ABBREVIATIONS, DEFINITIONS & TIMELINE
Abbreviations
BPU Birmingham Political Union
CSU Complete Suffrage Union
LPRA Leeds Parliamentary Reform Association
LWMA London Working Men's Association
MC Member of the Convention. These letters were placed after the name of the delegates who attended the General Convention of the Industrious Classes in 1839.
NCA National Charter Association
UK United Kingdom
Definitions
Chartism - As defined in the Chartist Movement by Mark Hovell MA
"The Chartist Movement, which occupied so large a space in English public affairs during the ten years 1838 to 1848, was a movement whose immediate object was political reform and whose ultimate purpose was social regeneration. Its programme of political reform was laid down in the document known as the People's Charter, issued in the spring of 1838."
"The Chartist Movement, which occupied so large a space in English public affairs during the ten years 1838 to 1848, was a movement whose immediate object was political reform and whose ultimate purpose was social regeneration. Its programme of political reform was laid down in the document known as the People's Charter, issued in the spring of 1838."
Chartists - As defined in the Decline of the Chartist Movement by Preston William Slossom Phd.
"The Chartists, unlike the Radicals, must be reckoned not only a separate political group but a separate political party. They stood quite independent of the Whig and Tory organizations and maintained party machinery of their own. The general policies and tactics of the party were determined at conventions of delegates chosen by local Chartist associations and their execution was left to a permanent executive committee and to paid lecturers and propagandist agents. The organization was the product of a merger between the London Working Men's Association, led by William Lovett and Henry Vincent; the Birmingham Political Union, including Thomas Attwood and John Collins; and the political unions organized by Fergus O'Connor."
"The Chartists, unlike the Radicals, must be reckoned not only a separate political group but a separate political party. They stood quite independent of the Whig and Tory organizations and maintained party machinery of their own. The general policies and tactics of the party were determined at conventions of delegates chosen by local Chartist associations and their execution was left to a permanent executive committee and to paid lecturers and propagandist agents. The organization was the product of a merger between the London Working Men's Association, led by William Lovett and Henry Vincent; the Birmingham Political Union, including Thomas Attwood and John Collins; and the political unions organized by Fergus O'Connor."
First Mention of Chartists & Chartism
The term evolved from publication of the People's Charter which was announced in various newspapers in early 1838. According to Fergus O'Connor, The Morning Chronicle first used the term Chartists. However, the Morning Chronicle, in writing about foreign affairs, was actually referring to the Portuguese Chartists. |
Houses of Parliament
The House of Commons is the lower house in Parliament in the United Kingdom. The upper house is known as the House of Lords. The two houses meet in the Palace of Westminster which lies on the banks of the River Thames in London. The UK Parliament is sometimes referred to as "Westminster."
The House of Commons is the lower house in Parliament in the United Kingdom. The upper house is known as the House of Lords. The two houses meet in the Palace of Westminster which lies on the banks of the River Thames in London. The UK Parliament is sometimes referred to as "Westminster."
The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom - or UK - is a combination of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. (Great Britain consists England, Scotland and Wales.)
The United Kingdom - or UK - is a combination of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. (Great Britain consists England, Scotland and Wales.)
Timeline of John Collins & the Chartist Era
1802
- John Collins born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.
1830
- Jan 25th: Formation of the Birmingham Political Union by vote at Beardsworth's Horse & Carriage Repository in Birmingham. Beardsworth was the largest sales venue for horses and carriages in England.
- John Collins born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.
1830
- Jan 25th: Formation of the Birmingham Political Union by vote at Beardsworth's Horse & Carriage Repository in Birmingham. Beardsworth was the largest sales venue for horses and carriages in England.
1831
- The Reform Bill is carried in the House of Commons by a single vote. 1832 - The 1832 Reform Bill received royal assent. Known as The Great Reform Act it extended the franchise to the middle class. Thomas Attwood, Member of Parliament for Birmingham, claimed responsibility for its success. However, the working class (who he represented) was no nearer to getting the vote. |
1834
- June 3rd: Birmingham Political Union officially closed its doors.
- Aug 14th: Poor Law Amendment Act. The middle and upper classes resented their taxes being spent on a service for the poor and sick working class. So the government passed a law making making it harder for people in need to obtain help by forcing them to live and work in the workhouse. Many were opposed to the Act, especially the infamous clause that required the separation of a man and his wife. The working class looked on it as a form of imprisonment and punishment for being poor.
- Lord Melbourne becomes Britain's prime minister at the head of the Whig administration following the resignation of Earl Grey.
- The Tories in Britain adopt the name "Conservatives."
- Oct 7th: Birmingham Town Hall opened. Architect T Hansom (of hansom cab fame).
1836
- June 16th: Formation of the London Working Men’s Association [Life & Struggles by William Lovett] by Henry Hetherington, James Watson, William Lovett and other radicals.
- June 19th: Birmingham Political Union revived at a public meeting on Newhall Hill.
1837
- June 17th: Tuesday meeting of the newly revived Birmingham Political Union (BPU) recorded 8,425 members. The BPU council decided on a new program of parliamentary reform including five points: household suffrage, vote by ballot, payment of members of parliament, abolition of property qualifications in order to stand for parliament, and shorter (triennial) parliaments.
- June 19th: Birmingham Political Union holds a great public meeting on Newhall Hill. The text of a proposed Petition containing the five points was read, and resolutions were passed agreeing that the Union should petition the government for political reform [Birmingham Journal 24 June 1837].
- July 4th: John Collins first working class man formally elected to the council of the newly revived Birmingham Political Union.
- Nov 18th: Feargus O'Connor launches the Northern Star & Leeds General [Fight for the Charter, Stewart and The Chartist Movement in its Social & Economic Aspect, Rosenblatt]. A huge success with the working class, the newspaper became the mouthpiece for its radical owner.
