaque, once the home in West Street, Horncastle of Dr Edward Harrison 91766-1839); Scotsman, experimental physician and radical thinker. A small building, still in the garden is his private hospital.
The Horncastle Free Dispensary is founded in 1789 by Dr Edward Harrison and his patron, Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), Lord of the Horncastle Manor and President of the Royal Society.
The greengrocer at 5, High Street, Horncastle is on the premises of the butcher’s shop, owned by Mr and Mrs Wilkinson, parents of Susan Thistlewood (no 15 in the family tree).
One of Horncastle’s very many pub-hotels while the Thistlewoods live in Tupholme, at this time, The Bull has a ballroom for civic meetings and other public occasions. As important members of the community, the Thistlewoods certainly frequent it. Some may indulge in gambling, a popular pastime, especially during the annual Horncastle Horse Fair, which has its moment in Turtle Soup for the King.
Stable block at Gautby Hall, the Lincolnshire home of the Vyner family, the Thistlewoods’ long-term landlords and employers. The house burns down in 1874, but the stable block survives, as do the park and lake.
In London, Arthur and Susan Thistlewood settle at Stanhope Street, Clare Market, a very poor district near Lincolns Inn Fields. The present Clare Market is close by, dominated by buildings associated with the London School of Economics.
THE THISTLEWOOD HOME IN STANHOPE STREET, CLARE MARKET, LINCOLNS INN FIELDS - THEN AND NOW
MAP REFERENCES
Horewood Regency A--Z: p.13 Dc
Contemporary A-Z of London p199 3J
1819: Clare Market is accessible from Stanhope St. via Clare St and parallel Hollis St
Stanhope St is close to and parallel to Drury Lane with Great Wild St to the west and Newcastle St to the south east, which leads on to The Strand with St Mary le Strand Church on the left (west. still exists) and Holywell Street on the right (east)
2021 The area is absorbed by LSE. A road named Clare Market runs off Portugal St. which leads from Kingsway, built during the reconstruction of the area during the 1840’s. Beyond, Houghton St runs into Aldwych and Clements Inn runs into the Strand by St Clement Dane church. Access from Aldwych to St Mary le Strand via Melbourne Place.
Clare Market today. Author’s snapshot, 2007THE VYNER FAMILY.
THE THISTLEWOODS’ LANDLORDS and EMPLOYERS.
A STUDY in GOLD, PRIVILEGE and POWER
The Family of Sir Robert Vyner. John Michael Wright, 1673. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, LondonSIR THOMAS VYNER (1558-1665) moves from Warwickshire to train as a goldsmith with his brother-in-law in London, where he becomes Lord Mayor. As a banker, he provides gold bullion to two Kings and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. Knighted by Cromwell in 1653, the baronetcy is inherited by Thomas’s son, George in Hackney and his wealth by his nephew -
SIR R0BERT VYNER (1631-1688) (PICTURED)who also becomes Lord Mayor of London, whose nephew and heir is
THOMAS VYNER MP (1666-1707) whose son and heir is
ROBERT VYNER of GAUTBY MP (1689-1777) whose son and heir is
ROBERT VYNER MP (1717-1791) “Old Bob”, whose son and heir is
ROBERT VYNER 11 MP (1762-1810) whose son and heir is
CAPT. HENRY VYNER (1805-1861) who inherits the family wealth aged 5. His son
FREDERICK GRANTHAM VYNER (1847-1870) is killed by kidnapping bandits during a Grand Tour of Greece
and daughter HENRIETTA VYNER (1833-1907) marries one of Gladstone’s ministers, who becomes Viceroy of India.
When my nephew announced his intention to become a Member of Parliament, too, and change the world for ordinary people, Old Bob laughed till he cried.
Thistlewood’s Aunt Mary (no 12) at Gautby.
Turtle Soup for the King, 6th August 1819
All Saints Church, Gautby, built for the Vyner family in 1754.
HENRY VYNER (b. 1805) appears Turtle Soup for the King (August, 1819)
as, by coincidence, at the same time, does his father’s aristocratic half brother, Pelham, an associate of the Regent (soon to be King).
