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Wednesday, June 17
Chartist newspapers go online
by
mark
on Wed 17 Jun 2009 19:13 BST
Among the papers that can now be viewed are the Charter, Chartist, Chartist Circular, ... more » Friday, October 31
Chartist Circular: the voice of Scottish Chartism
by
mark
on Fri 31 Oct 2008 09:23 GMT
 The Chartist Circular was among the most important and certainly one of the longest-lived of the many newspapers that sprang out of Chartism in Scotland. Launched in September 1839 by the former handloom weaver and co-operator William Thomson, the paper was published weekly “from the steam press of W & ... more » Sunday, July 6
A British Museum perspective on Chartism
by
mark
on Sun 06 Jul 2008 16:39 BST
Neil MacGregor, director ... more » Tuesday, June 24
The Northern Star: a Chartist newspaper in numbers
by
mark
on Tue 24 Jun 2008 14:01 BST
 Throughout 1841 and 1842, anyone reading the Northern Star would have come across the name of its proprietor, Feargus O’Connor, an average of 40 times in each weekly issue.Over the course of the 15 years from 1838 to 1852 during which O’Connor owned and ran the paper, his name ... more » Friday, May 30
The Charter: the voice of London Chartists
by
mark
on Fri 30 May 2008 14:11 BST
A short history of The Charter and those involved with it, including a list of the members of its management committee, now appears on Chartist Ancestors. The paper’s editor was a ... more » Friday, May 23
Profile: John Skevington - Leicestershire Chartist
by
mark
on Fri 23 May 2008 15:00 BST
The series ends here because this is the point at which The Charter newspaper drew to ... more » Wednesday, May 21
Profile: Henry Hetherington – radical publisher
by
mark
on Wed 21 May 2008 10:00 BST
He would later go on ... more » Friday, May 16
How to search the Northern Star for Chartist ancestors
by
mark
on Fri 16 May 2008 14:48 BST
The Northern Star was the most important Chartist newspaper of the period, and remains ... more » Tuesday, May 13
The Northern Star is now online
by
mark
on Tue 13 May 2008 14:24 BST
Go straight to the ... more »
Profile: Peter Bussey - exiled revolutionary
by
mark
on Tue 13 May 2008 11:00 BST
While the careful and politically astute artisans of the London Working Men’s Association were natural behind-the-scenes influencers of politicians and government, Bussey, a Bradford ... more » Tuesday, May 6
Profile: Robert Lowery - Newcastle Chartist
by
mark
on Tue 06 May 2008 16:00 BST
Born in 1809, he first became active in radical politics as secretary to the Newcastle Political Union during the Great Reform Act agitation of 1831 and 1832. By the time of ... more » Thursday, May 1
Profile: Thomas Rayner Smart - veteran Chartist patriot
by
mark
on Thu 01 May 2008 13:00 BST
While representing Loughborough and Leicester at the convention, Smart was profiled by The Charter newspaper. Both the profile and ... more » Tuesday, April 29
Profile: William Villiers Sankey, Chartist aristocrat
by
mark
on Tue 29 Apr 2008 13:16 BST
While representing Edinburgh at the convention, Sankey was profiled by The Charter newspaper... more » Thursday, April 24
Northern Star: Chartist newspaper online
by
mark
on Thu 24 Apr 2008 19:00 BST
The three-year Nineteenth Century Serials Edition project will culminate on that day ... more » Tuesday, April 15
200 more contributors to the Frost Defence Fund
by
mark
on Tue 15 Apr 2008 15:00 BST
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 ... more » Friday, March 28
Profile: Robert Knox - convention delegate
by
mark
on Fri 28 Mar 2008 11:00 GMT
That profile, and the sketch portrait of Knox that appeared in the same paper, now appears on Chartist Ancestors ... more » Sunday, March 23
Profile: William Lovett - author of the People's Charter
by
mark
on Sun 23 Mar 2008 13:00 GMT
The third in our series of profiles and portraits of delegates ... more » Thursday, March 20
Profile: John Frost - Newport Chartist
by
mark
on Thu 20 Mar 2008 16:00 GMT
The second in our series of profiles and sketch portraits taken ... more » Tuesday, March 18
Profile: Birmingham Chartist Thomas Clutton Salt
by
mark
on Tue 18 Mar 2008 12:05 GMT
The Charter newspaper, published by William Lovett, secretary to the Convention and ... more » Sunday, February 10
Saturday, November 3
Guardian archive a Chartism goldmine
by
mark
on Sat 03 Nov 2007 14:47 GMT
The launch of The Guardian newspaper’s historic online archive today offers anyone looking for ancestors in the Chartist movement fresh ... more » |
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Many of the most significant 
"We had to shut the main gates on Great Russell Street
to prevent more people from coming in. It was the first time we did that since
the Chartist riots of 1848 - although on that occasion the staff were actually
on the roof, armed with stones."
Our current series of Chartist portraits finishes with John
Skevington, the working class radical leader from Leicestershire who
represented both Derby and his home town of Loughborough in the First Chartist
Convention of 1839.
Henry Hetherington was the hero of the campaign for an
unstamped press – the radical protest movement which defied the law to publish
news and political opinion while refusing to pay a newspaper tax which put most
publications out of the reach of working people.
Having had a little time to play around with the new online
version of the 
A free and fully searchable edition of the Northern Star is
now available online. Although still officially in a beta (test) version, you
can find this important Chartist newspaper on the Nineteenth Century Serials Edition website along with a
number of other papers from the period.
Peter Bussey was everything the originators of the People’s
Charter disliked and feared about the mass of disgruntled and distressed
working people who flooded into Chartism.
Robert Lowery lived an extraordinarily full political life
for a man who died at just 54 years of age. 
Thomas Rayner Smart was a largely self-taught working man
whose scruffy greatcoat and battered hat marked him out from the generality of
middle-class delegates to the First Chartist Convention of 1839.
William Villiers Sankey came from aristocratic stock. The son of an Irish volunteer and Member of Parliament, he moved among the political elite of his day. Yet he also served as a delegate to the First Chartist Convention of 1839.
Robert Knox must have been one of the youngest delegates to
the First Chartist Convention of 1839. He was just 24 years old when his
profile appeared in The Charter newspaper.
William Lovett was without doubt the Father of the People’s
Charter. He had been a founder member of the London Working Men’s Association,
and of radical bodies before that, and was a natural choice to draft its
political platform.
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 General Convention of the Industrious Classes in 1839 set
an unprecedented challenge to the undemocratic House of Commons, and there was enormous
interest in the delegates elected to it by mass meetings held all over the
country.