Jeremiah Brandreth
Contemporary image
Born	1790 Wilford
Died	7 November 1817 Derby
Occupation	Stocking maker
Children	Three

Jeremiah Brandreth (1790 – 7 November 1817) was an out-of-work stocking maker who lived in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire who was hanged for treason. He was known as "The Nottingham Captain". He and two of his conspirators were the last people to be beheaded with an axe in Britain.^[1]

[edit] The plot

Jeremiah was born in Wilford,^[2] a village which is now part of the city of Nottingham, but moved to Sutton-in-Ashfield, where he had a wife and three children.

It is believed that Jeremiah was involved in Luddite activities in 1811.^[2]

Jeremiah met William J. Oliver ("Oliver the Spy") in May 1817 and agreed to cooperate in a plan where he would join 50,000 men in London to storm the Tower. It is widely believed that Brandreth was a victim of the then Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, who took severe measures against Luddite rioters.^[3] The "revolution" began on 9 June 1817. Brandreth had held a final meeting at a pub in Pentrich where he and his fellow conspirators were to lead a march on Nottingham where "they would receive 100 guineas, bread, meat and ale." They would then lead an attack on the local barracks, overthrow the government and end "poverty for ever".

On the way to the attack Brandreth refused to pay £1 0s 8d (one pound and eightpence) for the beer as the notes would soon be valueless.^[4]

They met soldiers near the town of Eastwood in Nottinghamshire.

[edit] The Trial

Thirty-five people were brought to trial and Brandreth and two others, William Turner and Isaac Ludlam, were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, but the sentence was commuted by the Prince Regent.

List of public hangings for Derby ^[5]

On the scaffold one of the men claimed that they had been set up by Lord Sidmouth and "Oliver the spy". This was investigated by Edward Baines of the Leeds Mercury and sufficient evidence was found to enable publication. Brandreth was hanged however and once dead, he and the other two had their heads cut off with an axe.^[1] It has been said by Ivor Smallen that the crowd did not cheer as expected when Jeremiah's head was shown to the crowd as a traitor. Cavalrymen were said to be getting ready to charge.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Pentrich Historical Society website accessed July 2007
• Giles Brandreth claims to be related accessed July 2007