Luddite Execution 1816 – The New Drop erected the 20th of Nov 1816 for the Execution of James Towle.

James Towle was a framework-knitter from Basford near Nottingham. He was tried and acquitted of a Luddite attack in 1814 but was convicted in 1816 for another attack during which a guard was shot and wounded. Towle, in the numerous contemporary reports and documents that refer to this case, appears a man of high-principal, strongly wed to his beliefs. The evening before his execution he finally handed over details of the Luddite gang of which he was a member, and which he believed had betrayed him, bitterly regretting he hadn't done so sooner and avoided his fate. The accounts of his execution are moving; the 'affecting farewell of his wife and four young children', the 'undaunted step' with which he walked on to the drop, the hymn he sang in a 'firm and audible voice', the fall of the platform which 'launched him into eternity'.