Martyrs Monument, Woodside Cemetery, Broomlands Street, Paisley

Martyrs Monument, Woodside Cemetery, Broomlands Street, Paisley

A freestone obelisk memorial erected in 1867 by public subscription in Woodside Cemetery, Paisley. It is the work of the monumental sculptor William Robin of Paisley and may have been executed or adapted from a design by Alexander Thomson. The monument stands approximately 17 feet tall and comprises an ashlar, double-stepped plinth, a battered pedestal with cavetto cornice and inscriptions on all four faces, surmounted by an ashlar obelisk with a moulded base. The obelisk is decorated with incised double bands at the bottom and mid-shaft, with anthemia (or palmettes) above the bands, and a further incised band at the top.

The main inscription reads: "Erected by public subscription 1867 to the memory of Andrew Hardie and John Baird who were executed at Stirling and of James Wilson who was executed at Glasgow in the year 1820".

The memorial commemorates three men executed for high treason following the Radical Rising of 1820, also known as the Radical War or the Scottish Insurrection of 1820, believed to be the last armed uprising in Britain. Between 1st and 8th April 1820, an estimated 60,000 workers initiated strikes and social unrest across Glasgow, Paisley, Ayrshire and Renfrewshire to demand widespread political reform in response to economic depression. The strikes, particularly among weaving communities but also involving blacksmiths and shoemakers, represented what is thought to be the first general strike, covering multiple industries. The uprising was intended to coincide with similar rebellions in northern England.

The Radical Rising culminated years of working-class unrest fuelled by revolutions in America (1776) and France (1789). Scottish radical reformers sought universal male franchise, annually elected parliaments, a repeal of the Corn Laws and a repeal of the Act of Union of 1707. In the years preceding the rising, Scotland witnessed mass meetings and demonstrations in Glasgow and Paisley, and the formation of numerous secret societies and unions advocating radical change, with the largest group believed to be in Paisley. Alarmed by increasing unrest across Britain, the Government introduced 'the Six Acts' to suppress radicalism and employed spies to infiltrate organisations. In 1819, Government troops had killed 15 and wounded hundreds of peaceful reformers at Peterloo in Manchester.

Between 4th and 8th April, a series of disturbances occurred, including the Battle of Bonnymuir, a skirmish at Bonnybridge led by Andrew Hardie (a weaver and former militiaman) and John Baird (a weaver and former soldier). The rising was quashed on 9th April. Trials held in July and August 1820 found three leaders—Andrew Hardie, John Baird and James Wilson (an active member of the 'Friends of the People' and the 'Society of the United Scotsmen')—guilty of high treason. Hardie and Baird were executed at Stirling and Wilson at Glasgow, all before large crowds. Nineteen other men pleaded guilty and their sentences were commuted to transportation.

The events of 1820, combined with growing demands for reform from the rising middle classes and industrial progress, eventually led to the Great Reform Act of 1832, which increased the Scottish electorate from 4,500 to 65,000. In 1836, those radicals who had been transported were pardoned.

Funds for a memorial to the three martyrs were initially raised by public subscription in 1833, but for unknown reasons the monument was not constructed until 1867. The inscription was written by local weaver poet David Picken. Two other memorials commemorating the martyrs had previously been erected: one in Wilson's hometown of Strathaven in 1846, and one next to Springburn Cemetery in Glasgow in 1847 (for Hardie and Baird, whose bodies were exhumed from Stirling and reinterred there in 1847).