- December: A committee of the London Men's Working Association appointed to work on a bill to be entitled The People's Charter had yet to meet. Following a drop in membership of the Birmingham Political Union, the union council come out in favour of Universal Suffrage (instead of Household Suffrage) and famously advertise the men of Birmingham were ready to lead or follow.
- June 3rd: Birmingham Political Union officially closed its doors.
- Aug 14th: Poor Law Amendment Act. The middle and upper classes resented their taxes being spent on a service for the poor and sick working class. So the government passed a law making making it harder for people in need to obtain help by forcing them to live and work in the workhouse. Many were opposed to the Act, especially the infamous clause that required the separation of a man and his wife. The working class looked on it as a form of imprisonment and punishment for being poor.
- Lord Melbourne becomes Britain's prime minister at the head of the Whig administration following the resignation of Earl Grey.
- The Tories in Britain adopt the name "Conservatives."
- Oct 7th: Birmingham Town Hall opened. Architect T Hansom (of hansom cab fame).
1836
- June 16th: Formation of the London Working Men’s Association [Life & Struggles by William Lovett] by Henry Hetherington, James Watson, William Lovett and other radicals.
- June 19th: Birmingham Political Union revived at a public meeting on Newhall Hill.
1837
- June 17th: Tuesday meeting of the newly revived Birmingham Political Union (BPU) recorded 8,425 members. The BPU council decided on a new program of parliamentary reform including five points: household suffrage, vote by ballot, payment of members of parliament, abolition of property qualifications in order to stand for parliament, and shorter (triennial) parliaments.
- June 19th: Birmingham Political Union holds a great public meeting on Newhall Hill. The text of a proposed Petition containing the five points was read, and resolutions were passed agreeing that the Union should petition the government for political reform [Birmingham Journal 24 June 1837].
- July 4th: John Collins first working class man formally elected to the council of the newly revived Birmingham Political Union.
- Nov 18th: Feargus O'Connor launches the Northern Star & Leeds General [Fight for the Charter, Stewart and The Chartist Movement in its Social & Economic Aspect, Rosenblatt]. A huge success with the working class, the newspaper became the mouthpiece for its radical owner.
- December: A committee of the London Men's Working Association appointed to work on a bill to be entitled The People's Charter had yet to meet. Following a drop in membership of the Birmingham Political Union, the union council come out in favour of Universal Suffrage (instead of Household Suffrage) and famously advertise the men of Birmingham were ready to lead or follow.
1838
- Feb: The BPU devises an entirely new plan of agitation in support of their petition, starting in Scotland and "rolling forward in a great moral avalanche ...." Talk of a missionary to accomplish this appears in the press (Birmingham Journal, Feb 24 1838).
- March: John Collins takes on the BPU's missionary task and begins a lengthy and exhausting tour of agitation in Scotland and the North [Chartist Movement, Hovell]. Sometimes speaking at three meetings a day, he visits numerous towns and villages, traveling hundreds of miles, promoting universal suffrage in a document now referred to as a National Petition.
- March: The LMWA'S People's Charter remained unfinished [Birmingham Political Union, Flick].
- 24th April: Collins won the support of major Scottish unionists, and brought about a trades conference at Glasgow which resolved in a call for a monster meeting on Glasgow Green on 21st May.
May 1 - 8th: The BPU council drafted and completed the National Petition, presented it at a public meeting of the BPU and prepared to take it to Scotland. Collins responsible for the change from triennial to annual parliaments in the Petition. A printed copy was sent to the London Working Men's Association (LWMA).
May 1 - 15th: An outline of The People's Charter drawn up by principal authors William Lovett and Francis Place was adopted by the LWMA. However, they delayed its printing and publishing, and it was consequently upstaged by the BPU's National Petition. The LWMA hurriedly obtained a proof of their document so that they could "secure an equal hearing" for The Charter alongside the National Petition at the Great Glasgow Demonstration a week later.
- 15th May: Collins addresses an outdoor meeting on Calton Hill, Edinburgh. 3,000 in attendance and a resolution was agreed against the use of physical force to obtain changes in the social and political condition of the people.
- May 21st: The Great Glasgow Demonstration held at Glasgow Green, Scotland. Attended by estimated 150,000 it was the first large scale demonstration leading into the Chartist Movement. This was initiated by the John Collins' tour of agitation in Scotland. The National Petition was the main thrust, and the People's Charter came last.
- May 22nd: Grand Renfrewshire Meeting held on the grounds of a private estate at Eldeslie. 20,000 present to hear John Collins, Thomas Attwood and George Edmonds from Birmingham.
- June 2nd: Collins attends a meeting at Newcastle in Northumberland drumming up support for a mass meeting on Town Moor scheduled for 28th June.
- June 4th: Collins speaks at a meeting in Sunderland. [Birmingham Journal, 16 June 1838].
- June 5th: Meeting on Hunslet Moor, Leeds. Official formation of the northern unions into one Great Northern Union (GNU) at a meeting led by Fergus O'Connor. John Collins was one of the invited main speakers. The GNU formed the day after a banquet on 4th June in Manchester [The Chartist Movement, Flick].
- June 9th: John Collins addresses another great outdoor meeting at Saddleworth Moor in the (then) West Riding of Yorkshire.
- June 14th: Collins speaks at Elland.
- June 26th: Collins returns from his Scottish missionary tour to Birmingham, clearly fatigued and had not seen his family in many weeks.
- June 28th: Queen Victoria's Coronation Day. Mass meeting on Town Moor, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Reported 70,000 attended.
- Aug 6th: Chartist Meeting at Holloway Head, Birmingham. Known as the Great Midland Demonstration and coined the "Birth of the Chartist Movement" by Mark Hovell. Meeting attended by a reported 250,000. John Collins one of the speakers. Important resolutions are adopted: (1) National Petition in favour of the People's Charter, (2) General Convention of the Industrious Classes for the purpose of organizing and presenting the Petition to Parliament, and (3) National Rent to help fund the Convention and its Delegates.
