Chartist Insurrection at Newport
Just after 9 o’clock on Monday morning 4th November, men from the hills of Gwent, mainly miners and iron workers, entered Newport. They were guided in by Chartists from the town. 5000 strong, they marched in regular order down Stow hill.
Jack Rees of Tredegar, known as the Fifer, was at the front of crowd. So was Williams, an army deserter. Newport men such as Wright Beatty, Charles Waters and John Lovell as well as John Frost were also identified by witnesses. Lovell shouted at bystanders, including the workmen constructing St. Mary’s church, urging them to join the throng.
Armed with picks, pikes and guns, they turned the corner and faced the Westgate inn shouting ‘Give us up the Prisoners’ Unseen from the street, soldiers of the 45th Regiment were only feet away inside the building.
The crowd charged the front door, defended by special constables under the command of the Mayor. Guns were fired. Chartists pushed in to the hallway. Some attackers entered the rear of the hotel through the St. Mary’s building site.
Lieutenant Gray ordered window shutters to be opened and led by Sergeant Daly, the 28 privates filed past the windows, firing their muskets in quick succession. This surprise tactic forced mass retreat. Williams the deserter was struck down by Gray. Jack the Fifer, despite a hand injury, urged a fight back claiming “ we have cut at them and knocked down three or four.” John Frost had already left the scene sobbing in dismay.
A small band of determined fighters returned fire, but soon ran for cover when targeted. Some of the soldiers turned their guns on those inside.
Thomas Watkins, special constable, expressed his shock at “ the groans of the dying – the shrieks of the wounded, the pallid, ghostly countenances and the bloodshot eyes of the dead, in addition to the shattered windows, and passages ankle-deep in gore….”
Fighting lasted about twenty minutes, but the military remained in position for over an hour. As late as 11 o’clock that morning, the authorities still felt insecure about their hold on the town. Large contingents of Pontypool Chartists were assembled below Barrack Hill, near to Malpas Court and along the Malpas Road. But they melted away and the expected second attack never came.
Number of dead uncertain
A correspondent counted 17 dead bodies. Samuel Homfray, ironmaster, reckoned there were 30.
10 bodies were buried in an unmarked grave at St. Woolos churchyard on Thursday night. Their names were not entered in the Burial register.
Edward Dowling, editor of the Merlin, watched as ‘Many who suffered in the fight crawled away; some exhibiting frightful wounds…. Others, desperately maimed, were carried in the arms of the humane for medical aid.’ Many of the wounded died later. Over twenty died that day, the precise number will never be known.
Reporters from the Merlin and the Bristol Mercury believed that six men died at Caerleon and four others, who reached Tredegar.
Light Injuries for Government Forces
Amongst the civilian forces, Mayor Thomas Phillips suffered most with wounds in his right arm and left groin.
Henry Williams (ironmonger) was stabbed, Edward Morgan (draper) received a gunshot wound and John O’Dwyer and several other special constables were trampled underfoot at the front entrance.
The army ignored local gossip that there were other members of the regiment recuperating at the Union Poor House at Stow. Their only official casualty was Sergeant Daly, who collapsed with six slugs in his head.
Thomas Walker, landlord of the Parrot Inn and special constable, who had been out scouting on horseback during the previous night, had suffered a six inch stab wound in his thigh during a confrontation with a group of Chartists near the Welsh Oak at Cefn. He was awarded an annual pension of £20.
Chartist Youth had lingering death
The 45th was acclaimed for saving the life of the mayor, when they shot down George Shell. The nineteen year old carpenter apprentice from Pontypool was said to have attempted to kill the Mayor with his pike. The soldiers fired several times before he lay still. For three hours he lay unattended, until Moses Scard was allowed to give him a sip of water just before he died. Pinned to his coat was a letter addressed to his parents.
Dear Parents,
I hope this will find you as well, as I am myself at present. I shall this night be engaged in a struggle for freedom and should it please God to spare my life, I shall see you soon; but if not, grieve not for me, I shall fall in a noble cause. My tools are at Mr. Cecil’s, and likewise my clothes.
