Description:Pamphlets and posters were a common sight in the 18th century - but just as they were easy to find, they were also simple to alter.
This notice originally advertised a "Society for Protecting Peace, Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers" (both of these groups were seen as a threat to property and society).
Gentlemen, clergy and freeholders were urged to meet at the Swan Inn, in Hanley to discuss the matter.
Well-off men who owned property (as few workers did) feared that law and order was about to break down.
Panic arose partly because of the recent revolution in France, during 1790-1.
Defaced
Someone certainly disagreed with the Society's aims, because he or she added the word 'destroying,' while deleting the word 'protecting.'
Who were the Society?
Several men signed the original notice, and handwritten notes (here in italics) were later added:
John E. Heathcote -esq.
R. Baddeley - Br.
John Mare - A Mr. Potter
William Yates - a boy
Samuel Mew - unknown
J.E. Poole - a madman
W.W. Lyon - a surgeon
Edward Keeling - of Lane End
George Rogers - of Burslem or Longport
Edward Baddeley - Br.
John Baddeley - Br.
John Hollins - for Lord Gower
Thomas Baddeley - Br.
D.B. Baddeley - Junior
James Whitehead - A lad
Thomas Middleton - A Clergy Man
E. Chatterley - A Mr. Potter
William Fernyhough - A Poet
This document is now in the collection of Stoke-on-Trent Museums.