Gilmerton colliers' strike, 1823

A long dispute in 1823-24 between the colliers of the North Green Colliery at Gilmerton, south-east of Edinburgh, and its lessee John Marshall: three strikes, imported Ayrshire colliers driven out, armed and disguised gatherings, a Sheriff's investigation into an 'illegal combination', and sixty strikers evicted.

The mining history in this record

John Marshall leased the North Green seam at Gilmerton in 1821 and fitted up the colliery at great expense. In the winter of 1822-23 the colliers refused to work in a body when he would not meet their demands; he brought in colliers from Ayrshire, but their houses were broken into and they were dragged into the fields at midnight, and they went home. Marshall gave way. In April 1823 the men struck again over dismissals and won, and in October they stopped a third time over a working place they would not have worked.

Through all this the Gilmerton men were supported by contributions from the other collieries of the district, said to be 12 or 13 shillings a week a man, and by regular meetings that kept the works in concert. Sheriff officers and other men were sent out for days and nights to protect the inhabitants, and on the night of Tuesday 13 January 1824 colliers armed with bludgeons, pickshafts and pistols and disguised with sheets and handkerchiefs gathered near Marshall's house; he escaped only because he was armed and friends came to his help. The Sheriff took a precognition into the combination and into an assault on a collier, George Pride, and several colliers were briefly jailed, but once Marshall and the men had come to terms no one was prosecuted. Sixty strikers were evicted from their homes.

People

John Marshall, lessee (tacksman) of the colliery. George Pride, a collier assaulted during the dispute. James Brown, Charles Robertson and George Kerr, among the colliers named in the precognition papers.

Legacy today

The surviving petitions against the jailed colliers, with the Sheriff's correspondence, are the remaining papers of the precognition.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The Gilmerton colliers struck in a body in the winter of 1822-23 when John Marshall, lessee of the North Green Colliery, refused their demands, and struck again in April and October 1823. (contemporary account) ¹
• Colliers brought in from Ayrshire to work the colliery were attacked at night and went home. (contemporary account) ¹
• The strikers were supported by contributions from the neighbouring collieries of about 12 or 13 shillings a week a man. (contemporary account) ¹
• The Sheriff took a precognition into the 'illegal combination' and an assault on the collier George Pride; some colliers were briefly imprisoned, but no prosecution followed once the dispute was settled. (documented fact) ²
• Sixty of the strikers were evicted from their homes, twenty of them men who had worked at the colliery before Marshall's lease. (later recollection) ³

Mines

• Gilmerton Colliery — Midlothian
  The colliers of the North Green Colliery at Gilmerton struck against its lessee, John Marshall, three times in 1823, and sixty were evicted.

Sources

1. (secondary) Strikes — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Gilmerton Colliery - Investigation into 1823 Strike — Hood Family and Coal Mining
3. (secondary) Gilmerton Coalworks: short history of the colliery — Hood Family and Coal Mining

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026