Feargus O’Connor began his political career as a ‘gentleman radical’; an upper-class ally of the downtrodden whose authority rested on social standing (in O’Connor’s case, the claim to descent from Irish royalty) and the presumption of some sort of fortune with which to sustain himself.
Over the years, however, O’Connor’s fortune, such as it ever was, dwindled. By the time he stood for election in Nottingham in 1847, he had to turn to his long-time friend Thomas Allsop, to supply the property qualification required of MPs. And despite persistent allegations to the contrary, he was most certainly not enriching himself from his ownership of the Northern Star or his control of the land company and land bank.
As O’Connor himself often said, he had ‘never traveled a mile, eaten a meal or slept a night at the people’s expense’. Paul Pickering notes in his book Feargus O’Connor: A Political Life (Merlin Press: 2008) that by 1850, he could claim to have spent £130,000 on the Chartist cause.
Indeed, towards the end of his life, while detained in an asylum, a court adjudicating on the dispute between O’Connor’s sister and his nephew over his care and finances estimated his assets at a meagre £1,167 7s. But things were to get worse.
Although O’Connor died in 1855, it took a further five years for his will to be proved. Searching the Findmypast website recently I came across the probate index in which that will is listed (see below). It shows that by the time of his death O’Connor’s effects were worth less than £20. O’Connor’s executor was the same Thomas Allsop who had earlier helped him out in 1847.
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