gaffy: the story you referred to in the Northern Whig, would you be able to share the full story or do you know how I might be able to read it?
At about two columns length of a full sized newspaper, the article is far too long to retype here, I read it on the British Newspaper Archive website, which is operated by the Findmypast company and it should therefore be available via the main Findmypast website as well. In short, the article was an account of the County Armagh Assizes Crown Court proceedings at Armagh on 8 March, when a number of men were acquitted of activity including intimidation and firing off shots at the house of a local linen manufacturer who was allegedly paying his tenant weavers less than other manufacturers. The manufacturer had asked one of the men (a tenant) to move out of his house and there were accusations of 'whiteboy' activity. A large reward played into this story as well, with Gregory Dowd commenting that it "would get a weaver a smart snug house".
The article gives a sense of the subsistence level at which folk were living and the associated social unrest, I further noticed that Gregory said that he had no house of his own, that he just paid for his food and that he had been weaving for 8 - 10 years, which sounds about right for someone in their early to mid twenties.
