¹ Ashton Reporter, 30 Jan. 1869. p. 6Google ScholarPubMed. Also see ibid., 2 Oct. 1869 for Aitken's life.

² Northern Star (hereafter cited as NS), 17 Nov. 1838, p. 5. As a very young man Aitken was involved in the 1830 Ashton spinners' strike.

³ For a similar perspective, see Pickering, Paul, “Class Without Words: Symbolic Communication in the Chartist Movement,” Past and Present 112 (1986): 144–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁵ See, for instance, Allen, David, “Political Clubs in Restoration London,” Historical Journal 19 (1976): 561–580CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Money, John, “Taverns, Coffee Houses and Clubs: Local Politics and Popular Articulacy in the Birmingham Area, in the Age of the American Revolution,” Historical Journal 14 (1971): 15–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brewer, John, “Commercialization and Politics,” in The Birth of a Consumer Society; The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England, eds. McKendrick, Neil, Brewer, John, and Plumb, J. H. (London, 1983), pp. 197–262Google Scholar. For the concept of “the public sphere,” see Habermas, Jürgen, “The Public Sphere,” New German Critique 3 (1974): 43–55Google Scholar; also see Eley, Geoff, “Re-Thinking the Political: Social History and Political Culture in 18th and 19th Century Britain,” Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 21 (1981): 428–56Google Scholar.

⁶ Champion, 24 March 1838, cols. 1465–66; Manchester and Salford Advertiser, 17 March 1838, p. 3Google Scholar; NS, 14 March 1840, p. 5, for Oldham celebrations for Cobbett.

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¹² Knight, Frida, The Strange Case of Thomas Walker (London, 1957), chs. 6–9Google Scholar; Alves, H. O., “The Painites. The Influence of Thomas Paine in Four Provincial Towns, 1791–99,” (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1981), pp. 29–30, 32–33Google Scholar.

¹³ An Authentic Account of the Riots in Birmingham (Birmingham, 1791)Google Scholar; Rose, R. B., “The Priestley Riots of 1791,” Past and Present 18 (1960): 72Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Goodwin, Albert, The Friends of Liberty: The English Democratic Movement in the Age of the French Revolution (London, 1979), pp. 330–31, 361–62Google Scholar; NS, 11 Nov. 1843, p. 7, middle-class radicals dined to celebrate the 48th anniversary of the acquittals.

¹⁵ See Thompson, Making of the English Working Class, ch. 15; Belchem, John, “Orator” Hunt: Henry Hunt and English Working-Class Radicalism (Oxford, 1985), chs. 2–4Google Scholar; Glen, Robert, Urban Workers in the Early Industrial Revolution (Beckenham, 1983), ch. 9Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Public Records Office, Home Office (hereafter cited as PRO, HO), 40/4 (1, pt. 2), fos.72–77, Chippendale to Sidmouth, 4 Jan. 1817.

¹⁷ Manchester Observer (hereafter cited as MO), 20 Feb. 1819, pp. 476–77Google ScholarPubMed; PRO, HO 42/184, Lloyd to Hobhouse, 16 Feb. 1819; Livesey's report, enclosed in Norris to Sidmouth, 20 Feb.

¹⁸ MO, 20 Feb. 1819, p. 477; 19 June, pp. 609, 612–13; Wheeler's Manchester Chronicle, 26 June 1819; PRO, HO, 42/188, Norris to Sidmouth, 15–17 June 1819.

¹⁹ PRO, HO 42/192, Information and Examination of John Law, 14 Aug. 1819.

²⁰ See James Epstein, “Understanding the Cap of Liberty: Symbolic Practice and Social Conflict in Early Nineteenth Century England,” (forthcoming in Past and Present).

²¹ Bushaway, Bob, By Rite: Custom, Ceremony and Community in England, 1700–1880 (London, 1982), ch. 3Google Scholar; Glen, , Urban Workers, pp. 57, 63–64Google Scholar, for rituals of loyalism at Stockport.

²² Manchester Mercury, 15 Dec. 1818, p. 4Google ScholarPubMed; Wheeler's Manchester Chronicle, 12 Dec., p. 4.

²³ See reports of Manchester Pitt Club dinner, Manchester Mercury, 2 June 1818, p. 4Google ScholarPubMed; Wheeler's Manchester Chronicle, 30 May, p. 4Google Scholar. Also ibid., 4 July, p. 4. (Oldham dinner for Yeomanry Cavalry); 8 Aug., p. 4 (Bolton Waterloo Club); 22 Aug. p. 4 (Bolton celebration of Prince Regent's birthday); Manchester Mercury, 18 Aug. (Bolton Lord Nelson Club)—this is merely a brief selection of loyalistdining from one year.

