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The Blaenau Gwent Chartists
Blaenau Gwent Chartists
". . . .. there was a scene, dreadful beyond expression - 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. . . . ."
So runs the eye-witness description of Thomas Watkins, a special constable on duty inside the Westgate Hotel, of the aftermath of the Chartist attack on the morning of November 4th, 1839. Outside, where twenty-five minutes earlier 5,000 armed men had thronged the streets, abandoned weapons littered the deserted square. Under the portico of the Mayor's house nearby a dying man was pleading for help - he received none, and spent another hour and a half in agony before he was finally dead. "Y Cyfodiad" - the Chartist Uprising - was over.
Chartism grew out of the discontent at the failure of the 1832 Parliamentary Reform Act. It was still only people of property who had the right to elect Members of Parliament. In May 1838 the London Working Men's Association published the "People's Charter".
1. All men over 21 to be given the right to vote,
2. Voting to be conducted by secret ballot,
3. The establishment of 300 constituencies of an equal number of voters,
4. Parliamentary elections to be held every year,
5. The ownership of property to be abolished as a qualification for a Member of Parliament,
6. Members of Parliament must be paid a wage for their work.
Throughout 1838, support for the Charter spread rapidly throughout the industrial areas of South Wales. Chartist lodges were springing up everywhere, largely due to the missionary zeal of Henry Vincent, one of the most charismatic speakers of his day, and William Edwards, known as the Newport Baker. It seems likely that the earliest lodge in the Blaenau Gwent area was formed towards the end of 1838 at the Star Inn at Dukestown. Zephaniah Williams lived nearby and his friend and fellow radical, John Morgan, was the innkeeper.
Zephaniah Williams, John Frost of Newport and William Jones of Pontypool were the acknowledged leaders of the Monmouthshire Chartists. Zephaniah Williams was the moving force behind the spread of Chartism in Blaenau Gwent, and it was he who led the Blaenau Gwent Chartists through the torrential rain on their ill-fated march to Newport on that cold and windy night of November 3rd, 1839.
Born in Argoed in 1795, Zephaniah ("Zeph" to his friends) spent his boyhood in Blackwood and benefited from a fairly good education in both Welsh and English. Having studied geology in his youth he became a mining engineer, opening several levels in the Machen area where he lived with his wife's parents. In 1828 he moved to Sirhowy Hill where he took up the position of mineral agent to the Harfords, the local Ironmasters. Whilst in this job, he also lived near the Royal Oak in Dukestown, and at 10 Police Row, where he was to stay until 1839 when he moved to Nantyglo to become the innkeeper of the Royal Oak Inn at Coalbrookvale.
As one of Harford's principal officials, Zephaniah would have been fairly affluent. He seems to have owned two houses in Iron Street and two in Cwm Rhos as well as his own house and his father's farm in Argoed. Even so, he was soon a committed Chartist, attending lodges at the Star Inn, the Miner's Arms, Church Street and the Red Lion in Colliers Row (Tredegar).
Described by Henry Vincent as "one of the most intelligent men it has been my good fortune to meet", Zephaniah Williams was a convinced rationalist i.e. an agnostic. This led to him being unjustly accused of all manner of crimes against religion - spitting at the mention of Christ's name and keeping a picture of the crucifixion hanging upside down in his house. One of his bitterest enemies was a local minister Rev. Benjamin Williams and Zephaniah answered his slanders in an open letter: "I would advise all men to take nothing upon trust. . . . to examine closely, and to be directed by that which reason most approves". Later, when he lived at Nantyglo, he was of the opinion that "there existed a historic person, Christ, so good, so pure and disinterested that had he lived at Nantyglo his house would have been pulled down over his head long ago."
As Zephaniah's commitment to the Chartist cause deepened, the pressure on him from his employers - the Harfords - increased, and so early in 1839 he moved to Nantyglo. Many Sirhowy men followed him and Robin Lewis (Rob Siani) went with him as his handyman.
Throughout the spring and summer of 1839 the level of Chartist activity in the area intensified. Meetings were held at both the Royal Oak and the King Crispin (which stood in Boundary Street) in Brynmawr, which was owned by David Lewis, another radical. On April 20th, on his way along the tramroad from the King Crispin to the Royal Oak, Henry Vincent met up with Crawshay Bailey - the most powerful of the local ironmasters. Their conversation was less than friendly, with Bailey expressing his regret that the Chartist activist had not been thrown into the works pond!
Increasingly worried by the rise in Chartist numbers, the local ironmasters and clergy organised an anti-Chartist meeting at Coalbrookvale for April 29th. Crawshay Bailey was in the chair and George Brewer (owner of the Coalbrookvale Ironworks) and John Brown (Cwmcelyn and Blaina Ironworks) also attended. Bailey made an impassioned speech attacking the Chartists, finishing defiantly:
"I owe all that I have to my own industry and I would risk my life rather than lose my property".
