View Article  The Charter: the voice of London Chartists

The Charter had all the necessary elements to become one of the great success stories of the radical press.

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 »

View Article  Profile: John Skevington - Leicestershire Chartist

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.

The series ends here because this is the point at which The Charter newspaper drew to ...   more »

View Article  Profile: Henry Hetherington – radical publisher

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.

He would later go on ...   more »

View Article  How to search the Northern Star for Chartist ancestors

Having had a little time to play around with the new online version of the Northern Star, I’m delighted to report that most of my early fears were either unfounded or are already being addressed.

The Northern Star was the most important Chartist newspaper of the period, and remains ...   more »

View Article  The Northern Star is now online

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.

Go straight to the ...   more »

View Article  Profile: Peter Bussey - exiled revolutionary

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.

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 »

View Article  Profile: Robert Lowery - Newcastle Chartist

Robert Lowery lived an extraordinarily full political life for a man who died at just 54 years of age.

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 »

View Article  Profile: Thomas Rayner Smart - veteran Chartist patriot

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.

While representing Loughborough and Leicester at the convention, Smart was profiled by The Charter newspaper. Both the profile and ...   more »

MEET THE EDITOR
Hello and welcome to chartists.net news. My name is Mark Crail, and I set up Chartist Ancestors back in 2003. I have been building it up ever since with the help of many very kind individuals who have provided both information and advice. This blog aims to highlight new additions to the site and developments in the wider world of Chartist studies. I hope you find it and the main site both informative and enjoyable.

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