John Frost (Chartist)
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Chartist
Chartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
movement in the Newport Rising
Newport Rising
The Newport Rising was the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain, when on 4 November 1839, somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 Chartist sympathisers, including many coal-miners, most with home-made arms, led by John Frost, marched on the town of Newport,...
.
John Frost's father, also John, kept the "Royal Oak Inn", in Thomas Street, Newport http://www.newportpast.com/nmg/chartists/index.htm (a blue plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
honouring Frost's birthplace is located on the side of the old Post Office in the High Street, marking the approximate street location). John was mainly brought up as an orphan by his grandfather, a bootmaker
Shoemaking
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...
, He was apprenticed to a woollen draper
Drapery
Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles . It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothing, formerly conducted by drapers.In art history, drapery refers to any cloth or...
in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
and was later a shopman in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Frost's political affiliations were greatly influenced by Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
and William Cobbett
William Cobbett
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
. John and Sarah Frost worshipped at Hope Baptist Chapel, situated behind the present day Commercial Street and Skinner Street and their eight children were all baptized there.
Frost's mother Sarah died early in his childhood and he was brought up by his grandparents. He was apprenticed as a bootmaker to his grandfather and left home at the age of sixteen to become a draper's apprentice and tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
, first in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, then Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
and later London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He returned to Newport in 1806 to start his own business, which became prosperous. He married a widow Mary Geach in 1812 and over the course of eleven years they had eight children. He was held in great esteem and affection for his appealing character, sense of justice, selflessness, consistency, principles and democratism.
Political career
In 1821, Frost became embroiled in a dispute with a Newport solicitorSolicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
, Thomas Prothero, who was also Town Clerk, over his uncle's will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
. In a letter Frost accused Prothero of being responsible for the former's exclusion from the will. Prothero sued for libel and Frost was ordered to pay £1,000. Frost then accused Prothero of malpractice. Again, Prothero sued for libel and again won. In February 1823, Frost was imprisoned for six months and told in no uncertain terms that further accusations against Prothero would lead to a longer sentence.
After his release Frost turned his anger against Prothero's friends and business partners, notably Sir Charles Morgan
Charles Morgan, 1st Baron Tredegar
Charles Morgan, 1st Baron Tredegar was an English peer and member of the House of Lords. He represented the constituency of Brecon....
of Tredegar House and Park
Tredegar House
Tredegar House in Newport, set in the 90 acre Tredegar Park, is one of the best examples of a 17th century Charles II country house mansion in the United Kingdom.-History of the Building:...
, a major Newport and South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
landowner and industrialist. In a pamphlet of 1830, he accused Morgan of mistreating
Slumlord
A slumlord is a derogatory term for landlords, generally absentee landlords, who attempt to maximize profit by minimizing spending on property maintenance, often in deteriorating neighborhoods. They may need to charge lower than market rent to tenants...
his many tenants and advocated electoral reform as a means of bringing Morgan and others like him to account. An appreciation both of Frost's literary skill and his mounting exasperation can be gained easily from a consideration of his early letters, to Sir Charles Morgan himself amongst many others In the early 1830s Frost increasingly became a champion of universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
.
Establishing himself as a prominent Chartist, he was elected in 1835 as a town councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
for Newport and appointed as a magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
. He also became an Improvement Commissioner and Poor Law
Poor Law
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...
Guardian and the following year became Mayor of Newport
Mayor of Newport
The Mayor of Newport is the civic figurehead and first citizen of the city of Newport in the United Kingdom. The position is now largely ceremonial, but it still has high-profile rôle in maintaining and promoting the interests of the city and its people...
. His aggressive behaviour and election as a delegate to the Chartist Convention in 1838, however, further alienated his old enemies. He was duly forced to stand down as mayor the following year and the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
also revoked his appointment as magistrate.
Letter to Lord Russell
Because of his continuing role within the Chartist Movement, Home SecretaryHome Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....
dismissed Frost from his position as Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
. In response, while at a Chartist Convention in Pontypool
Pontypool
Pontypool is a town of approximately 36,000 people in the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales....
