#chartist
7/ As Chartist Robert Gammage recalled, for a moment no one knew whether mass discontent might erupt into revolution. But Britain saw only a handful of barricades—nothing like Paris.
January 14, 2026 at 9:17 AM
5/ The Chartist G. W. Reynolds reframed the protest as opposition to all oppressive taxation, linking it to France and hinting openly at revolution. For two days, barricades rose and fighting broke out in London.
January 14, 2026 at 9:17 AM
On Jan 18 Chartists were arrested in Bethnal Green & accused of arming in preparation for revolution.
wp.me/p74yfw-hu
A good account of arrests in Yorkshire: www.chartistancestors.co.uk/chartism-in-...
The Newport Chartist Rising: spartacus-educational.com/CHnewport.htm
Today in London’s radical history: Bethnal Green Chartists in court, for assembling, illegally, armed, 1840.
In 1839-40, the Chartist movement reached its first great peak of strength. Building on decades of agitation for constitutional and political reform, emerging from the ruins of earlier political gr…
wp.me
January 14, 2026 at 8:11 AM
#OnThisDay in London military history, 1840: troops are mobilised in London amidst rumours of an impending Chartist uprising. Chartist insurrectionary plots in northern England had just been busted, following the Newport Rising in South Wales.
January 14, 2026 at 8:11 AM
Oh I so know that feeling when grave-hunting! 😭
Phone GPS can be a bit flaky inside Abney but if you make a return visit, try this pin drop - I saved it when I first found Bronterre
goo.gl/maps/nTF97xi...
The Abney Park grave search folk (contactable via website) are also v helpful.
January 13, 2026 at 6:19 PM
A wonderful read! Alongside my particular interest in the long history of Ireland in London, I volunteer in Abney Park Cemetery & so regularly pass James Bronterre O'Brien's grave.
I love this letter written by Victor Hugo apologising for not being able to attend O'Brien's funeral in Abney Park
January 13, 2026 at 4:23 PM
.. fleeing Scotland due to some persecution like fear of arrest for being Chartist? Maybe he was idealistic to the extent that preaching suited him, but he wasn't ordained?
January 13, 2026 at 3:13 PM
I sense a rabbit hole opening up, thank you! This song text seems about extending adult male suffrage to workers ('Deny no man his right because He wears the fustian coat... To the champions of labour Throw open wide the the door'), which is what had me thinking Chartist originally.
January 13, 2026 at 1:41 PM
It's intended to be! The lyrics were written by William Sankey, based on a Shelley poem, and published in 1840. Sankey was a leader of the Scottish Chartist movement and his works had great influence.

Yours the toil, the sweat and pain,
Theirs the profit, ease and gain

Still has resonance today!
January 13, 2026 at 11:59 AM
Idle question for #historysky types: anyone out there genned up on suffrage street literature of the late 1860s/1870s? There's a song in the Alfred Williams collection I'd thought might be Chartist, but having seen some later Liberal ballad sheets on suffrage now suspect it might date from then.
January 13, 2026 at 10:49 AM
A wonderful writeup here of the many sons & daughters of Chartists named after the Irish radical journalists, political agitators & Chartist leaders Fergus O'Connor (1796?–1855) and James Bronterre O'Brien (1804-1864) ☘️
January 13, 2026 at 8:10 AM
Well, looks like we got ourselves a zugzwang chartist here folks ...
January 12, 2026 at 1:38 PM
atproto is chartist, activitypub is idealist
January 12, 2026 at 5:14 AM
A blatant and shameless advert…
Chartist Lives is just £9.99 in paperback, and you can also get it in hardback or as an ebook. Forty-two life stories for less than a tenner
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
January 11, 2026 at 11:06 AM
I’ve added a new biog to Chartist Ancestors. Hugh Craig had a reputation as a radical in his home town of Kilmarnock and was Ayrshire’s delegate to the First Convention, but he resigned his seat and ended his life a Tory
#C19th #Chartism #BritishPolitics
www.chartistancestors.co.uk/hugh-craig-1...
Hugh Craig, 1795 – 1858 - chartist ancestors
After chairing the opening session of the First Chartist Convention, Hugh Craig found himself at
www.chartistancestors.co.uk
January 11, 2026 at 10:31 AM
Was able to visit the grave of Irish Chartist James Bronterre O'Brien in London during the week. Not the easiest to find so I did up a short guide - conor-mccabe.com/2026/01/11/b...
