Chartist Ancestors
What did your family to in the revolution?

Millions signed the three great Chartist petitions of 1839 to 1848. Thousands were active in those years in the campaign to win the vote, secret ballots, and other democratic rights that we now take for granted.

Chartist Ancestors lists many of those who risked their freedom, and sometimes their lives, because of their participation in the Chartist cause. The names included on the site are drawn from newspapers, court records and books of the time, from later histories and other sources.

I would like to thank the many historians, researchers and the descendents of those associated with Chartism who have helped with this site since it was launched in 2003.

Mark Crail
Site editor

How to...
Make the most of your visit to an archive or records office

Research your trade union ancestors

Find Chartist records in the National Archives

© Mark Crail

Further reading
Chartist Ancestors bookshop

BOOK CHOICE
Chartism: A New History
By Malcolm Chase (Manchester University Press, 464 pages)
NOW AVAILALBLE IN HARDBACK AND PAPERBACK
Dr Chase's eagerly anticipated book looks set to fill an important gap in what is currently available on the history of the Chartist movement.
Recent academic studies have tended to concentrate on specific aspects of the movement or its development in particular localities. Here, at last, is a thorough and substantial account of the Chartist movement as a whole which allows the general reader to understand the wider picture as well as the fascinating detail.
Chartist studies have moved on tremendously in recent years, and Dr Chase, reader in labour history at the University of Leeds and chair of the Society for the Study of Labour History, has been at the forefront of that process. The insights that he can bring to our understanding of Chartism means that this books will rapidly become a standard text.
Chartism: A New History - hardback
Chartism: A New History - paperback

Also in the Chartist Ancestors bookshop...
Books on Chartism
Family history
Victorian Britain
History DVDs
Note: To find out more about prices and delivery, click the book or product title link.

There is more to history at the mytimemachine.co.uk bookshop . Outside the UK? Visit the Chartist Ancestors International Bookstore.

New
Joseph Cowen and Popular Radicalism on Tyneside, 1829-1900
by Joan Allen
Chartist historian Joan Allen turns her attention to the life of a radical newspaper magnate and MP who became MP for Newcastle in 1874.

Chartist Books
Papers for the People: A Study of the Chartist Press
Editors: Joan Allen and Owen Ashton
An original study of the role of the Chartist Press. The book considers the press in England Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Australia. Almost all of the contributors are well known specialists in the history of Chartism. The editors provide a comprehensive introduction setting contributions in context and discuss how these essays expand our knowledge of Chartism.

History of the Chartist Movement 1837-54
Author: W G Gammage
This was the first history of the Chartist movement, published at the tail end of the 19th century and written by someone who had been active in the final years of Chartism. It has been the basis for many subsequent histories, and although not an easy read it is well worth the effort.

Helen Macfarlane: A Feminist, Revolutionary Journalist, and Philosopher in Mid 19th Century England
Author: David Black
Helen Macfarlane was the first person to translate the Communist Manifesto into English. This and other articles by her appeared in George Julian Harney's Chartist journal The Red Republican under the pen-name Howard Morton. Macfarlane was apparently an associate of Frederick Engels – but until now, little more has been known of her life. David Black's research sheds some light on this interesting character.

The People's Charter: Democrats in the Early Victorian Age
Editor: Stephen Roberts
Much of the best scholarship on the Chartists has been published in scholarly journals and has therefore been unavailable to the general reader. This volume presents a selection of key essays: Eileen Yeo on Christianity and Chartism; Christopher Godfrey on Chartist prisoners; Paul Pickering on selling Chartist goods and merchandise; Robert Hall on remembering Chartism; Malcolm Chase on Chartism in Middlesborough and Stockton; Stephen Roberts on Chartism in Leicestershire; Philip Howell on Chartist lecturers.

London Chartism 1838-1848
Author: David Goodway
This excellent account of Chartism in the capital is particularly strong on the involvement of different trades in the movement, and has a fascinating account of the thwarted armed rebellion of 1848.

Chartism and the Chartists in Manchester and Salford
Author: Paul A Pickering

Chartism in the Black Country
Author George J Barnsby
This slim pamphlet is worth getting hold of if your relatives were involved in the Chartist movement around Dudley, Stourbridge, Wolverhampton and Bilston. Now available only secondhand.

John Frost: A Study in Chartism
Author: David Williams

The Chartist Movement: A New Annotated Bibliography
Editors: Owen Ashton, Robert Fyson, Stephen Roberts

Radical Politicians and Poets in Early Victorian Britain: Voices of Six Chartist Leaders
Author: Stephen Roberts

The Chartist Legacy
Editors: Owen Ashton, Robert Fyson, Stephen Roberts

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Family History
Who Do You Think You Are
DVD: Who Do You Think You Are
Book: Who Do You Think You Are
Software: Family Historian 2.1
* Instantly create Ancestor, Descendant, and Hourglass diagrams
* Add pictures, sound, video, and any other multimedia
* 100% GEDCOM compatible, the universal standard in shared genealogical data
* Individual Summary/Family Group/Ancestor Summary/Descendant Outline Report, and more
* A query allows you to extract any data you want from your family tree
* Create custom diagrams, queries, reports, and even fields
* Easy-to-use user-interface The Genealogists Internet
Author: Peter Christian
£8.57 from Amazon.co.uk
Published by the National Archives 

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Victorian Britain
Victorian London: The Life of a City 1840-1870
Author: Liza Picard
Thoughly enjoyable guide to how our ancestors lived in the early to mid Victorian period.

The Workhouse: The People, The Places, The Life Behind Doors
Author: Simon Fowler
A balanced picture of life in the workhouse for inmates and staff from the editor of the National Archives' Ancestors magazine.. The regime could be harsh and bureaucratic, but was usually better than any of the alternatives, and many workhouse employees did their best for the people in their charge.

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History DVDs
Simon Schama - A History of Britain : The Complete Series
Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama's Complete History of Britain does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the turbulent events which buffeted and shaped the British Isles . What Schama does do, however, is tell the story in vivid and gripping narrative terms, personalising key historical events by examining the major characters at the centre of them. Schama gives lie to the idea that the history of Britain has been moderate and temperate, taking on board sensible ideas but steering clear of sillier, revolutionary ones. Schama retells British history the way it was – as bloody, convulsive, precarious, hot-blooded and several times within an inch of haring off onto an entirely different course. With his pungent, direct manner and against an evocative visual and aural backdrop, Schama makes history seem as though it happened yesterday, the bloodstains not yet dry.

Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age
The complete BBC series incorporating the individual episodes: “Wind Water And Steam”, “Mill And Factories”, “Iron And Steel”, “Mining”, “Railways” and “Ships And Shipbuilding”.

There is more to history at the mytimemachine.co.uk bookshop

Find out more about Chartism on this website.

More history resources

Trade union history: union family trees,
A to z listing of 5,000 UK unions and more

Everything about Chartism and the Chartists

History guides and eyewitness accounts from mytimemachine

Tribune Magazine

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