Sir Joseph Radcliffe, 1st Baronet

[1] Joseph Pickford was born at Alt Hill or Althill, then a hamlet near Ashton under Lyne and baptised there on 8 May 1744.

[2] In the 1770s, then based at Royton, Pickford corresponded with Charles Prescot, at that time a Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.

[4] In 1795, his mother Mary's brother, William, died, leaving Joseph his sole heir, providing he was willing to change his name from Pickford to Radcliffe.

[7] Pickford became a magistrate for the West Riding of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Cheshire;[8] he was a Justice of the Peace for Salford Hundred, from his residence at Royton, and attended Manchester meetings from 1792.

[9] Described as "fairly conscientious", he first as a magistrate encountered sedition, in cases brought on "seditious words" uttered, in 1798.

[10] Radcliffe went on to gain a reputation for heavy-handed justice, in repression of the so-called "Black Lamp" in the years around 1800.

[12] In about March of that year, he began to receive pseudonymous threatening letters, signed with some form of the "Ned Ludd" name.

[12] As a result of his campaign, he had three men, George Mellor, Thomas Smith and William Thorpe, sent to York Castle for trial in January 1813, taking a place on the jury himself and condemning them as guilty.

Highness of that loyal, zealous, and intrepid conduct which you have invariably displayed at a period when the West Riding of the County of York presented a disgraceful scene of outrage and plunder; and by which, in the discharge of your duty as a magistrate; you contributed most materially to re-establish in that quarter, tranquility and obedience to the laws, and to restore security to the lives and property of His Majesty's subjects.

[20]Radcliffe continued to live the life of a wealthy country gentleman, often spending time in his house at Clifton in Bristol.