Newport Rising

Newport Rising
The attack of the Chartists on the Westgate Hotel
Date 4 November 1839 Location Newport, Wales Result Rising defeated March leaders arrested
Belligerents
Chartists	Newport Council Newport Borough Police British Army
Commanders and leaders
John Frost Zephaniah Williams William Jones	Thomas Phillips  (WIA)
Units involved
	45th Regiment of Foot
Strength
1,000–5,000	60 soldiers 500 special constables
Casualties and losses
22 dead 50+ wounded	4 wounded

Newport Council

The Newport Rising was the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in Great Britain, and one of the largest civil massacres committed by the British government in the 19th century, when, on 4 November 1839, almost 10,000Chartist sympathisers, led by John Frost, marched on the town of Newport, Monmouthshire. The men, including many coal-miners, most with home-made arms, were intent on liberating fellow Chartists who were reported to have been taken prisoner in the town's Westgate Hotel. About 22 demonstrators were killed when troops opened fire on them. The leaders of the rebellion were convicted of high treason and were sentenced to a traitor's death. The sentence was later commuted to transportation for life.

The origins of Chartism in Wales can be traced to the foundation in the autumn of 1836 of Carmarthen Working Men's Association.

Among the factors that precipitated the rising were the House of Commons' rejection of the first Chartist petition, the People's Charter of 1838, 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 the protesters down from the industrialised valley towns to the north of Newport. Some of the miners who joined the march had armed themselves with home-made pikes, bludgeons and firearms.

The march was headed by Frost leading a column into Newport from the west, Zephaniah Williams leading a column from Blackwood to the northwest and William Jones leading a column from Pontypool to the north.

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Wikipedia