The Tolpuddle Friendly Society
extract from CRAFT, TRADE OR MYSTERY: by Dr Bob James, 'Australian Centre for Fraternal Studies'
© Bob James. All Rights reserved except for nonprofit or educational use, please credit source.
"Joyce Marlowe's account says that Loveless went about 'collecting information about Friendly Societies' and that 2 delegates from the GNCTU addressed an October, 1833 meeting of Tolpuddle labourers and read out 'the Rules.'
The Tolpuddle Rules as published run to 24 'General Laws' and 12 'By-Laws.' They are calm, logical and comprehensive, and relate directly to Dorset. They do not appear to be town society Rules, hastily and roughly adapted to 'the bush' and they do not assert that this is to be the 'Tolpuddle branch' of something larger. Quite the opposite - their appropriateness and the ambitious plans outlined mean that either Loveless worked on the model provided in line with his own intentions or that the people behind the larger enterprise were organising many similar, rural 'Orders' each of which was to be headed by a 'Grand Lodge'.
The Rules stipulated a 'grand committee' meeting in 'grand lodge' was to change in personnel every 3 months. They insisted on a need for legality while talking of 'standing out', ie striking. They emphasised each worker's responsibility to act with integrity and they described a non-violent penalty for breaking the oath of secrecy.
The first Rules are:
1. That this society be called the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers.
2. That there be appointed a general or grand committee of management, not less than seven, and to that body shall be confided the affairs of the whole order, and nothing shall be legal or binding which does not proceed from them, or receive their sanction. One of the committee to be appointed corresponding secretary; one half of the committee to be elected every three months.
3. That the grand lodge shall be held at Tolpuddle.
The steady nature of the wording does not support the idea that Loveless was carried away with inappropriate enthusiasm. 'The Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers' was clearly intended to be a separate and unique 'Order', with a 'Grand Lodge' akin to 'Grand United Order of Odd Fellows', or the 'Ancient Order of Foresters' but occupation-specific. This is supported by the next.
4. That there shall be a lodge appointed in every parish, and a local committee, in order to insure regularity in the payment of allowances to families who may be standing out, and to prevent any kind of disappointment, to act under the general committee.
Note that it is families who 'stand out' (ie, go on strike) not society members.
5. That at their grand lodge all remittances shall be made of all making money [ie, initiation fees] and contributions, after deducting the necessary expenses of each lodge.
6. That the contributions be fixed at 1d per week.
9. That no member shall be required to pay contributions during the time he may be sick or out of employ.
11. That in all lodges there shall be a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, conductor, warden, outside and inside guardian.
14. That all lodges be opened once a fortnight for the transaction of business.
15. That there shall be one pass-word into all lodges after this order, to be changed once a quarter, and to proceed from the grand lodge.
16. That no obscenity shall be tolerated in either songs or toasts, and that no political or religious subjects be introduced during lodge hours.
19. That no place shall turn out for an advance of wages without the consent of the grand lodge.
20. That if any master attempts to reduce the wages of his workmen, if they are members of this order they shall instantly communicate the same to the corresponding secretary, in order that they may receive the support of the grand lodge; and in the meantime they shall use their utmost endeavours to finish the work they may have in hand, if any, and shall assist each other, so that they may all leave the place together and with as much prompitude as possible.
21. That if any member of this society renders himself obnoxious to his employer soley on account of his taking an active part in the affairs of this order, and is guilty of no violation or insult to his master, and shall be discharged from his employment soley in consequence thereof, either before or after the turn out - then the whole body of men at that place shall instantly leave the place, and no member of this society shall be allowed to take work at that place until such member be reinstated in his situation.
22. That if any member of this order shall divulge any of the secrets or violate the objects of the same, his name and a description of his person and crime shall immediately be communicated to all lodges throughout the county, and if such person gets work at any place where a lodge is established, or where men belonging to this order are working, they shall decline to work with such an individual, shall instantly leave the place, and shall receive the support of the grand lodge as if they were turned out against the reduction of wages.
23. That the object of this society can never be promoted by any...acts of violence.
The By-laws relate to internal lodge workings, such as pass words, 'inward signs', regalia, the box with multiple keys and when the word 'brother' shall be used. In Van Dieman's Land later in 1834 Loveless said that the Tolpuddle lodge password had been 'Either Hand or Heart'. There are no resemblances here to SF except in very general terms and there appears to be only one rite - that of admission - thus no degree structure, let alone seven. The 'Tolpuddle' regalia was not given in detail but does not appear to have involved aprons. His confident use of white surplice ('loose, white linen vestment' - dictionary) at the 1834 initiation, and his preparation, locally, of a painting of Death/Father Time beforehand indicates Loveless was by then at least conversant with the role of common, basic items of admission into 'benefit societies'. That he and a number of his 'brothers' were Methodist lay-preachers and happily conducting ritual, perhaps in 'ludicrous and grotesque dresses', just when the public wearing apparel of was diving from colour and adornment into severe, conformist black is more surprising. The titles of the lodge officers - president, vice-president, etc - strengthen the argument about a non-SF line of evolution, which nevertheless employs 'Grand Master, Grand Secretary, etc' in a 'Grand Lodge.'