- Aug: John Collins attends meeting in Hanley, Staffordshire resulting in the formation of the Potteries Political Union.
- Sept 18th: Anti-Corn Law League established to repeal the Corn Law.
- Sept 24th: Chartist meeting at Kersal Moor, Manchester. A claimed 250,000 people present. John Collins and Fergus O'Connor among the speakers.
- Sept 25th: Meeting at Liverpool. Collins, O'Connor and other Chartist leaders in attendance.
- Oct 15th: Mass meeting at Hartshead Moor, Leeds. Later known as Peep Green. John Collins and John Fielden MP call for peaceful means to obtain reform.
- Oct 31st: Charter of Incorporation granted to the Borough of Birmingham.
- Dec 26th: Under that Charter of Incorporation, Town Councillors are elected in Birmingham.
- Dec 27th: John Collins attends a meetings in Cheltenham. [Cheltenham Chronicle, 27 Dec 1838.]
- Dec: John Collins chairman of the BPU Managing Committee for collecting National Rent for union activities including the General Convention in London the following year.
- Dec 28: Collins attends a grand demonstration in Bristol.
- Feb: The BPU devises an entirely new plan of agitation in support of their petition, starting in Scotland and "rolling forward in a great moral avalanche ...." Talk of a missionary to accomplish this appears in the press (Birmingham Journal, Feb 24 1838).
- March: John Collins takes on the BPU's missionary task and begins a lengthy and exhausting tour of agitation in Scotland and the North [Chartist Movement, Hovell]. Sometimes speaking at three meetings a day, he visits numerous towns and villages, traveling hundreds of miles, promoting universal suffrage in a document now referred to as a National Petition.
- March: The LMWA'S People's Charter remained unfinished [Birmingham Political Union, Flick].
- 24th April: Collins won the support of major Scottish unionists, and brought about a trades conference at Glasgow which resolved in a call for a monster meeting on Glasgow Green on 21st May.
May 1 - 8th: The BPU council drafted and completed the National Petition, presented it at a public meeting of the BPU and prepared to take it to Scotland. Collins responsible for the change from triennial to annual parliaments in the Petition. A printed copy was sent to the London Working Men's Association (LWMA).
May 1 - 15th: An outline of The People's Charter drawn up by principal authors William Lovett and Francis Place was adopted by the LWMA. However, they delayed its printing and publishing, and it was consequently upstaged by the BPU's National Petition. The LWMA hurriedly obtained a proof of their document so that they could "secure an equal hearing" for The Charter alongside the National Petition at the Great Glasgow Demonstration a week later.
- 15th May: Collins addresses an outdoor meeting on Calton Hill, Edinburgh. 3,000 in attendance and a resolution was agreed against the use of physical force to obtain changes in the social and political condition of the people.
- May 21st: The Great Glasgow Demonstration held at Glasgow Green, Scotland. Attended by estimated 150,000 it was the first large scale demonstration leading into the Chartist Movement. This was initiated by the John Collins' tour of agitation in Scotland. The National Petition was the main thrust, and the People's Charter came last.
- May 22nd: Grand Renfrewshire Meeting held on the grounds of a private estate at Eldeslie. 20,000 present to hear John Collins, Thomas Attwood and George Edmonds from Birmingham.
- June 2nd: Collins attends a meeting at Newcastle in Northumberland drumming up support for a mass meeting on Town Moor scheduled for 28th June.
- June 4th: Collins speaks at a meeting in Sunderland. [Birmingham Journal, 16 June 1838].
- June 5th: Meeting on Hunslet Moor, Leeds. Official formation of the northern unions into one Great Northern Union (GNU) at a meeting led by Fergus O'Connor. John Collins was one of the invited main speakers. The GNU formed the day after a banquet on 4th June in Manchester [The Chartist Movement, Flick].
- June 9th: John Collins addresses another great outdoor meeting at Saddleworth Moor in the (then) West Riding of Yorkshire.
- June 14th: Collins speaks at Elland.
- June 26th: Collins returns from his Scottish missionary tour to Birmingham, clearly fatigued and had not seen his family in many weeks.
- June 28th: Queen Victoria's Coronation Day. Mass meeting on Town Moor, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Reported 70,000 attended.
- Aug 6th: Chartist Meeting at Holloway Head, Birmingham. Known as the Great Midland Demonstration and coined the "Birth of the Chartist Movement" by Mark Hovell. Meeting attended by a reported 250,000. John Collins one of the speakers. Important resolutions are adopted: (1) National Petition in favour of the People's Charter, (2) General Convention of the Industrious Classes for the purpose of organizing and presenting the Petition to Parliament, and (3) National Rent to help fund the Convention and its Delegates.
- Aug: John Collins attends meeting in Hanley, Staffordshire resulting in the formation of the Potteries Political Union.
- Sept 18th: Anti-Corn Law League established to repeal the Corn Law.
- Sept 24th: Chartist meeting at Kersal Moor, Manchester. A claimed 250,000 people present. John Collins and Fergus O'Connor among the speakers.
- Sept 25th: Meeting at Liverpool. Collins, O'Connor and other Chartist leaders in attendance.
- Oct 15th: Mass meeting at Hartshead Moor, Leeds. Later known as Peep Green. John Collins and John Fielden MP call for peaceful means to obtain reform.
- Oct 31st: Charter of Incorporation granted to the Borough of Birmingham.
- Dec 26th: Under that Charter of Incorporation, Town Councillors are elected in Birmingham.
- Dec 27th: John Collins attends a meetings in Cheltenham. [Cheltenham Chronicle, 27 Dec 1838.]
- Dec: John Collins chairman of the BPU Managing Committee for collecting National Rent for union activities including the General Convention in London the following year.
- Dec 28: Collins attends a grand demonstration in Bristol.
