Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Chartist Tiverton
The Chartists were a radical group of self-organised workers and artisans in 19th Century Britain, who put forward a 'peoples charter' to change the Country. You can look up more information about them generally on the web.
In Tiverton the Chartist movement was very strong, it grew on the back of the movements that went before it in the Town and the strong tradition of working class self-organisation which had started with the non-conformists, as well as the woolcombers and the weavers.
At the height of the movement in the 1840's, the Chartists stood a Parliamentary Candidate in Tiverton against Palmerston, the well know Chartist leader George Julian Harney.
Tiverton's leading Chartist at that time was one William Rowcliffe, who was a Butcher and nominated Harney as Parliamentary Candidate. Other Chartists mentioned by name in various publications are:
Mr Burgess - Shoemaker, seconder of Harney in the Poll.
Mr Norman - Draper, Put Harney up at his house in Fore Street, Harney spoke from his window.
Henry Land - Employee of Heathcoat's, Prospect Place, was a representative of O'Connor's 'Land Company'
T M Wheeler - Delegate from Exeter & Tiverton to 1851 Chartist Convention in London.
Mr Wilkinson - Ex-Mayor of Exeter – who spoke in support of Harney during his campaign in Tiverton.
I would be very interested to hear from anyone with any connections to any of these individuals, or who has any information about any of them.
In Tiverton the Chartist movement was very strong, it grew on the back of the movements that went before it in the Town and the strong tradition of working class self-organisation which had started with the non-conformists, as well as the woolcombers and the weavers.
At the height of the movement in the 1840's, the Chartists stood a Parliamentary Candidate in Tiverton against Palmerston, the well know Chartist leader George Julian Harney.
Tiverton's leading Chartist at that time was one William Rowcliffe, who was a Butcher and nominated Harney as Parliamentary Candidate. Other Chartists mentioned by name in various publications are:
Mr Burgess - Shoemaker, seconder of Harney in the Poll.
Mr Norman - Draper, Put Harney up at his house in Fore Street, Harney spoke from his window.
Henry Land - Employee of Heathcoat's, Prospect Place, was a representative of O'Connor's 'Land Company'
T M Wheeler - Delegate from Exeter & Tiverton to 1851 Chartist Convention in London.
Mr Wilkinson - Ex-Mayor of Exeter – who spoke in support of Harney during his campaign in Tiverton.
I would be very interested to hear from anyone with any connections to any of these individuals, or who has any information about any of them.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Radical Tiverton
That's right - I said Radical!
On this site I will post interesting bits of Tiverton's History which I am developing into a Book. Hopefully others will also contribute, and help with my research. I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone with family connections to individuals I name from Tiverton's Radical History. If they have any passed down knowledge, tales, or documentary / Photographic material, I would love to hear or see it.
This all stems from an article I stumbled across by Friedrich Engels (Who wrote, along with Karl Marx, the Communist Manifesto) from the Socialist publication 'La Reforme' October 26, 1847:
"It will be recalled that at the last elections Mr. Harney, editor-in-chief of The Northern Star, was put forward as the Chartist candidate for Tiverton, a borough which is represented in Parliament by Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary. Mr. Harney, who won on the show of hands, decided to retire when Lord Palmerston demanded a poll. Now something has happened which shows how the feelings of the inhabitants of Tiverton differ from those of the small number of parliamentary electors. There was a vacancy to fill on the borough council; the municipal electors, a far more numerous class than that of the parliamentary electors, gave the vacant seat to Mr. Rowcliffe, the person who had proposed Mr. Harney at the elections.
On this site I will post interesting bits of Tiverton's History which I am developing into a Book. Hopefully others will also contribute, and help with my research. I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone with family connections to individuals I name from Tiverton's Radical History. If they have any passed down knowledge, tales, or documentary / Photographic material, I would love to hear or see it.
This all stems from an article I stumbled across by Friedrich Engels (Who wrote, along with Karl Marx, the Communist Manifesto) from the Socialist publication 'La Reforme' October 26, 1847:
"It will be recalled that at the last elections Mr. Harney, editor-in-chief of The Northern Star, was put forward as the Chartist candidate for Tiverton, a borough which is represented in Parliament by Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary. Mr. Harney, who won on the show of hands, decided to retire when Lord Palmerston demanded a poll. Now something has happened which shows how the feelings of the inhabitants of Tiverton differ from those of the small number of parliamentary electors. There was a vacancy to fill on the borough council; the municipal electors, a far more numerous class than that of the parliamentary electors, gave the vacant seat to Mr. Rowcliffe, the person who had proposed Mr. Harney at the elections.