, Frost responded to Russell in a straighforward letter, containing the contemporary Chartist songs of Wales, which gave expression to the feelings and determination of the Welsh coal miners:
- Uphold those bold Comrades, who suffer for you,
- Who nobly stand foremost, demanding your due,
- Away with the timid-'tis treason to fear-
- To surrender or falter, when danger is near,
- For now that our leaders disdain to betray
- 'Tis base to desert them, or succour delay
- 'Tis time that the victims of labour and care
- Should for reap what is labour's fair share
- 'Tis time that these voice in the councils be heard
- The rather than pay for the law of the sword;
- All power is ours, with a will of our own
- We conquer, united-divided we groan.
- Come hail brothers, hail the shrill sound of the horn
- For ages deep wrongs have been hopelessly borne
- Despair shall no longer our spirits dismay
- Nor wither the arms when uprasised for the fray;
- The conflict for freedom is gathering nigh:
- We live to secure it, or gloriously die.
Nonetheless, while the desire amongst the Welsh to rebel was ever stronger, Frost himself still wished to postpone the date of an uprising. By the end of October, the Welsh Chartists were holding daily meetings in Monmouthshire in an attempt to force an armed rebellion. Records suggest that ultimately, finding himself unable to postpone the date of an organised uprising and longer and still doubting its success, Frost burst into tears. A thirty member conference ultimately fixed the date for 3 November.
The Newport Rising
On November 3, 1839, Frost led a ChartistChartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
march on the Westgate Hotel in Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
. The rationale for the set piece confrontation remains opaque, although it may have its origins in Frost's ambivalence towards the more violent attitudes of some of the Chartists, and the personal animus he bore towards some of the Newport establishment who were ensconced in the hotel along with sixty armed soldiers. The Chartist movement in south east Wales was chaotic in this period, after the arrest of Henry Vincent
Henry Vincent
Henry Vincent was active in the formation of early Working Men's Associations in Britain, a popular Chartist leader, brilliant and gifted public orator, prospective but ultimately unsuccessful Victorian MP, and later an anti-slavery campaigner.- Early life :Henry Vincent was born in High Holborn,...
a leading agitator, who was imprisoned nearby in Monmouth
Monmouth
Monmouth is a town in southeast Wales and traditional county town of the historic county of Monmouthshire. It is situated close to the border with England, where the River Monnow meets the River Wye with bridges over both....
gaol and the feelings of the workers were running extremely high, too high for Frost to reason with and control. One of his contemporaries, William Price
William Price (doctor)
William Price was a Welsh physician who achieved notoriety for his support of Welsh nationalism, Chartism and his involvement with the Neo-Druidic religious movement...
described Frost's stance at the time of the Newport Rising
Newport Rising
The Newport Rising was the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain, when on 4 November 1839, somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 Chartist sympathisers, including many coal-miners, most with home-made arms, led by John Frost, marched on the town of Newport,...
as being akin to "putting a sword in my hand and a rope around my neck."
The march, which had been gathering momentum over the course of the whole weekend, as Frost and his associates led the protestors down from the valley towns above Newport, numbered some 3,000 when it entered the town. According to the plan, three columns from three directions were to march upon Newport and take the town before dawn. The contingent starting from Blackwood was commanded by Frost, the detachment coming from Nantyglo by Williams and the main body of Pontypool by Jones. The three columns were to meet at Risca, but the
is did not come to pass; owing to a storm raging in the night, all of them arrived late, and the worst trouble was that the delay gave the Newport authorities ample time to get wind of what was afoot and make ready to confront the coming armed Chartists. Special constables were sworn in hastily, the known Chartists of Newport were arrested and shut up in the Westgate Hotel where the mayor held thirty soldiers in reserve. The Chartist troops led by Frost, proceeding to the hotel at 9:30 A.M. and demanding the surrender of the Chartist prisoners, advanced to the door. When the soldiers posted in the hotel started firing, ten to fifteen Charists died instantly, about fifty were wounded. The bloody event was over in twenty minutes. The Chartists miners were in a very bad strategic position, and the firing took them by surprise. When they withdrew, they met the contingent of Williams and outside the town, the column of Jones. The times estimated that the strength of the Chartists army at 8,000 and Gammage at 20,000.
