John Burkinshaw

John was slightly pockpitted, smalll scar just above right wrist, dark brown hair and eyes, 5'4 1/2" tall. Born at Dodsworth, Yorkshire. John Burkinshaw was baptized on August 13th, 1792 at Silkstone, son of William Burkinshaw and Mary Darwent. 15/2/1814: Married Margaret Ashton. John was a weaver by trade, and due to the fact that work conditions were bad at that time, he became involved in a political movement, and with his brother George took part in an unlawful assembly in Grange Moor on April 11th, 1820. He and several others were arrested and on September 9th, 1820 were tried for High Treason and were transported for life. They were imprisoned on the hulk, York, before joining the `Lady Ridley` which left London on January 4th, 1821 arriving in Hobart Town, Van Diemens Land on June 27th that same year. His wife, Margaret and two small daughters, Mary and Ann followed his out to Australia. They were living in the Pittwater area when Sarah was born in 1823, followed by four more children.In 1830, John received a ticket-of-leave and applied for an allotment in Hobart Town on which he built a house. He then worked as a carpenter and his wife and children helped him conduct a market garden. In 1860 Margaret died and John moved to live at Bung Bong, Victoria to be near his two sons and two daughters. He died in 1876 and is buried in the Wareek Cemetery.

John Burkinshaw (born August 13, 1792) was a 28 year old weaver. Unlike most of his work colleagues, he could read and write. This skill was to have a major influence on his life’s path. His family name came from their home village of Birkinshaw, near Leeds in Yorkshire. Birkinshaw signifies a grove of young Birch trees, and was derived from the Saxon. He worked as a weaver at a time when working conditions were poor and the pay was poorer. He had a family comprising a wife and four children to raise, and like most found it almost impossible with the pittance he earned. John Burkinshaw spoke up when weavers gathered, agitating for a better deal for workers. He was often at meetings which opposed the government and the manufacturers, despite the Act of December 1819 which forbade such gatherings. His literacy skills automatically made John Burkinshaw a leader in this time of the Industrial Revolution when major developments in manufacturing had a profound effect on the country’s socioeconomic and cultural conditions. About the time John Burkinshaw was born, manual labour-based practices in Great Britain were being replaced with manufacture by machinery, with mechanisation having a particular impact in the textiles industry. In the first 10 years of John’s life, cotton mills were being established throughout the country. Inventors were developing machines which increased the efficiency of spinning, and led to a dramatic increase in the output of individual labourers. This was seen as a threat to employment in the weaving trade. Large numbers of the working class died due to diseases spreading through cramped living conditions, and accidents in factories were regular. Many weavers suddenly found themselves unemployed, as they could no longer compete with machines which only required relatively limited, unskilled labour. Others faced reductions in their wages and saw their work increasingly being undertaken by unapprenticed workmen and children. Wheat prices had soared and workers, unable to feed their families, were becoming desperate. At the same time, Great Britain was at war with France and the cost to the British Government was astronomical. It wanted the economic growth fuelled by the Industrial Revolution to continue, to ensure continued growth in the taxation being generated. The size of the British Army from 1789 to 1815 was increased sixfold to about 250,000 men, and the Navy employed a further 140,000. The difficulties faced by the weavers and the families were probably considered by the Government to be an unnecessary distraction. It came as no surprise that there was an uprising brewing in the working class. This came about with the establishment in 1811 of the Luddite movement, led by the fictitious Ned Ludd. The Luddites protested against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which threatened their livelihood. They objected to textile manufacturing using cheap and unskilled labour, which led to job losses for many textile workers. Child labour had become the labour of choice for manufacturing. Laws were not passed to protect children until many years later and until then they were forced to work in terrible conditions for much lower pay than adult workers. Although governments tried to limit the use of child labour, the factory owners resisted, claiming they were helping the poor by giving their children money to buy food and avoid starvation. (This continued until 1833, when the general law against child labour was passed in England.)An activity of the Luddites was industrial sabotage. They broke into cotton mills and attacked the machinery which they saw as being the root of the problem. Factories employed armed guards and in February 1812 the government of Spencer Perceval made machine breaking a capital crime. The Government backed the manufacturing industry by strongly opposing the Luddites. It executed the rebel group’s members (17 after one trial in 1813) and many others were transported to Australia. In fact, the Government was so determined to wipe them out, that at one stage there were more British troops fighting the Luddites than the famous battles against Napoleon 1 on the Iberian Peninsula. When John Burkinshaw became associated with the Luddite movement, his life and those who were to continue the family line took a massive turn. John was arrested along with his brother George. There are slight variations recorded to the circumstances which led to his transportation, but the basis of his involvement with the Luddites and his brush with capital punishment is the same. According to the book ‘Gold To Dust – A History of Frank and Percival Burkinshaw and their Descendants’, John and George Burkinshaw were among 23 men who were imprisoned. They were charged with High Treason, namely the levying of war against the King. One pleaded guilty, the rest including John and George - pleaded not guilty. The penalty if the charge was proved was death, however they were told if they changed their plea to guilty, they would be spared. One suspects it was not a difficult decision. The guilty plea was subsequently entered and the death sentence was replaced with transportation – 11 of them, including John, for life and the remainder, including George, for 14 years. The ‘lifers’ were sent to Van Dieman’s Land. a slightly different different story is recalled by John’s descendants, John’s reading skills were a godsend in prison. He had found an old newspaper, and was reading it in his cell when a warden came by and asked what he was doing. “Reading the newspaper,” he replied. The warden believed a person with such skills should not be hanged, and expressed his view to the prison supervisor, who agreed that John could be of more use in Van Dieman’s Land, where few of the transported convicts could read and write. They thought he could be an important link between the convicts and the Government. So John Burkinshaw was subsequently pardoned of High Treason and sent as a convict to Tasmania. Because of his skills he was not treated like most other convicts. He worked for the Government without pay for two years, and his dedication was rewarded when he asked if his family could join him. The request was approved, and his wife Margaret and their two daughters, Mary and Anne, were soon aboard a ship to Tasmania. They joined their husband and father in Hobart in 1822. Their first born, a son, died when just a few days old, and a fourth child, Sarah, was born in Tasmania in 1823. Anne was unfortunately killed when she fell from a dray and was run over. She was just 10 years old.

