Turncoats and traitors, rogues and renegades: reviewing labour’s lost leaders in reform-era Yorkshire

Abstract

ABSTRACT The annals of working-class agitational endeavours in the early nineteenth century contain more than a sprinkling of rogues who ran off with money, and renegades who abjured their earlier beliefs. They also include a few turncoats and traitors who turned their backs on their former colleagues and went over to the ‘other side’. This article explores the public careers of two reform-era renegades from the West Riding woollen textile district: John Tester and George Beaumont. Both were prominent local figures who turned coat in the pivotal year of 1834. An examination of the context and nature of their treachery attests to the importance but also the fragility of local leadership. The article argues that the special place that popular leaders held in their communities went beyond notions of fame and celebrity; but that this bond, once broken, was not easily repaired. Examining the villains as well as the heroes of labour history enables us to appreciate the local energies and tensions that underpinned popular movements and to put into context the resilience of leaders who lasted the course.