²⁴ See Cunningham, Hugh, “The Language of Patriotism, 1750–1914,” History Workshop 12(1981): 9–18Google Scholar; Colley, Linda, “Whose Nation? Class and National Consciousness in Britain 1750–1830,” Past and Present 113 (1986): 108–09CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “The Apotheosis of George III: Loyalty, Royalty and the British Nation 1760–1820,” Past and Present 102 (1984): 127–29; see also, Newman, Gerald, The Rise of English Nationalism: A Cultural History (New York, 1987)Google Scholar.

²⁵ Knight, John, A Full and Particular Report of the Proceedings of the Public Meeting Held in Manchester on Monday the 18th of January 1819 (Manchester, 1819), p. 22Google Scholar: MO, 23 Jan. 1819. p. 445. At Hunt's trial in 1820, the government tried to admit in evidence the fact that Hunt had toasted “The Immortal Memory of Thomas Paine” at this dinner.

²⁶ Black Dwarf, 21 Apr. 1819, pp. 259–60Google Scholar; A Full, Accurate and Impartial Report of the Trial of John Bagguley, of Stockport, John Johnstone, of Salford, and Samuel Drummond, of Manchester (Manchester, 1819)Google Scholar.

²⁷ Wooler asserted: “Hampden was a revolutionist … Russell was a revolutionist,—Sydney another. Wallace, Bruce, and the patriots of all ages have been revolutionists” (Black Dwarf, 24 Feb., p. 118). For the centrality of Hampden, Sydney, and Russell to the Whig interpretation of the seventeenth century, see Donnelly, F. K., “Levellerism in Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Britain,” Albion 20, 2 (1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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²⁹ Whittingham-Jones, Barbara, “Liverpool's Political Clubs, 1812–1830,” Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society 69 (1959): 131Google Scholar. At metropolitan dinners to celebrate Burdett's election triumphs, whig-radicals followed the opening toast to “The King, the Constitution, the whole Constitution, and nothing but the Constitution,” with a toast simply to “The People.” Proceedings of the Late Westminster Election … Also an Account of the Procession, and Dinner at the Crown and Anchor (London, 1808), p. 252Google Scholar.

³⁰ Black Dwarf, 26 Aug. 1818, p. 529Google Scholar (London dinner for Cartwright); MO, 22 Aug. 1818, p. 267 (Birmingham dinner chaired by Sir Charles Wolseley).

³¹ Spence's Songs (London, n.d.). For an excellent account of Spencean political culture, see McCalman, Iain, “Ultra-Radicalism and Convivial Debating Clubs in London, 1795–1838,” English His-torical Review 102 (1987): 309–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For popular parodies of “God Save the King,” see Scholes, Percy A., God Save the Queen! The History and Romance of the World's First National Anthem (Oxford, 1954). ch. 19Google Scholar.

³² NS, 16 Nov. 1839, p. 5; Stafford, John, Songs Comic and Sentimental (Ashton, n.d., c. 1840)Google Scholar, copy in Tameside Local Library. I am grateful to Robert Hall for this reference. MO, 23 Oct. 1819, p. 798, opened a new column for “National Songs.”

³³ See Thompson, , Making of the English Working Class, p. 735Google Scholar; Donnelly, F. K. and Baxter, J. L., “Sheffield and the English Revolutionary Tradition, 1791–1820,” International Review of Social History 20 (1975): 415CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In January 1819, Hunt was thrown out of Manchester's Theatre Royal by a group of officers of the 7th Hussars for refusing to stand and uncover for the playing of “God Save the King.” This led to the closing of the theatre several nights later due to fears of a riot. MO, 23, 30 Jan. 1819, pp. 447–49, 455.

³⁴ The Trial of Henry Hunt, Esq. … For an Alledged Conspiracy to Overturn the Government (London, 1820), p. 185Google Scholar; Reports of State Trials, new series, vol. 1 (1820–1823), ed. Macdonell, John (London, 1888), col. 344Google Scholar.

³⁵ Cited by Tim Hilton in his “Preface” to Bamford, Samuel, Passages in the Life of a Radical (Oxford, 1984), p. 5Google Scholar.

³⁶ The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. T. E. Tomlins, 60 Geo. III, ch. 6; Belchem, John, “Orator” Hunt, p. 118Google Scholar; Thompson, Making, ch. 16, for working-class radicalism during the 1820s.

³⁷ MO, 29 Apr., 29 July, 5 Aug, 4 Nov. 1820, pp. 1007, 1107, 1114, 1227; New Times, 1 May, p. 2, 29 July, p. 2, 31 July, p. 2; PRO, Treasury Solicitor, 11/1055/4763.1 am grateful to Edward Thompson for this last reference.