1839
- Jan 24th: Collins elected delegate to represent Cheltenham at the London Convention.
- Feb 4th: The first Chartist Convention (National Convention of the Industrious Classes) begins in London, the purpose of which was to manage the National Petition calling for universal suffrage and other reforms. Delegates attending were elected at mass meetings the previous year.
- Feb 28th: Letter signed by William Lovett, appointing John Collins "Missionary" to explain the principles of the People's Charter to the people, to obtain signatures for the National Petition, and to collect National Rent to fund the cause.
- March: Collins tours Oxfordshire, including a meeting on 9th March in Oxford. He later tells how people are afraid to attend public meetings.
- March: The National Convention formally charges John Collins with authority to receive signature sheets for the first National Petition from all parts of Great Britain [Birmingham Journal March 9th 1839].
- May 3rd - The Whig government, alarmed by reformers' talk of "ulterior measures" if the National Petition failed, together with references to bear arms, issued a proclamation that prohibited Chartist assemblies. [Some Working Class Movements of the 19th Century, R Wearmouth]. This made it easier for the Birmingham magistrates to ban public gatherings in the Bull Ring*.
- May 7th: The first National Petition of more than 1,280,000 names was delivered to Thomas Attwood MP for presentation to the Parliament.
- May 8th: *Bowing to complaints from the local shopocracy, the Birmingham magistrates issued a proclamation forbidding public assembly in the Bull Ring, which was the traditional meeting place for its working class citizens.
- May 13th: The National Convention decamps from London to Birmingham.
- May 13th: Two notorious Birmingham orators Edward Brown and John Fussell who had been stirring up trouble with their inflammatory talk were arrested and taken to Moore Street prison [Bham Jrnl May 17th 1839].
- May 17 to July 1st: National Convention of the Industrious Classs adjourns so that John Collins and select delegates can attend simultaneous, countrywide meetings.
- June 10th: Collins attends meeting in Glasgow along with other delegates from the National Convention of the Industrious Classes.
- June 11th to 19th: Collins continues to tour Scotland including Stirling on 11th; Alcoa and Dunfermline on 12th; Kirkaldy and Cupar 13th; Dundee and Perth (incl a female union) 14th; Montrose and Forfar 15th; Aberdeen 17th; and Edinburgh 19th.
- June 14th: Thomas Attwood presented the National Petition to Parliament.
- June 28th & 29th: Collins at Skipton and Bradford in Yorkshire, England. [Northern Star 6 Jul 1839]
- July 4th: First Bull Ring Riot in Birmingham. Police brought in from London attack the crowd causing a riot.
- July 5th: Collins chairs a Convention Meeting at which Resolutions are approved condemning police action the day before on the people in the Bull Ring. Collins takes the Resolutions (signed by William Lovett, secretary) to the printers, and arranges for copies to be posted throughout the town. Collins and Lovett are arrested and arraigned at Moor Street Public Offices, Birmingham. Their arrest heralded a government clampdown in which several leading Chartists were arrested.
- July 12th: Whilst Collins is held in prison, the National Petition (previously introduced to the House a month before) came up for debate in the House of Commons. Thomas Attwood made a motion that the content of the Petition be considered in a Committee of the whole House. It was rejected by 235 votes to 46.
- July 15th: Collins and Lovett released on bail (£1,000 each) ten days after their arrest.
- July 15th: Second Bull Ring Riot. Brought about by a crowd awaiting Collins and Lovett on the Warwick Road. The two men slipped into the town via another route, and the crowd headed back into Birmingham and another night of rioting ensued.
- Aug 6th & 7th: Collins and Lovett go on trial for seditious libel. Three days later both sentenced to one year in Warwick Gaol. (From Lovett : Our trials were speedily followed by those of McDouall, Brown, O'Brien, Richardson, Penning, Richards, O'Connor, Crabtree, Frost, Carrier and Neesom, all members of the Convention, and by a host of others in different parts of the kingdom; the political prisoners incarcerated in the prisons of England and Wales in the years 1839 and 1840 being 443, besides many others subsequently.)
- July 18th: Collin and Lovett petition the Home Secretary regarding their having been treated with great indignity and excessively severe discipline whilst held in Warwick Gaol pending bail and prior to any conviction.
- July & August: National Convention proposed a "Sacred Month" (a general strike). A month later they call it off.
- Aug 20: Collins and Lovett again petition the Home Secretary, regarding their harsh treatment and bad food, and ask to be transferred from the felons' side to the debtors' side of prison, where they would be allowed to purchase their own food, have free use of books, pens, ink, and paper, and to see their friends. (It would be six months before any improved treatment occurs)
- Nov 4th: Newport Uprising in Newport, Monmouthshire, South Wales. Chartist John Frost leads thousands of marchers in an armed insurrection against the government and the imprisonment of chartist Henry Vincent. Soldiers holed up in the Westgate Hotel fire on the marchers killing 22 and seriously wounding 50.
- Jan 24th: Collins elected delegate to represent Cheltenham at the London Convention.
- Feb 4th: The first Chartist Convention (National Convention of the Industrious Classes) begins in London, the purpose of which was to manage the National Petition calling for universal suffrage and other reforms. Delegates attending were elected at mass meetings the previous year.
- Feb 28th: Letter signed by William Lovett, appointing John Collins "Missionary" to explain the principles of the People's Charter to the people, to obtain signatures for the National Petition, and to collect National Rent to fund the cause.
- March: Collins tours Oxfordshire, including a meeting on 9th March in Oxford. He later tells how people are afraid to attend public meetings.
- March: The National Convention formally charges John Collins with authority to receive signature sheets for the first National Petition from all parts of Great Britain [Birmingham Journal March 9th 1839].
- May 3rd - The Whig government, alarmed by reformers' talk of "ulterior measures" if the National Petition failed, together with references to bear arms, issued a proclamation that prohibited Chartist assemblies. [Some Working Class Movements of the 19th Century, R Wearmouth]. This made it easier for the Birmingham magistrates to ban public gatherings in the Bull Ring*.
