11. RIOTS. A mid 18th century printed order sent to the Chief Constable “in the Weapontake of Bulmer”, North Riding of Yorkshire. It is addressed from Barnabas Legard and Stephen Croft, two of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace, and relates to a plea for compensation from William Meeke of St Mary-Gate [York]. Following a riot in the city, and the partial demolition of a dwelling house, out-house, and stable, William Meeke was awarded £140 10s which the Constable is now ordered to ‘levy and raise... upon the inhabitants of the said Constablery, according to your method of rating the poor... and pay it unto the said Justices... at the Cockpit St Mary-gate aforesaid, on Saturday the tenth day of November next... hereof fail not at your peril.’ The order is accompanied by an unused receipt slip. 244mm x 190mm. 18th October 1759. £120.00 + vat All may not have gone well for William Meeke, for records reveal that a man by this name was condemned to death 20 March, 1781, and executed at York, 6 April, 1781, for shooting Joseph Spink, a bailiff.
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