| Thomas Jonathan Wooler |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT THOMAS JONATHAN WOOLER | |
| 1786 births | |
| wooler, thomas jonathan | |
| 1853 deaths | |
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He was born in Yorkshire, then moved to London as a printer's apprentice. He worked for the radical journal ''the Reasoner'' then became editor of ''the Statesman''. His interest in legal matters led to him writing and publishing the pamphlet ''An Appeal to the Citizens of London against the Packing of Special Juries'' in 1817 . In response to the Gagging Acts passed by the British government in January 1817 Wooler started publishing ''The Black Dwarf'' as a new radical unstamped journal. Within three months he was arrested and charged with Seditious Libel . The prosecution claimed that Wooler had written articles libelling Lord Liverpool's government, but Wooler, defending himself, convinced the jury that though he had published the article he had not written it, and so was not guilty. Throughout, he continued to publish ''The Black Dwarf'' and to use it to argue for parliamentary reform. Wooler was an active supporter of Major John Cartwright (political Reformer) and his Hampden Club movement, and in 1819 he joined the campaign to elect Sir Charles Wolseley to represent Birmingham in the House Of Commons . Birmingham had not been given permission to have an election, and the campaigners were arrested and charged with "forming a seditious conspiracy to elect a representative to Parliament without lawful authority". Wooler was found guilty and sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment. After his main patron Major John Cartwright died in 1824 , Wooler gave up publishing ''the Black Dwarf''. For a while he edited the '' British Gazette '', then after the Reform Act 1832 was passed he gave up politics to became a lawyer. Wooler went on to write books and pamphlets on the British legal system, including '' Every Man His Own Lawyer '' in 1845 . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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