THE SIX POINTS
1. A vote for every man over 21
2. Secret ballots
3. No property qualification
4. Payment of MPs
5. Constituencies of equal size
6. Annual Parliaments

Chartist Ancestors: welcome to the site
What did your family do 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

What's essential
The Six Points of the Charter
Chartist petitions: all the details
Chartist Timeline
Chartism: Frequently Asked Questions
Further research

What's new

Chartist conferences and conventions
Who was there, what did they decide?
The first convention: 1839
From hopes of success to the Bull Ring riots.

Great meeting of Scottish delegates, 1839
Glasgow conference establishes central organisation.

Manchester conference, 1840
The launch of the National Charter Association.

Chartism's forgotten petition, 1841
1.3 million seek a pardon for the Newport Chartists.

Scottish convention, 1842
Delegates refuse to endorse text of second petition.

London convention, 1842
Delegates prepare to present the petition to MPs.

The "Unity" conference, 1842
A final split with the middle-class reformers.

London convention and assembly, 1848
The final great confrontation with the state.

London convention, 1851
The adoption of a socialist programme.

Labour Parliament, 1854
Last hope of revival based on workers' organisation.

Frost defence fund, 1839-40
Contributors to the Newport leader's legal aid fund

General strike, 1842
Half a million demand a fair wage and the Charter.

Trafalgar Square riots, 1848
Confrontation on the streets of London.

The events of 10 April 1848
The revolution postponed.

The Orange Tree conspiracy, 1848
Police thwart a bold attempt to seize the capital city.

Ashton under Lyne rising, 1848
Chartist National Guards shoot dead a policeman.

Chartist prisoners, 1839-40
Names drawn from a Home Office report.

Chartist prisoners, 1841
Interviews with 73 Chartists in their prison cells.

Lancaster trial, 1843
Feargus O'Connor and 58 others go on trial.

Chartists arrested in 1848
We name those arrested and tried.

William Dowling on trial, 1848
The case of a young artist caught up in revolution.

Chartists transported to Australia
We name the Chartists who were sent into exile.

Spreadsheet of all 5,075 names (Excel format)

Chartist land plan
Read about the land plan and see the names of those allocated land.

Land Company officials, 1849
Local activists named

Mary Ann Walker and Susanna Inge
Leading lights in the City of London Female Chartist Association

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
Further research: the best Chartist websites

Chartism FAQs
Top twenty questions about Chartism
Click the links to find answers to our Chartist FAQs.

1. What is Chartism?

2. Who were the Chartists?

3. What were the six points?

4. Were the Chartists the first to demand these things?

5. Where was the Charter launched?

6. Why did Chartism become a mass campaign?

7. Why didn't the Chartists demand votes for women?

8. Did women support the Chartist movement?

9. Why is Chartism important?

10. How did the Chartists hope to achieve their goals?

11. Were there any Chartist MPs?

12. How many people could vote at this time?

13. How did the authorities respond to Chartism?

14. What happened on 10 April 1848?

15 …and in the days that followed?

16. Did Chartism disappear after 1848?

17. Why did Chartism decline?

18. Where did all the Chartists go?

19. Did Chartism fail?

20. Who was the last Chartist?

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Red Republican - the 1850 move towards socialism.

Friend of the People - after the Red Republican.

People's Charter Union and the Cause of the People - Moral force Chartism revived in 1848.

The Ingraham Testimonial Fund - 450 subscribers to a post-Chartist cause backed by prominent Chartists.

Peter Bussey - Bradford Chartist who fled to America.

Matthew Fletcher - Bury's delegate to the First Chartist Convention.

John Frost - Newport Chartism's rebel leader.

Robert Knox, County Durham's delegate to the First Chartist Convention.

Robert Lowery - trade union activist, and Newcastle's delegate to the First Chartist Convention

William Lovett, author of the People's Charter.

Benjamin Lucraft - a Victorian radical.

Gerald Massey - Centenary booklet, made available free here, with thanks to Ian Petticrew and David Shaw of Victorian Minor Poets.

Peter Murray McDouall - leading Chartist activist, exiled and twice imprisoned.

Thomas Clutton Salt of the Birmingham Political Union.

William Villiers Sankey - Edinburgh's aristocratic delegate to the First Chartist Convention.

Thomas Rayner Smart - "Veteran Patriot" and delegate to the First Chartist Convention.

Mary Ann Walker and Susanna Inge - leading lights in the City of London Female Chartist Association.

Chartist land company - Who invested in the scheme?

Land Company officials, 1849 - local activists named.

Knowledge Chartists - William Lovett's New Move.

Teetotal Chartists - Sober politics.

Christian Chartists - with God on their side.

Chartists and trade unions - the Labour Parliament.

Chartists and the Anti-Corn Law League - a rival cause in search of political support.

MORE HISTORY

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

More about me