Editing Captain Swing (section)

==Who was Swing?==
<!--***Editors Note*** The following quotes contain bad grammar and spelling. Please do not 'correct' these as they are direct quotes from the originals.**-->
[[File:Swingletter.jpg|right|thumb|Typical 'Swing' letter]]
{{poemquote|Oh Captain Swing, he'll come in the night
To set all your buildings and crops alight
And smash your machines with all his might
That dastardly Captain Swing!|{{harvnb|Gallop|2017|loc=Part 1}}}}

Threshing machines had been contentious since the Napoleonic wars.{{efn|name=threshing}} Letters had been sent to farmers, in the Reading area, suggesting that they should get rid of their threshing machines as early as 1811, the following two were reproduced in [[The London Gazette]]:{{quote|Whitehall September 3 1811 <br/>
Whereas it hath been humbly represented to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent that Two anonymous threatening Letters have been received by Mr William Shackell of Early Court and Mr James Fuller of Loddon Bridge near Reading in the County of Berks of which the following are Copies viz. <br/>

:"Blood and Vengance against Your Life and Your Property for taking away our Labour with Your Threshing Machine Seven of us near your Dwelling House have agreed that if you do not refrain from Your Threshing Machine we will Thresh Your Rick with Fire & Bathe Your Body in Blood How will the People of Reading Gaze to see Early Court all in a Blaze" <br/>

You may Believe it so Help Mr Shackell Early Court to be left at Marquis Granby <br/>

:"A Warning Whereas We are informed You are about to have a Threshing Machine to take away our Labour and If you do there is a plott laid among Us the Labourine People in this neighbourhood to set your Rick and Barns a fire and first opportunity to give you the Leaden fevour."<br/>
Mr Fuller<br/> Loddon Bridge Farm Berks|source={{harvnb|London Gazette|1811|p=1730}}}}


On Saturday night, 28 August 1830, in the [[Elham Valley]], Kent a threshing machine was destroyed by rioters. The ringleaders were arrested on the 27 September 1830, nine days after the word 'Swing' was  graffitied on unpainted walls between Canterbury and Dover.{{sfn|Griffin|2010|pp=149-180}} Also two threatening letters were sent to local farmers, signed SWING:

{{quote|You are to notice that if you doant put away your thrashing machine against Monday next you shall have  a "SWING".|source={{harvnb|Griffin|2010|pp=149-180}}}}


The letters threatened violence. The intention was to terrify the farmers. The local paper reported that farmers who received the first two letters were so terrified that they placed their machines in the open field inviting their destruction. {{sfn|Griffin|2010|pp=149-180}}

Initially the authorities were not clear who was responsible for the wrecking of threshing machines and other farm equipment, blaming it on poachers, smugglers or deer-stealers. However it wasn't long before it was realised that it was mainly local village labourers.{{sfn|Hobsbawm|Rudé|1973|p=201|ref=Hobs}}

The authorities tried to identify who this 'Swing' was and apprehend him: it took a while for them to realise that  Captain Swing was probably an invented name. The  origin of the name is not clear. But the word 'Swing' seems to have a deliberate double meaning. It could represent how the part of  flail known as either a swing or a swingel, which the thrasher brings down in contact with the corn. It can also represent a swinging corpse on the gallows or gibbet. Possibly a more plausible explanation is that after a work party had stopped to sharpen their scythes and were  ready to recommence work the leader would shout out 'Swing!', the leader was usually known as the Captain, hence 'Captain Swing'. The name 'Captain Swing’ became synonymous with the riots and soon symbolized the whole rural resistance.{{sfn|Griffin|2010|pp=149-180}}{{sfn|Matthews|2011|p=2-3}}