THOMAS SPENCE, THE AGRARIAN REVOLUTIONARY, (1750-1814)
Of Scottish heritage, Spence is raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he works as schoolteacher, before moving to London in 1787. In 1794, he is jailed for High Treason after publishing seditious material in his journal, Pig’s Meat.
Alongside Thomas Paine, one of the founding fathers of the USA, Spence is the leading radical philosopher of his time. While he associates himself with Paine, Spence’s revolutionary views are considered more extreme.
Thomas Spence knows Thistlewood, Tidd and Brunt, three of the self-styled 40 disciples who continue to pursue his aims after his death. A divide grows between those Spenceans who favour peaceful means to achieve change and those who argue for the use of violence.
The breadth of Spence’s endeavours is awe-inspiring from the political writings, to propaganda currency and the promotion of easier spelling in English. He is best known for demanding agrarian reform; an equal share of land for all British citizens. The influence of his political ideas on the Cato Street Conspirators cannot be underestimated.
Thomas Spence issues numerous tokens as a kind of revolutionary propaganda. This 1795 halfpenny (Courtesy British Museum Images) shows a man sailing on a barge.
The Spences’ shop, The Hive of Liberty, stood almost opposite Tidd’s lodgings on Little Turnstile. It traded a conglomeration of old and new coins, books and pamphlets, including Tom Spence’s own socio-political works and his dictionary of revised spelling. The chaotic establishment was managed by the philosopher’s second wife, a fiery dame and competent deterrent to any officer, who came snooping in the hope of an easy arrest.
Turtle Soup for the King, 28th July, 1794
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SPENCE:
See the Thomas Spence Society website - Thomas Spence - Home (thomas-spence-society.co.uk)
The People’s Farm, English Radical Agrarianism by Malcolm Chase 1988 and 2010
Thomas Spence, the Poor Man’s Revolutionary ed. Alistair Bennett and Keith Armstrong, 2014.
Pig’s Meat, published in 72 instalments in 1793-4, Is a magazine of political writings from various sources. Spence is charged - with 29 other radicals - with High Treason, but freed after 7 months.
Locked up in Newgate, Spence describes hiS magazine:
Pigs' meat; or, lessons for the swinish multitude: Published in weekly penny numbers, collected by the poor man's advocate (an old veteran in the cause of freedom) in the course of his reading for more than twenty years. Intended to promote among the labouring part of mankind proper ideas of their situation, of their importance, and of their rights. And to convince them that their forlorn condition has not been entirely overlooked and forgotten, nor their just cause unpleaded, neither by their maker not by the best and most enlightened of men in all ages.
cover courtesy of British Museum ImagesThomas Spence fought not only for universal suffrage for men and women, but also for the rights of children. In Newgate, 1794, he writes of himself in the third person as
- the first, who as far as he knows, made use of the phrase "RIGHTS OF MAN", which was on the following remarkable occasion: A man who had been a farmer, and also a miner, and who had been ill-used by his landlords, dug a cave for himself by the seaside, at Marsdon Rocks, between Shields and Sunderland, about the year 1780, and the singularity of such a habitation, exciting the curiosity of many to pay him a visit; our author was one of that number. Exulting in the idea of a human being, who had bravely emancipated himself from the iron fangs of aristocracy, to live free from impost, he wrote extempore with chaulk above the fire place of this free man, the following lines:
Ye landlords vile, whose man's peace mar,
Come levy rents here if you can;
Your stewards and lawyers I defy,
And live with all the RIGHTS OF MAN
Each of the Spenceans who made their way into The Ship dropped a penny into the collection box in anticipation of a talk, entitled “New Ploughs and Ploughing”.
Turtle Soup for the King
28th July, 1794
The Ship Inn (author’s snapshot) is close to the site of Spence’s shop on Little Turnstile (between Holborn Underground station and Lincoln’s Inn Field). It is tempting to imagine Spence popping in for a pint and a discussion upstairs with fellow-members of the London Corresponding Society.
Spence’s influence is profound, but Thistlewood quickly develops a reputation of his own that ruffles the establishment.
Extracts from Thistlewood’s correspondence with Home Secretary, Viscount Sidmouth, 1817.
