Some historical and global examples of tax resistance →
Britain / U.K. (see also: Ireland, Scotland, Wales) →
farmers’ tithe rebellion, 1930s →
Eve Balfour
photo from the
Niagara Falls Gazette
I tried to hunt up some more information about the coordinated tithe
resistance in England in that
I noted
. Here’s what I found.
Some background from the
New York Sun:
British Farmers Protest Tithes
Old Quarrel With the Church Breaks Out Anew.
London (U.P.). — The
old quarrel between the farmers and the church over the troublesome question
of tithes has broken out afresh in several counties in Great Britain.
Protests are pouring in upon politicians along with demands that Parliament
revise the tithes act about which many of
the complaints are centered. Appeals also have been sent to the Conservative
Agricultural Committee and to high church-men.
For hundreds of years the English farmers have paid tithes. They were imposed
long before the days of Cromwell, when the clergy existed on voluntary gifts
of the parishioners. Later the church claimed and established a right to a
tenth part of the produce of lands.
The land owners or tenants paid in kind, but this system also was found
inconvenient and unprofitable to the church. The
feeling toward the tithe
was reflected in a harvest song, whose refrain ran like this:
We’ve cheated the parson,
We’ll cheat him again,
For why should a blockhead
Have one in ten
For prating so long like a book-learned sot,
Till pudding and pumpling burn to pot?
So, in a commutation act was passed
substituting a money payment charged upon the lands, fixed on the basis of
the prices of corn, barley, and oats during the preceding seven years. But the
farmers still rebelled, however peacefully, to the charge.
The rector was compelled to give a dinner to collect the tithes. The farmers
came and gorged themselves with meat and drink and all at the expense of the
church. Six years ago the tithe act was passed, stabilizing the payment.
The farmers, hard hit by the depression, complain they are unable to make a
living after paying all the taxes in addition to the tithe.
The tithes assessed vary in different counties. In most sections the landowner
pays the tithes instead of the tenant. When these responsibilities are assumed
by large estate companies the vicar in chosen by their representatives
[sic]. The charges may be as low as fifty cents an acre, or as high as
$5.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of land in England still are under tithe, and
church authorities are determined to oppose any efforts toward scrapping the
system.
An article from the
New York Evening Post by their foreign service
correspondent Morris Gilbert, mentioned some of the resistance tactics that
had already been brought into service at that time:
[T]hey have made conditions very unhappy for auctioneers selling property for
non-payment of tithes.
They have stampeded oxen so that the sale of them could not continue. They
have browbeaten bidders so that prices adequate to pay the tithes have not
been reached; they have stoned auctioneers, thrown them in ponds, plastered
them with mud, slashed their tires, and organized mass resistance to tithe
collecting in other ways.
Meanwhile, in spite of violent opposition, there has been an enormous amount
of foreclosing for tithes in the last few weeks and forced selling of farmers’
possessions. A farm tractor went for $2.75 recently. A houseful of furniture
went for $7.50, a cow for $1.50, cart horses for prices ranging from $1.25 to
$4. In many cases bids were kept low by menaces and property was restored to
the insolvent tithe-debtor afterwards.
The article goes on to say that the tithes were established to pay the salaries
of the clergy of the establishment Church of England, but that about $5 million
of the $16 million in total tithes goes to people who have obtained the rights
to the tithes from the church at some point — “including various universities,
colleges, charities, and private individuals.”
But in the 7,000 tithe-receiving parishes of the Church of England, about
half, according to reports, are being paid under protest. There are said to be
1,000 anti-tithe farmers banded together in Norfolk, 800 in Suffolk, while the
movement is strong in Kent, Essex, and Cambridgeshire.
Here is some more on resistance tactics, from the
Niagara
Falls Gazette:
At first they adopted a mere attitude of passive resistance. Their answer to
demands was: “I can’t pay.”
Whenever a seizure was threatened, farmers and their workers from all around
appeared on the scene, armed with sticks, pitchforks, and spades. In some
cases barricades were thrown up, trenches were dug across approaches to the
farms, gates were buttressed with tree trunks, and barbed wire fences put up.
In one case in East Anglia a farmer owed $1500 for tithes on his 300-acre
farm. The bailiffs distrained on some stacks of hay. They never got any
farther. The farmer’s wife summoned her husband’s friends by going to the
parish church and ringing the church bell in a wild clamor. The farmers
appeared on the scene in droves. And the bishop wrote her a letter, saying he
could take legal action against her for invading the church in that manner!