Overall the battle of the Westgate lasted only about 25 minutes, but at its close some 22 people lay dead or dying and upwards of 50 had been injured. An eye witness report spoke of one man, wounded with gunshot, lying on the ground, pleading for help until he died an hour later. Bullet holes remain in the masonry of the hotel entrance porch to this day.
Reprisal by the Local Authorities
The reprisal by the local authorities followed immediately. The three commanders and 150 Chartists were arrested in a short time. The rumour spread that the Chartists insurgents intended to take Cardiff on November 5, The Cardiff magistrates were seized with panic: in addition to mobilizing the special constables they built up serious military defences and the crew of an American vessel lying at anchor in the port were also brought to the aid of the authorities. After Newport, however the Welsh Valleys were wrapped in quiet, and even the English manufacturing districts were paralysed for a short while.Trial and sentencing
Frost was arrested and charged with high treasonHigh treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
and early in 1840, along with William Jones
William Jones (Chartist)
William Jones was a political Radical and Chartist, who was a former actor, working as a watchmaker at Pontypool in Monmouthshire and was also keeping a beer house....
and Zephaniah Williams
Zephaniah Williams
Zephaniah Williams was born near Argoed, Sirhowy Valley, Monmouthshire, with much of his childhood spent near the then village of Blackwood, also living for some periods in Caerphilly and Nantyglo...
, was tried at Monmouth's Shire Hall
Shire Hall, Monmouth
The Shire Hall in Monmouth was the centre for the Assize Courts and Quarter Sessions for Monmouthshire. It was also used as a market place. Shire Hall is currently used as the offices for Monmouth Town Council.-History:...
. All three were found guilty and became the last men in Britain to be sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered
Hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1351 a penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reigns of King Henry III and his successor, Edward I...
http://www.newportpast.com/nfs/strands/frost/part2.htm. The Chartists stood up as one man for the Newport leaders under sentences of death. O'Connor, O'Brien, Harney Taylor and other Chartists leaders free on bail rose to speak on their behalf. O'Connor offered one week's income of the Northern Star for a Frost fund and retained one o the best lawyers of the time, Sir Frederick Pollock
Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet
Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet PC , was a British lawyer and Tory politician.-Background and education:...
as defence attorney. Following a huge public outcry, however, these sentences were discussed by the Cabinet and on 1 February the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, announced that the executions would be commuted to transportation for life
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
.
On reaching Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...
(modern Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
), Frost was immediately sentenced to two years hard labour for making a disparaging remark about Lord John Russell, the Colonial Secretary there. Frost was indentured to a local storekeeper, spent three years working as a clerk, before becoming a school teacher for eight years when he was granted his ticket of leave.
Chartists in Britain continued to campaign for the release of Frost. Thomas Duncombe pleaded Frost's case in the House of Commons but his attempt to secure a pardon in 1846 was unsuccessful. Duncombe refused to be defeated and in 1854 he persuaded the Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen, to grant Frost a pardon on the condition that he never returned to Britain. Rather than stay in Australia Frost immediately left for United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, with his daughter, Catherine, who had joined him in Tasmania, and toured the country lecturing on the unfairness of the British system of government.
Later life
In 1856, when the residency condition was lifted, Frost was given an unconditional pardon and he straightaway sailed for BristolBristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. He retired to Stapleton
Stapleton, Bristol
Stapleton is an area in the north-eastern suburbs of the city of Bristol, England. The name is colloquially used today to describe the ribbon village along Bell Hill and Park Road in the Frome Valley. It borders Eastville to the South and Begbrook and Frenchay to the North...
near the city but continued to publish articles advocating reform until his death, aged 93, in 1877. Frost was buried in the churchyard of the Church of the Holy Trinity with St Edmund
Church of the Holy Trinity with St Edmund
The Church of the Holy Trinity with St Edmund is a church on Wellington Hill, Horfield in Bristol, England.The west tower dates from the 15th century. The nave and aisles by William Butterfield date from 1847, and the chancel and crossing tower are dated 1893...
, Horfield
Horfield
Horfield is a suburb of the city of Bristol, in southwest England. It lies on Bristol's northern edge, its border with Filton marking part of the boundary between Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Bishopston lies directly to the south. Monks Park and Golden Hill are to the west. Lockleaze and...
, Bristol. A headstone was recently re-erected on the site. John Frost Square, in the centre of Newport, is named in his honour.