- May 7th: The first National Petition of more than 1,280,000 names was delivered to Thomas Attwood MP for presentation to the Parliament.
- May 8th: *Bowing to complaints from the local shopocracy, the Birmingham magistrates issued a proclamation forbidding public assembly in the Bull Ring, which was the traditional meeting place for its working class citizens.
- May 13th: The National Convention decamps from London to Birmingham.
- May 13th: Two notorious Birmingham orators Edward Brown and John Fussell who had been stirring up trouble with their inflammatory talk were arrested and taken to Moore Street prison [Bham Jrnl May 17th 1839].
- May 17 to July 1st: National Convention of the Industrious Classs adjourns so that John Collins and select delegates can attend simultaneous, countrywide meetings.
- June 10th: Collins attends meeting in Glasgow along with other delegates from the National Convention of the Industrious Classes.
- June 11th to 19th: Collins continues to tour Scotland including Stirling on 11th; Alcoa and Dunfermline on 12th; Kirkaldy and Cupar 13th; Dundee and Perth (incl a female union) 14th; Montrose and Forfar 15th; Aberdeen 17th; and Edinburgh 19th.
- June 14th: Thomas Attwood presented the National Petition to Parliament.
- June 28th & 29th: Collins at Skipton and Bradford in Yorkshire, England. [Northern Star 6 Jul 1839]
- July 4th: First Bull Ring Riot in Birmingham. Police brought in from London attack the crowd causing a riot.
- July 5th: Collins chairs a Convention Meeting at which Resolutions are approved condemning police action the day before on the people in the Bull Ring. Collins takes the Resolutions (signed by William Lovett, secretary) to the printers, and arranges for copies to be posted throughout the town. Collins and Lovett are arrested and arraigned at Moor Street Public Offices, Birmingham. Their arrest heralded a government clampdown in which several leading Chartists were arrested.
- July 12th: Whilst Collins is held in prison, the National Petition (previously introduced to the House a month before) came up for debate in the House of Commons. Thomas Attwood made a motion that the content of the Petition be considered in a Committee of the whole House. It was rejected by 235 votes to 46.
- July 15th: Collins and Lovett released on bail (£1,000 each) ten days after their arrest.
- July 15th: Second Bull Ring Riot. Brought about by a crowd awaiting Collins and Lovett on the Warwick Road. The two men slipped into the town via another route, and the crowd headed back into Birmingham and another night of rioting ensued.
- Aug 6th & 7th: Collins and Lovett go on trial for seditious libel. Three days later both sentenced to one year in Warwick Gaol. (From Lovett : Our trials were speedily followed by those of McDouall, Brown, O'Brien, Richardson, Penning, Richards, O'Connor, Crabtree, Frost, Carrier and Neesom, all members of the Convention, and by a host of others in different parts of the kingdom; the political prisoners incarcerated in the prisons of England and Wales in the years 1839 and 1840 being 443, besides many others subsequently.)
- July 18th: Collin and Lovett petition the Home Secretary regarding their having been treated with great indignity and excessively severe discipline whilst held in Warwick Gaol pending bail and prior to any conviction.
- July & August: National Convention proposed a "Sacred Month" (a general strike). A month later they call it off.
- Aug 20: Collins and Lovett again petition the Home Secretary, regarding their harsh treatment and bad food, and ask to be transferred from the felons' side to the debtors' side of prison, where they would be allowed to purchase their own food, have free use of books, pens, ink, and paper, and to see their friends. (It would be six months before any improved treatment occurs)
- Nov 4th: Newport Uprising in Newport, Monmouthshire, South Wales. Chartist John Frost leads thousands of marchers in an armed insurrection against the government and the imprisonment of chartist Henry Vincent. Soldiers holed up in the Westgate Hotel fire on the marchers killing 22 and seriously wounding 50.
1840
- Jan 1st - Feb 1st: John Frost and two other leaders of the Newport Uprising tried for High Treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn (on a hurdle) and quartered. After a public outcry their death sentences are commuted to transportation.
- February: Collins and Lovett now 6 months into their prison sentence. Magistrates in charge of Warwick Gaol ordered solid meat be added to Collins' and Lovett's prison diet. The men were also allowed writing materials and began writing their famous booklet "Chartism: A New Organisation of the People." The book advocated self-improvement for the working class.
- Feb 4th: Parliament ordered copies of Memorials and Correspondence received, relating to John Collins' and William Lovett's confinement in Warwick Gaol, to be printed in a sixteen page government document.
- May 5th: Three months later, and with just two months remaining of their 12 month prison sentence, the Government offered Collins and Lovett early remission if they promised to keep the peace. In a letter to the Secretary of State, the prisoners turned it down, since they likened remission to an admission of past guilt.
- May 11th: Feargus O’Connor tried and imprisoned for 18 months for publishing seditious libels. Unlike Collins and Lovett, O'Connor lived in comparative luxury being allowed his own furniture in his cell.
- July 20th: Formation of the National Charter Association at a Manchester conference.
- July 25th: John Collins and William Lovett released from Warwick Gaol after serving out their twelve month sentence.
- July 27th: John Collins is welcomed into Birmingham. A massive procession two miles long accompanies him along the Warwick Road. Thousands line the streets into Birmingham. Followed by a dinner for 800.
- Aug 3rd: Collins and Lovett honored at a dinner at the White Conduit House in London, attended by over 1,250 guests including Members of Parliament Thomas Wakley and Thomas Duncombe.
- Aug 10th: Public meeting at Holloway Head. Charles Attwood (brother of Thomas Attwood) called for a new movement to agitate for the impeachment of the Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston on grounds of treason. Influential Chartists, with John Collins at the head of them, attended in opposition. The meeting ended with a resolution to agitate for nothing but universal suffrage.