Tithe owners who seek to foreclose come to grief. When cattle or farm
implements are put up for sale, the farmer’s friends bid the articles in for a
song. Not many outsiders have dared come to make a higher bid. At times
standing crops of grain have been offered for sale. These sales, too, have
been mainly failures, because prospective outside bidders found they could not
secure in the neighborhood laborers who would cut the grain, nor machines with
which to do the work.
Lady Eve Leads
In many cases the authorities have taken out warrants charging the farmers
with holding an unlawful assembly. One of the leaders in resisting this attack
is Lady Eve
Balfour, a niece of the famous British statesman and one-time prime
minister, the late Lord Balfour. Her father is the present earl.
Lady Eve is no play farmeret. She owns 150 acres and works on them herself,
mostly garbed in semi-masculine clothes. She does some of her own ploughing
and harrowing, drives her own truck, and superintends the market gardening.
During the war, she trained farm girls and later spent several years at an
agricultural college. Now she makes her own living as a practical farmer. She
has denounced the tithe system as a racket and has joined the militant farmers
of her district.
The struggle was still going in . Here are
some excerpts from the Buffalo Courier-Express of
:
Scarcely a day passes without reports of fresh violence in Norfolk, Suffolk,
and Kent counties, where the farmers appear to be particularly hard-pressed.
As many as 100 farmers frequently band to attempt to aid a distressed comrade
whose goods and chattels are being seized in lieu of tithe payments.
A huge sign was chalked on the side of a church at Newchurch: “Clergymen, be
sporty and pay for your own religion.”
During a recent sale of cattle at the same village 30 constables were called
out to prevent a disturbance in the market square. When 60 farmers went to the
rectory to consult the vicar they were checked by police and only two were
admitted to interview the cleric.
One of the favorite devices of the embattled farmers is to lie down in front
of the loaded trucks of the police as they leave a “raided” farm. Dozens of
men and women take part in such demonstrations.
from the Sydney Sun of
British newspaper archives seem largely behind paywalls, but I’m finding some more information about the Depression-era tithe war, which took place mostly in southeast England, as the news was carried on the wires to newspapers elsewhere: in this case, Australia.
These articles detail a splendid variety of tactics in use by the resisters as
they stymied attempts by the government to retaliate.
From the Perth Daily News:
Tithe War.
Bailiff’s Victory
For two years residents in the district of Canvey Island (Essex) known as Oyster Fleet have dodged the payment of tithes, but at last the officials responsible for their collection have scored (says the “Daily Mail”).
Two years ago Southend County Court ordered that distraint should be issued
on the occupiers of 100 acres of land. Since then the bailiffs have paid
scores of visits, but always careful watch has been kept for them and doors
and windows safely closed on each occasion.
But now the furniture of Mr. Arthur Groves, a retired postal official, has been seized, and he has been left with only a couple of beds and a box or two to sit on.
His goods will be sold by auction to satisfy the warrant, a sum of £92 being involved.
A county Court official said: “Mr. Groves is suffering because he has been
less watchful than his neighbors.”
Two hours before the sale began processions of motor-cars carrying farmers were moving slowly up a narrow lane leading to the farm, and on barns used as parking places, and other buildings, slogans such as “Never surrender” and “Britons never will be slaves” were chalked.
Prominent members of the tithe-payers’ associations mounted a lorry, and had
with them Mr. Jones, a striking figure with iron-grey hair, who wore an army
cap — he is an ex-Service man — and clothes which had seen better days. The
auctioneer and his clerk took up a position by the lorry and an attempt was
made to read the conditions of sale. Jeers prevented more than an occasional
word being heard, until appeals were made for silence as the fight was not
against the auctioneer. The first lot offered was the lorry then being used as
a platform, and it was sold to Mr. A.G. Mobbs, the chairman of the Suffolk
Tithepayers’ Association, for two shillings. A second lorry was knocked down
at the same price as there was no higher bid.
…It is understood that the buyers of the various lots put up at the sale will lend them to Mr. Jones if he decides to continue farming.
A demonstration against the payment of tithe rent charges was made at an auction of furniture belonging to Mr. W.E. Crump, a farmer and grazier, of “Knockbridge,” Icklesham, England.
Acting on a distraint warrant, Mr. A. Saunders, court bailiff, offered the
goods for sale to meet a sum of £7 11/9 due in respect of tithe and costs. For
the whole of the contents of the house, excluding wearing apparel and bedding,
only £1 10/6 was realised. Neighboring farmers made bids of 1/ or so — the
highest was 7/6 — and as no further offers were forthcoming the lots were
knocked down at these farcical figures.
