PETER PATTISON
Executed at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 5th of October, 1761, for being concerned in a Riot at Hexham
THE King having, by proclamation, ordered the militia of England to be embodied, and the deputy-lieutenants for the county of Northumberland having advertised that on the 9th of March, 1761, they should meet at the town of Hexham, to ballot for militiamen, a most dreadful riot ensued.
A vast body of colliers, called pitmen, from Newcastle, rose, and, in a tumultuous manner, proceeded to Hexham, There they set up a loud cry of "No Militia Laws!" and attacked a detachment of the North York Militia, with clubs, stones, and such other weapons as they could collect.
This enraged the soldiers to such a pitch that they fired upon the mob for the space of ten minutes, and forty-two were killed and forty-eight wounded. Of the militia, an ensign and two privates were killed, and several wounded.
Above a score of the ringleaders of this dangerous insurrection were secured, but we find accounts of the execution of only one of them, Peter Pattison.