In the latest in a series of features marking the 180th anniversary of the Newport Rising, we looked at some of the eyewitness accounts of the insurrection from the time.

ON MANY occasions in the decades after it was first published in 1892, the Argus published accounts from people with memories of the Chartist Rising.

Some were direct memories from people old enough to remember as far back as 1839, other were stories that had been passed down by word of mouth from one generation to another.

In the process, stories may have been exaggerated, distorted or the facts confused, but all give an indication of how the story of the Chartists has been kept alive.

MORE NEWS:

THE MARCH

The grandmother of Lucretia Jones had lived at Govilon.

The story she passed down to Lucretia was published in the Argus in 1940:

"When the Chartists marched through Govilon it was stated that one man would be taken from each house en route.

"The small village of Govilon was terrified.

"The appointed day came and all the villagers went to chapel to pray.

"Rain fell heavily and the Chartists passed by without incident."

South Wales Argus:

This portrait of John Frost, drawn at his trial, was presented to the mayor of Newport in 1931 and appeared in the Argus at the time. It is now held by Newport Museum and Art Gallery

DEATH AT THE WESTGATE

Henry Mullock, brother of Newport artist James Flewitt Mullock, recalled the events at the Westgate in the Argus in 1897:

"I was in the house of Mr Webber with his son Gus.

"We were upstairs looking out through the window at the huge procession coming down Stow Hill, a steady stream of men, holding pikes, staves, guns and all sort of weapons.

"We watched until they turned the corner of the Westgate and began smashing the windows.

"Troops were in Sir Thomas Phillips’s office (lately Wildings) and others were in the hotel.

"Suddenly a bullet struck the venetian blinds of one of the windows of the room, and we bolted down Skinner Street and up Corn Street.

"By that time all had departed except eight men, lying dead or dying on the pavement at the Westgate.

"Boylike we examined them without a pang of horror.

"Suddenly we heard a shout and the soldiers in Sir Thomas Phillips’s office were pointing their guns at us.

"We made another bolt, where I do not remember, but shortly I got home, and found my father had been standing at his door and that a bullet sent through his shop window had lodged in the wall.

"This bullet I had, but it has disappeared."

South Wales Argus:

Weapons and equipment used by the Chartists and truncheons belonging to special constables. Picture: Newport Museum and Art Gallery

Captain William Parfitt, dockmaster at the Alexandra Dock, remembered the events, which took place when he was nine years old, when interviewed by the Argus shortly before his death in 1915:

"He was on the dam of the Town Dock, then in the course of construction, on the morning when the Chartists marched into Newport, and he heard their shouting.

"Later he went down to the Westgate square, and found the town in commotion, though the Chartists had fled, leaving their dead and wounded.

"His father, by the way, although a pilot, had been sworn in as a special constable."

South Wales Argus:

William Parfitt

Mrs Honeywell, interviewed in 1924, was approaching her 100th birthday and clearly remembered the scenes at the Westgate, which happened when she was 14:

"She was in service at the time with a Mrs Harris of Llanarth Street.

"She remembers the rioters coming down Stow Hill in a dense mass, and saw a contingent of soldiers march into the Westgate Hotel.

"She heard the mayor read the Riot Act, and then ran away and hid herself.

"Curiosity, however, overcame her fears and later she went to the Westgate and there saw the bodies of those men shot by the soldiers.

"She remembers, too, that her father, who was a peace-loving man, assembled a large number of the members of his church and locked them in the chapel so that the Chartists might not be able to get at them and induce them to join their ranks."

MORE NEWS:

AFTERMATH

In 1932 Lewis Jones was interviewed on the occasion of his 92nd birthday:

"Mr Jones went to Llanover in 1864 and kept a sub post office.

"He married Miss Harris, daughter to a blacksmith whose forge was nearly opposite Llantarnam church.

"Her two brothers, John and Henry, who were Chartists, escaped to California at the time of the riots and were not heard of after."

John Kyrle Fletcher was a local historian who owned an antiques shop in Bridge Street, Newport. He collected stories from old Chartists and used them in articles in the Argus in the 1920s and 1930s:

"There was an old Chartist living in Baneswell.

"He was a native of Magor and joined the Chartists; he was only 17 and was horribly scarred by the fighting...

"He ran away and from Bristol sailed to the United States.

"At the age of 70, after being away for 53 years he came back to die in his own country, but 20 years later at the age of 90 he was still hale and hearty and lived on a few years longer to enjoy life at home."

South Wales Argus:

Kyrle Fletcher

Shortly before his death in 1914, Adam Frost talked to the Argus about John Frost, his father’s cousin:

"I remember him well. The first time John Frost came back from Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania) I was nine or ten years of age, and I followed the carriage which took him to Llanarth Street where he spoke to the public from an upstairs window.

"The people took the horses out of the carriage which took him to Llanarth Street, and he was treated quite as a popular hero.

"He lived in Bristol and usually came to see my father when he came over to Newport."

This is part of a series of features marking the 180th anniversary of the Newport Uprising.