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In 1788, the Chartist leader, William Cuffay,was born at Brompton, near Chatham. He was the eldest child of Chatham and Julianna Cuffay. His father, Chatham, was born on the island of St Kitts in 1755, and his mother Julianna came from Gillingham. His grandfather was an enslaved person. In 1772, Chatham moved to Medway and was baptised at St Mary’s Church, Chatham. Chatham took his new name from the town in which he found himself. In 1786, Chatham Cuffay and Julianna Fox were married at St Mary Magdalene Church in Gillingham.¹

William suffered from ill health due to a “deformed” spine and shins from birth.² He grew to be only 4 foot 11, just under half a foot shorter than the average man of the time. William grew up in and around the Chatham dockyard, where his father worked as a cook for the British Navy. William was the oldest of six children. He had four brothers and one sister, although his youngest brother John died in infancy.³ When William was around 12, his father arranged for him to train as an apprentice tailor. The seven years of training helped supplement the family’s income and provided William with a valuable trade. After he completed his apprenticeship, he worked at ‘Acworth and Matthews’ which was on Chatham High Street.⁴

In about 1819, William moved to London. In the same year, he married Ann Marshall; who died five years later. William visited Medway regularly whilst living in London. He married his second wife, Ann Broomhead, in 1825, and a year later William’s only child, Ann Juliana Cuffay, was born. Unfortunately, his wife died during childbirth and his daughter died shortly after her baptism at St Mary Magdalene’s Church.⁵ William remarried for the third and final time in 1827 to Ann Manvell.⁶

In London, William joined a trade union. Unions did not have legal status until the Trade Union Act 1871, and beng a member could be dangerous not only for a person’s career but also for safety. Nonetheless, William gained respect from his peers. Reynolds’ Political Instructor documents,

‘In a letter written by one who has known [him] upwards of forty years, “Cuffay was a good spirit – I have known some thousands in the trade, and I never knew a man I would sooner confide in, and I believe this to be the feeling of thousands in the business to this day.’⁷

In 1834, the tailors went on strike, eventually, returning to work due to the financial strain on their households.⁸ William held out a little longer than most, but ultimately gave in. However, he was not allowed back to work and was dismissed.

After struggling as a travelling tailor, William turned to politics, becoming a Physical Force Chartist in 1839. The Charter had six main aims: universal male suffrage, a secret ballot, no property qualification to become a Member of Parliament, Members of Parliament are to be paid a wage, electoral districts of equal size, annual elections.⁹ In 1842, William was elected as President of the London Chartists, featuring in a Times article on ‘The Black Man and His Party’.¹⁰ The increased publicity led to William’s third wife, Mary Ann, being dismissed from her job.¹¹

1848 was a pivotal year in Chartist’s history. Tension grew, and protests were intensified.¹² The Government feared a similar uprising to the ones occurring on mainland Europe. In April of the same year, William helped organise a mass demonstration to march from South London across Westminster Bridge to Parliament. The Government put a heavy military and police presence in the area, closed off roads, and recommended Queen Victoria retire to the Isle of Wright. Chartist leader Fergus O’Connor made a deal with Parliament to deliver the petition himself and cancel the planned protest, in order to prevent many lives from being lost. William and many other Physical Force Chartists were furious, on the basis that if the authorities were seen assaulting demonstrators in such a public place, the news would travel around the world and the Government would be held accountable.

In 1848 the Chartist movement was infiltrated by government spies, and William was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to levy war against Her Majesty Queen Victoria and her Government. In Newgate Prison, his friend, William Paul Dowling, drew a portrait of William, which is the only documentation of his appearance. It is now held by the National Portrait Gallery. The broadsheets mocked William and other ‘non-English’ Chartists. They suggested that most of the people involved in protests throughout the year were not of English heritage. The Illustrated London News, ridiculed William’s ‘ni**er humour’.¹³

William was tried in 1849, insisting that the court had no right to try him as all the jurors were middle-class and that he should be tried with a jury of ‘his equals’. However like the right to vote, jury service included a property qualification.¹⁴ As the trial neared its end, William gave a passionate final speech in which he talked about being deomonised by the press and gave his reasons for carrying a gun: ‘My Lords, I say you ought not to sentence me. First, because although this has been a long and important trial, it has not been a fair trial. – I have been taunted by the press and it has tried to smother me with ridicule and it has done everything in its power to crush me. – I was threatened with assassination, and therefore, I considered I had a right, and indeed every English man has a right according to Old Statute to have arms.’¹⁵

William was found guilty as charaged, narrowly avoiding the death penalty. He was sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania, for life.

After a journey lasting 103 days on the prison ship Adelaide, William arrived in Tasmania in November 1849. After an almost four-year delay, Mary Ann joined him. On 19th May 1856, William was officially pardoned. However, he decided to stay in Australia.¹⁶ He worked as a travelling tailor and remained in local politics until the last year of his life. In October 1869, William was admitted to a workhouse and died at the age of 82 in July 1870.

William’s wish for universal male suffrage was achieved 48 years after his death when the Representation of People Act 1918 was introduced. The Act allowed all men over 21 and women over 30 who met the property qualifications the right to vote.¹⁷

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