Yours truly, George Shell
Rewards for Wanted Men
John Frost (£100) was arrested during the evening of the 4th whilst eating at the Newport home of Partridge, the printer. On the run for a week, William Jones of Pontypool (£100) was discovered in the woods at Crumlin. Zephaniah Williams (£100) was apprehended on board the ‘Vintage’ bound from Cardiff to Portugal.
The authorities failed to find Jack the Fifer (£100) or David the Tinker (£100), both from Tredegar and thought to have escaped to America. John Barrill (£25) of Pontllanfraith proved elusive. As did two Pillgwenlly stonemasons, Jonathan Palmer (£10) and William Jewel (£10), who had guided the protesters on Malpas Road. Almost a year later, the offer of a reward winkled out Wright Beatty, who had helped lead the way from Rogerstone.
Believing he was a wanted man, Dr. William Price, disguised in women’s clothes, had escaped to Paris. William David, another leader from the Pontypridd area, reached the USA. Both returned within a few years, but neither was charged.
The Treason Trial
Large numbers were taken in for questioning and over fifty were charged with Treason.
This draconian figure was reduced to fourteen cases brought before the Special Assizes at Monmouth Shire Hall on 31st December, with a large number facing lesser charges.
The trial of John Frost lasted eight days and with Frost found guilty by the jury, the trials of Zephaniah Williams and William Jones were swiftly dispatched.
All three, along with the absent Jack the Fifer and David the Tinker, were sentenced to a public hanging and quartering. Willingness to plead guilty, accompanied by behind the scenes bargaining, resulted in drastically reduced punishments for the remaining nine accused traitors. Charles Waters, John Lovell and Jenkin Morgan (Newport), Richard Benfield (Sirhowy) and John Rees (Tredegar) were sentenced to 3 years hard labour and amazingly James Aust (Caerleon), George Turner (Blackwood), Edmund Edmunds (Pontllanfraith) and Solomon Britton (Garndiffaith) were released as the Attorney General did not consider the available evidence sufficient to secure conviction.
Transportation
A campaign against the sentences rapidly developed across Britain.
Fearing this public outcry, the death penalty was commuted by royal clemency to life transportation and in dead of night the ‘Welsh Three’ were moved under military escort to Chepstow and shipped to Portsmouth.
They travelled the four month sailing to Van Diemen’s Land in the convict ship ‘Mandarin’.
Chartism survives
The failure at Newport in 1839 was not the end of Chartist protest. Chartism remained a powerful voice of working class grievances for the next decade. The movement continued in Newport and its organisation was particularly strong in Merthyr 1840-43. National petitions in support of the People’s Charter, as in 1839, gained mass support throughout Britain in 1842 and 1848. Protests and petitions for the release of the ‘Welsh martyrs’ continued into the 1850s, but it was fourteen years before the government deemed it safe to grant pardons.
Williams and Jones stayed on and died in Tasmania. In 1856, Frost rejoined his wife, Mary, in the last year of her life. She had moved to Stapleton, Bristol, where he lived until his death in 1877 aged nearly 93. He lived to see some of the principles of the People’s Charter enacted - a larger number of voters, secret voting and abolition of the property qualification for MPs. The ideas of Chartism lived on in the new political movements of liberalism and socialism, were extended to women as well as men and also became accepted by conservative politicians. Today most the Chartist demands are an essential part of the UK political system.
Honouring the Dead
On Palm Sunday April 12th 1840, flowers and laurels were secretly placed on the unmarked Chartist grave at St. Woolos with these words:
May the Rose of England never blow,
The Clyde of Scotland cease to flow,
The Harp of Ireland never play
Until the Chartists gain the Day.
