Hodgson, to whom only they would apply; that the deponent was sent with a complaint to the Justice by Mr. Russel, desiring a meeting with him, which he excused, but would send his clerk, and further told him, that if Mr. Russel did not desist, he would meet with trouble, and he would give him a pretty dance to Westminster-hall, for the Act of Parliament was in so vague a manner that any body might keep an office, and that as they had the best men at their office, they did not fear to have the business; that, however, in a few days after Mr. Russel advertised for men to come, but none came; and then he advertised for their coming at such a time, or he would employ such able-bodied men as chose to come, whereupon many came, and they were put in the gangs; that Dunster, Justice Hodgson's clerk, having seen the deponent do this at Billingsgate, he brought to his door no less than three or four hundred of these men, a great many of whom threatened they would pull down his house, or they would do for him; that the Deponent went to the Mansion-house to acquaint the Lord Mayor of the danger he was in, and received for answer, that he must be directed by some Magistrate in his neighbourhood; that on Saturday morning, the 16th of April, the Coal-heavers having put up some bills, a neighbour's servant went and pulled one down, upon which the Coal-heavers cried out, that Green's maid had pulled down their bills, and then
they directly came running from different parts to his door to the amount of one hundred and upwards. The purport, the Deponent said, of these bills was a libel on Mr. Alderman Beckford, and what was done was Mr. Russel's own doing.——The acts of violence committed by the Coal-heavers against this Deponent, best appear from his own words.
"I asked them, said he, what they wanted with me; they cried, 'by Jesus they would have my life if I offered to meddle with any of their bills;' I said I had not meddled with any, nor none had that belonged to me; one of them cried, 'By Jesus he shall have a bill put up at his own window;' he took up a handful of dirt, and put it upon the window, and put the bill upon it; another of them laid hold of my collar, and dragged me off the step of my door; another said, 'Haul him into the river;' said another, 'By Jesus, we will drown him.' I got from them, and retreated back into my house. After that I went to Billingsgate, and met several of them there; they threatened they would have my life. When I came home, I saw a great many of these people running from their different habitations, some with bludgeons, or broomsticks, and weapons of that sort; they did not collect themselves in a body, but were running to the head of New Gravel-lane; I believe about four or five hundred of them came within two hundred yards of my
house; they went to Mr. Metcalf, a neighbour of mine, and threatened him; there was one of them that was a pretended friend of mine, that had promised, when he knew of any thing against me, he would let me know; I sat up to guard my house, and I sent my wife and children out of the house; after that I prevailed upon my wife to stay in the house upon this man's intelligence; he came about twelve, and told me nothing was intended against me, that they had done their business they were about; I went to bed, and was asleep; I was awaked by my sister-in-law, calling, 'Mr. Green, Mr. Green, for God's sake, we shall be murdered;' this was about one o'clock on the Sunday morning; I jumped out of bed, and ran into the next room where my arms were; I took and levelled one, and said, 'You rascals, if you do not be gone, I will shoot you;' they were then driving at my doors and shutters, the noise was terrible, like a parcel of men working upon a ship's bottom; I could compare it to nothing else; I fired among them; I believed I fired about fourteen times; and, when I had not any thing ready to fire, I threw glass bottles upon them; they were at this about a quarter of an hour, when they all dispersed. On the Monday I went to Billingsgate about eleven; I saw several of them there who threatened me; Dunster was there also; they told me they would do for me if I did not desist in my proceedings, which was to
register such people as applied; there were always some of the Coal-heavers about Dunster, he talked of the advertisements that had been in the paper, and said they were mine; for he said Mr. Russel had told him he totally declined having any thing to say in it, and it was my doing only; I said, 'Do not deceive these men, that is very wrong of you;' I asked him, if Mr. Russel did not tell him he would advertise to this effect; I began to be afraid, and, as many of them came about me, I left them.
"Nothing happened after till Wednesday night, that was the 20th, about seven in the evening; then I saw a great many of these Coal-heavers assembling together, about three or four hundred yards from my house, going up Gravel-lane. I shut up as fast as I could, and told my wife to get out of the house as fast as she could with her children; accordingly she went away with the child that was asleep in the cradle; Gilberthorp was in the house drinking a pint of beer (I did not know his name then); said I, 'Brother tarpawling (he is a seafaring man), I am afraid I shall have a desperate attack to-night from what I have heard; will you stand by me, and give me all the assistance you can?' 'Yes,' said he, 'that I will.' When the house was secured backwards and forwards, I went up stairs; some stones had broke some windows there; I believe some of them had thrown stones and run away; I heard
them call out Wilkes and Liberty ; I saw the neighbours lighting up candles, for these people shall have no occasion at all to use me ill. I went to the window and begged of them to desist, and said, if they knew any thing particular of me, I was willing to resolve any thing they wanted to know: seeing I could not defend myself, I disguised myself, and put on an old watch-coat and a Dutch cap, and went down stairs in order to get a Magistrate to come and prevent my house from being pulled down; I had one Dunderdale, a shoemaker, that lodged in my house, he went down with me; when I came down to the back-door, I heard them threaten they would have me and my life; I then found it impossible to get out of the house; I ran up stairs then, fully determined to defend myself as long as I was able: I spoke to them again in the street from the window, and desired them to tell me what I had done; they called out in the street 'they would have me and hang me over my sign-post;' others said 'they would broil and roast me,' and words to that effect; stones came up very fast. I then took a brace of pistols from the table, and fired among them, loaded with powder only; after that I kept firing away among them what arms I had loaded with bird and swan shot; they dispersed in the front then; I immediately ran backwards, they were heaving stones into the back chamber windows; I fired from the back
chamber windows; after I had fired some few rounds backwards, they desisted from heaving stones into the back part of the house, but I did not find they had left the place. I was again attacked both in front and back part of the house; I fired among them sometimes from the front of my house, and sometimes from the rear; I imagined they would have broke into the house presently, if I had not kept a warm fire upon them; I heard them call out several times, I am shot, I am wounded; still they said 'they would have me, and do for me.' I had various attacks in the night; I saw no fire-arms they had till eleven or twelve in the night: they were driving at the door about ten, but I cannot tell with what; I looked through the door, and saw their hands moving, driving something hard against it. About twelve they fired into the house, both in the front and the rear; the balls struck the cieling in the room where I was, sometimes close over my head; as they were in the street, and I in the one-pair of stairs, the balls went into the cieling, and dropped down on the floor; I could not walk about the room with any safety, I was forced to place myself by the wall between the windows, and sometimes I would crawl under the window to the next, and sometimes I stood behind the brackets; then I would stand up and drive among them like dung; I have seen their balls strike the cieling as I have stood under the cover of the
wall, and as I have been going to fire, they have come over my head, and some lodged in the cieling.
"This firing continued all the night and all the morning at different periods.