The Gordon Riots emerged out of a large anti-Catholic protest which took place in London on 2 June 1780. They are named after Lord George Gordon, the parliamentary peer and head of the Protestant Association who orchestrated the initial protest, and who plays a prominent role in the narrative of Barnaby Rudge. By the 1800s the riots were still remembered and were often referenced in debates on politics and reform, therefore Dickens regarded them as material relevant to his own time.
Barnaby Rudge is Dickens's fifth novel and was initially serialized in 1841 in his short-lived periodical Master Humphrey's Clock. It was published in volume form in December of that year along with The Old Curiosity Shop. In choosing to set his narrative in the past, Dickens sought to emulate the celebrated Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), whose fictional reworkings of major historical events had done much to encourage the critical acceptance of the novel form. The structure of Barnaby Rudge is reminiscent of several of Scott's narratives in the way that the story begins by focusing on a number of small domestic groups before panning out to recount these characters' experiences within a major historical event.
Dickens's Characters and Their Real-life Counterparts
There are some intriguing differences between the real-life Lord George and the character from Barnaby Rudge. Dickens's Gordon is an idealist who is easily influenced by his secretary Gashford. The omission of the historic Lord's political views reveals much about the author's own interpretation of the riots. Lord George only intended to present his petition for the repeal of the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 if 20000 or more people joined the protest. It is estimated that around 50000 turned up. Once the subsequent riots had been subdued Lord George was arrested on a treason charge and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as Dickens's narrative relates. The authorities couldn't prove the Lord's guilt however and he was later acquitted. He died in 1793.
Although Lord George's secretary in Barnaby Rudge, the sycophantic and conspiratorial Gashford, is a fictional character, Dickens drew on real-life in his creation, looking to the figure of Robert Watson (1746-1838) for inspiration. It is debatable whether Watson was ever Lord George's secretary although he was his biographer. In the novel Gashford instigates the rioters to burn down the house of Geoffrey Haredale, a prominent Catholic who witnessed the rioters in action and has acted against them. During the actual Gordon Riots, the houses of several Catholic families were attacked. Watson committed suicide in 1838 by strangling himself, a telling parallel with Gashford, who, in the final chapter of Barnaby Rudge, is revealed to have poisoned himself.
The obnoxious figure of Ned Dennis is modelled on an actual 18th century hangman called Edward Dennis. A subtle indication of Dennis having a real-life counterpart is disclosed when the fictional hangman relates the story of Mary Jones, of whom he claimed to have "worked off for taking a piece of cloth off the counter of a shop in Ludgate-hill" (p.301). Mary Jones was a young woman hanged at Tyburn in 1771 by Edward Dennis. While the fictional Dennis is executed for his crimes, Edward Dennis was actually let off even though he participated in the rioting.
Comparisons Between Scenes in the Novel and Actual Events
Barnaby and his mother arrive at London in the early hours of the 2nd of June, the day in history when Lord George presented his petition to Parliament. Barnaby is separated from his mother and caught up in the huge crowd as it makes its way to Westminister. The routes Dickens describes the crowd taking correspond with the actual directions they took towards Parliament on that eventful day in 1780. The section where Lord George periodically addresses the assembled crowd on proceedings in the House of Commons also closely follows the actual course of events, as do details of the restive throng's assaults on MPs. The exchange between Lord George and General Conway is based on the latter's actual words.
Lord George's petition was dismissed by a vote of 192 to 6, an outcome which undoubtedly contributed to the subsequent rioting, which began on that very day. In the novel Dickens's third-person narrator describes Gordon's crowd as being "composed for the most part of the very scum and refuse of London" (p.393). Whether these are the author's own sentiments is open to debate, although he blames the abundance of such mindlessly immoral individuals on bad laws, prisons, and police forces - subjects he himself had a longstanding interest in.
Of the many places attacked during the Gordon Riots, one of the major locations was the infamous Newgate Prison. Dickens depicts this event in a particularly vivid and memorable section, where he relates how the rioters set fire to a huge pile of furniture they had accumulated outside the prison's gate in order to burn it down: "The door sank down again: it settled deeper in the cinders - tottered - yielded - was down!" (p.515). Roughly 300 prisoners were freed and experienced a temporary freedom, including those who had been apprehended on the first day of civil unrest.
The devastation of the riots is captured in a scene where the inebriated rioters drink spirits from the gutters. Dickens describes how the destruction of a vintner's house had caused the gutters of the street to run "with scorching spirit; which, being dammed up by busy hands, overflowed the road and pavement, and formed a great pool, in which the people dropped down dead by dozens" (pp.546-47). This striking scene is based on an actual event when a distillery in Holborn burnt down killing many people.
London was in chaos during the Gordon Riots and once they were finally put down, the authorities were keen to prevent future similar outbreaks. They believed that this would be ensured by making an example of the troublemakers. As with the fates of Hugh and Dennis in Dickens's novel, the principal rioters were hanged. 25 people were publicly executed around London in July of 1780.
Source:
Dickens, Charles. ([1841] 2003) Barnaby Rudge, ed. Clive Hurst, Oxford University Press.
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