When the court bailiff arrived at the farm there were about 50 people gathered outside the house.
Last week a Rye and Northiam District branch of the East Sussex Tithe Payers’ Association was formed and a large number of farmers in the district have joined.
Among those present at the sale was the chairman, Mr. G. Butcher, who introduced Mr. R.M. Kedward, M.P. A protest meeting was then held.
Outside the house, at the conclusion of the sale, cheers were given for Mr. and Mrs. Crump.
London, . Two hundred angry East Kent farmers poured a bucket of mud over the head of an auctioneer during a Canterbury sale to recover arrears of tithe rent against which farmers everywhere are rebelling.
They stoned his police guard, and the sale was abandoned, the auctioneer escaping in a police car.
Another sale at Hastings was wrecked, the farmers stampeding bullocks put up
for sale.
When the sale started Mr. Kedward [a resistance sympathiser] bid 5/ for a stack, a total stranger bid £5, then £10, and the crowd surged forward with cries of “Who is this man?” Mr. Kedward then bid £500.
The stranger was thereupon attacked, and in spite of police protection, was heavily stoned, and mud and refuse were flung at him as he was hustled and jostled off the premises.
The tyres of his car were punctured, and he narrowly escaped a ducking in the pond.
He drove away amid a hail of stones and mud.
The auctioneer asked Mr. Kedward for the money, and a farmer also claimed a
bid of £500. To settle the dispute the sale was started again and only 10/ was
bid, the stack being sold to E.J. Haffendon, of Egerton, for that sum.
The next day, 200 farmers mobbed another auction.
This time the auctioneer “announced that there would be no sale unless there was a reasonable bid.”
Mr. Wollatt, a farmer of Kennington, near Ashford, asked if anyone could make a reasonable bid. “Say I bid £5?” he remarked.
Mr. Kedward: You have the right to bid what you like.
Facing the crowd, Mr. Wollatt asked, “Will you act like men if I do?”
The crowd shouted, “We will.” Sensing hostility, Mr. Woolatt remarked, “I have
read what happened to a bidder yesterday.” He made no bid.
There was no sale at this farm.
Another article in the Barrier Miner includes these details:
Cheers, hoots, and “catcalls” greeted [the auctioneer’s] attempt to start the sale, and when the third lot was reached there was a rush which swept aside the police cordon.
The auctioneer was borne through iron railings and disappeared beneath a mass of struggling men.
When order was restored he was seen to have lost his eyeglasses.
The sale ended quickly, the auctioneer stating that all the lots had been bought by a man whose identity was not stated, and who intended to return the goods to the owner.…
Hilarious scenes occurred at a tithe sale which was attempted at Tokes Farm,
Icklesham, near Hastings, when two bullocks were offered for auction in
respect of a tithe debt of 30/. About 200 farmers gathered, and a strong
contingent of police were in attendance. Bidding started at 1/, but there were
genuine buyers present, and amid hostile cries the price rose to £3. Then
there came a chorus of simultaneous bids from farmers of £20. “Who made that
bid?” demanded the auctioneer, and again met with a chorus of claimants. He
had no recourse but to restart the sale. This happened a dozen times, and on
one occasion, when the figure reached £5000, the successful bidder confessed
he had only 8d., and the sale
began again. The bullocks stood peacefully in the ring until the farmers tired
of their entertainment; then a concerted attack with sticks was made on the
bullocks, which dashed from the ring, scattering bidders, auctioneer, and
police, and vanished over the distant marshes pursued by the police. The sale
was then announced to be off.
Another article adds some details to the first of the two cases described above:
When the auctioneer tried to leave the farm efforts were made to mob him, and in the struggles several policemen were knocked down and numerous blows were struck.
Mr. MacGowan [the auctioneer] had a bucket of mud thrown over him, and the
Chief Constable of Kent, Major Chapman, had his hat knocked off with a wet
sack. Clods of earth and other missiles were rained on the group, and they
tried to get out past a barricade of hurdles.
From the Dungog Chronicle and Gloucester Advertiser:
Angry farmers were summoned by the tolling of church bells at Iden, near Rye, Sussex, on , when a man attempted to collect 130 sheep from Moat Farm in connection with tithe arrears.
The farmers punctured tyres of the man’s car, and placed a dead sheep in the
front seat. “Take that one to the parson and tell him it’s all he’ll get,”
they shouted.
The collector found the 130 sheep he sought — but they were mixed with 150 others.
Eventually they had to drive away — sheepless — in his flat-tyred motor-car.
