Family of executed Kintbury 'Swing Riot' leader come forward
The family of executed Swing Riot leader, William Winterbourne, contacted the Newbury Weekly News after it covered a recent talk at West Berkshire Museum.
The three brothers are the descendants of the only Berkshire man killed in the infamous 'Last Labourer's Revolt' of 1830.
They are Nigel Winterbourne, 77, from the New Forest, Michael Winterbourne, 79, from Boxford, and John Winterbourne, 82, from Newbury. All three brothers were raised around Shefford Woodland and West Woodhay.
Despite appearances, the village of Winterbourne takes its name from the stream passing through it, meaning 'stream which is dry except in winter'. So, while their name may not entitle them to discounts in the village, the Winterbourne brothers can trace their lineage back to an important figure in Berkshire history.
Michael Winterbourne first learned of his ancestor's leading role in the riots while attending school in Hungerford, where a classmate informed him of a book at Kintbury Library.
Mass unemployment, poverty, harsh winters, the Napoleonic Wars and increasing agricultural mechanisation helped spark a vicious class struggle between wealthy landowners and common labourers across southern England in 1830.
Rioting began in Kent in the autumn and reached Berkshire by November. 'Captain' William Winterbourne led the Kintbury mob from November 21, following the Thatcham and Speen uprisings. The mob, considered the most extreme in Berkshire, formed in retaliation to the imprisonment of a beggar who protested about being denied poor relief.
The mob destroyed farm machinery and demanded money from neighbouring landowners.
'In 19thC Kintbury,
A riot did erupt,
Over laws and policies that were the thoughts,
Of men, rich and corrupt.
'So this if for you, young William Smith,
As you lay there in your grave.
Wrongly hanged by the neck,
33 years of age.'
— Extract from 'The Ballad of William Smith' by E. Rooney, 2006.
William Winterbourne exercised compassion on one occasion when he restrained fellow riot leader, Alfred Darling, from coercing a farmer for money. Winterbourne took one instead of the two customary shillings for the farmer's cooperation and to compensate the damage caused to his property.
The Kintbury and Hungerford mobs met with magistrates at Hungerford Town Hall. The Hungerford mob yielded when the magistrates conceded to their demands for higher wages, rent reductions and the destruction of the threshing machines. Winterbourne and fellow riot leader, William Oakley, took more convincing and the negotiations spiralled into a heated exchange before they finally departed.
The authorities were divided on how to subdue the riots. Militias were raised at Newbury and a detachment of Grenadier Guards and 9th Light Dragoons were dispatched from London.
Charles Dundas, chairman of the magistrates, and Lord Craven of Hamstead Marshall apprehended most of the rioters at The Blue Ball and Red Lion pubs – today the Dundas Arms, in Kintbury – where they often convened. Many rioters evaded immediate capture, fleeing to Lambourn, Theale and Highclere.
All but one of the 27 rioters sentenced to death at the Special Assize in Reading came from the Kintbury area.
Thousands of people, many affected by the riots, signed petitions in Newbury and Reading, and officials appealed to the secretary of state to convince the king to commute the sentences, with mixed results.
The 25 Kintbury men were exiled to Australia or Tasmania, some for up to 14 years. Oakley and Darling were among those loaded onto convict ships bound for Sydney.
Winterbourne, for some reason, was not granted the same mercy. He was informed of his execution the same day it transpired. He was hanged at Reading Gaol on a specially built scaffold on January 11, 1831.
The Reverend Fulwar Craven Fowle, once a reviled figure in Kintbury, arranged for Winterbourne's body to be buried at Kintbury Cemetery, under his mother's maiden name of 'Smith'.
Winterbourne's wife was seriously ill with typhus, but outlived him and went on to remarry in 1835.
His headstone was presumed destroyed for many years until its rediscovery in 1984. Out of his brothers, only Michael Winterbourne has visited his ancestor's grave.
Farming has passed through their family since the time of William Winterbourne. The family started their own landscaping business in the 1970s, which John Winterbourne continued running until his retirement in 2002.
Though their ancestors were mortal enemies, the Winterbourne brothers enjoyed friendly business relations with the Craven estate until this dissolved in 1984.
All brothers concur their ancestor was a martyr, whose sacrifice helped improve the condition and equipment of agricultural labourers overtime.