Contents - chartist ancestors

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ESSENTIALS
The six points of the Charter
Chartist petitions in full
Chartist timeline
Frequently asked questions

Chartist Ancestors Databank – details of more than 14,000 Chartists in a single Excel spreadsheet.

WHO WERE THE CHARTISTS?
Life stories: A – D
John Ardill – business manager of the Northern Star.
John Arnott – NCA general secretary.
Thomas Attwood – leader of the Birmingham Political Union.
Bartlomiej Beniowski – Emigre military adviser to Chartism.
George Binns – Sunderland Chartist and radical bookseller.
Peter Bussey – Bradford Chartist who fled to America.
Samuel Carter – Chartist MP for Tavistock.
Anthony Cavalier – Sheffield Chartist and town councillor.
William Henry Chadwick – Manchester Chartist.
John Cleave, radical publisher.
Henry Clubb – Colchester Chartist, vegetarian and utopian.
William Cuffay – leading black Londonn Chartist.
Allen Davenport – veteran Spencean ultra radical and London Chartist.
John Dover – Norwich Chartist transported to Van Diemen’s Land.
Thomas Slingsby Duncombe – Chartist MP for Finsbury.

Life stories: E – K
John Epps – dissenter in politics, religion and medical matters.
George Fleming – Editor and briefly owner of the Northern Star.
Matthew Fletcher – Bury’s delegate to the first convention.
John Frost – Newport Chartism’s rebel leader.
James Grassby – backroom organiser of the Chartist movement.
George Julian Harney – , organiser, orator, editor of the Northern Star.
Henry Hanshard – London silk weaver killed by the police in 1848.
Henry Hetherington – radical publisher and London Chartist.
William Hill – First editor of the Northern Star.
Joshua Hobson – printer, publisher and editor of the Northern Star.
Peter Hoey – Barnsley Chartist leader and link Chartists in Ireland.
Susanna Inge – secretary of the City of London female Chartists.
Ernest Jones – leader of late Chartism.
Robert Knox – County Durham’s delegate to the first convention.

Life stories: L – R
Robert LeBlond – secularist and treasurer to the later Chartist movement
Thomas Livsey – Rochdale Chartist and chair of the final convention.
William Lovett – author of the People’s Charter.
Robert Lowery – trade unionist and Newcastle’s delegate to the first convention
Benjamin Lucraft – a Victorian radical.
Henry Lundy – Northern Star compositor in Joshua Hobson’s print shop
Emma Miles – London female Chartist
Peter Murray McDouall – Chartist activist, exiled and imprisoned.
Helen Macfarlane – first translator of the Communist Manifesto.
James Bronterre O’Brien – Irish political thinker.
Feargus O’Connor – Chartist leader, owner of the Northern Star.
May Paris – Greenwich Chartist and victim of the cholera epidemic
Robert Kemp Philp – Publisher and co-author of the 1841 petition
William Rider – Physical force Chartist and O’Connor loyalist
Frederic Riddle – O’Brienite and secretary of the Land and Labour League
Ruffy Ridley (Daniel William Ruffy) – London activist and speaker

Life stories: S – Z
Thomas Clutton Salt – of the Birmingham Political Union.
Alexander Sharp – London Chartist who died in Tothill-fields Bridewell.
William Villiers Sankey – Edinburgh delegate to the first convention.
Edmund Stallwood – long-serving radical activist and journalist.
John Skevington – prominent Leicestershire Chartist.
Thomas Rayner Smart – “Veteran Patriot” and delegate to the first convention.
Henry Vincent – Chartism’s greatest orator.
Mary Ann Walker – City of London Chartist lecturer.
James Watson – Radical publisher, co-operator and freethinker.
Thomas Martin Wheeler – NCA General Secretary, journalist and organiser.
Joseph Williams – Veteran London radical who died in Tothill-fields Bridewell.
Jeremiah Yates – Staffordshire potter and leading local Chartist.

Lists of names
Chartist executives, 1840-58 – the NCA’s elected leadership.
Chase’s index – names from Chartism: A New History.
Frost defence fund – 1,532 contributors to the cause.
Gammage’s index – from the first history of Chartism.
Red Republican subscribers – supporters of the paper.
Friend of the People supporters – supporters of the paper.
Chartist children – 1,643 children named after Chartist leaders.
General Strike 1842 – delegates and activists.
Trafalgar Square rioters, 1848 – all those arrested.
Ingraham and the Smyrna Incident, 1853 – 450 subscribers to a post-Chartist cause.
Chartist Women in Scotland – names and places.
Where are they now? Pauper graves and obelisks.
Obits and pieces

WHAT DID THEY DO?
Conferences and conventions
The first convention, 1839 – from petition to “ulterior measures”.
Great meeting of Scottish delegates, 1839 – Glasgow conference.
West Riding delegate meeting, 1839 – preparing the ground locally.
Manchester conference, 1840 – founding the NCA
Meeting of Manchester trades, 1842 – Corn law repealers defeated
Scottish convention , 1842 – parting company with the second petition
Second convention, 1842 – preparing to present the ‘leviathan’ petition
The “unity” conference, 1842 – a final break with the middle class.
Birmingham conference, 1843 – the land, and a full-time executive.
Labour Parliament, 1845
Leeds convention, 1846 – gearing up for a general election.
Land company conference, 1847 – meeting at Lowbands.
London convention and assembly, 1848
London convention, 1851 – the NCA turns to the left.
Labour Parliament, 1854 – last chance of a revival.

