William NIBBS  (1809 –- 1884) – Part 1
William NIBBS was born in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire to Job and Mary NIBBS nee Linton.  He was baptised on 9 July 1809.   William had a brother John and a sister, Elizabeth. William and his siblings received some form of schooling as William could read and write. Father Job was a woodman, John was a papermaker and William was a labourer.
In 1831, living conditions in rural England were grim, and William took part in a protest movement called the Swing Riots which spread across the South of England.

Background:
"A look into the 1830 riots, gives an insight into what life would have resembled for a labourer such as William and his family in a small farming village in England during the early 1800's.

1830 saw a three-tiered pyramid permanently in place within the social and economic life of a typical village of the southern English counties.   At the top sat the landowners who directly and indirectly shaped the way of life for those beneath them.   Second were the tenant farmers and on the bottom rung came the labourers.  

Labourers rarely had steady employment, relying on ploughing and crop gathering seasons, being paid on a daily or weekly basis by the farmers.   In between the seasons they were left to fend for themselves, many forced to rely on Parish Relief during the long periods of unemployment.

Crop prices had been steadily falling in the years up to 1830 thus putting enormous pressure on the farmers and more so, the labourers.   Many farmers turned to agricultural machinery to cut operating costs.   Three bad harvests in a row by 1830 and the winter of 1830 being abnormally severe, heightened the labourers' anger and frustration.   Doomed to poverty, starvation being imminent for many labourers and their families, it is accepted that this triggered the 1830's riots.

They occurred over many southern counties of the UK and widely varied in the action taken.  The most common form of protest or outrage was, a large number, sometimes hundreds, of labourers would gather together in a village and head off to a pre-targeted farm.   Usually, an appointed spokesman for the group would demand some amount of monetary compensation.   Refusal to pay led to threats of violence and invariably the money was paid.   If the farm possessed a threshing machine, chaff cutter, or other labour-saving device, it was unduly destroyed.

The least common, but best known, form of outrage was the "Swing Letter" a message threatening severe violence unless money was paid, or wages were raised or machines dismantled.   The letters were signed "Captain Swing hence the name the "Swing Rioters".  He was a mythical figure, and it is said that the name also related to the 'swing' (a moving part) of the flail used to thresh harvested grain.

In general, the riots were non-violent though clearly threatening, however low-level violence did occur when the farmers or their men tried to prevent machinery or property from being destroyed."

Prior to his conviction for Machine Breaking, William had been prosecuted for stealing turnip greens spending one month in prison.   This throws a dim light on his living standards at the time, having to resort to turnip greens for sustenance.  

In 1830 William was 21 years old and being a farm labourer by trade his own anger and frustrations drew him to become involved in a riot in the village of Loudwater in the Parish of Chepping Wycombe. Also known as High Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe. Chepping Wycombe was a large parish incorporating the villages of Wooburn, Heath End, Flackwell Heath, Northern Wood and Little Marlow.