The Farnley Wood Plot was a conspiracy in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in October 1663. Intended as a major rising to overturn the return to monarchy in 1660, it was undermined by informers, and came to nothing. The major plotters were Joshua Greathead and

Captain Thomas Oates Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, operating primarily in Farnley, West Yorkshire, but also with links to

Gildersome Gildersome is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough 5 miles (7 km) south-west of Leeds city centre in West Yorkshire, England. Glidersome forms part of the Heavy Woollen District. Location Historic ...

Morley, West Yorkshire Morley is a market town and a civil parish within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. Morley is the largest town in the Borough of Leeds after Leeds itself. Morley forms part of the Heavy Woollen District. It ...

and

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

. The aim was to capture and overthrow the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

strongholds of Leeds city centre. The plot was disbanded on 12 October 1663. Twenty-six men were arrested, imprisoned and executed as traitors, with at least some being

hanged, drawn and quartered To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of King Henry III ...

Background

After the Restoration of the monarchy and government by Charles II, the son of defeated and executed king Charles I, there was still division in the nation. Fear of Catholicism continued, fed by the success of the Counter Reformation in Europe. The religious settlement had re-established the Church of England, but

presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

s and other dissenters were suspicious of what they considered its 'Popish' practices. Charles II was at least sympathetic to Catholicism. This wave of radical dissension was found throughout the country but was particularly pronounced in the north, leading to its characterization as the 'Northern Rebellion'. The Crown took steps to suppress the movement by arresting known agitators.

Paul Hobson Captain Paul Hobson (died 1666) was an antinomian Particular Baptist who served in the parliamentary army during the English Civil War. He was one of the signatories to the Baptist Confession of 1644, who later adopted Fifth Monarchy ideas,Louis ...

, a Particular Baptist preacher who was involved in the planning of the rebellion, was arrested on 20 August. He was later accused of having turned informer.

The plot

The Farnley Wood Plot was launched in Farnley, in Leeds, by two main players, both of Parliamentarian sympathies. One was Joshua Greathead, a local squire who had fought in the Civil War in

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

's army and had led his own squadron. He was a resident of

, one of the villages nearest to Farnley. The other was Captain Thomas Oates of Morley. Farnley, lying halfway between Leeds and Morley and largely wooded, provided an ideal location to meet in numbers. The declared objectives of the plot were "to re-establish a gospel ministry and magistracy; to restore the Long Parliament; to relieve themselves from the excise and all subsidies and to reform all orders and degrees of men, especially the lawyers and clergy". The main aim of the plan of campaign may have been to storm the Royalist strongholds in the city of

. On the morning of 12 October 1663, a poor turn-out of only 26 men had convened, mostly Presbyterian local farmers and businessmen, who were not prepared to fight in battle. The plot was a failure, the meeting broke up and all returned to their villages. However, Greathead had turned informer after being overruled in favour of the plans made by Oates and had alerted the authorities, who set in motion the arrest of the 26 people.

Aftermath

The arrested men were taken to await the

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ...

in York, where they were remanded in

Clifford's tower York Castle is a fortified complex in the city of York, England. It consists of a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings, which were built over the last nine centuries on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruine ...

. Those tried and sentenced to death for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

were Thomas Oates, Samuel Ellis, John Nettleton snr, John Nettleton jnr, Robert Scott, William Tolson, John Fozzard, Robert Olroyd, John Asquith, Peregrine Corney, John Snowden, John Smith, William Ash, John Errington, Robert Atkinson, William Colton, George Denham ("The Grand Agitator"), Henry Watson, Richard Wilson, Ralph Rymer and John Carre. One of the plotters, John Asquith, was an ancestor of the future UK prime minister H.H. Asquith. Most were executed on a single morning in York and three at Northallerton. Robert Olroyd and Peregrine Corney were separately executed. Three of the men (Robert Atkins, John Errington and Henry Wilson) had managed to escape to Leeds. There they hid in an inn, but were finally re-arrested and, on 14 January 1664, sentenced to death for treason. They were transported to Chapeltown Moor, where a

gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

had been constructed. They were hung by chains, before being dissected. The executioner, a local joiner of the name of Peter Mason, cut off the three heads and preserved them. The following day, they were stuck on the railings of Moot Hall. In 1677 the skulls were blown down in a gale. Others implicated in the general uprising included Thomas Palmer. The authorities also rounded up Parliamentarian sympathisers throughout the country including John Hutchinson, Thomas Jollie, Richard Salwey,

Robert Venables Robert Venables (ca. 1613–1687), was an English soldier from Cheshire, who fought for Parliament in the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and captured Jamaica in 1655. When the Anglo-Spanish War began in 1654, he was made joint comma ...

Henry Neville Henry Neville or Nevile may refer to: *Henry Neville (died c.1415), MP for leicestershire (UK Parliament constituency), leicestershire *Henry Neville, 5th Earl of Westmorland (1525–1564), English peer *Henry Neville (Gentleman of the Privy Chamb ...

, and Henry Wilkinson. Most were released from lack of evidence but Hutchinson died while incarcerated in Sandown Castle. When the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of ...

met again in early 1664, it repealed the Triennial Act. This legislative step has been attributed to the effect on domestic politics of the uncovering of the ramifications of the plot for a northern rebellion. The Northern Rising is also said to have led to the 1664 Conventicle Act, which sought to crack down on religious dissent. The Act penalised anyone who preached at or attended a dissenter congregation, or allowed dissenters to use their building.David Farr, 'British Monarchy: The Crisis of State 1642-89', p.112. Nelson Thornes, 2009.

Background

The plot

Aftermath

References

Further reading