If these are the Rules of a 'trade union', then 'trade unions' were normally organised in this way, ie with 'grand lodges', 'makings', 'inward signs' [ie grips] and were normally called 'Friendly Society.' If it's disguised to resemble a 'friendly society', the mask is extraordinary. The third option is that it is what it says it is, both a 'trade union' and a 'friendly society', ie a trade-specific 'benefit society'. A captured letter from Loveless to someone living close by who carried out the 'making' ceremony, shows that no-one involved was surprised by any of the society's features:
Brother,
We met this evening for the purpose of forming our committee. There was 16 present, of whom 10 was chosen - namely a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, warden, conductor, three outside guardians, and one inside guardian. All seemed united in heart, and expressed his approval of the meeting. Father and Hallett wished very much to join us, but wish it not to be known. I advised them to come Tuesday evening at 6 o'clock, and I would send for you to come at that time, if possible, and enter them, that they may be gone before the company come. I received a note this morning which gave me great encouragement, and I am led to acknowledge the force of union.
No-where in the contemporary material about the 1834 trial is there any suggestion that the Dorset labourers were operating a disguised 'trade union.' The authorities, and propogandists such as The Times, invariably use the word 'combination' to refer to all workers' organisations. Palmer's Index to the Times for this period provides no entry for 'friendly society' at all. The Tolpuddle case is listed under 'Trades Union'. Numerous contemporary pamphlets and review articles refer to 'combinations' or 'Trade Unions'.
Neither was there was any suggestion of a disguise where it might have been expected, amongst the supporters of the aggrieved. The first protest meeting, just days after the sentencing, was publicised as the 'Grand Meeting in Favour of the Agricultural Unionists Convicted at Dorchester.' And before the massive petition for release was presented to Parliament a printed pamphlet was circulated extolling the virtues of a 'Grand Union Mart' stocked 'with every article on which Labour could employ itself' by way of the 'Union Fund' at present being used to feed unemployed or sick members. All of which suggests that 'friendly society' and 'trade union' were not differentiated by the participants on either side of this industrial conflict.
The questions of whether and why a legal 'trade union' would disguise itself as a 'friendly society' and whether the shared, fraternal history occupies more than a handful of years, can be further tested by asking about the location of power within the network of 1830's combinations, specifically whether Owen or one of the Central Committee could dictate what each and every individual lodge officer and ordinary member was to do across the length and breadth of the UK. If logically it is seen that even the Committee as a whole could not have done so, even had it wished to, then some other source for the ritual, oath, aprons, etc, has to be found. And if it is accepted that the shared history was in place prior to Owen and the GNCTU, prior even to 1799, then to have 'Owenism' manifest so broadly and with so little apparent organisational effort requires that the source be of long-standing cultural proportions and derived from deeply-held societal beliefs and attitudes.
Owen's philosophy has been labelled 'Co-operative Socialism' but he was uninterested in parliamentary reforms or the minutiae of daily struggles. Strongly opposed to all established religion he was interested in a new religion of Enlightenment values and natural law. This would suggest to some an exposure to Freemasonry, especially as residents of New Harmony, a major Owenite settlement in the USA, produced a Philanthropic Lodge of (Free)Masons. Harrison's excellent book on Owen and Owenism, does not mention Freemasonry, but notes Owen beginning to use biblical expressions from 1816, and declaring that while he did not know what meaning people would attach to the term 'Millenium', he was sure that a society 'free from crime, poverty and misery was universally feasible.' According to Harrison, for most practical purposes it made little difference whether an Owenite was 'a deist, a Freethinker or a member of some rationalist Protestant sect' - the foundation of their belief was 'the application of natural law to religion.' More specifically, in 1833 Owen intended that national arrangements shall be formed to include all the working classes in the great organisation...All trades shall first form associations of lodges...[My emphasis]
This was 'his new conception of future developments' in October, 1833, and while what Harrison calls the 'trade union phase of Owenism' had been building over the five years, 1829-1834, the GNCTU itself was not established until February, 1834. Harrison shows that it was only in late 1833 that 'all trade unions, co-operative societies, benefit societies "and all other associations intended for the improvement of the working classes" were advised to form lodges'. This can be seen either as an 1833-imposition or as an attempt to bring all new combinations to a situation already occupied by 'old' ones, in other words an attempt to reinvigorate the guild system.
