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THE CHARTIST PHILOSOPHER: The life of Robert Blakey, 1795 -1878
“Blakey, the hatter, is sure to be there, / Who would blush if a Chartist head went bare.” In 1879, this little doggerel verse, which had been pinned up in a shop window in The Side in Newcastle upon Tyne forty years earlier, was recalled by a former Chartist now living in America. Newcastle was one of the main centres of Chartism, and Robert Blakey was one of the leaders of the movement during its springtime in 1838 and 1839.
Chartist Philosopher is the first complete biography of Robert Blakey – hatter, furrier, angler, field sportsman, parish radical, Chartist, philosopher and historian. He was born in 1795, brought up by his grandmother, had hardly any formal education, was at work as a gardener’s boy at the age of eight, became a hatter’s furrier while at the same time pursuing radical politics, fishing, shooting, writing and philosophy. In 1838 he bought the fiercely radical Northern Liberator and thereby saved it from closure, and in 1839 doubled it in size, investing heavily for the purpose in a new printing press and new types.
The following year he was ruined in three quick a downturn in trade, a fraudulent attempt to bankrupt him by a joint stock bank, and a prosecution by the government for seditious libel, the real purpose of which was to suppress the Northern Liberator without appearing to do so. From being a successful businessman, property owner and newspaper proprietor he was reduced to genteel poverty.
His response was to go with his wife and family to France where he “resolved to devote all my time and energies to philosophical literature,” a decision taken at the age of forty-six when he had a wife and four children dependent on him. His career thereafter was like a he was desperately short of money in France, in which, however, he was twice relieved by some wealthy expatriates who wanted to be authors without the trouble of writing a book, wrote a major work on the History of the Philosophy of Mind , was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics in Queen’s College, Belfast, lost his post two years later because of ill health, was again reduced to poverty, wrote another major work on the History of Political Literature , was made a doctor of philosophy of the university of Jena, became the popular author of several books on angling and field sports, and eventually retired to a village on the River Wye with a pension of £100 a year from the government, the same government which, twenty years before, had persecuted him for publishing a Chartist newspaper.
Chartist Philosopher is the first complete biography of Robert Blakey – hatter, furrier, angler, field sportsman, parish radical, Chartist, philosopher and historian. He was born in 1795, brought up by his grandmother, had hardly any formal education, was at work as a gardener’s boy at the age of eight, became a hatter’s furrier while at the same time pursuing radical politics, fishing, shooting, writing and philosophy. In 1838 he bought the fiercely radical Northern Liberator and thereby saved it from closure, and in 1839 doubled it in size, investing heavily for the purpose in a new printing press and new types.
The following year he was ruined in three quick a downturn in trade, a fraudulent attempt to bankrupt him by a joint stock bank, and a prosecution by the government for seditious libel, the real purpose of which was to suppress the Northern Liberator without appearing to do so. From being a successful businessman, property owner and newspaper proprietor he was reduced to genteel poverty.
His response was to go with his wife and family to France where he “resolved to devote all my time and energies to philosophical literature,” a decision taken at the age of forty-six when he had a wife and four children dependent on him. His career thereafter was like a he was desperately short of money in France, in which, however, he was twice relieved by some wealthy expatriates who wanted to be authors without the trouble of writing a book, wrote a major work on the History of the Philosophy of Mind , was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics in Queen’s College, Belfast, lost his post two years later because of ill health, was again reduced to poverty, wrote another major work on the History of Political Literature , was made a doctor of philosophy of the university of Jena, became the popular author of several books on angling and field sports, and eventually retired to a village on the River Wye with a pension of £100 a year from the government, the same government which, twenty years before, had persecuted him for publishing a Chartist newspaper.
823 pages, Paperback
Published April 24, 2023
About the author
Roger Hawkins
29 books2 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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