Then the dead sheep was buried.
Over it a wooden cross was erected bearing the words: “Queen Anne’s Bounty, R.I.P.”
London, . Church bells run by women sounded the tocsin and chimed a peal of victory at a new battle in the Suffolk tithe war , when farmers prevented a distraint by filling a private road with farm vehicles and fowlhouses.
The agents of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners tried to seize eight stacks,
valued at £340, at Elmsett Hall, Hadleigh, near Ipswich, for a tithe debt of
£127, but were frustrated by a dramatic mobilisation of farm workers.
Suffolk Tithepayers’ Association had been ready to make a mass protest, but the authorities tried to forestall them by a surprise move.
Telephone S.O.S.
Police and haulage contractors, secretly informed, arrived at , but the owner of the farm, Mr. C. Western, sent telephone messages that brought sympathisers from miles away in Essex and Norfolk.
His wife, who was the widow of a clergyman, tolled the parish church bells as
an alarm, and car after car arrived.
Farmers gave their men a holiday to swell the number of protesters, and by midday hundreds of people crowded the narrow private lane down which the hay-stacked lorries had to come.
After three and a half hours’ labor the contractors gave it up.
Farm vehicles and fowlhouses were dragged into the lane and their wheels removed, and for a last barricade farm hands were felling a great elm tree to crash across the lane, when the haulage attempt was given up.
Cheers, speeches, and a tithe-protest meeting greeted the departure of the
contractors, who managed to take only about £30 worth off one stack.
Women rang the church bells again, this time as a peal of triumph.
Mr. Frank H. Budd, head of an Eastbourne firm of auctioneers, was seized by a crowd at a tithe sale at Broad Street Green Farm, Hooe, Sussex, recently (says the London “Morning Post”).
When he could get no better bid than £1 for six heifers he closed the sale.
The crowd then seized him, apparently with the intention of throwing him into a pond, but with the assistance of the police he was able to reach an inn, where he remained till the crowd dispersed.
A story in the Brisbane Daily Standard tells of the resistance of a Mr. E.A. Clarke of Little Melton (Norfolk, England):
Notice of distraint was served, and men arrived to take an inventory.
They wanted to include three horses, but Mr. Clarke refused to produce them.
Two days later a bailiff and policeman appeared, and told Mr. Clarke that the
Registrar had canceled the order about the horses.
They added, however, that the whole of the furniture would be seized.
Thereupon they walked towards the house — but found all the doors and windows
barred!
Undeterred, the bailiff camped in a washhouse.
In a friendly spirit Mr. Clarke provided him with a bed and food, and, in
return, the bailiff helped in household tasks — such as shelling peas.
After three days, however, the bailiff left — only to return with the information that the house would be left alone, but that the corn in the barn would be seized.
One intending purchaser of the corn, discovering that payment of tithes was
involved, withdrew his offer and sent a guinea to the Tithe Payers’
Association fund.
But there arrived at the farm a motor lorry to take away the corn.
Mr. Clarke, nothing daunted, refused to allow it to be removed, as the sacks
in which it was stored belonged to him.
And when this difficulty seemed to be overcome, he demanded that the corn should be weighed to make sure that there was no more than the stipulated quantity.
Of course, there was no weighing machine on the premises, and the lorry
left — unloaded.
Several hundred Kent farmers and their men successfully prevented the removal of stock which had been distrained on for non-payment of tithe in the Eltham Valley district, near Folkestone.
Three large lorries were sent to collect the goods, but they were compelled to retreat without any of the eighty-nine lots.
The farmers had organised themselves on war lines. At each of ten farms where
stock was to be seized a small body of men stood guard, while the farmers’
main forces, having been brought from all parts of East Kent, were
concentrated in the village square ready to rush to any farm if attempts were
made to remove stock. The signal for help from any of the farms was to be the
firing of rockets.
The lorries, however, with a representative of Merton College, Oxford, to whom the tithe is payable, and a county court bailiff, turned back after getting into the “enemy” country, where they found themselves surrounded by superior forces.
After a consultation with some police officers the retreat commenced, and soon
the farmers’ scouts on motor cycles brought in reports that lorries were on
their way back to London. The farmers stood by until dusk in case of a
surprise attack before dispersing.
After an arduous day, 50 policemen arrested a pair of chickens as the net result of raiding eight Kent farms with the object of collecting goods from tithe defaulters distrained upon by Mehrton College, which owns the right of tithes.
