Gordon Riots (1780): London's Worst Riots of the 18th Century

The Gordon Riots were a week of mass protest, looting and arson in London from 2 to 9 June 1780. They began as a demonstration by Lord George Gordon’s Protestant Association against a law easing restrictions on Roman Catholics, and grew into the most destructive riots in the city’s history. The army finally restored order, killing several hundred people in the process.

Background: the Papists Act 1778

Since the Reformation and the Glorious Revolution, Catholics in Britain had faced heavy legal restrictions. A law of 1698 made it a crime for priests to say Mass and barred Catholics from buying or inheriting land in some circumstances.

In 1778 Parliament passed the Papists Act, introduced by Sir George Savile. It allowed Catholics who took an oath of loyalty to the Crown to buy and inherit land and to join the army without renouncing their faith. The government partly hoped to recruit Catholic soldiers, especially from Scotland and Ireland, for the war in America.

The act passed with little debate, but it alarmed many Protestants. In Scotland riots in Edinburgh and Glasgow in early 1779 persuaded the government not to extend relief there. In England, the Protestant Association was formed to campaign for repeal, and in late 1779 it chose Lord George Gordon, a young Scottish MP and son of the Duke of Gordon, as its president.

The march on Parliament

On Friday 2 June 1780 a huge crowd, often estimated at 40,000 to 60,000 people, gathered at St George’s Fields in Southwark. Many wore blue cockades, the badge of the association. They marched across the Thames to Westminster to present a petition against the act, said to bear tens of thousands of signatures.

Outside Parliament the protest became disorderly. Peers arriving at the House of Lords were jostled, pulled from their carriages and insulted. Inside the Commons, Gordon presented the petition, but MPs voted overwhelmingly against considering it at once. That night groups of rioters wrecked and burned the chapels of the Sardinian and Bavarian embassies, which were among the few places in London where Catholics could openly attend Mass.

The riots spread

Over the next days the violence grew. Crowds attacked Catholic chapels, schools, shops and homes, particularly in Moorfields and Spitalfields. They also turned on anyone associated with the act or with its enforcement, including magistrates who had arrested rioters.

On the evening of 6 June rioters stormed Newgate Prison, set it on fire and freed its prisoners. Other jails, including the Fleet, the King’s Bench and the Clink, were attacked in the following hours. Rioters burned the house of the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield, in Bloomsbury Square, destroying his library and papers.

Wednesday 7 June, later called “Black Wednesday”, was the worst day. Fires burned across the city. At Holborn the crowd attacked the distillery of Thomas Langdale, a Catholic. Spirits ran into the streets and caught fire, and many people died from burns or from drinking raw alcohol. Rioters also attempted to storm the Bank of England but were driven back by soldiers and volunteers, among them the radical politician John Wilkes.

Suppression

The authorities had been slow to act. Under the law of the time soldiers generally needed a magistrate to read the Riot Act before using force, and many magistrates were frightened or sympathetic to the crowd. The Lord Mayor, Brackley Kennett, was later convicted of neglect of duty.

On 7 June George III called a meeting of the Privy Council. On the advice of the Attorney General, Alexander Wedderburn, it ruled that troops could fire on rioters committing felonies without a magistrate’s order. Several thousand regular soldiers and militiamen poured into London and camped in the parks. By 9 June the streets had been cleared.

Key people

• Lord George Gordon (1751–1793): Third son of the Duke of Gordon and MP for Ludgershall. An eccentric and passionate speaker, he led the Protestant Association and presented its petition.
• Sir George Savile (1726–1784): Yorkshire MP who introduced the 1778 act. His house in Leicester Fields was attacked by rioters.
• Lord Mansfield (1705–1793): Lord Chief Justice of England, regarded by many Protestants as too lenient towards Catholics. He lost his house and library in Bloomsbury Square.
• George III (1738–1820): The king pressed his ministers and the Privy Council to take firm action on 7 June.
• John Wilkes (1725–1797): The former radical hero, by then City Chamberlain, helped defend the Bank of England, which damaged his popularity with the crowd.
• Thomas Erskine (1750–1823): Barrister whose defence secured Gordon’s acquittal and made his reputation.

Consequences

Official figures recorded 285 people killed by soldiers and 173 wounded, but total deaths were higher. Including those who died in fires, at the distillery or later from wounds, historians usually estimate several hundred deaths in all, and some suggest up to about 700. Property damage was enormous.

About 450 people were arrested. Of those tried, 62 were sentenced to death, and around 25 were hanged, some close to the places where they had rioted. Many of the accused were young working people rather than committed members of the Protestant Association.

Lord George Gordon was arrested and sent to the Tower of London. In February 1781 he was tried for high treason. His lawyer Thomas Erskine argued that he had not intended violence, and the jury acquitted him. Gordon later converted to Judaism, was imprisoned for libel and died in Newgate in 1793.

Legacy

The riots made “No Popery” a symbol of the danger of crowds for the British ruling class for decades. They slowed progress toward Catholic Emancipation, which came only in 1829. The Papists Act itself remained in force.

The failure of magistrates and the reliance on the army fed long debates about policing in London. Proposals for a centralised police force in 1785 failed, and the Metropolitan Police was created only in 1829, but the Gordon Riots were often cited in these arguments.

The events left a strong mark on literature and memory. Ignatius Sancho, a Black writer and shopkeeper in Westminster, described the chaos in letters written at the time. Charles Dickens used the riots as the setting for his novel Barnaby Rudge in 1841.

Myths and facts

• Myth: The rioters were all religious zealots. Fact: Studies of those tried, notably by George Rudé, show many were journeymen, apprentices and servants, and some targets were chosen for social as well as religious reasons, such as prisons and the homes of wealthy Catholics.
• Myth: Gordon personally led the violence. Fact: He organised the march but there is no evidence he directed the attacks, which is why the treason charge failed.

Timeline

• 1778, spring: Parliament passes the Papists Act with little opposition.
• 1779, November: Lord George Gordon becomes president of the Protestant Association.
• 1780, 2 June: The march to Parliament; embassy chapels are burned that night.
• 1780, 6 June: Newgate Prison is stormed and burned; Lord Mansfield’s house is destroyed.
• 1780, 7 June: Black Wednesday; the Privy Council authorises troops to act without magistrates.
• 1780, 9 June: Order is restored in London.
• 1781, February: Gordon is tried for high treason and acquitted.
• 1793, 1 November: Gordon dies in Newgate Prison.

Why it matters

The Gordon Riots showed how quickly religious fear could turn into general disorder in a crowded capital without an effective police force. They hardened official attitudes toward popular protest and delayed further Catholic relief, while leaving a lasting image of London in flames.