The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-06-26
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RALPH HAQD[lOT'5 MEDIATION
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ident OF the chief Justice of common
pleas was sent down to try the rioters.
The assize was held at Fobbing, and q
grand jury was proceeding to find true
bills against the accused when an
interruption occurred. A riotous
gathering broke into the court room.
chopped off the heads of the grand Jury
and carried them away on poles, and
compelled the chief justice, on pain OF
sharing the same fate, to swear that he
would never again hold similar ses-
sion.
A grand jury sacrificed and a CHIEF
justice sworn off an obnoxious duty.
This was a serious outrage on the law,
but the law was not so strong in the
fourteenth century as it is now, and in
cidents of the kind were not uncom-
mon. This might be mere isolated
explosion. There was no indication as
vet Of widely organized resistance.
The neyt victim of the ough instru-
ments with which nature was vindicat-
ing her higher law was collector.
This ugly incident, which looked less
serious at the time than the outrage
at Fobbing, but which has obtained a
more prominent places in curren; his
tory owing to Stoves graphic, il
somewhat inaccurate account of it, &C.
Cured at hartford, in Kent.
1t occurred in this way. In many
cases the persons named in the as.
SCISSORS roll refused to pay on the
ground of non-liability. In such cases
an appeal was allowed to the commits
sioner, the high official appointed for
each county to control the imposition
of the tax. The commissioner for Kent
was Sir John Leg, who had been one of
the esqCires of King Edwards house
hold, a slow servant in that capacity
of the poet Chaucer. cit is necessary
to mention this, because Leg is some
times discredited with having been a
rutiianly tax collector. He was not
the collector, but the commissioner, a
very different official. Leg afterwards
fell victim to the blind fury of the
populace, but this was owing to his
official position and not to any specific
act of ruffianism.) Leg was sent down
to hartford to hear appeals. Among
the appeals was one on behalf of a
daughter of Wat Tyler, for whom ex-
emption was claimed as being under
age. The frightened girl was dragged
into court by the collector, and grossly
insulted before the excited audience.
The insolent ruffian had not long to
wait for his punishment. The girl $
father was at work on the roof of a
neighboring house, and some one ran
at once and told him. Tyler caught
up helving-hammer. and hurried,
boiling with rage, to call the collector
to account. The collector answered
with stout words" and struck at him,
whereupon the tiler, avoiding the
blow, raised his hammer and smote the
collector with such force that "the
brains few out of his head" The peo-
pie were wild with joy over this lawless
act of Justice; Sir John Leg and his
assessors had to fee for their lives.
This took place in Whitsun week, on
Wednesday, the 9Th of June, when the
collectors were busy, and popular ex-
element ran high in every hundred.
1t was a serious defiance of the law, but
the authorities at headquarters were
not yet seriously alarmed. There was
nothing yet beyond the bleating that
might be expected when the sheep were
being shorn. What reason was there
to believe that the sheep would prove
themselves capable OF combining
against their shearers? That this un-
expected thing was. however, possible,
was speedily demonstrated. The
miracle rapidly unfolded itself before
the eyes of wondering and panic
stricken authority. In few days the
isolated jets of discomfort had combined
and become boiling food, and the
strongholds of the upper classes,
composed round with turbulent
sound" were like rocky islets in an
angry sea.
We shall never know whether it was
infatuated foolhardiness or mere chance
that brought the law in the very nick
of time into direct personal collision
with the man who had been chosen to
lead the insurreetion Be this as it
may, within a week of the alleged oc.
currence, Wat Tyler was threatening
the capital with one hundred thousand
men at his back, and in every county
of England local leaders were debating
terms to the lords of the soil in his
name.
The full magnitude of the rising
revealed itself with startling rapidity.
To the authorities who looked on from
London, seeing il grow bigger DAY after
day, yet each day inclined to believe
that it had reached ITS height, the
morrow was ALWAYS q surprise, and a