Thistlewood has been acquitted following the Spa Field riot of December, 1816. To his indignant letters, only one response - from Permanent Under Secretary, Henry Hobhouse - comes from Whitehall. Thistlewood publishes the correspondence successfully several times in a pamphlet, partly for profit - they are tuppence apiece - and partly to embarrass Sidmouth. After challenging the Home Secretary to an (illegal) duel, Thistlewood finds himself back in gaol.
LORD VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH.
Whitehall, July 22, 1817
SIR
I am directed by Lord Sidmouth to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th inst, by which you apply for payment of 120l which you state to have lost by your being arrested on the charge of High Treason on the even of your intended passage to America, and 60l more, which you state to be expended by Mrs. Thistlewood, in consequence of your arrest, and I have it in command to acquaint you that your application is wholly inadmissible.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant
H.HOBHOUSE
40 Stanhope Street, Clare Market,
August 2, 1817
MY LORD,
I HAVE received the letter of Mr Hobhouse, written under your direction, relative to my application for indemnity of the loss I have sustained in consequence of my apprehension on a warrant signed by you. It appears from that letter, that I am to sit down with the loss of property of which I have been robbed by your agents; although I have been acquitted of the offence I have been charged with. I have seen several representations of the benevolence of your disposition, and therefore I thought and therefore I thought an application to you would at last have produced an enquiry into the circumstances of the robbery. But you refuse to notice the crimes of the men you employ, although you were so industrious to bring me to punishment. Henceforth, I trust, you will cast off your hypocritical saintliness, and appear in no other character but your own, that of the wiling tool of the vilest of mankind. Mrs. Thistlewood saw several of the articles, at the Alien Office, of which I had been robbed; amongst which, were the drawing utensils belonging to my little boy, and my razors; Mr. Nicholas the thief taker, took out of my pocket a knife, dagger, and other articles, I suppose the return of these article are wholly inadmissible. You certainly have the power to refuse me redress in this case, and if you persist in your determination, I have only the power to protest against it, as an act of brutal injustice.
ARTHUR THISTLEWOOD
The clothes that were taken from my back by your orders, during my confinement in the Tower, have been returned, but are totally spoiled, and my loss, as I stated before, is, at least 180l.
Stanhope Street,
August 23, 1817
MY LORD,
As you have deigned to notice my application relative to a few of the articles of which I was plundered by your agents, I take the liberty of again soliciting your attention to the same subject. The following is an inventory of the property which has not been restored: A new black coat, a pair of blue pantaloons, a black silk waistcoat, three shirts, two pair of black silk stockings, a hat belonging to myself, my little boy a new coat, waistcoat, and trousers, his bed, a box of colours, a glass inkstand, two writing books, a large quantity of goose quills, and some music books. Mrs. Thistlewood was more fortunate, she only lost a large silk umbrella. If, in your condescension, you should be graciously pleased to issue orders for the restoration of the above articles, you will much oblige
ARTHUR THISTLEWOOD
If the clothes, or any of the articles should have been sold, or pawned, or otherwise disposed of, you will be pleased to order the value thereof to be paid, which will be all the same thing to me ; and, at the same time, I trust you will not forget the passage money, &c. Mrs. Thistlewood saw at the Alien Office, the inkstand, the goose quills, and Mr. Nichols forgot to send the dagger.
Transcribed by the author. Courtesy British Library
Evidence suggests that Thistlewood is skilful with words and becomes a fine orator, even without the university education of most professional reformers in England at the time.
23rd February, 1820 Arms at the ready, Thistlewood rallies his men in the loft at Cato Street.
From George Cruikshank, A Radical Parliament. Published 1st May, 1821. Courtesy British Museum Images.
THE UNEXPECTED VICTIM
Bow Street Runner, Richard Smithers dies shortly after the police raid at Cato Street. First to climb the ladder to the loft, his arrival startles the conspirators and he is stabbed by Thistlewood’s sword. He leaves a wife and two children.