Owen's reported comment that prevailing lodge ritual was 'wrapped in relics of barbarism' does not necessarily conflict with Postgate's claim that he 'pragmatically' wrote ritual into the Rules of the GNCTU and for the same reason accepted the title of 'Grand Master'.695 Bestor's study of the United States-based Owenite communities argues that the period of 1829-34 was an unwanted distraction in Owen's advocacy of communitarianism and that as soon as the trial was behind him he returned to it.696 Since it seems pretty clear they didn't come from him, his use of lodge rites and structure show his pragmatism over-rode any distaste and that he simply adopted what was already available.
Rule 1 of the GNCTU 'Rules and Regulations', printed 1834, reads:
Each Trade in this Consolidated Union shall have its Grand Lodge in that town or city most eligible for it; such Grand Lodge to be governed internally by a Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master, and Grand Secretary, and a Committee of Management.697
The 'Tolpuddle Grand Lodge' according to the above letter did not include 'Grand Master', 'Deputy Grand Master', etc. The Tolpuddle arrangement does not conflict with the GNCTU advice, but it remains difficult to see Tolpuddle as the 'city or town' most eligible for a 'Grand Lodge.' In any event, it would appear that Loveless, whether he really began 'collecting information on friendly societies' quite innocently late in 1833 or not, became caught up in the frenetic whirlwind of Owenite activity that quickly over-reached itself and had already collapsed by August the following year, when he arrived in chains in Van Dieman's Land.
However, it is simply not possible that a complex lodge structure, its ritual and all the trappings highlighted at this time could have been invented by Owen or his Committee and imposed without comment or controversy. Whatever control of its hundreds of thousands of members Owen or the collective GNCTU might have had - Harrison describes membership as locally autonomous with 'distinctive (district) organisation and leadership' - there is no way that Owen himself or his most ardent followers could have created, distributed and/or paid for the multitude of differentiated collars, ribands/sashes, wands, surplices, rosettes, etc, etc, in use by April, 1834. Neither is it possible that the language of 'lodges' and 'Grand Lodges' could be accidentally common to trade societies and non-trade societies alike, nor that it could simply drop out of the sky, as in a bright idea, suddenly imposed.
Owen had no background in radical politics and his 'trade union phase' could not have occurred if he had not been prepared to listen to and meld with people in the area of work-related politics, for example, the two architect co-operators, Hansom and Welch who persuaded 'their' Grand Lodge of the Builders' Union in September, 1833 to give Owen a hearing and to work in with his plans by forming the Grand National Guild of Builders.
Remember the earlier letters, eg, one to the Home Office in 1817 gave detailed information about the 'clubs' of London Tailors meeting every Tuesday to elect delegates who then met every Thursday to decide resolutions which went back to the 'club' meetings the following Tuesday. Sentinels at the door, passwords and codes maintained secrecy. Further:
Upon any extraordinary occasion each union of trade [sic] elect confidential delegates to meet and form a Grand Union of all the Clubs of journeymen, of different trades, who then select of their number, one confidential as representative of their trade, which trade may have 80 Clubs. These delegates or representatives of each trade then communicate their Resolutions to their constituents. (My emphasis)
Despite all these clues, it is extraordinary that Owen's personal involvement in fraternities before 1829 has not yet been explored, nor that of the people with whom he was working, even though his theories have been exposed to lengthy and repeated scrutiny.
On the street, his vision of a world in which all 'men' were treated equally, for him meaning a reconciliation of employer and employee into an harmonious co-operation of mind and body, was alien to many of his listeners by being overblown, soft-headed and unnecessary. The vision's organisational details, on the other hand, were understood immediately by lay-preachers, trade activists, readers of Thomas Paine or Freemasons, that is to say, by advocates of disparate approaches that have come down to us as incompatible.
Ultimately, the Government did very little to suppress 'combinations', Lord Melbourne believing, along with Place, that 'trade unions' would die out if left alone. A letter to the then Prime Minister supports the idea that it was the returning dilemma of the Orange Societies in 1835 which opened the way for a pardon of the Tolpuddle transportees. The then Home Secretary, Lord John Russell admitted that 'To be sure the Duke of Cumberland and the Duke of Gordon [both high Orange officers] are far more guilty than the labourers, but the law does not reach them I fear.' As Prescott says, 'The labourers were pardoned shortly after.'
The Tolpuddle Trial was not the last in which workers received transportation sentences for belonging to an 'illegal' combination, but later prosecution shifted to concern for alleged murderous and vicious behaviour by strikers, rather than with any oath-swearing. A case dismissed in July, 1834, involving 16 Exeter men and 'an illegal oath' is further proof that the six at Tolpuddle suffered more from an unfortunate combination of circumstances than a systematic, Government policy. "
© Dr Bob James. All Rights reserved except for nonprofit or educational use, please credit source.
