272:
communicated by some delegate appointed for the purpose. Had not then a person pretending to come from that body and for that purpose, made his appearance in the country, it is not assuming too much to say that probably no movement whatever would have occurred - it does not follow that a dangerous spirit could not have been found lurking in any breast, but that that spirit would not have found its way into action.
105:, and had worked as a carpenter and builder, and also latterly as a surveyor. He had not done well as a builder and he declared that he had lost money. He was described as "a person of genteel appearance and good address, nearly six feet high, of erect figure, light hair, red and rather large whiskers, and a full face, a little pitted with the
271:
from which every movement has taken its rise. All the mischievous in the country have considered themselves as subordinate members of a great leading body of revolutionists in London, as cooperating with that body for one general purpose, and in this view to be under its instructions and directions,
249:
Although Oliver was not present at the uprising, debate as to his role and responsibility for it has continued ever since. While the use of informers had become routine on the part of magistrates during the
Luddite period, the practice was regarded by a wide section of public opinion as being alien
245:
on the 16th in the House of
Commons, where it gave rise to sensational debates which were repeated several times. The accusation, of course, was that Oliver the Home Office informer was, in fact, the moving spirit in the Pentrich disturbances, and that without him they would not have taken place at
240:
alleged that the
Pentrich events had in fact been incited by the earlier activities of "Oliver the Spy", who had been known to the rebels as "London delegate" William Oliver. Baines also alleged that the authorities, had known from Oliver that the rising was about to happen, but had let it go ahead
356:
Government, having been alerted by Oliver, allowed the
Penrich rising to continue, rather than nipping it in the bud. The public indignation generated by the spy's activities was one more step on the road to reform, and the newspaper revelations made sure of a quite different outcome to that which
188:
A few hours later however, Oliver was spotted in
Wakefield talking to a liveried footman, by a tradesman called Dickinson, that he had earlier attempted to recruit. Dickinson asked him how he had managed to escape the troops of General Byng, and he gave an embarrassed answer and hurriedly left the
308:
Oliver arrived at Cape Town in 1820, where it was generally believed that he was the notorious police informer. Here he operated as a builder and contractor until about 1825. His friendship with John
Melvill, Government Inspector of buildings, led Melvill to recommend him as his deputy in 1821.
125:
and on 23 April began a tour of the North and
Midlands, ostensibly for the purpose of obtaining petitions for Parliamentary Reform and representing himself as a "Liberal patriot". To the more staid reformers he represented himself as intent on organising a large petition, while insinuating that
266:
There certainly prevails very generally in the country a strong and decided opinion that most of the events that have recently occurred in the country are to be attributed to the presence and active agitation of Mr. Oliver. He is considered as the
226:
border, three rebel leaders, Jeremiah
Brandreth, Isaac Ludlam and William Turner, were captured. They were subsequently tried for treason, hanged and posthumously beheaded. Others who had taken part in the uprising were transported to Australia.
241:
in order to advance their own political ends. Baines revealed that Oliver was actually W. J. Richards, "a spy" working for Lord
Sidmouth's Home Office. The newspaper article of 14 June was read out almost in its entirety by
185:, the commander of troops in the North and gave him advance warning of the Thornhill Lees gathering. The meeting of would-be revolutionaries, including Oliver, was surrounded and all were arrested by the troops.
189:
town by stagecoach for
Nottingham. Dickinson then spoke to the liveried footman who readily admitted to being one of General Byng’s servants. All was now clear; Oliver was
206:
By the time Oliver reached Nottingham, some rumours of treachery had already reached the town and he was given a gruelling cross-examination that he was lucky to survive.
62:
The system of police informers was not new, but had largely escaped popular censure during the wars against France. In peacetime, it was more difficult to justify.
262:, the Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, wrote to Lord Sidmouth on 14 June about the uprising, squarely blaming Oliver for what had happened:
210:
and the Pentrich revolutionaries were not at Nottingham however and the news that Oliver was a spy, did not reach Pentrich in time to stop its uprising.
305:
ordering that a grant of land be made to a "Mr William Jones whose object in proceeding to the Cape of Good Hope is to settle in that Colony".
130:, he spoke of the use of physical force in London, where seventy thousand men were allegedly ready to rise, as soon as plans were complete.