The force, under the leadership of two officers, a solicitor and a bailiff,
mobilised at dawn, and hid in a variety of vehicles. Some were disguised as
farm workers. All scoured the countryside, but drew blanks.
At one farm, where it was expected that there would be a mixed bag of livestock, the brakes of one four-ton van failed, and the vehicle careered downhill into Elham and crashed into a lorry.
Twenty constables were thrown into a ditch.
The bruised constables tumbled out gallantly and endeavored to apprehend 50 chickens on the last farm.
They caught two after a desperate chase, placed them in a three-ton lorry, and drove triumphantly off after one of the birds had laid an egg.
At Stonebridge Farm Mr. Gammon, who had been offered the cost of keep since distraint, was asked to deliver up three cows.
He disclaimed knowledge of them, and as it was impossible to identify them Mr. Henderson left empty handed.
Other farmers adopted a similar attitude.
Comic relief was provided at River Farm, when Mr. B. Waddington was called
upon to give up twenty-five white Leghorn hens. Crowds of farmers roared with
delight, and almost collapsed with laughter, when the solicitor and bailiff
attempted to secure the birds. Startled fowls flew clucking in all directions,
dodging the hunters’ outstretched hands.
Some 350 farmers of Essex and Suffolk, who rallied to the aid of a widow whose farm implements had been distrained on for tithes, prevented the removal of the goods from her farm (says the London “Daily Mail”).
The widow is Mrs. Gardiner, of Delvyns Farm, Essex, and Mr. M. James, of
Swansea, whose tender for the implements had been accepted, came with a lorry
to take possession, accompanied by a solicitor.
The farmers claim that the removal of the articles would have prevented Mrs. Gardiner from cultivating her land.
Mr. James therefore found on arrival that:
About 100 cars were obstructing the stackyard and all approaches to a barn
containing some of the implements;
A large straw baler had been placed in front of the barn entrance and one of its wheels had been removed;
The wheels had been taken off two tip-carts;
A hive of bees had been put near the barn.
Mr. James and the solicitor at once went to view the goods, their lorry
remaining on the highway. They entered the barn, followed by the crowd of
farmers.
There they were compelled to hear exactly what the farmers thought of the affair and the resentment against the Rev.
H.M. Greening, rector of Gestingthorpe, for the action he had taken against the widow.
For a moment the position was disturbing, but calmer counsels prevailed.
An offer of £20 was made to Mr. James to settle the £49 tithes due, but this
was refused.
A stalemate was thus reached and Mr. James and his solicitor were kept in the barn for three or four hours.
Eventually police, who had been in attendance on the highway, received orders to get them off the farm, but the farmers held on, stating that they were on private property.
Ultimately Mr. James and the solicitor were allowed to leave after the police
had informed them that if they returned they would do so at their own risk.
Several bad eggs had been thrown at them.
One day an auctioneer attempted to sell 10 cows belonging to Mr. Crees, of Manor Farm, an alleged tithe defaulter, but on arrival he found that the animals had been mixed with about 70 others.
Amid much confusion he announced that the sale could not take place.
The next night a bailiff arrived at Manor Farm and sealed up the buildings. It
was learned that the action was due to the fact that the animals had been sold
by private tender. Early next day an auctioneer, a purchaser, drovers, and a
posse of police swooped down on the farm, only to find their quarry again
missing. Fences had been broken down during the night and the animals had been
driven off and mixed with nearly 100 others on a neighbouring farm.
The auctioneer’s party went to this place, and the farmers in the district, who had been summoned by telephone, found great amusement in watching the visitors attempt to sort out Mr. Crees’ animals.
After three hours’ very arduous work in the blazing sunshine the “raiders”
decided to stop and depart. Then they discovered that the lorries they had
taken to the scene had disappeared. The drivers, on finding that they were to
convey animals distrained upon, said they did not like the job and drove away.
Three hundred farmers gathered at Trago Farm, St. Pinnock, Cornwall, recently, to support Mr. Jonathan Tamblin in his protest against tithe charges.
It was the first demonstration of its kind in the West of England, and is
believed to be the beginning of a “tithe war” in the district.
The auctioneer appointed by the administrators of Queen Anne’s Bounty found it necessary to seek police protection.
Barely had he announced details of the auction when he was knocked off his feet by a rush of farmers.
Upon regaining his feet he announced that, so far as he was concerned, the sale was at a close.
He was escorted to his car by the police amid hooting, cheering, and threats, and an ugly scene developed.
It was found necessary to place two constables on each running board of the car while it passed through the crowd of farmers.