The answer came two days later when a huge rally gathered on the Star Field, Dukestown (now the Twyn Star Housing Estate) with almost 5,000 people in attendance. Bands played and banners fluttered, the chief speakers arrived in a four-wheeled chaise decorated with flags. Tension increased when Capel Hanbury Leigh, Crawshay Bailey and Thomas Powell all agreed to refuse employment at their works to known Chartists, and furthermore the Royal Oak at Coalbrookvale was declared out of bounds to all of Bailey's employees.
Then, on May 9th, Vincent, Edwards and others were arrested and taken to Newport. A riot broke out, and the men were subsequently imprisoned at Monmouth Gaol. On Whit Monday, May 20th, 30,000 people attended a huge rally at Blackwood and a petition was set up for Vincent's release. Another rally at Coalbrookvale on July 1st attracted a crowd of 10,000 and by July 12th, when a petition was presented to Parliament, over a million signatures had been gathered. The petition was rejected.
Chartists had always fallen into two camps - the "moral force" men (of whom Zephaniah Williams was one) and the "physical force" men - those prepared to take up arms to gain the Charter. With the failure of the petition the physical force faction gained the upper hand. On August 12th, the largest gathering of the whole of the 19th Century took place when the Chartists met at the Star Field, Dukestown, when over 40,000 attended.
By now, Chartists were beginning to arm themselves - pikes were being made at the smithy at the Victoria Works, Ebbw Vale, (where one man, John Owen, made over 50) and at the Chartist Cave on Mynydd Llangynidr above Trefil (after the Rising, the authorities discovered a small hearth with bellows, iron and coal). In Tredegar, John Rees (Jack the Fifer), David Jones (Dai the Tinker) and Isaac Tippings (the Tailor from Nantyglo) were very active around the lodges. The "Chartist Lights", lanterns and torches moving across the mountains, were seen and hardly a night went by without fiery speeches and illegal gatherings.
On August 26th, the Chartist Convention was reconvened and, on September 14th, the date was decided upon for a co-ordinated Uprising. Major Beniowski (a Polish emigré) was sent to Wales to co-ordinate preparations and although he may have been a type of mercenary we know little of him and his precise role is unclear.
September and October saw Blaenau Gwent as a hive of frantic activity. On October 3rd, some 500 people attended a meeting at the Royal Oak, Coalbrookvale, where John Frost urged restraint until the rest of Britain was ready to rise. At a secret meeting later that night, Frost asked Zephaniah Williams, William Jones and David Lewis (of the King Crispin) "Will you rise at my bidding, for it must be done?” Attempts were made to induce soldiers at Brecon and Newport to desert. Plans were made (and changed) but finally it was decided to march on Newport on the night of Sunday, November 3rd. Meanwhile, the production of arms intensified and more and more people joined the Chartist lodges. Evan Edwards, the Tredegar clockmaker and James Godwin, the mason from Brynmawr, were busy making bullets, while puddlers and colliers at Blaina ordered their muskets.
The plan was for the Chartist forces from all over Monmouthshire to meet at Risca before marching on Newport. On Saturday, November 2nd, at a meeting at the Royal Oak, Coalbrookvale, Zephaniah Williams and Thomas Guttery (of Blaina) made speeches and told the men gathered there to meet, armed, on the following evening. According to Benjamin James, a local collier, a few people entered backroom where Thomas Ferriday and others were seen handling guns. A similar gathering was in full swing at the King Crispin in Brynmawr, with Ishmael Evans in the chair, where David Lewis and his men were taking oaths of secrecy on a large Bible.
On the morning of Sunday, November 3rd, about 200 people gathered at the Royal Oak and were told to meet in the evening and to bring their weapons and food. Zephaniah Williams said to them that if the soldiers fired they were "to do their best". At 6 p.m., they set off for Mynydd Carn y Cefn where Zephaniah stood under an umbrella on a large mound by the roadside. A horn was sounded and guns tested.
By 8 o'clock, almost 4,000 men had gathered waiting for the men from Dukestown, Brynmawr, and Beaufort. Among the Nantyglo contingent was Abraham Thomas, one of William Davies's "platoon" of ten men. Despite his wife's desperate pleas, he had left home at about 7 o'clock. Wrapping her youngest child in a shawl, she ran after him through the torrential rain to the Royal Oak where Zephaniah's wife told her that he had already gone to the mountain. Less than fifteen hours later Abraham Thomas lay dead outside the Westgate Hotel.
At Rassau, David Howell, William David, John Jones, William Williams and 50 others were gathering their men, some by force. At 8 p.m. they stopped outside Carmel Chapel and required the congregation to follow them to Newport. At 11 p.m., they broke into the Beaufort Arms, at Beaufort Rise, demanding ale and killing the landlord's dog (the landlord was an anti-Chartist and had already fled).
