The Priestley Riots took place from 14 to 17 July 1791 in Birmingham, England; their main targets were religious Dissenters, most notably the religious and political controversialist, Joseph Priestley. Driven by anger over the Dissenters' attempts to gain full civil rights and their support of the French revolution, the rioters attacked or burned four Dissenting chapels, twenty-seven houses and several businesses. While the riots were not initiated by William Pitt's administration, the national government was slow to respond to the Dissenters' pleas for help and overjoyed at their plight. Local Birmingham officials seem to have been involved in the planning of the riots and were reluctant to prosecute any ringleaders after they ended.

Historical context
On 11 July, a local Birmingham newspaper announced that on 14 July there would be a dinner at the Hotel in Temple Row to celebrate the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille; the invitation encouraged "any Friend of Freedom" to attend. However, alongside this notice was an obvious threat: "an authentic list" of the participants would be published after the dinner.

Hints of trouble
Around 90 hardy sympathizers of the French revolution came to celebrate Bastille Day on the 14th; the banquet was led by James Keir, an Anglican industrialist. When the revelers arrived at the Hotel around 2 or 3 p.m., they were greeted by 60 or 70 protesters who eventually dispersed while yelling, rather bizarrely and confusingly, "no popery."

July 14
Although the Earl of Aylesford attempted to quash the mounting violence on the night of the 14th, he and the other magistrates were unable to control the crowd and the mob liberated local prisons on the 15th.

Aftermath and trials
In 1792, Joseph Johnson published Views of the Ruins of the Principal Houses Destroyed during the Riots at Birmingham with etchings by William Ellis after P. H. Witton's drawings. These are some of the images that purport to show the destruction caused by the rioters.
New Meeting chapel
Joseph Priestley's home, Fairhill

Notes

—. An Authentic Account of the Riots in Birmingham, also . . . the trials of the Rioters. Birmingham: 1791.
—. Views of the Ruins of the Principal Houses Destroyed during the Riots at Birmingham. London: J. Johnson, 1791.
Hutton, Catherine. A Narrative of the Riots in Birmingham, July 1791. Birmingham: 1875.
Maddison, R. E. S. and Francis R. Maddison. "Joseph Priestley and the Birmingham Riots." Notes and Records of the Royal Society of Lond 12 (1957): 98-113.
Martineau, Dennis. "Playing Detective: The Priestley Riots of 1791." Birmingham Historian 12–13 (1997): 11-18.
Priestley, Joseph. An Appeal to the Public on the Subject of the Riots in Birmingham. Birmingham: 1791.
Rose, R. B. "The Priestley Riots of 1791." Past and Present 18 (1960): 68-88.
Schofield, Robert E. The Enlightened Joseph Priestley: A Study of His Life and Work from 1773 to 1804. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. ISBN 0271024593.
Sheps, Arthur. "Public Perception of Joseph Priestley, the Birmingham Dissenters, and the Church-and-King Riots of 1791." Eighteenth-Century Life 13.2 (1989): 46-64.