Henry Hetherington

For the Australian cricketer, see Henry Hetherington (cricketer).

Henry Hetherington (17 June 1792 – 23 August 1849) was a leading British Chartist.

Early years

Henry Hetherington was the son of a London tailor, John Hetherington (1770 to 6 November 1806), and was born on 17 June 1792, at 16 Compton Street, Soho, London. He was one of four children and was baptised in the church of St Giles-in-the-Fields.

When he was thirteen, on 5 November 1805, he began work as an apprentice printer at Luke Hansard's printing works at Holborn, London. In c.1810 he worked as a shopman for Richard Carlile, and from c1812 to 1815 he worked as a printer in Ghent, Belgium.

In 1811 Hetherington married Elizabeth Thomas, of Wales, and the marriage produced nine children. Only one son, David, was still living at time of Henry's death.

In the 1820s Hetherington became influenced by the ideas of Robert Owen and joined the Co-operative Printers Association, and became active in the Radical Reform Association. In 1821 he became a member of the London Co-operative and Economical Society community, Spa Fields, London, led by George Mudie.

Printer

In 1822 Hetherington registered his own press and type at 13 Kingsgate Street, Holborn (now Southampton Row), an eight-roomed house, including shop and printing premises, costing £55 per annum rent. On 11 January 1823 he published the first (and possibly only) edition of the Political Economist and Universal Philanthropist, edited by George Mudie.

This was a time when reformers such as Richard Carlile were being imprisoned for publishing material that was critical of the government. For people like Hetherington and Carlile, the publication of newspapers and pamphlets were vitally important in the political education of the working class. In the 1830s Hetherington published a series of radical newspapers including: The Penny Papers for the People (1830); The Radical (1831) and The Poor Man's Guardian (1831–1835). In 1833 Hetherington was selling 220,000 copies a week of The Poor Man's Guardian. He was punished by the authorities several times for these activities: fined on numerous occasions, imprisoned in 1833 and 1836, and having his printing presses seized and destroyed in 1835.

Hetherington played a leading role in the campaign against the "taxes on knowledge": particularly stamp duty taxation on newspapers and pamphlets. In 1833, the four-penny tax on newspapers was reduced to one penny. The same year Parliament agreed to remove the tax on pamphlets.

Tried in 1840 for selling Charles Junius Haslam's Letters to the Clergy of All Denominations, a serial one-penny publication containing Haslam's Deist criticism of the Bible, Hetherington was indicted on a blasphemous libel charge in February 1840.[1] Despite being willing to plead guilty in return for a suspended sentence, Abel Heywood, the publisher, was let go unpunished by the authorities.[1][2] Hetherington was convicted.

Leading Chartist

In his newspapers Henry Hetherington campaigned against child labour, the 1834 Poor Law and political corruption. Hetherington joined William Lovett, James Watson and John Cleave to form the London Working Men's Association (LWMA) in 1836. Hetherington, who became the LWMA first treasurer, helped draw up a Charter of political demands. By 1836 Hetherington was one of the leaders of the Chartist movement. Hetherington was a moral force Chartist and was very critical of the ideas of Feargus O'Connor and in 1849 helped create the moderate People's Charter Union.

Demise

Hetherington continued his campaign against taxes on newspapers and in 1849 formed the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee. A few months later, on 23 August 1849, Hetherington died of cholera at his residence at 57 Judd Street, Brunswick Square, London. He had been ill for some days, but held anti-medicinal views.

On 26 August two thousand people gathered at Kensal Green Cemetery to pay their respects to the man who had spent his adult life fighting for social reform. Orations were given by George Holyoake and James Watson.

In his will, Hetherington left only £200-worth of goods and chattels, and James Watson and Whitaker, his executors, had trouble in meeting the claims on his estate.

In June 1873 a granite obelisk was erected in his memory at Kensal Green Cemetery.

Organisations with which Hetherington was involved

Hetherington in print

Pamphlets and leaflets

Articles and letters

Speeches

During his career Hetherington made a great number of speeches, and many of these were reported in the press. The following are speeches which, by their length, can be considered a good representation of Hetherington's views, plus his ability as a speaker - in essence, they are of article length. There are numerous other occasions when Hetherington spoke at a meeting, but either he spoke only briefly or the reporter edited the speech to the extent that what remains is a short precis, and cannot provide any real information.

References

  1. 1 2 Marsh, Joss (1998). Word Crimes: Blasphemy, Culture, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century England. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 81-90. ISBN 0-226-50691-6, ISBN 978-0-226-50691-3.
  2. ↑ Levy, Leonard Williams (1995). Blasphemy: Verbal Offense Against the Sacred, From Moses to Salman Rushdie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 443. ISBN 0-8078-4515-9, ISBN 978-0-8078-4515-8.

Further reading

External links

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