January 11, 2026 at 9:26 AM
Apparently (via @sslh) there's a new biography of Chartist and
one-time Nottingham MP Feargus O'Connor https://sslh.org.uk/2026/01/08/all-chartists-great-and-small-three-new-books/
All Chartists great and small: three new books
Three new books offer insights into the lives of Chartist activists. Feargus O’Connor: Repealer, Chartist, and icon of Plebian Melodrama, by Huw Griffiths (paperback, 330pp) is a meticulously researched and detailed new biography of the Chartist leader which seeks to appraise the life of ‘the most famous Irishman of his generation to remain all but forgotten and unheralded in his own country’, to deconstruct ‘the inscrutabilities surrounding the life and career of this unusual and influential popular politician’, and to separate him from the bathos, hyperbole and melodrama that surrounded him. It suggests that working-class organisation before O’Connor had been ‘piecemeal, fragmented, suppressed, and short-lived’. He not only overcame these weaknesses, but bequeathed ‘a legacy of confidence’ to future generations. Samuel Holberry – Revolutionary Democrat 1814-1842, by John Baxter and Steven Kay (1889 Books, paperback, 223pp) is divided into three parts. Its first 60 pages tell the story of the Sheffield Chartist’s life and insurrectionary or even revolutionary ambitions, and his arrest, trial and imprisonment. Its second part, of 40 pages, deals with his funeral, political legacy and commemorations of his life into the tentieth century. The third part, of some 120 pages, provides transcripts of primary sources including newspaper reports and letters, many previously unpublished. John Baxter has been active in recovering and reclaiming Holberry’s story since the 1970s, and no-one knows more about him or about Sheffield Chartism. This is a valuable source for future researchers. Chartist Lives: forty-two pen portraits that tell the stories of Chartist leaders and activists, by Mark Crail (paperback, 297pp) takes a broader approach, drawing on the author’s Chartist Ancestors website to provide a series of short biographies. Among the lesser-known Chartists featured are George Black, who went on to play a significant role in the Eureka rising in Australia; the City of London female Chartists whose demands for political rights caused consternation in the emerging Fleet Street press and even within the Chartist ranks; and the Wyatt family, who played a significant part in the capital’s Chartist community and would later contribute to Australia’s municipal politics. * * * ### Discover more from Society for the Study of Labour History Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email… Subscribe ### Share this: * * Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Click to print (Opens in new window) Print *
sslh.org.uk
January 9, 2026 at 6:59 PM
Yes - I used Asa's studies on Chartism (1959) for one my undergraduate essays on it's relevance by the mid 19th C. He argued they missed a trick by not welcoming the middle classes willing for Chartist reform, costing the movement some much needed clout and influence. I found him very readable!
January 9, 2026 at 10:37 AM
All Chartists Great and Small: three recent books offer insights into the lives of local and national Chartist leaders
sslh.org.uk/2026/01/08/a...
January 9, 2026 at 7:39 AM
Astonishingly high number of Chartists went to Australia or America of their own accord, so they’d have been in good company. There are a whole load of land company shareholders in the Chartist Ancestors databank, but largely Manchester, Lancashire, London www.chartistancestors.co.uk/chartist-anc...
Chartist Ancestors Databank - chartist ancestors
Download the Chartist Ancestors Databank listing more than 10,500 Chartists in Excel format and use it in your research project
www.chartistancestors.co.uk
January 8, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Revisited and rewrote this article which I first posted to Chartist Ancestors back in 2004 #Chartism #C19th #BritishHistory
www.chartistancestors.co.uk/chartist-chi...
Chartist children: radical naming practices and a thousand boys and girls called Feargus - chartist ancestors
Chartists often named their children after their Chartist heroes, including Feargus O’Connor, William Lovett, John
www.chartistancestors.co.uk
January 8, 2026 at 11:41 AM
A tradition shaped by:
• The Chartist movement
• Thinkers like R.H. Tawney
• The Labour Party
Christian socialists have always believed faith belongs in public life.
January 7, 2026 at 2:30 PM
This is the story of Glasgow man Allan Pinkerton who was forced to flee Scotland for America due to the British Government's crackdown on the Chartist movement. Pinkerton, a cooper by trade accidentally went on to found the world's most famous detective agency. Release date: January 8th, 2026
January 4, 2026 at 9:10 PM
one thing that might be cool is for a lot of progressives to come together and agree on a kind of neo-chartist platform to amend the US political system. just a list of things that need to happen: expand the court, senate term limits, no EC, etc. it might build momentum for a political movement.
January 4, 2026 at 4:26 PM