The Chartist Dead 4th November 1839
At least 20, probably more died
Historians have identified the following:
John Codd
David Davies of Waunhelygen, Brynmawr
- Davies, son of the above
Evan Davies, collier
John Davis of Pontnewynydd, carpenter
William Evans of Tredegar, miner
William Farraday of Blackwood, collier
John Jonathan of Blaina (probably)
William Griffiths of Merthyr
Robert Lansdown
Reece Meredith of Tredegar
David Morgan of Tredegar, tinker
John Morris, miner
George Shell of Pontypool, carpenter
Abraham Thomas of Blaina, collier
Isaac Thomas of Nantyglo
- Williams, a deserter from the 29th Regiment of Foot
William Williams of Cwmtillery
‘William Aberdare’
‘John the Roller’ of Nantyglo
The People’s Charter demanded
1 All men over age of 21 to have the right to vote
2 300 electoral constituencies of equal size
3 Secret voting
4 Abolition of property qualification for MPs
5 Payment of a wage to MPs
6 Annual elections to Parliament
Supporters of the People’s Charter were disappointed that the ‘Great Reform’ Act of 1832 had granted the vote to only 1 in 10 of the adult male population - all owners of considerable property
No constitutional reforms occurred during the time of the Chartist movement 1838-1850
Over the next hundred years, five of the demands in the People’s Charter became law
1856 Property qualification for MPs abolished
1867 1 in 3 men have the vote (2nd Reform Act)
1872 Secret ballot introduced
1884 2 in 3 men have the vote (3rd Reform Act)
1918 All men over 21 and women over 30 have the vote
1928 All men and women over 21 have the vote
1948 Electoral Commission established to determine size of constituencies
1948 One person, one vote - the business vote and university graduate vote were abolished
1969 All men and women over 18 have the vote
Question: should the voting age be lowered to 16?
Climax to an Angry Summer
On no other occasion during the nineteenth or twentieth centuries has the military killed so many civilians in a single confrontation.
Discontents erupted at Newport in November 1839 that had been simmering throughout the south Wales coalfield and its surrounding towns since the Merthyr rising in 1831. Fuelled by a serious economic depression, workers’ grievances had been voiced at many mass meetings. Chartist speakers linked economic exploitation and deprivation with the political demands of the People’s Charter. To counter the all powerful masters, they said workers needed a Parliament that represented their own interests and not the propertied classes. There was great disappointment in June 1839 when Parliament refused to debate the national petition presented with over one and a quarter million signatures in favour of the Charter.
There is no doubt that the 12 month imprisonment imposed in August on Henry Vincent was an error of judgement by the Newport magistrates. Crawshay Bailey and other employers had urged that this ‘outside’ trouble maker from London should be ‘taken out’. Vincent was young, charismatic and eloquent. Audiences warmed to his message about the need to struggle against tyrannical government. His imprisonment for making a seditious speech at Newport only served to confirm his supporters’ belief that they were living in a tyranny. Membership of the Chartist lodges on the coalfield reached over 20,000 by September. Representatives met in secrecy and planned militant action.
The way events unfolded over 3rd/4th November was determined by the conflicting strategies adopted within the Chartist ranks and the willingness of the civil authorities to use military firepower. Frost’s attempt to concentrate on a monster demonstration in favour of the Charter at Newport was at variance with the proponents of direct action who wanted to take control of towns in the region and release Vincent from Monmouth gaol. Although leader, Frost was not really in charge
The Merthyr Chartists refused to leave their town ‘en masse’. Dr. Price did not trust Frost’s leadership and the men of Pontypridd took no part. Zephaniah Williams appears to have reluctantly agreed to ‘give it a turn’ as far as Newport. William Jones, holding forces at Pontypool and along the road to Newport, was rather obviously clinging to the hope that there could be follow on activity elsewhere. At Newport, leadership passed into hands prepared to use force believing as one marcher said that “it was by such means that the people obtained their rights in America and France. “ What the militants hoped to do next, if the army had not mown them down, is speculative. What they most certainly and sincerely believed before the firing started was that with mass mobilisation throughout the land, then the Charter would be the law of the land in a matter of days, or certainly weeks.
It has also become clear that the authorities were much better informed and better organised than they were willing to admit at the time. Both Frost and the militants had misunderstood the willingness of the soldiers to obey orders and fire at the people.
Leslie James
University of Wales, Newport