The Nuttall Encyclopedia

1. Luddites

   name assumed by the anti-machinery rioters of 1812-1861, after a Leicestershire idiot, Ned Ludd, of 1780; appearing first at Nottingham, the agitation spread through Derby, Leicester, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, finally merging in the wider industrial and political agitations and riots that marked the years that followed the peace after Waterloo.