William Hall who had held his weekly meeting at the Shears Inn along with King Ludd (George Mellor) found themselves
clapped in irons at York's Castle Prison. They along with another local man, Benjamin Walker, were charged with the murder of Horsfall. The government was determined to reassert its
authority; an example needed to be made and it was. On 8th January 1813 the three men convicted of Horsfall's murder were hanged. Just over a week later, on the 16th of January, fourteen other
condemned Luddite's were executed for their parts in the raid on Cartwright's Mill, in what was to be York's biggest ever hanging. Five of them were condemned for riot, six for burglary
and three for robbery, having been convicted under the Frame Breaking Act that came into force the previous year. They were put to death in two groups by the executioner John Curry - seven at 11.00
a.m. and seven at 1.30 p.m. A "vast concourse" of people assembled on St George's Field, York to see this mass "launch into eternity" as hangings were then known.
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