Petitions
Chartist petitions in full
First petition – 1839
Organising the first Chartist petition – 1839
Full text of the petition for the Charter – 1839
First Chartist Convention: the General Convention of the Industrious Classes, 1839
Presenting the first Chartist petition – 1839
Document: Petition for the People’s Charter – 1839
Petition for the prisoners – 1841
Chartism’s forgotten petition – 1841
Second petition – 1842
Organising the Chartist petition – 1842
Full text of the petition for the Charter – 1842
Presenting the Chartist ‘leviathan’ petition – 1842
MPs vote to ignore the leviathan petition – 1842
The leviathan petition in numbers – 1842
Document: Engraving to mark the petition – 1842
Third petition – 1848
Full text of the Petition – 1848
London Convention and National Assembly – 1848
10 April ‘monster meeting’ on Kennington Common – 1848
Document: Cartoons of magistrates and military – 1848
Object: Police truncheon for a special constable – 1848
Later petitions
Fourth Chartist petition, 1849
Fifth Chartist petition, 1851

The land plan
Chartist land plan – the story behind the plan.
Chartist Land Company officials, 1849
Chartist colonies after Chartism

Riots, risings, rebellions and monster meetings
Trafalgar Square riots, 1848
Monster meeting on Kennington Common, 10 April 1848
Ashton-under-Lyne rising, 1848
Orange Tree conspiracy, 1848 – plans for a rising thwarted.

Crime and punishment
Policing the Chartists – the Metropolitan Police head north.
Police truncheon ‘to crack the skull of a Chartist’ – a rare artifact from 1848.
Victims of political persecution 1840 – Names from the Southern Star.
Chartist prisoners, 1839-1840 – Prison inspectors’ report to Parliament.
Chartist prisoners, 1841 – interviews from prison records.
Trial of Feargus O’Connor and 58 others, 1843
Cartoons depicting magistrates and cavalrymen on 10 April 1848
Palmerston and the publican: a tale of treachery and betrayal known at the top of government

Funerals and memorials
The tragic death and magnificent funeral of Feargus O’Connor
Ernest Jones’ funeral – the last Chartist rally
The simple and secular funeral of William Lovett
The ‘somewhat extraordinary’ funeral of the atheist Henry Hetherington
Meet the Kensal Green Chartists
Monument to the Bethnal Green Chartists Sharp, Williams and Hanshard

Chartists and the coronation of Queen Victoria

WHERE DID THEY DO IT?
In the localities
Ashton under Lyne
Black Country
Cornwall
Leeds
Manchester
Middlesbrough
Scotland
Sheffield
Tordmorden
Rochdale
Stockton on Tees, Thornaby and Hartlepool
Winlaton: an old Chartist’s memories of cannon and pikes

International
Chartists in America – 76 Chartists who emigrated or visited the US.
Chartists transported to Australia – more than 100 names.
Chartists in Australia – their part in the Eureka rebellion.
Ingraham and the Smyrna Incident, 1853 – Rallying for democracy.

THE INSTITUTIONS OF CHARTISM
Organisations
Great Northern Union – Feargus O’Connor’s 1838 bid for leadership.
National Charter Association – Chartism’s key membership body.
NCA national executives 1840-1858 -the Chartist leadership.
NCA National Central Registration and Elections Committee.
London Working Men’s Association – originators of the Charter.
East London Democratic Association – Chartism’s early radicals.
Female Chartist organisations – from political unions to Charter Associations.
Elland Female Radical Association – Fighting the New Poor Law in the West Riding.
City of London Female Chartists – asserting women’s political rights.
People’s Charter Union and the Cause of the People.
Irish Universal Suffrage Association – and the seven points of the People’s Charter.
Complete Suffrage Union – Joseph Sturge and middle class reform.
National Charter League – repudiating the socialism of the NCA.
Metropolitan Parliamentary Reform Association – for moderate reform.
55 Old Bailey – the City of London Charter Association hall.
Knowledge Chartists – William Lovett, the New Move and the National Association
Teetotal Chartists – a sober people.
Christian Chartists – doing God’s work with the devil’s tools.
Anti Corn Law League – ally or bitter enemy?

Newspapers
Northern Star – the paper that made Chartism.
Northern Star in numbers – who and what did it write about.
Five things you didn’t know about the Northern Star – plus a detailed enquiry into how the paper was printed and published.
Southern Star – Bronterre O’Brien’s brief-lived newspaper.
The Charter – mouthpiece of the London Chartists.
Chartist Circular
English Chartist Circular
Red Republican – later Chartism’s left-wing voice.
Friend of the People – successor to the Red Republican.

Material culture
The People’s Charter – the cornerstone pamphlet of 1838
Petition for the People’s Charter – London placard of 1838
National Charter Association membership cards – rare survivals
Great Northern Union members’ medal – Organising in 1838
Feargus O’Connor liberation medal – Chartist leader released, 1841
Engraving of the great petition of 1842 – A ‘splendid present’ from the Northern Star
The People’s Charter in red, blue and gold – a National Association wall poster
Three pewter tankards – ‘The Charter and No Surrender’.
A Chartist broadside ballad – Feargus O’Connor in song
Portrait of Peter Murray McDouall – a gift for subscribers to the Northern Star
CDV photograph of Matthew Fletcher – delegate to the 1839 Convention.
Funeral notice for William Lovett – a keepsake for the author of the Charter.
Chartist beverages and breakfast powders – the radical alternative to tea and coffee.
Chartist blacking – exclusive dealing in the cause of waterproof boots.
The O’Connor tartan and Scotland’s radical weavers – distinctive clothing for Chartists.
Cartoons depicting magistrates and cavalrymen on 10 April 1848 – a hostile eyewitness
Police truncheon ‘to crack the skull of a Chartist’ – a rare artefact from 1848.

Interviews with Chartist historians
Stephen Roberts on Dorothy Thompson and The Dignity of Chartism.
Katrina Navickas on Protest and the Politics of Space and Place.
Paul Pickering on Feargus O’Connor.
Richard Brown on Three Rebellions.