- Aug 15th: Revival of Chartism in the North. John Collins and Peter McDouall attend massive procession and meeting at Carpenters Hall in Manchester (Manchester is the site of the infamous Peterloo Massacre).
- Aug 17th: Collins and McDouall attend a dinner for 500 at the Hall of Science in Manchester.
- Aug 18th: Collins and McDouall receive a triumphant entry into Rochdale. Thousands cheer them through the town, followed by dinner for 300 in the Assembly Room. An evening meeting in The Theatre is crammed full, with boxes almost entirely occupied by well-dressed females.
- Sept: Collins receives a hero's welcome at Leeds, Yorkshire and dozens of other places.
- Sept 19th: Lovett & Collins' book "Chartism - A New Organisation of the People " is published, and sells for one shilling.
- Sept: A Christian Chartist Church opened in London.
- Oct & Nov: Collins visits numerous towns in Scotland.
- Dec 18th: Northern Star issues large portraits of leading Chartists including one of John Collins, but excludes William Lovett.
- Dec 27th: Collins' Christian Chartist Church opened at 32 Newhall Street, Birmingham. Arthur O'Neill and John Collins pastors. This was the most famous of the Chartist Churches in England.
1841
- Collins and O'Neill lecture on Chartism in towns surrounding Birmingham.
- Joseph Sturge forms the Complete Suffrage Union
- Jan 4: Chartist meeting at Holloway Head, Birmingham, John Collins in the chair, agreed to petition for the pardon of the Newport chartist prisioner John Frost and others.
- Jan: John Collins is Birmingham delegate at the Leeds (Parliamentary) Reform Association Meeting. Meeting at Holbeck Moor and 8,000 in attendance at Marshall's Mill.
- Feb: William Lovett with John Collins and Henry Vincent form the National Association of the United Kingdom based on the objectives in Lovett and Collins' "Chartism" book. Also called The New Move and Education Chartism, the organization came in for much criticism from The Northern Star and its owner O'Connor.
- Mar 27: Collins, O'Neill and the Deacons of the Chartist Church in Birmingham petition Parliament for the release of Chartist prisoner Henry Hetherington.
- Apr 11th: Foundation stone laid for the People's Hall on Loveday Street, Birmingham. John Collins one of the speakers.
- May: Thomas Duncombe MP presents a petition over a million signatures to Parliament seeking a pardon for the Newport prisoners.
- May: Chartist Convention held in London for the purpose of trying Chartism's second National Petition. Delegates canvass Members of Parliament for their support. John Collins delegate for Birmingham.
- July 24th: Meeting of the Corn Law Association in Birmingham, Collins and O'Neill refuse to join the National Charter Association on a question of its legality.
- Aug: Conservatives win the General Election. Robert Peel became prime minister.
1842
- Collins supports the repeal of the Corn Laws.
- Collins lectures in England and Scotland in support of complete suffrage through peaceful means.
- The Scottish Chartists refuse to endorse the second National Petition.
- April 5th: First Birmingham Conference of the newly formed Complete Suffrage Union led by Rev Joseph Sturge. Consisting mainly middle class radicals, it was attended by working class Chartists John Collins and William Lovett. The CSU agree on the same six points of the People's Charter, but not the terms "Charter" or "Chartism".
- May 2nd: The Second National Petition of more than 3,250,000 signatures is introduced to Parliament by Thomas Dunscombe MP. It is rejected by 287 votes to 47.
- July to Sept: Following the House of Commons' rejection of the (second) National Petition, a general strike breaks out across Staffordshire, Lancashire, and other counties in Northern England and Scotland. The people demand that pay cuts be reversed and the Charter made law. Some strikers halted factory production by pulling the plugs from the boilers. As a result, the wave of strikes became known as the Plug Plot Riots.
- Oct 15th: Collins more involved in community affairs, and speaks out against a proposed Church Tax at a Birmingham Town Hall meeting.
- Dec 27th: Collins attends the second Birmingham Conference of the Complete Suffrage Union. Ended in deadlock over the usage of the term "Charter".
1843
- Feb: Feargus O’Connor and 57 others tried for incitement to strike and riot at Lancaster Assizes. Those convicted were never sentenced.
- Sept: Chartist Convention held in Birmingham approves a Chartist Land Plan.
1844
- April: Chartist Convention in Manchester
- Northern Star newspaper relocates to London after steadily declining circulation.
1845
- Formation of Chartist Land Co-operative Society (also known as the National Land Company).
- April: National Chartist Convention held in London
- June: John Collins attends a meeting convened by Mayor of Birmingham regarding the amalgamation of local government boards under one roof.
- August: Beginning of the Irish Potato Famine.
1846
- June 25th: Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws was passed following its third reading in the House of Lords.
- July: Dinner in Birmingham to celebrate ministerial free-trade measure, John Collins in attendance.
- Sept: Guardians of the Poor meeting in Birmingham, Collins supports a resolution for a new workhouse.
- Nov: Town Hall meeting regarding the financial difficulties of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Collins one of the speakers.
- Chartist Convention in Birmingham sets up a Committee to prepare for the 1847 General Election campaign. John Collins appointed Deputy Chair of the General Committee for the return of G F Muntz and Wm Scholefield to Parliament.
1847
- The first of the Chartist estates (O'Connorville) founded by the National Land Company.
- Muntz and Scholefield returned to Parliament at the General Election.
- July: New government formed by Lord John Russell’s Whigs
- Feargus O’Connor is elected MP for Nottingham.
- John Collins elected Town Councillor for Ladywood, Birmingham.
- Collins is a member of the Rate Payers Protection Society.
1848
- French Revolution
- Collins in business as a Grocer & Provisions Dealer.
- Collins a member of the Birmingham Freehold Land Society.
- At a Town Council meeting Collins raises the Council's cost of compiling the list of locally registered voters in Birmingham.