The amount of the tithe charged was £33. Farmers from a very wide area met on
the spot later and held a protest meeting.
After attempts extending over three days by an auctioneer, bailiffs, and 20 police on the farm of Mr. S.B. Creen, South Weston, Lewknor, Oxfordshire, 10 heifers on which there was a distraint for tithe rent charges were captured.
Four hundred farmers took part in the protest.
Referring to anti-tithe agitation, it is stated that many occupying owners were led to resist payment owing to a mistaken view that recovery of tithe by process of law had broken down.
In there was disorder at certain auction sales in Kent and East Sussex where goods seized by the court bailiff on distraint for tithe had been put up for sale; and the sales were more or less abortive.
Later, registrars of county courts in certain areas were asked not to proceed with orders for distraint pending further consideration, and this delay led to misunderstanding as to the effectiveness of the law.
Ultimately, however, the governors succeeded in several cases in getting directions from the courts for sale by tender of goods distrained upon, thus avoiding a sale at auction, and in many areas directions for sale by tender are now given by the court in any case upon the court being satisfied that disorder at an auction sale might be expected.
From the Dungog Chronicle and Gloucester Advertiser:
Dramatic and unexpected developments in the tithe dispute at Ringshall, Suffolk, last week, have brought hostilities to an end, in any case for the time being.
The police and bailiffs, who were encamped for 12 days on the oat-fields of
Mr. Waspe, a widowed farmer, and the family informed officially that the
authorities had released the standing wheat and barley which had been under
distraint.
It is also stated — again officially — that the decision to release the impounded fields was made by the legal adviser to King’s College.
Mr. John Waspe state in an interview that as he was leaving one of the police
officers said, “Get on with the harvest.”
Mr. Waspe added: “Nothing was mentioned about the King’s College claim.
We do not know whether they will attempt some other method to collect from us.
I think this sudden change in the situation is due largely to the publicity given to our plight; and support of the Tithe Payers’ Association; and the intensity of the feeling aroused among local farmers and workers.”
Before the decision to release the crops, and possibly in the belief that
tractors to cut the crops were near, a barricade of telegraph poles, barrels,
and coils of barbed wire was erected across the Ringshall and Wattisham roads.
Another article suggests that the authorities gave in under pressure from the fascist Blackshirts, who had threatened to send reinforcements from London to defend the farm.
Children were put up “for sale” at a tithe distress auction at Ewensyllt Hall Farm, near Wrexham (Wales) recently.
Cards reading “On sale to pay my father’s tithes,” were hung round their
necks.
It was the first tithe distress sale in North Wales for 45 years — and it was abandoned.
The auctioneer, Mr. Aston, a former Wrexham mayor, afterwards signed a pledge
that he would never conduct another tithe sale, and before leaving wished the
farmers good luck.
When the sale began 2000 angry farmers besieged the auctioneer’s rostrum and sang:
God save us from these raging priests Who seize our crops and steal our beasts.
The song was specially composed for the occasion.
The farmers refused to leave until the sale was canceled.
Explaining the “For sale” notices on his three daughters, the farmer on whom the distress warrant had been served, Mr. Edwards, said, “If they sell my stock they may as well take my children, because I shall not be able to keep them.”
An official of the National Farmers’ Union told the London “Daily Herald” that
practically every Welsh farmer will now refuse to pay tithes.
An auctioneer’s car was tarred and feathered during an effort to levy a tithe distraint recently at Slade End Farm, Wallingford, Berkshire, owned and occupied by Mr. Vernon Drewitt, who is chairman of a Tithe-Payers’ Association (says the London “Daily Telegraph”).
As the visit had been expected, all the cattle and other stock had been removed to a part of the farm which was in another parish, and therefore could not be seized.
There was nothing left on which the distraint could be levied.
Mr. Wright [the auctioneer] explained afterwards that as the authorities are
now obliged to give five days’ notice of an intended distraint, it gives the
farmer an opportunity to make preparations to render any raid futile.
While the distraining party were in the fields Mr. Wright’s motor car, which had been placed in a shed belonging to Mr. Drewitt, was tarred and feathered.
A complaint was made to Mr. Drewitt, who pointed out that he had no knowledge of the occurrence, and it was altogether against his principles to pursue activities of this nature.
Mr. Wright’s papers had been strewn about the car and covered with tar, while a travelling rug was spoiled.
A tin containing tar and a brush were found in the car.
Excerpts from the Lachlander and Condobolin and Western Districts Recorder:
In some cases war-like barricades have been thrown up, trenches dug across farm approaches, and gates buttressed with tree trunks.