³⁸ MO, 19 Aug. 1820, pp. 1130–31, for commemorations at Ashton, Manchester, Oldham, Royton, Stockport, Bolton; see also PRO, HO 40/14, Chippendale to Sidmouth, 16 Aug. 1820, fos. 148–49; Lloyd to Hobhouse, 17 Aug., fo. 160. The “National Prayer” was composed by Hunt for the Peterloo commemorations.

³⁹ Wooler's British Gazette and Manchester Observer, 31 Aug. 1822; Republican, 6 Dec. 1822, pp. 828–29; Manchester Guardian, 26 Oct., p. 3, 2 Nov. 1822, p. 4; 12 Apr. 1823, p. 3. It should be noted that the Seditious Meetings Act banned the display of seditious flags and banners. The case eventually went to Lancashire Assizes where the defendants pleaded guilty to sedition in return for being released on their own recognizance.

⁴⁰ See Cotton, N., “Popular Movements in Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge before 1832,” (M. Litt. diss., Birmingham University, 1977), pp. 135–59, for the 1820sGoogle Scholar.

⁴¹ MO, 11 Nov. 1820, p. 1235; Wooler's British Gazette and Manchester Observer, 17 Nov. 1821, pp. 98–99.

⁴² See Laqueur, Thomas W., “The Queen Caroline Affair: Politics as Art in the Reign of George IV,” Journal of Modern History 54 (1982): 417–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Calhoun, Craig, The Question of Class Struggle: Social Foundations of Popular Radicalism during the Industrial Revolution (Chicago, 1982), pp. 105–15Google Scholar; Prothero, Iorwerth, Artisans and Politics in Early Nineteenth-Century London: John Gast and His Times (Folkestone, 1979), ch. 7Google Scholar.

⁴³ MO, 29 Jan. 1820, p. 906, declared “if it were the last words we were doomed to utter to the British People, we should call upon them to cherish to their expiring moments, the IMMORTAL MEMORY OF THOMAS PAINE.”

⁴⁴ See Wiener, Joel H., Radicalism and Freethought in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Life of Richard Carlile (Westport, 1983), ch. 6Google Scholar; McCalman, Iain, “Popular Radicalism and Freethought in Early Nineteenth Century England: A Study of Richard Carlile and His Followers, 1815–1832,” (M.A. diss., Australian National University, 1975), chs. 3–4Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Republican, 8 March 1822, pp. 302–07Google ScholarPubMed. In 1821 Higson had hosted a dinner to celebrate Paine's birth. MO, 3 Feb. 1821, p. 37. For Hobson, see obituary, NS, 24 Mar. 1838, p. 6.

⁴⁶ Republican, 21 Mar. 1823, pp. 370–71Google ScholarPubMed, the dinner again was held at the Clayton's. Woder's British Gazette and Manchester Observer ceased publication in September 1822. The Manchester Observer had been the major organ of the Lancashire movement.

⁴⁷ Republican, 25 Jan. 1822, pp. 98–99Google ScholarPubMed; Lion, 18 Jan. 1828, p. 71Google Scholar; 7 Nov. 1828, p. 577, Carlile had wearied of the “stale, idle, useless toasts … and rabble-like cheering” at such dinners.

⁴⁸ See Belchem, John, “Republicanism, popular constitutionalism and the radical platform in early nineteenth-century England,” Social History 6 (1981): 1–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In contrast to the movement at Stockport, Ashton's radicals avoided serious divisions between Huntites and Carlileites. Glen, , Urban Workers, pp. 257–70Google Scholar, for Stockport.

⁴⁹ There were occasional attempts to re-open platform agitation in Lancashire. See PRO, HO 40/22, fos. 43, 52–53, 59–61, Eckersley to Hobhouse, 13, 17, 19 March 1827.

⁵⁰ PRO, HO 40/26 (1), fos. 160–63, roster to Melbourne, 6 Dec. 1830; HO 40/26 (2), fos. 178–79, Astley to Melbourne, 9 Dec.; Manchester Guardian, 4 Dec. 1830, p. 4Google Scholar, 11 Dec., pp. 3–4, 18 Dec., p. 3; Cotton, , “Popular Movements in Ashton-under-Lyne,” pp. 211–34Google Scholar; Kirby, R. G. and Musson, A. E., The Voice of the People; John Doherty, 1798–1854 Trade Unionist, Radical and Factory Reformer (Manchester, 1975), ch. 5Google Scholar.

