The life of Henry Vincent

Henry Vincent was without doubt the great orator of the Chartist movement. An early member of the London Working Men’s Association, he was soon sent off on tour to establish similar bodies across Yorkshire, before moving to Bristol where he also launched the Western Vindicator newspaper.

If he had not already been arrested and imprisoned for his seditious speeches at Newport in South Wales, he would almost certainly have suffered the same fate as his friend John Frost and found himself transported to Australia following the Newport uprising. As it was, he emerged from prison in 1841 to marry and forge a new life for himself.

I’ve written a biography of Vincent for the main Chartist Ancestors website. You can find it here.

A list of Chartist leaders - but where did it come from, and when (and why) was it compiled?

My collection of Chartist ephemera now includes this intriguing four-page document. Entirely without preamble or explanation, it lists 44 of the best known figures in Chartism, their names apparently written in their own hand.

My first thought when I got my hands on it was that this was the delegate list for a conference taking place on 19 November 1841 - a date which appears very clearly on the final page.

However, with further investigation, that appears not to be the case, and I have to say that it is not entirely obvious when the list was created or why. What I do know, and some thoughts about what it might represent, are set out here.

Download a PDF showing the document in full.

Pickwick at the barricades: or the musings of Mr Samuel Pickwick on the cause of Chartism

Charles Dickens may have been a bit of a radical at times, but he was certainly no Chartist. So it may come as a surprise to discover that Mr Pickwick, one of the more sympathetic characters from his early works, was a bit more of a fan. Especially as the Pickwick Papers are silent on the matter.

Samuel Pickwick, the portly personification of a comfortably off and generally good-humoured retired Londoner, was (or is), of course, a fictional character. But the Pickwick Club of which he was perpetual president and to which he lent his name, spawned a number of real-life imitators.

John Frost and a lifelong commitment to the Chartism of 1839

John Frost was the first of the Chartist martyrs. As leader of the Newport rising of 1839, he was arrested, convicted and sentenced to a traitors death before wiser counsel saw him reprieved and banished instead to penal servitude in Tasmania.

But what happened to Frost and to the other leaders of the abortive attempt to seize the town after their arrest, and what did Frost have to say of his experience when he finally returned to his homeland in 1856?

200 more contributors to the Frost defence fund

The failed Chartist uprising at Newport in December 1839 came as a huge shock to many Chartists. Those who had prepared for similar rebellions across the North of England but had been dissuaded from acting must have been particularly affected by the bloody end to the Welsh rising.

With Frost and his fellow leaders at Newport facing the death penalty, and dozens more lined up for transportation or long prison sentences, Chartists dug deep into their meagre savings to provide what financial assistance they could.

The Northern Star, in the absence of any central Chartist organisation, formed the focus of this fund-raising activity, and for the first couple of weeks all donations were acknowledged individually in its pages.

The first 1,000 or so contributors to the Frost Defence Fund have been named on Chartist Ancestors for some time. I wrote about this here. A further 200 or more names are now on the same page.

After this, the Star gave up hope of listing all contributors, concluding that it would rapidly run out of space to report anything else.

For now, however, if you are looking for Susan and Samuel Rothwell of Rochdale, Samuel and Mary Buck in Naresborough, or Benjamin Yarman in Great Yarmouth around 1840, then you might just have stumbled on a Chartist ancestor.

See the names of contributors to the Frost Defence Fund.

Newport Chartist John Frost

John Frost is one of the best known figures in Chartism. His fame comes from his ill-fated leadership of the Newport rebellion in December 1839, his subsequent transportation to Australia, and the campaign that led eventually to his return.

The second in our series of profiles and sketch portraits taken from William Lovett’s newspaper, The Charter, is of John Frost, who was at that time serving as delegate from his home town to the General Convention of the Industrious Classes.

In addition to The Charter’s somewhat unflattering physical description of Frost, there is plenty of related material on Chartist Ancestors, including:
* Lovett’s later account of the Convention and a list of delegates
* the story of the Newport rebellion and
* A list of contributors to the Frost Defence Fund

Read more about John Frost.

1,000 backers of John Frost

Around 1,000 Chartist contributors to the Frost Defence Fund are now named in a page on Chartist Ancestors.

Most Chartists were taken wholly by surprise by the Newport rebellion (pictured left) and were shocked by its bloody failure. Its leader, John Frost, was, after all, among the least likely of the more prominent Chartists to have become involved in such a scheme.

Though there is now good evidence that similar risings were being prepared for the North of England as part of a co-ordinated insurrection to force a change of government, neither Feargus O’Connor nor most of the Chartist leadership were aware of the plans.

Once they had got over their surprise, however, thousands of Chartists began to pour contributions into a defence fund set up to provide Frost and his co-conspirators with the best legal aid. Even with this fund behind them, they were at first sentenced to death.

The Northern Star provided two huge lists of contributors to the Frost Defence Fund. The first, published on 18 January 1840 listed 1,345 donors. Not all used their real names – and many hid behind descriptions such as "A Friend of Frost". But many are traceable individuals.

This list appears on Chartist Ancestors now.

A second, slightly shorter, list appeared the following week. I have not yet transcribed this, but will add it when I can.

Although money continued to pour in after this date, the editor of the Northern Star realised that if he continued to acknowledge every contribution, no matter how small, he would rapidly run out of space for anything else. On 1 February, he called an end to individual listings.

There is more about the Newport rebellion on Chartist Ancestors here.