In one instance, wire was strung along the entrance gates and electrified at a high voltage.
Hundreds of warrants for distraint have been issued by country judges, but
auctioneers and officials who tried to enforce them have been set upon and
roughly handled by the enraged farmers and their friends. At Castle
Hedlingham, 37 farmers, including
Lady Evelyn
Balfour, comely 35 year old niece of the late Prime Minister Balfour, were
committed for trial on a charge of unlawful assembly.
The British fascists tried to exploit the movement.
Here is an example from the Launceston Examiner:
London, Fifty police raided a farm near Diss, Norfolk, where a “tithe war” was in progress, and arrested 18 black-shirted Fascists on a charge of unlawfully conspiring for the public mischief by obstructing the removal of pigs and cattle lawfully impounded under a distress warrant in default of the payment of £565.
The bailiff alleges that the Black Shirts dug trenches and felled trees to obstruct the entrance to the farm and prevent the police from performing their duties.
The defendants were remanded and bail was refused.
The owner of the farm states that the Black Shirts were acting without his permission.
The bailiffs subsequently seized 15 cattle and 143 pigs.
“A manifesto was issued from the Fascist headquarters in London,” says another article, reading in part:
Fascists will co-operate with you in picketing to see that if a bailiff impounds a field no supplies get to him.
We ask in return that our discipline and organisation be allowed to prevent any unduly violent incident.
You in your wrath may go too far, and there might be a bailiff less.
“As a result of this manifesto,” the article continues, “drinking water was brought to the bailiffs and the police camp all the way from Sudbury under escort.”
An article
in the Brisbane
Telegraph describes a successful seizure of 134
pigs and 15 bullocks in Wortham, Suffolk. But the process involved 50 men,
accompanied by 100 police officers, the closure of roads in the vicinity to
keep protesters at bay, the removal of obstacles like “trenches that had been
dug round the buildings…[,] heaps of earth, a fence of tree trunks and barbed
wire, elevators with no wheels, and a threshing machine” as well as “felled
trees” that had to be cleared by saws and axes.
So strenuous have been the objections of farmers in Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, where the best corn-growing lands in England are located, that officers charged with collecting the tithe money were manhandled, pelted with eggs, and imprisoned in barns.
During one such riotous scene enacted on a farm in East Anglia, 36 farmers
were put under arrest… faced with the serious charge of “unlawfully assembling
together against the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King, his crown, and his
dignity.” Amongst these farmers was Lady Evelyn Balfour…
Lady Balfour, the officers stoutly insisted, endangered the peace of the King, by standing in a waggon placed against a barn door so that the tithe collectors couldn’t escape until the uprising farmers had warned them to quit their unwelcome visits…
That trial was held, and the courtroom was packed with curious people who were all agog at the possibilities of the case.
For several hours they listened to evidence.
The would-be tithe collectors were allowed to relate how they were jostled and egged and locked up.
The farmers were given time to tell their side of the story, and Lady Balfour, in her cultured, even voice, set forth the inability of the depression-hit farmers to live up to the terms of a law that was archaic.
She did not budge.
She stuck with her corn-growing, cattle-raising neighbours, and made it plain to the court that she would take the fight to Parliament, whether she went to gaol or not.
The magistrates… found out which of the defendants had hurled the eggs, which
had laid hands on the tithe collectors, and penned them up in a barn. Only
seven of the 36 persons before the bar of justice could be adjudged guilty on
this score. Lady Balfour and the other 28 farmers were cleared of guilt…
…[T]he judges saw nothing to be gained by putting any of the defendants in gaol, so they delivered a tolerant lecture on the wisdom of obeying the law and maintaining order, and required each of the seven “guilty” farmers to leave a deposit of £10 as a guarantee that they would behave themselves for two years, or forfeit the money if they again got rough with the duly appointed tithe-collecting officials.
Another article, from the Brisbane Telegraph, gives some more detail about the trial and about the threat felt by the auction team:
It was alleged at the first hearing that a solicitor, Mr. G.H. Gibson, and an auctioneer, Mr. M.L. James were “imprisoned” in a barn by a crowd and pelted with eggs.
Mr. Gibson said there was some talk about releasing bees from a hive, and he thought the idea was to lock him and Mr. James in the barn with the bees to coerce a settlement.
London, . After a truce due to the local cricket match, the tithe dispute at Ashford extraordinarily renewed itself.
Farmers with their wives and daughters prostrated themselves before lorries conveying oats seized for tithe arrears from K. Edward’s farm.
