Contemporary Reports on the Friarn Street Riot of December 1832 in Bridgwater. This episode was set against the backdrop of the contested 1832 Reform Act.
Original scans courtesy Somerset Studies Library, the Bridgwater Heritage Group have hence digitised the Alfred for 1831 and 1832, which can be browsed here. Additional context for the riot can be found in Jarman’s history of Bridgwater pp.153-4, which can be found here. Isabella Metford’s handwritten annotation to this episode (Heritage Group Collection, yet to be published) in Jarman reads: “I believe it was after this election in 1832, a hotly contested one, that John Bowen invited the most respected leaders of both sides (many of them previously old friends of different opinion) to a summer evening gathering at his house for the purpose of re-forming ties somewhat loosened by the recent conflict. My uncle Thomas Clark (a great friend of John Bowen’s) said that ‘Bowen’s the only man in Bridgwater who could have done it’ and that it was a complete success. From Thomas Clark’s account of the attack on Mr Bowen I judge it must be rather exaggerated here.” For more on John Bowen, see here and here.
Click the images for a larger version. These were published in 1833.