⁵¹ A republican and freethinker, Higgins (born c. 1805) was a cotton spinner turned small green grocer; he was secretary to the Ashton Chartist Association. When arrested in summer 1839, a small arsenal was found at his house. See prison interview, HO 20/10; Treasury Solicitor, 11/1030/4424 A.

⁵² In 1839 the Ashton Chartists dined at the Walkers'. Mrs. Walker had been injured at Peterloo. The following year they dined at the Charlestown home of the “old republican” Abraham Matley who was a bricklayer. Dinners for Paine continued at the Claytons'. NS, 15 Nov. 1839, p. 5; 14 Nov. 1840, p. 3; 2 Feb. 1839, p. 5; 15 Feb. 1840, p. 5. In 1841 the census enumerator listed John Clayton, age 75, as a cotton weaver and Nancy, age 66, as a cotton bobbin winder. James and Abel Duke, active Chartists, were veteran republicans. James Duke, imprisoned for his Chartist activities in 1839, operated the Bush Inn, a key Chartist meeting place.

⁵³ See Address of the Female Radicals of Ashton, NS, 2 Feb. 1839, p. 3. Their chairwoman, Mrs. Williamson, was the wife of the radical printer Abel Williamson. For the involvement of women in Chartism, see Thompson, Dorothy, The Chartists: Popular Politics in the Industrial Revolution (London, 1984), ch. 7Google Scholar; Jones, David J. V., “Women and Chartism,” History 68 (1983): 1–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Ashton also had a large and active Juvenile Radical Association. NS, 29 June 1839, p. 4, 13 July, p. 5; 25 Apr. 1840, p. 5.

⁵⁴ NS, 14 Nov., 1840, p. 1; Aug. 1841, p. 1; Manchester and Salford Advertiser, 12 Dec. 1840, p. 2Google Scholar; posters in PRO, HO 40/54, 19 Dec. 1840, fos. 887, 901.

⁵⁵ “And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls,/Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.”

⁵⁶ At Rathcormac troops attempting to collect tithes in arrears fired on a crowd, killing twelve. Epstein, James, The Lion of Freedom: Feargus O'Connor and the Chartist Movement, 1832–42 (London, 1982), p. 17Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Redford, Arthur, Labour Migration in England, 1800–1850 (Manchester, 1974), pp. 36–39, 151–55Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ There had been strong links between Lancashire radicals and the Irish revolutionary movement in the 1790s. See Booth, Alan, “The United Englishmen and Radical Politics in the Industrial North-West of England, 1795–1803,” International Review of Social History 31 (1986): 271–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁶⁰ For the importance of Volney's Ruins, see Thompson, , The Making, pp. 98–99Google Scholar; Prothero, I. J., “William Benbow and the Concept of the ‘General Strike,’” Past and Present 63 (1974): 161–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶¹ Ibid., pp. 159–62; Jones, Gareth Stedman, Languages of Class: Studies in English Working Class History (Cambridge, 1983), ch. 3Google Scholar.

⁶² NS, 16 Nov. 1839, p. 5.

⁶³ Ibid., 29 Sept. 1838, p. 5, 6 Oct., p. 8, 13 Oct., p. 8; Champion 7–21 Oct.; Manchester Guardian, 29 Sept., p. 3.

⁶⁴ Epstein, , Lion of Freedom, pp. 119–21Google Scholar; also see Sykes, Robert, “Physical Force Chartism: the Cotton District and the Chartist Crisis of 1839,” International Review of Social History 30 (1985): 207–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁵ For the importance of Chartist expectations of a Peterloo-type incident, see Thompson, Dorothy, The Early Chartists (London, 1971), pp. 23–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁶ Ashton Reporter, 30 Jan. 1869, p. 6Google ScholarPubMed. Aitken misdated this incident to 1838.

⁶⁷ NS, 22 Aug. 1840, p. 5; 21 Aug. 1841, p. 8, the flag was displayed “as usual” at the Claytons'.

⁶⁸ At Hunt's trial, the prosecution had argued that the black flag which the Saddleworth radicals carried to Peterloo was the ensign of piracy.

⁶⁹ Ashton Reporter, 14 Nov. 1857; 5 Feb. 1859; Ashton and Statybridge Reporter, 20 Aug. 1859, commented: “Formerly parties who took such a course of showing their feelings [i.e. displaying black flags], were threatened with all the vengeance of the law.” I am grateful to Robert Hall for these references.

⁷⁰ Kirk, Neville, The Growth of Working Class Reformism in Mid-Victorian England (Beckenham, 1985), pp. 272–301Google Scholar; Joyce, Patrick, Work, Society and Politics: The Culture of the Factory in Later Victorian England (Brighton, 1980), chs. 4, 8Google Scholar.