348:
Oliver's historical significance arguably lies less in his activities than in his exposure as an officially sanctioned spy. Readers of the
490:
Sir F. Burdett, House of Commons, Hansard, 16 June 1817; quoting description by a Mr Willans, a Dewsbury bookseller in an article in
259:
336:) in the County of Salop, aged about fifty, and married to Harriet born Dear of Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire". He left "less than 6000
353:
281:
177:
Oliver toured again in June and began making plans with locals for revolution; a large meeting was to be held on 6 June 1817 in
122:
109:. His usual dress ... was a light fashionable coloured brown coat, black waistcoat, dark-blue mixture pantaloons, and
127:
17:
182:
655:
P. A. Pickering, "Betrayal and exile: a forgotten Chartist experience" in M. Davis & P. A. Pickering (eds.),
293:
It was plainly now in the best interests of the authorities for Oliver to leave the political scene, and in 1819
59:, in June, and it was a time when many of Britain’s middle and upper classes saw a genuine risk of revolution.
524:
313:. He was commissioned to draw the first designs for an English Church, St George's, for the 1820 settlers in
237:
194:
635:
Early Nineteenth Century Architecture in South Africa: A Study of the Interaction of Two Cultures, 1795–1837
121:
On 28 March 1817 Oliver approached the Home Office offering his services as an informer. He was accepted by
193:
a revolutionary, but instead worked for the authorities. Word spread and the editor and reform campaigner
716:
16:
This article is about the British police informer. For the American contractor and industrialist, see
332:
He left a will, dated 10 December 1824, in which he described himself as "a native of Ponsonbury (
155:
75:
701:
396:
326:
418:"Exit pursued by a bear: Oliver the Spy and the imperial context of British political history"
706:
565:
366:
302:
711:
529:
History of the Reign of George III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
71:
126:
stronger measures might soon be necessary. To the more violent reformers, angry about the
8:
310:
439:
207:
90:, England. He may have been baptised there in October 1774. He married Harriet Dear of
70:
Although some early newspaper reports described Oliver as Welsh and a native of either
443:
429:
392:
369:'s deeply disapproving poem of 1820, "The Three Graves", which contains the lines:
110:
48:
434:
417:
569:
242:
219:
56:
37:
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276:
178:
95:
695:
232:
199:
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Oliver died as "William Oliver Jones" on 2 February 1827, and was buried in
101:
By the time he came to public notice he had been living for thirty years in
472:
Richard Richards: Parish register, Shropshire, Pontesbury, 21 October 1774.
285:(1963) more succinctly called Oliver the "archetype of the Radical Judas".
147:
230:
A few days after the uprising, in a series of astonishing articles in the
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were all visited, during which time he wrote reports for the Home Office.
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298:
79:
52:
223:
171:
163:
131:
87:
83:
391:] was well known to the public for his role as an informer in the
181:, a district of Dewsbury. However on 4 June, he slipped away and met
143:
139:
106:
32:, W. J. Richards and W. O. Jones, was a police informer and supposed
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151:
91:
337:
55:
demonstration in March 1817 and soon afterwards the Pentridge or
44:
670:
A Swindler's Progress: Nobles and Convicts in the Age of Liberty
159:
102:
657:
Unrespectable Radicals? Popular Politics in the Age of Reform
135:
556:
14 June, 21 June, 28 June, 5 July, 12 July and 26 July 1817.
463:, 21 Feb 1818, p. 4; Examination on 15 June 1817, HO 42.166.
309:
During 1821 he acted as surveyor in the Cape Town suburb of
376:"These graves," quoth he, "when life's brief oil is spent,
222:
on the night of 9/10 June 1817 on the Nottinghamshire and
387:
357:
had been hoped for by the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth.
378:
When the dark night comes, and they're sinking bedwards,
683:
The Letters of Charles Lamb: With a Sketch of His Life
297:, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, wrote to
250:
to the spirit of English law, and the exposure in the
481:
Cape Archives Orphan Chamber Wills, vol. 103. of 1827
646:
Cape Archives Orphan Chamber Wills, vol. 103, 1827.
585:A. F. Fremantle, "The Truth about Oliver the Spy",
374:
I ask'd the fiend, for whom these rites were meant?
