The Newport Rising was the last large-scale armed rising in Wales, by Chartists whose demands included democracy and the right to vote with a secret ballot.
On Monday 4 November 1839, approximately 4,000 Chartist sympathisers, under the leadership of John Frost, marched on the town of Newport, Monmouthshire. En route, some Newport chartists were arrested by police and held prisoner at the Westgate Hotel in central Newport. Chartists from industrial towns outside of Newport, including many coal-miners, some with home-made arms, were intent on liberating their fellow Chartists. Fighting began, and soldiers of the 45th Regiment of Foot, deployed in the protection of the police, were ordered to open fire. Between 10 and 24 Chartists were confirmed killed, whilst reports of perhaps a further 50 injured. Four soldiers were reported as injured, as well as the mayor of Newport who was within the hotel. Subsequently, the leaders of the rising were convicted of treason and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. The sentences were later commuted to transportation.
The origins of Chartism in Wales can be traced to the foundation, in the autumn of 1836, of the Carmarthen Working Men's Association.
Among the factors that precipitated the rising were the House of Commons' rejection of the first Chartist petition for democracy, in the People's Charter of 1838 (which called for universal suffrage, secret ballot, a salary for MPs, giving those who did not own property the right to vote, etc.) on 12 July 1839, and the conviction of the Chartist Henry Vincent for unlawful assembly and conspiracy on 2 August.
Some kind of rising had been in preparation for a few months and the march had been gathering momentum over the course of the whole weekend, as John Frost and his associates led their followers down from the industrialised valley towns to the north of Newport. Some of the miners who joined the rising had armed themselves with home-made pikes, bludgeons and firearms.
A column was headed by Frost who led it into Newport from the west, Zephaniah Williams led a column from Blackwood to the northwest and William Jones led a column from Pontypool to the north.
The exact rationale for the confrontation remains opaque, although it may have its origins in Frost's ambivalence towards the more violent attitudes of some Chartists, and the personal animus he bore towards some of the Newport establishment. The Chartist movement in southeast Wales was chaotic in this period and the feelings of the workers were running extremely high.
Events leading up to the Rising
Heavy rainfall delayed the Chartists and there were delays in the planned meeting of each contingent at the Welsh Oak in Rogerstone. Jones and his men from Pontypool in fact never arrived, delaying the final march into Newport into the daylight hours, which might have prevented further deaths at the hands of the soldiers. As the columns progressed down the valleys on the Sunday morning, even one entire chapel congregation willingly joined, swelling the ranks of the Chartists.
After spending Sunday night mostly out of doors in the rain, the commitment of many of the Chartists was tested. Many had allegedly been ambivalent to the Chartist cause in the first place, more concerned with the immediate problems of their own employment conditions. Thus many Chartists did not participate in the final rising in Newport and simply waited in the outskirts of the town.
Rumours of a possible Chartist rising and alleged violence elsewhere, following the earlier arrest of Chartist leader Henry Vincent and his imprisonment at the gaol in Monmouth, meant that the authorities expected there might be a riot. The sheer scale of the rising, however was not fully appreciated until 3 November, the day before the rising. The authorities quickly prepared. The Mayor of Newport Thomas Phillips had sworn in 500 Special Constables and asked for more troops to be sent. There were about 60 soldiers stationed in Newport already, and he gathered 32 soldiers of the 45th (Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot in the Westgate Hotel where the Chartist prisoners were held.
It is estimated that nearly 10,000 Chartist sympathisers marched on the town. The Chartists were convinced that some of their fellows had been imprisoned at the Westgate Hotel. Filing quickly down the steep Stow Hill, the Chartists arrived at the small square in front of the hotel at about 9.30 am. It is unclear whether the Chartists knew that the hotel was defended by soldiers, who had only arrived at the hotel shortly before their march on the town began.
The flash point came when the Chartists, who had surrounded the hotel arranged in regular order, demanded the release of those imprisoned inside, when one side or the other (it is not known which) began firing. A brief, violent and bloody battle ensued. The soldiers defending the hotel despite being greatly outnumbered by the large and very angry crowd, had vastly superior firepower. As many as 80 shots were fired by the Chartists into the hotel, and the Chartists did manage to enter the building temporarily, but were forced to retreat in disarray. After a fiercely fought battle, lasting approximately half an hour, between 10 and 24 of their number had been killed and upwards of 50 had been wounded.
Amongst the defenders of the hotel, Mayor Thomas Phillips was badly wounded, shot in the arm and groin whilst calling on the Chartists to lay down their arms, and one soldier was seriously hurt, along with two of the special constables. Another of the defenders, Sergeant James Daily, had received six slugs to the head. As the chartists fled they abandoned many of their weapons, a selection of which can still be seen in Newport Museum.
Some of the Chartist dead were buried in St. Woolos parish church (now Newport Cathedral) in the town where there is still a plaque to their memory. An urban myth persists that some of the bullet holes from the skirmish remained in the masonry of the hotel entrance porch until well into modern times. In reality the Westgate Hotel has been rebuilt since the uprising. The "bullet holes" may be bomb damage from the Second World War.
Westgate Hotel First Shots Question
Sources differ as to who opened fire first, and for what reason. Edward Patton, a carpenter who gave testimony at the trial of John Frost and who claimed not to be a Chartist but instead merely an observer present at the scene to "see what happened", claimed that he did not know who fired first, but that it was "likely enough that firing began from inside the Westgate Hotel". R.G. Gammage, a Chartist who disapproved of violence, claimed in his 1854 history of the Chartist movement that some of the crowd had fired through the windows before the soldiers returned their fire. Thomas Bevan Oliver, a special constable guarding the door of the hotel, claimed that he had bumped the door against the gun of one of the Chartists, accidentally discharging it.
In the aftermath 200 or more Chartists were arrested for being involved and twenty-one were charged with high treason. All three main leaders of the rising, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and William Jones, were found guilty on the charge of high treason and were sentenced at the Shire Hall in Monmouth to be hanged, drawn and quartered. They were to be the last people to be sentenced to this punishment in England and Wales.