- Feb: Guardians of the Poor quarterly meeting, Collins in favour of a new site for the Birmingham Workhouse.
- April: Chartist Convention in London.
- Apr 10th: Rally at Kennington Common, and the Third National Petition presented to Parliament. Feargus O’Connor claims the Petition was signed by over 5 million signatures but MPs maintain there are less than 2 million including numerous forgeries.
1849
- The Chartist Movement is in decline.
- People’s Charter Union wound up.
- National Charter Association membership sinks to 500 and one paid missionary.
1851
- Jan: Chartist Convention in Manchester attracts just a handful of delegates.
- Aug: Following a government investigation into the financial irregularities of Fergus O'Connor's land scheme, the National Land Company is shut down.
- Northern Star ceases publication.
1852
- Fergus O'Connor assaulted three fellow Members of Parliament. Subsequently declared insane and sent to an asylum.
- Aug 24th: John Collins' death. Buried St Paul's Church, Birmingham, England, purportedly after lengthy illness.
- Jan 1st - Feb 1st: John Frost and two other leaders of the Newport Uprising tried for High Treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn (on a hurdle) and quartered. After a public outcry their death sentences are commuted to transportation.
- February: Collins and Lovett now 6 months into their prison sentence. Magistrates in charge of Warwick Gaol ordered solid meat be added to Collins' and Lovett's prison diet. The men were also allowed writing materials and began writing their famous booklet "Chartism: A New Organisation of the People." The book advocated self-improvement for the working class.
- Feb 4th: Parliament ordered copies of Memorials and Correspondence received, relating to John Collins' and William Lovett's confinement in Warwick Gaol, to be printed in a sixteen page government document.
- May 5th: Three months later, and with just two months remaining of their 12 month prison sentence, the Government offered Collins and Lovett early remission if they promised to keep the peace. In a letter to the Secretary of State, the prisoners turned it down, since they likened remission to an admission of past guilt.
- May 11th: Feargus O’Connor tried and imprisoned for 18 months for publishing seditious libels. Unlike Collins and Lovett, O'Connor lived in comparative luxury being allowed his own furniture in his cell.
- July 20th: Formation of the National Charter Association at a Manchester conference.
- July 25th: John Collins and William Lovett released from Warwick Gaol after serving out their twelve month sentence.
- July 27th: John Collins is welcomed into Birmingham. A massive procession two miles long accompanies him along the Warwick Road. Thousands line the streets into Birmingham. Followed by a dinner for 800.
- Aug 3rd: Collins and Lovett honored at a dinner at the White Conduit House in London, attended by over 1,250 guests including Members of Parliament Thomas Wakley and Thomas Duncombe.
- Aug 10th: Public meeting at Holloway Head. Charles Attwood (brother of Thomas Attwood) called for a new movement to agitate for the impeachment of the Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston on grounds of treason. Influential Chartists, with John Collins at the head of them, attended in opposition. The meeting ended with a resolution to agitate for nothing but universal suffrage.
- Aug 15th: Revival of Chartism in the North. John Collins and Peter McDouall attend massive procession and meeting at Carpenters Hall in Manchester (Manchester is the site of the infamous Peterloo Massacre).
- Aug 17th: Collins and McDouall attend a dinner for 500 at the Hall of Science in Manchester.
- Aug 18th: Collins and McDouall receive a triumphant entry into Rochdale. Thousands cheer them through the town, followed by dinner for 300 in the Assembly Room. An evening meeting in The Theatre is crammed full, with boxes almost entirely occupied by well-dressed females.
- Sept: Collins receives a hero's welcome at Leeds, Yorkshire and dozens of other places.
- Sept 19th: Lovett & Collins' book "Chartism - A New Organisation of the People " is published, and sells for one shilling.
- Sept: A Christian Chartist Church opened in London.
- Oct & Nov: Collins visits numerous towns in Scotland.
- Dec 18th: Northern Star issues large portraits of leading Chartists including one of John Collins, but excludes William Lovett.
- Dec 27th: Collins' Christian Chartist Church opened at 32 Newhall Street, Birmingham. Arthur O'Neill and John Collins pastors. This was the most famous of the Chartist Churches in England.
1841
- Collins and O'Neill lecture on Chartism in towns surrounding Birmingham.
- Joseph Sturge forms the Complete Suffrage Union
- Jan 4: Chartist meeting at Holloway Head, Birmingham, John Collins in the chair, agreed to petition for the pardon of the Newport chartist prisioner John Frost and others.
- Jan: John Collins is Birmingham delegate at the Leeds (Parliamentary) Reform Association Meeting. Meeting at Holbeck Moor and 8,000 in attendance at Marshall's Mill.
- Feb: William Lovett with John Collins and Henry Vincent form the National Association of the United Kingdom based on the objectives in Lovett and Collins' "Chartism" book. Also called The New Move and Education Chartism, the organization came in for much criticism from The Northern Star and its owner O'Connor.
- Mar 27: Collins, O'Neill and the Deacons of the Chartist Church in Birmingham petition Parliament for the release of Chartist prisoner Henry Hetherington.
- Apr 11th: Foundation stone laid for the People's Hall on Loveday Street, Birmingham. John Collins one of the speakers.
- May: Thomas Duncombe MP presents a petition over a million signatures to Parliament seeking a pardon for the Newport prisoners.
- May: Chartist Convention held in London for the purpose of trying Chartism's second National Petition. Delegates canvass Members of Parliament for their support. John Collins delegate for Birmingham.
- July 24th: Meeting of the Corn Law Association in Birmingham, Collins and O'Neill refuse to join the National Charter Association on a question of its legality.
- Aug: Conservatives win the General Election. Robert Peel became prime minister.
1842
- Collins supports the repeal of the Corn Laws.
- Collins lectures in England and Scotland in support of complete suffrage through peaceful means.
- The Scottish Chartists refuse to endorse the second National Petition.
