Mary Hindle a talk by Nigel Jepson

Mary Hindle was born in Haslingden in 1799.  She was baptised and married in St James church where her father-in-law was a church warden.  Mary went on to have children, only one of whom survived, a daughter who was born in 1818.  Mary appears to have been a law-abiding churchgoer who got caught up in the fervour of the Weavers’ Uprising which took place in April 1826.

Mary was present at Middle Mill, Helmshore on Tuesday 25^th April when a large crowd of hand loom weavers and other workers gathered in the mill yard.  When the main door was broken down the cheering crowd rushed into the loom rooms and began breaking them apart.  Allegedly, Mary was seen shouting encouragement to the crowd.  When thirty soldiers of the Queen’s Bays regiment, led by Colonel Kearney arrived armed with drawn sabres the loom breakers realised they were overpowered and offered no resistance to the special constables.

Mary was sentenced to death for her part in the uprising but the sentence was commuted to transportation for life to Australia.  Full of guilt and shame at losing her ‘character’ she also had the burden of leaving her family, never to see them again.  Mary wrote a letter when she arrived in Sydney, a transcript of which can be seen on the SPAG website under ‘Insights’ ‘Social History’.

Nigel Jepson has just published a new book (March 2026), a historical novel about the life of Mary Hindle.  This will become available in the next few weeks.