The Farnley Wood Plot was a conspiracy in Yorkshire, England in October 1663. Intended as a major rising to overturn the return to monarchy in 1660, it was undermined by informers, and came to nothing.[1]
The major plotters were Joshua Greathead and Captain Thomas Oates, operating primarily in Farnley, West Yorkshire, but also with links to Gildersome, Morley, West Yorkshire and Leeds. The aim was to capture and overthrow the Royalist strongholds of Leeds city centre. The plot was disbanded on 12 October 1663. Twenty-six men were arrested, imprisoned and executed as traitors, with at least some being hanged, drawn and quartered.[2]
- ^ Also known as the Derwentdale Plot and the Yorkshire Plot.
- ^ Parsons, Edward (1834). Civil, Ecclesiastical, Literary, Commercial, Miscellaneous History Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Otley, District Within Ten Miles Leeds, Vol. 1. Leeds UK: Frederick Hobson. p. 60.