In Tredegar and Sirhowy, the Red Lion at Colliers Row and the Colliers Arms in Park Row had been turned into pike factories. Jack Rees (the Fifer) accompanied by William Evans, Thomas Morgan and John Morgan led the Tredegar men down the Sirhowy valley to meet Frost at Blackwood. At Twyn y Star, hundreds had gathered led by Rees Meredith (one of those killed) and Dai the Tinker (David Jones) - in his velvet jacket and spotted neckerchief. At about 8 p.m. they met the men of Benjamin Richards' Star Inn lodge at Sirhowy Bridge before moving off to meet Zephaniah Williams and his men at Mynydd Carn y Cefn. Passing through Ebbw Vale they met up with 2,000 at the Pen y Cae ironworks, and about 20 of them pushed their way into the Lamb Inn demanding more beer. Later, another gang arrived dragging the landlord of the Wyvern Inn, Sirhowy along with them. At about 9 p.m., all the contingents met near the Harfords' residence and then moved off down the valley towards Newport. After much delay (caused mainly by the appalling weather and by calling off at pubs on the way!) the Heads of the Valleys contingent met up with Frost's forces at the Welsh Oak, Risca at about 6.30 a.m.
At about 7.00 a.m. the great mass of people moved off to Pye Corner and then through Tredegar Park to the Cwrt y Bella weighing machine. Here the Chartist forces halted and were put into better order, six abreast with a gun at the end of each line. The Tredegar man, John Rees (Jack the Fifer), was prominent in organising the ranks.
The authorities in Newport had chosen the Westgate Hotel as their head-quarters and, having succeeded in taking some Chartist stragglers prisoner during the night, they housed them under the guard of about 60 special constables and thirty soldiers of the 45th Regiment of Foot under the command of Lt. Gray. Abandoning the original plan of attacking the workhouse at the top of Stow Hill, John Frost now decided to head directly to the Westgate to try and free the prisoners.
Filing down Stow Hill, the Chartists arrived at the Westgate at about 9.30 a.m. The crowd called for the release of the prisoners and soon a scuffle started on the porch of the Hotel. Whether accidentally or not is unclear, but a musket was discharged. The Chartists rushed in through the front door of the hotel. As they started firing and hammering at the shutters of the hotel windows, the fight went on in the main hall. Mayor Phillips had hoped to avoid a clash but the situation was now beyond his control. The order was given for the soldiers to load their guns and the bottom shutters of the hotel's front windows were removed.
At this point the mayor and a Sergeant Daily were injured. The soldiers now filed past the windows firing into the crowd and inflicting heavy casualties. The Chartists outside fled for cover.
In the passage, those still inside continued fighting and trying to free the prisoners. Opening the door and ordering the constables to step aside, the soldiers filled the passage with musket fire.
The battle of the Westgate had lasted about 25 minutes, 22 people lay dead or dying and upwards of 50 had been injured. William Jones, a miner in Sirhowy, managed to get home to Trallong in Breconshire despite being shot through the back. Morgan Jones of Tredegar was taken to the workhouse where his leg was amputated and John Morgan of the same town was treated for a wound to his thigh. David Morgan, again of Tredegar, died in Friars Fields while among the ten bodies under guard at the Westgate Hotel was that of Abraham Thomas of Nantyglo. On the night of November 7th, the bodies from the Westgate were taken and buried in unmarked graves in the cemetery of St Woolos' Cathedral, Newport.
In all, ten men from Blaenau Gwent are known to have been among the dead, but others may have died and remained unidentified. Those we know of are: William Evans, Rees Meredith and David Morgan from Tredegar and Sirhowy; David Davies and his son from Brynmawr; John Jonathan, Abraham Thomas, Isaac Thomas and John the Roller of Nantyglo and Blaina and William Williams of Cwmtillery.
With the defeated Chartists streaming back up the valleys, the search began for the leaders of the "Newport Insurrection". John Frost was arrested that evening in the house of a friend in Newport, David Lewis was found hiding in a chest at the King Crispin on November 5th, and William Jones was arrested after a brief struggle near the Navigation Inn at Crumlin. Zephaniah Williams evaded capture for almost three weeks before being caught on the merchant ship Vintage at Cardiff just before setting sail for Portugal.
The leaders were tried at Monmouth for High Treason, found guilty and condemned to death. On the grounds of a legal technicality brilliantly argued by the defending barrister, Sir Frederick Pollock, the death sentence was commuted and on February 2nd, 1840 Frost, Williams and Jones set sail for Tasmania to begin their new sentence of transportation for life.
John Frost returned to Britain in 1856, but neither William Jones nor Zephaniah Williams were ever to see Wales again. The leader of the Blaenau Gwent Chartists died in Launceston, Tasmania, on May 8th, 1874.
Despite the defeat at the Westgate Hotel, the struggle for the People's Charter continued. By now, all but one of the Charter's six points are enshrined in law as the rights of every citizen.
Bibliography
Jones, D. The Last Rising
Jones, O. The Early days of Sirhowy and Tredegar
Gray-Jones, A. A History of Ebbw Vale
Wilks, R. E. South Wales and the Rising
Williams, D. The Rebecca Riots