George Cruikshank, 1820, Courtesy British Museum Images
The Thistlewood Legacy
Arthur’s father, William (13 in the family tree) is a stockbreeder and farmer of whom little is known. His character in Turtle Soup for the King is credible, but for the most part, invented. Arthur’s grandfather, Wm John (no 6) and his Great Uncle Thomas (no 4) learn farming skills, land management and weather-patterns from their father, Robert.
The widely respected “Farmer John” inherits the tenancy of Tupholme Hall and farm, with employment as their landlord’s agent. In 1850, aged 29, the restless Thomas goes to seek his fortune in Jamaica.
Both brothers keep diaries and weather reports. They correspond regularly, but their lives and their methods could scarcely be more divergent.
“He sighed. Heavy rain would lay waste to the wheat, that as far as the eye could see, stood green, proud and already two feet high. What sins has he committed, that his legs and his back should plague him, when there was so much to do?”
Turtle Soup for the King, 14th July, 1789
Montego Bay Times, February 1781.
(Professor Douglas Hall records that the ailing Thomas Thistlewood paid three dollars for the above advertisement, but failed to sell his property.)
From the diaries of
Wm JOHN and THOMAS THISTLEWOOD
1789
Tues 14th July wind W SW and S. cloudy forenoon, afternoon fair. Afternoon to Gautby..
W 15th dark and rainy. At home sowing turnips
Sunday 19th terrible thunder and lightening. Rain and floods.
22nd July in garden, planted broccoli wind north west then to west cleared up a bright warm phase; afternoon with a high flood, this heavy rain having continued 16 hours at the least.
Sat 25th wind south west, a fine hot day
27th at Lincoln attended Assizes.
1793.
5th January Thomas Burnett went to Sutherton
2nd March great storms and a violent hurricane which continued till dawn. Blew down my parlour chimney and made a break in the barn tiling., hay stacks spoilt and damaged
11th April, wind and snow went to Lincoln with Bentley in his boat to meet Robert Vyner to secure money for Evisby oak Timbers. We were almost finished before we got to Lincoln. Set out from Lincoln about 9 o’clock, As we came down the river the wind kept.
Snow and rain continued all night with great violence.
Courtesy The Lincolnshire Archives and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Transcribed by the author.Arthur Thistlewood is twelve years old, when his Great Uncle Thomas dies, leaving some of his small fortune to Arthur’s father, William and Aunt Mary Thistlewood Innett. (nos 13 and 14 in the family tree).
The rest of Thomas’s property stays in Jamaica and ensures the freedom and relative comfort of Thomas Thistlewood’s favourites, including his Jamaican common-law Jamaican wife, Phibbah. Their acknowledged son, John (no 9 in family tree) dies, aged 20, six years before his father.
“being visited so regular by bad spirits from the Jamaica Uncle, and the front door so heavy, it burst her to move it, Widow Innett thought she would have other turn”
Turtle Soup for the King. 5th August, 1819.
1781
Mon 29th January Sukey wanting this morning, but soon came. At noon, served my Negroes each a quart of English peas.
Mon 12th February Made watchmen, Field Negroes and House Negroes pay me a bitt a piece for stealing my water melons. Flogged Lincoln today.
Wed 14th February Had Dick flogged for letting them plant potato slips the wrong end in the ground.
Transcribed by the late Professor Douglas Hall, University of West Indies,
These are among the mildest entries of a diary that alongside his farming practice details his violent and sexual abuse of his slaves. The diaries have been digitised in full by the Beinecke Collection and are free to view. Thistlewood’s handwriting is almost indecipherable to all but specialists, and he uses code words for the different forms of rape that were part of his daily routine. Below a sample from 1768.
Courtesy The Lincolnshire Archives and the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, University of Yale.A book and website about the Cato Street Conspiracy is not an arena to detail Thomas Thistlewood’s abuse. It is suggested here in response to queries about the family connection.
Turtle Soup for the King does not dwell on a relative Arthur never met and who died when he was 12 years old, neither does it steer clear of suggesting consequences for the English family.
We are all touched by the lives of our forefathers and mothers.