The screams and shouts of civilians and police increased the turmoil.
The lorry drivers entered a potato field in order to avoid the prostrate farm folk, who then wildly pursued the lorries, which were forced to stop, until the police removed a heavy wagon impeding their exit from the field, allowing the lorries to depart.
A Worcester (England) auctioneer, Mr. W.P. Woodward, was kidnapped and “taken for a ride” of 70 miles as he was walking away from a farm where he had arranged to conduct a tithe distraint sale.
Farmers waited in vain for the sale at Linaeres Farm, Claines, near Worcester, and when the auctioneer did not turn up enquiries were made for him at his office.
“Taken near Banbury,” read a telegram from Mr. Woodward. “Coming back by
train.”
“I was passing through a wicket gate,” said Mr. Woodward, “when I heard a voice with a brogue saying, ‘Look out, this is him,’ and before I could turn round a sheet was dropped over my head.
The sheet was pulled round me and a rope tied round my legs and arms so that I could not move my hands.
I was carried a short distance and put into a car.
I called out, and one of the men said, ‘Keep quiet and it will be all right.
We are only going to take you for a little ride.’ I don’t know which way they went,” continued Mr. Woodward, “but when they stopped the car one of them said, ‘Here you are.
You can get out now.’ They pulled me out of the car and undid knots in the cord and off they went.
By the time I had got clear of the sheet the car had disappeared.”
(Another version of the story continues Woodward’s quote, making this more explicit: “Unfortunately, I cannot help the police, as I saw none of my assailants.”)
Seventeen out of 18 pigs on a Suffolk (England) farm which were seized for tithe arrears died mysteriously.
A tender of £18 for the animals had been accepted when two of them died, and an order under the swine fever regulations prevented the removal of the rest.
Of these 15 then died, so a post-mortem examination was made by a Ministry of Agriculture inspector.
This revealed that all the 17 pigs had died from prussic acid poisoning.
An alleged raid by masked men at a farm at Shepherdswell, near Dover, after a tithe distraint, was the subject of charges at Dover (writes the London “News-Chronicle”).
A bailiff had seized “a bull, a fowl, seventy ducks, and other goods” but when he returned a week later, “he found the ducks swimming on ponds.” Fifty people, some wearing masks, said they had come to recover the seized property. “Next morning only one of the 56 ducks was left.”
Another
account, from the
Lithgow Mercury, says sixty ducks were originally
seized, 100 farmers in black masks recovered them, and then they were
recaptured by constables. Also:
When lorries loaded with oats which had been seized for tithe at Beechbrook Farm, Westwell, near Ashford, were about to drive away, a clash occurred between farmers and men collecting the oats, this leading to several fights.
Before the lorries moved off, R.M. Kedward, president of the National
Tithepayers’ Association, asked
Supt. W.J. Robertson if
he would arrest the men for taking the property.
“They have no right to take this stuff,” declared Kedward.
The appeal was unavailing, and then, to a chorus of “Down, everybody, down,”
Kedward and the crowd lay down on the cart track in front of the vehicles.
Effigies of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Queen Anne were burned on a bonfire at Beechbrook Farm, Westwell, near Ashford, Kent, recently, following an abortive auction sale of nine cows seized for tithe.
There were no bids.
Mud, potatoes, and carrots were thrown at the effigies as they burned.
Slogans were carried and three donkeys bearing placards headed a procession.
During the sale the crowd sang “Rule, Britannia” and “Pack Up Your Troubles.”
From the Brisbane Daily Standard:
Tithe Troubles in England.
Tithe due from E.B. Stickells of Pester Farm — £12 4s.
Cattle seized and auctioned on the farm — two bullocks.
Price obtained from local farmer — £20.
Then the large crowd which attended had an auction of their own, to help the
Tithe Payers’ Fund.
The “lot” was just one goat, but the crowd made the most of it — they bought and resold it 25 times, says the “Daily Express.”
The fund benefited by nearly £3.
Placards around the farmyard read:–
“Talk of Al Capone? Nuts; Why he’s nothing on
Anne. Her
racket brings in the dough two hundred years after her death.”
The crowd sang “Rule Britannia” and “Pack Up Your Troubles;” Cheers were given for the farmer and boos for the people who had taken the cattle.
Mr. R.M. Kedward, president of the National Tithe Payers’ Association,
addressing the crowd, said:–
“We cannot go on any longer paying tithe out of capital.
I warn the Government that the tithe players are preparing to go a very long way to see that the church of the country is not borne on one set of shoulders.”