- April 5th: First Birmingham Conference of the newly formed Complete Suffrage Union led by Rev Joseph Sturge. Consisting mainly middle class radicals, it was attended by working class Chartists John Collins and William Lovett. The CSU agree on the same six points of the People's Charter, but not the terms "Charter" or "Chartism".
- May 2nd: The Second National Petition of more than 3,250,000 signatures is introduced to Parliament by Thomas Dunscombe MP. It is rejected by 287 votes to 47.
- July to Sept: Following the House of Commons' rejection of the (second) National Petition, a general strike breaks out across Staffordshire, Lancashire, and other counties in Northern England and Scotland. The people demand that pay cuts be reversed and the Charter made law. Some strikers halted factory production by pulling the plugs from the boilers. As a result, the wave of strikes became known as the Plug Plot Riots.
- Oct 15th: Collins more involved in community affairs, and speaks out against a proposed Church Tax at a Birmingham Town Hall meeting.
- Dec 27th: Collins attends the second Birmingham Conference of the Complete Suffrage Union. Ended in deadlock over the usage of the term "Charter".
1843
- Feb: Feargus O’Connor and 57 others tried for incitement to strike and riot at Lancaster Assizes. Those convicted were never sentenced.
- Sept: Chartist Convention held in Birmingham approves a Chartist Land Plan.
1844
- April: Chartist Convention in Manchester
- Northern Star newspaper relocates to London after steadily declining circulation.
1845
- Formation of Chartist Land Co-operative Society (also known as the National Land Company).
- April: National Chartist Convention held in London
- June: John Collins attends a meeting convened by Mayor of Birmingham regarding the amalgamation of local government boards under one roof.
- August: Beginning of the Irish Potato Famine.
1846
- June 25th: Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws was passed following its third reading in the House of Lords.
- July: Dinner in Birmingham to celebrate ministerial free-trade measure, John Collins in attendance.
- Sept: Guardians of the Poor meeting in Birmingham, Collins supports a resolution for a new workhouse.
- Nov: Town Hall meeting regarding the financial difficulties of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Collins one of the speakers.
- Chartist Convention in Birmingham sets up a Committee to prepare for the 1847 General Election campaign. John Collins appointed Deputy Chair of the General Committee for the return of G F Muntz and Wm Scholefield to Parliament.
1847
- The first of the Chartist estates (O'Connorville) founded by the National Land Company.
- Muntz and Scholefield returned to Parliament at the General Election.
- July: New government formed by Lord John Russell’s Whigs
- Feargus O’Connor is elected MP for Nottingham.
- John Collins elected Town Councillor for Ladywood, Birmingham.
- Collins is a member of the Rate Payers Protection Society.
1848
- French Revolution
- Collins in business as a Grocer & Provisions Dealer.
- Collins a member of the Birmingham Freehold Land Society.
- At a Town Council meeting Collins raises the Council's cost of compiling the list of locally registered voters in Birmingham.
- Feb: Guardians of the Poor quarterly meeting, Collins in favour of a new site for the Birmingham Workhouse.
- April: Chartist Convention in London.
- Apr 10th: Rally at Kennington Common, and the Third National Petition presented to Parliament. Feargus O’Connor claims the Petition was signed by over 5 million signatures but MPs maintain there are less than 2 million including numerous forgeries.
1849
- The Chartist Movement is in decline.
- People’s Charter Union wound up.
- National Charter Association membership sinks to 500 and one paid missionary.
1851
- Jan: Chartist Convention in Manchester attracts just a handful of delegates.
- Aug: Following a government investigation into the financial irregularities of Fergus O'Connor's land scheme, the National Land Company is shut down.
- Northern Star ceases publication.
1852
- Fergus O'Connor assaulted three fellow Members of Parliament. Subsequently declared insane and sent to an asylum.
- Aug 24th: John Collins' death. Buried St Paul's Church, Birmingham, England, purportedly after lengthy illness.
The Franchise Timeline
1832: The Great Reform Act extended the vote to the middle class who owned or rented property valued at ten pounds sterling. This effectively excluded the property-poor working class.
1858: Property qualifications for Members of Parliament abolished.
1867: Second Reform Act.
1884: Third Reform Act.
1872: Ballot Act of 1872 introduced the secret ballot whereby voters could not be intimidated or bought since they could cast their votes in secret.
1906: Foundation of the Labor Party provides for three nation parties for the electorate to choose from.
1911: Politician David Lloyd George introduces salaries for Members of Parliament. Started in August at four hundred pounds sterling.
1913: Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison dies after throwing herself under the feet of the King's horse at the Derby in England.
1918 February 6th: Representation of the People's Act (also known as the Fourth Reform Act granted all men regardless of property and over 21 years of age, the right to vote. Those women householders over 30 years also granted the right to vote. Since so many men died in the war, the age of 30 for the women's franchise was probably chosen since that ensured women were kept in a minority.
1928: Representation of the People's Act enabled everyone over 21 the right to vote.
1858: Property qualifications for Members of Parliament abolished.
1867: Second Reform Act.
1884: Third Reform Act.
1872: Ballot Act of 1872 introduced the secret ballot whereby voters could not be intimidated or bought since they could cast their votes in secret.
1906: Foundation of the Labor Party provides for three nation parties for the electorate to choose from.
1911: Politician David Lloyd George introduces salaries for Members of Parliament. Started in August at four hundred pounds sterling.
1913: Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison dies after throwing herself under the feet of the King's horse at the Derby in England.
1918 February 6th: Representation of the People's Act (also known as the Fourth Reform Act granted all men regardless of property and over 21 years of age, the right to vote. Those women householders over 30 years also granted the right to vote. Since so many men died in the war, the age of 30 for the women's franchise was probably chosen since that ensured women were kept in a minority.
1928: Representation of the People's Act enabled everyone over 21 the right to vote.
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