Chartist women at a delegate conference, 1841

The Chartist national delegate meeting that assembled in York at the end of August 1841 was not faced with the most difficult of agendas. The sole purpose for which it had been called was to welcome Feargus O’Connor on his release from prison and to draw up a suitable address as just one element in the festivities greeting the release of ‘the liberated patriot’.  

Even so, more than seventy delegates took part in the meeting, largely from the North of England, but some from as far afield as London and Dumfries. And most notably of all, their number included Mrs Elizabeth Ellis and Mrs Elizabeth Sumper, representing ‘Bradford Females’ (Northern Star, 4 September 1841, p6).

Part of the delegate list carried in the Northern Star.

There is unfortunately no record of anything either of them may have said at the meeting. But the very fact of them being there makes this conference unique: although there were many Female Charter Associations all over the country, there is no other recorded instance in which such societies were represented at a delegate event, regional or national. Intriguingly, there were no representatives of the Bradford men at the meeting. 

The Bradford women were clearly numerous and well organised. In August 1839, the Northern Star reported that ‘the female radicals of the Bradford district, amounting to upward of 600, walked in procession through the principal streets’ led by a woman carrying a large printed board on which were printed the words ‘exclusive dealing’.

Unfortunately neither Mrs Sumper nor Mrs Ellis is mentioned again in fifteen years’ worth of the Northern Star, and neither have I located either of them in census or other official records. But it seems likely that Elizabeth Ellis would have been married to George Ellis, the Bradford news-agent and vendor of the Star whose name appears from time to time in the paper. This, then, would have been a Chartist household – and quite likely a teetotal one, because in the spring of 1841, George Ellis of Manningham near Bradford, secretary of the Teetotal Chartist Association, also put his name to the Temperance Address initiated by Henry Vincent (NS, 20 March 1841, p3).

If anyone knows anything more of Mrs Sumper or Mrs Ellis, please let me know!

Chartism Day 2016: from 'constitutional humbug' to cheap beer, a political rehabiliation and 3D models

Chartism Day 2016 took place at the University of Chester at the weekend, with around 50 delegates turning up for a busy programme of presentations on topics as diverse as Chartism’s relationship with the Irish Repeal movement, the impact of the Beer Act on radical meetings and an exciting new initiative using 3D animated modelling techniques to re-create Chartist processions.

What follows does not attempt to summarise the arguments of the speakers, which are in any event almost all drawn from work in progress towards full academic publication, but simply to give a flavour of the day’s talks.

Recognition for a Chartist pub

It is strange to think that what must have been a very basic spit-and-sawdust beerhouse when it opened to serve settlers on the Chartist land colony at O’Connorville back in the 1840s is now considered one of Britain’s best public houses.

The wonderfully named Land of Liberty, Peace and Plenty at Heronsgate in Hertfordshire did not win Camra’s pub of the year competition at the weekend, but managed to finish in the top four.

The judges commended it on its "Fine selection of well kept ales. Relaxing, utterly pleasant pub. Friendly staff. Perfect really."

All a far cry, it would seem, from its early days. Then, the names of 30 Chartists who had subscribed to the Chartist Land Company were selected by ballot and each was provided with two, three or four acres and a cottage.

The colony itself was dry – the teetotal and temperance movement was well represented within Chartism – so it seems likely that the Land of Liberty, Peace and Plenty was opened by someone with a good eye for a business opportunity rather than as an officially sanctioned place of recreation.

For many of the smallholders life on the land proved even harsher than the factory work which many had abandoned.

There were, however, also reports of idyllic new lives in the country for some, and when the land company foundered financially few of the smallholders were keen to leave their plots and return to the towns and cities of industrial Britain.

Find out more about the thousands who subscribed to the Chartist land plan, and the hundreds who were allotted land.

More teetotal Chartist names

The names of signatories to Henry Vincent’s teetotal Chartist address of 1840 have been added to the Teetotal Chartism page on Chartist Ancestors.

For many activists, total abstinence from alcohol was an essential part of Chartism since it proved that working men could be trusted with the responsibility of the vote. Following Vincent’s lead, a number of teetotal Chartist organisations were established, either alongside local branches of the National Charter Association, or by changing the name of existing organisations to incorporate a rejection of alcohol.

Yet this move was not universally welcomed within the Chartist movement. Feargus O’Connor, among others, was a strident critic of teetotal, Christian and knowledge Chartism alike, seeing them as distractions from the cause, or likely to suggest that the vote was not a right but had to be earned by those proving themselves suitable through abstention from alcohol, religious fervour or education.

Indeed, a decade after the teetotal Chartist address, the Chartist leader Ernest Jones would declare: “Some will tell you that teetotalism will get you the Charter: the Charter don't lie at the bottom of a glass of water.”

See the page on Teetotal Chartism.

Chartism: make mine a pint

A Hertfordshire pub named after the nearby Chartist land settlement of Heronsgate (or O'Connorville, as it was renamed in Feargus's honour) has been named the finest public house in East Anglia.

The Land of Liberty, Peace and Plenty will now go forward to the national finals of the Campaign for Real Ale Awards next February.

Interestingly, the pub appears to have been established as a beerhouse specifically to serve the small Chartist community at O'Connorville – although the settlement itself was "dry", in keeping with the temperance principles which permeated much of Chartism.

A small victory, then, for those who subscribe to Ernest Jones's view that the Charter was "not to be found at the bottom of a glass of water".

Teetotal Chartism. Not quite the full measure?

The Chartist movement originated in a London tavern, and countless local branches held their meetings in public houses. Yet there was also a strong teetotal element within the ranks urging total abstinence from alcohol.

In Teetotal Chartists, the Chartist Ancestors website looks at the reasons so many leading activists believed there should be a link between the two strands, and names more than 100 of those who were involved.

It also explains why Feargus O’Connor denounced Teetotal Chartism along with Christian Chartism and Knowledge Chartism as a dangerous distraction, and how Ernest Jones came to warn that Chartism could not be found “at the bottom of a glass of water”.

Read more about Teetotal Chartism...