For more about Thomas Thistlewood, read
In Miserable Slavery by Douglas Hall, University of the West Indies Press, 1989-2012
Mastery, Tyranny and Desire; Thomas Thistlewood and his Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World by Trevor Burnard, University of North Carolina Press, 2004
SUSAN THISTLEWOOD (b. about 1790)
She sat on the yellow settee, watching them with a composure so rare in the senior officer’s experience, that it unsettled him. He flipped open her book to examine it for seditious content. Finding the work to be not only poetic, but authored by a female, he raised his eyebrows and let it be.
Turtle Soup for the King, 23rd February, 1820
In Turtle Soup for the King, the character of Susan Thistlewood (no 15) beneath that calm surface is suggested by her choices of reading - to which, in fiction at least, she has access in one of London’s new lending libraries.
There is no surviving portrait of Mrs Thistlewood, who is the daughter of a prosperous butcher on Horncastle High Street.
Felicia Dorothea Hemans is an Anglo-Austrian writer of similar age and greater prosperity, whose work the imagined Susan Thistlewood enjoys. One of Hemans’ “Tales and Historic Scenes, The Widow of Crescentius (1819) is especially resonant.
When the Roman Consul, Crescentius enters political negotiations with Otho, Emperor of Germany, - about the power of the Popes - he is cheated and beheaded. His widow, Stephania, vows to take revenge. Stehania persuades Otho that she is a friend and then poisons him.
RIGHT, an extract from part one.
For the entire poem , open https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/widow-crescentius
Felicia Dorothea Hermans by Edward Smith, 1836Courtesy British Museum ImagesThe scene of grief and death is o'er,
The patriot's heart shall throb no more;
But hers — so vainly form'd to prove
The pure devotedness of love,
And draw from fond affection's eye
All thoughts sublime, all feelings high;
When consciousness again shall wake,
Hath now no refuge — but to break.
The spirit long inured to pain
May smile at fate in calm disdain;
Survive its darkest hour, and rise
In more majestic energies.
But in the glow of vernal pride,
If each warm hope at once hath died,
Then sinks the mind, a blighted flower,
Dead to the sunbeam and the shower;
A broken gem, whose inborn light
Is scatter'd — ne'er to reunite.
SUSAN THISTLEWOOD‘S LETTER TO THE KING
To His Majesty King George the Fourth
The Petition of Susan Thistlewood, widow of the late Arthur Thistlewood
May 2nd 1820
Most Humbly
That your Majesty’s dutiful subject, the deeply afflicted widow of the late Arthur Thistlewood, has made most earnest application to the sherriffs of Middlesex for the body of her late beloved, faithful and affectionate husband, and that alas”! she has made this application in vain. That your humble Petitioner, previous to the death of her husband, made jointly with him, the humble request of being permitted to sever and take into her keeping a Lock of his hair and that this request was refused her. That she therefore with all humility, makes this effort to cause for supplications to reach the ear of Your Majesty, and that she most humbly implores Your Majesty to be graciously pleased to grant that the now cold and mangled remains of her dear departed husband, which the law has placed at Your Majesty’s disposal, may be delivered to her, in order that she may have the consolation of performing towards them the last mournful duties.
And your Petitioner, as in duty bound, shall even humbly pray
Susan Thistlewood
Transcribed by the author. Courtesy National Archives, Kew
After her husband’s death, Susan Thistlewood returns to Horncastle . When the author visited her father’s former shop in 2014, the occupants knew nothing of this history, but reported anxious, ghostly noises behind the fire-place.
.
The few documentary references to Arthur Thistlewood’s son JULIAN (no 20 in the tree) suggest a well-mannered, well brought-up and perhaps sensitive young man. There are references (quoted by Malcolm Chase) to Julian in the 1830s in the company of London radicals, who sought revenge for his father’s death. The identity of Julian’s birth mother is unknown.
THEATRE
Cato Street, 1820 is written and performed by David Benson (pictured).
Defined as “personal reflections on the story of Arthur Thistlewood and company”, it was first presented at the Edinburgh Fringe, 2019 and ends with a moving, original song on the theme of Give us Liberty or Give us Death.
Actor, Robert Shaw’s play Cato Street was produced at the Young Vic Theatre in London, November 1971 with a cast including Vanessa Redgrave as Susan Thistlewood and Norman Beaton as William Davidson.