36:at a time of social unrest, immediately after the
693:
624:K. McKenzie, "Exit pursued by a bear...", p. 85.
600:English Historical Documents, vol. II 1783-1832
395:; and George Edwards for a similar role in the
47:protests of 1811–15 had been followed by the
352:and the public at large, were outraged that
503:The National Archives: HO 40.10 (bundle 9)
380:I mean for Castles, Oliver, and Edwards."
544:, new edn. (Harmondsworth, 1968), p. 722.
433:
415:
340:" and a gold watch to his wife and son.
329:Cemetery on the outskirts of Cape Town.
65:
542:The Making of the English Working Class
282:The Making of the English Working Class
694:
515:, 14 June 1817 (second edition), p. 3.
116:
365:Police informers are the subject of
288:
598:A. Aspinall and E.A. Smith (eds.),
128:suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act
13:
213:
14:
728:
218:Following the brief Pentridge or
18:William J. Oliver (industrialist)
457:Salisbury and Winchester Journal
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1:
435:10.1080/14490854.2016.1156187
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28:, (?1774–1827) also known as
258:, astounded public opinion.
7:
236:beginning on 14 June 1817,
10:
733:
659:(Aldershot, 2008), p. 201.
637:(Cape Town, 1963), p. 301.
15:
587:English Historical Review
343:
461:Staffordshire Advertiser
320:
254:of Oliver’s role, as an
531:, vol. 4 (1823), p. 81.
681:T. N. Talfourd (ed.),
459:, 2 March 1818, p. 4;
397:Cato Street Conspiracy
383:
274:
203:was soon in the know.
98:, and they had a son.
82:he claimed to be from
494:, 14 June 1817, p. 3.
416:McKenzie, K. (2016).
385:John Castle [
371:
317:, completed in 1828.
303:Lord Charles Somerset
264:
78:, in evidence to the
66:Early life and family
574:The Skilled Labourer
576:(1919), chapter 12.
717:19th-century spies
208:Jeremiah Brandreth
117:Career as informer
589:47 (1932), p. 603
422:History Australia
289:Move to Cape Town
256:agent provocateur
34:agent provocateur
26:William J. Oliver
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393:Spa Fields riots
354:Lord Liverpool's
260:Earl Fitzwilliam
111:Wellington boots
49:Spa Fields riots
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731:
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672:(2009), p. 186.
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602:(1959), p. 397.
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243:Francis Burdett
220:Pentrich rising
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214:Pentrich rising
119:
68:
57:Pentrich rising
38:Napoleonic Wars
21:
12:
11:
5:
730:
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685:(1841), p. 89.
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295:Henry Goulburn
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277:E. P. Thompson
215:
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179:Thornhill Lees
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96:Cambridgeshire
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64:
30:Oliver the Spy
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
729:
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702:English spies
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668:K. McKenzie,
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613:The Making...
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566:J. L. Hammond
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238:Edward Baines
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233:Leeds Mercury
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195:Edward Baines
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162:, Middleton,
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123:Lord Sidmouth
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51:of 1816, the
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39:
35:
31:
27:
23:
19:
707:1770s births
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367:Charles Lamb
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183:General Byng
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148:Huddersfield
120:
100:
69:
61:
42:
33:
29:
25:
24:
22:
712:1827 deaths
327:Green Point
315:Grahamstown
299:Cape Colony
269:main spring
80:Home Office
53:Blanketeers
696:Categories
570:B. Hammond
403:References
224:Derbyshire
172:Nottingham
164:Manchester
132:Birmingham
88:Shropshire
84:Pontesbury
615:, p. 726.
444:147968285
428:(1): 83.
301:Governor
154:, Leeds,
144:Wakefield
140:Sheffield
107:small-pox
338:guilders
311:Newlands
168:Barnsley
152:Dewsbury
92:Fulbourn
76:Pembroke
72:Cardigan
197:of the
156:Halifax
45:Luddite
442:
344:Legacy
160:Royton
103:London
440:S2CID
321:Death
246:all.
136:Derby
568:and
170:and
43:The
430:doi
388:sic
334:sic
279:in
191:not
113:".
86:in
74:or
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426:13
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420:.
399:.
166:,
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142:,
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40:.
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20:.
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