evidence: Fenian and Land League founder Michael Davitt (1846–1906) was born on 25 March in Straide, Co. Mayo. In 1850 his family's landlord evicted them from their small farm, and they emigrated to Haslingden, an industrial town in Lancashire, England. At age eleven, when he was working in a cotton mill, a machine crushed his right arm, and it was later amputated. Ironically this injury allowed him to resume formal schooling, and in 1861 he became a post office clerk. In 1865 Davitt, like many young Irishmen in Lancashire, joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), or Fenians. He rose quickly through the ranks and in February 1867 helped to lead the ill-conceived raid on Chester Castle. Appointed IRB organizing secretary for England and Scotland in 1868, during the next two years Davitt traveled clandestinely around Britain organizing arms shipments to Ireland. In 1870 the authorities arrested and tried Davitt for arms trafficking. A jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude.