A printer by trade and one of Chartism’s key lieutenants, William Edwin Adams (1832-1906) became well known in radical circles on both sides of the Atlantic as the editor-in-chief of Joseph Cowen’s Newcastle Weekly Chronicle. Inspired by the writings of Thomas Paine and the Italian revolutionary Guiseppe Mazzini, Adams made a significant contribution to the English tradition of dissent and to the indigenous Republican movement in the late nineteenth century. The talk explores the range of Adams’ republican values, interests and activities; it also suggests how the ‘republican narrative’ which he and others upheld  in Victorian Britain is still relevant to contemporary politics.

Formerly Head of the Division of History at Staffordshire University, UK, Prof  Ashton has written extensively on the Chartist Movement. Among his publications are: W.E. Adams, Chartist, Radical and Journalist (1991); with R. Fyson and S. Roberts (eds.) The Chartist Movement: A New Annotated Bibliography (1995) and The Duty of Discontent: Essays for Dorothy Thompson (1995); with Stephen Roberts, The Victorian Working Class Writer (1996); with Paul A. Pickering, Friends of the People: Uneasy Radicals in the Age of the Chartists (2002); and with Joan Allen (eds.) Papers for the People. A Study of the Chartist Press (2005). In retirement he has also contributed  on  a number of Chartists -turned -journalists figures to Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor (eds.) Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland, (2009); and  also on aspects of Chartism in Labour History Review and Llafur ( The Welsh Labour History Journal). Currently, he is the Series Editor for the Chartist Series published by the Merlin Press in London.