On Good Friday, the committee held a meeting at Leamington Spa which established the Warwickshire Agricultural Labourers Union,[1] Arch becoming its president, Henry Taylor its general secretary, and Matthew Vincent its treasurer.

Membership peaked at 86,214 in 1874, but by now, farmers were organising in opposition to the union, employing only non-union labour and agreeing to offer standard terms of 2 shillings for a 12-hour day.

However, a succession of poor harvests weakened the union's position, and membership fell below 10,000 in 1887, then halved again that year; the few remaining members were concentrated in Eastern England.

Industrially weak, the union turned its attention to campaigning for an extension of the electoral franchise to all adult men, and providing sickness and funeral benefits to members.

[6] The 1875 executive committee consisted of Malin (Warwickshire), H. Blackwell (Warwickshire), Edward Richardson (Wolverton), Henry Hemming (Cirencester), George M. Ball (Suffolk), James Margeston (Swaffham), James Crick (Suffolk), Ford (Banbury), George A. Morris (South Lincolnshire), Bowdon (Cirencester), Johnson (Wolverton) and Edgington (Oxford).

[8] Other activists in the union included Arthur Clayden, Howard Evans, Auberon Herbert, John Lewis, Harry Nicolls, George Rix and Hugh Fairfax-Cholmeley.