National Archives. Criminal Petitions. Ref: HO 17/122/47 A list of those convicted of high treason at York. Prisoners sentenced to transportation for life: William Comstive, Richard Addy, Charles Stanfield, Benjamin Hanson, Benjamin Rogers, Joseph Chappeil, William Rice, John Birkenshaw, Joseph Firth - all annotated NSW [New South Wales]. Also Michael Downing. The following names crossed out: Thomas Blackburn, John Johnson, [John Vallance], [Alexander Jackson], John Peacock and Thomas Morgan. Prisoners sentenced to transportation for 14 years: Thomas Blackburn: annotated 'died'; Nathaniel Buckley: annotated 'quiet and misled', York hulk; John Lindley [name crossed through]: annotated to go abroad New South Wales; Abraham Ingham and George Bryan: annotated 'good characters', York hulk, seduced; John Hobson: annotated 'young, under 20, probably seduced', York hulk; George Birkenshaw: annotated 'good character, imbecile', York hulk; William Holland: annotated 'young, under 20, probably seduced', York hulk; James Flowers: annotated 'old and infirm, deaf and simple, discharged'; John Ferrysmead: annotated 'quare, York hulk'; John Vallance [name crossed through]: annotated 'quare case, good character, free pardoned'; John Peacock [name crossed through]: annotated 'to go abroad New South Wales'. The following men listed as [tried at] York 9 September 1820, sentenced to 14 years transportation, commuted to seven years 13 April 1821, and annotated to be pardoned uinless Sir John Byng sees some objection: John Farrimond, William Holland, George Birkinshaw, John Hobson, George Brien, Abraham Ingham and Nathaniel Buckley. Papers: Letter from J Byng of Pontefract advising on the safe state of the county, in spite of occasional meetings of 'Ranters', and reporting that it is not necessary 'to detain longer in confinement the offenders convicted at York in 1819' [1820]. A letter from Mary Ashett asking if she may be allowed to accompany the wives of the men transported for treason to New South Wales. She was about to be married to William Comstive. Annotated: William Holland, George Burkinshaw, John Hobson, George Brien, Abraham Ingham, Nathaniel Buckley; Free pardoned 14 September 1822. Date: 1822.