Gwent Chartists Vol.32, p.16

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Samuel Etheridge sworn. I am a Gard-ner

and live in the Parish of Christchurch

I remember the morning of the 4th -

November when a large body of

Chartists entered the town of Newport

On the 15th November my House was

searched - there was produced to me

at the Westgate Inn when I was -

examined a paper writing shewing

- how the people were to be

organized - it was then represented
to have been found in my House
and I then recollected to have seen
it once about 12 months ago -
as I believe - I believe it to be in
the handwriting of the Prisoner- it
was delivered to me on last Thursday
week when I was discharged at
Monmouth. I received it from
Mr Thomas Jones Phillips, on the

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next morning it was burnt together with
all the other papers which had been delivered
me by Mr T. J. Phillips - the substance of
the paper was that the people were
to be organised into sections or Classes
of ten, each section having a leader.

I remember that the organisation was to proceed upward until
the number formed a Brigade
I was Secretary to the Chartist association
at Newport for about six months - it was -
held at the Bush. I believe I found the
paper amongst other papeers ^ of the association at the
Bush - the Prisoner was a member of
the association when I was Secretary -
It was called the Working Mens -
association and was established in-
August 1838. I joined it in or
about October in that year and soon
after became Secretary - the Prisoner
I believe was a member all the time
I was Secretary - there was another
Secretary in whose possession the

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Books were left when I ceased being
Secretary which was in the first week
in June 1839. I never saw the Prisoner
out of Newport but on one occasion
when he and I went to Crosspenmain
to attend a Chartist meeting - I went
to report the Proceedings for the
Silurian Newspaper, He
went to obtain signatures to a
Petition which was called a -
Chartist Petition. The Prisoner has
collected money for the purposes
of the Association. There were -
between 5 & 600 members of the
Association at Newport at one
time, each member had a Card -
the number of each member on
his Card & a corresponding member
entered in a Book - each member
was expected to subscribe a
penny a week - The Association

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was not confined to working men -
there were tradesmen joined the Association
and merchants as well. I remember Mr Wells
and Mr Townsend joining the Association -
there was an Association at Caerleon -
another at Pontnewynydd, 2 or 3 at
Blackwood and altogether in the County
8 or 10. - There was a womans Association
at Newport, also a boys association -
each of them had a Secretary and Treasurer
and managing Committee. I have
only attended one meeting of the Newport
association since the month of June last -
It was a great object of the association in Newport
and other places to get the middle classes to join
the working men - they generally failed in that
object. Mr Wells and Mr Townsend are general
merchants and deal in Iron and provisions
When I ceased to attend the meetings of
the Association in June the numbers were
increasing. When I left the Association there -
may have been 50 members who were tradesmen


Octavius Morgan
Saml Homfray
James Coles
Thos Hawkins
W Brewer
T Phillips
Samuel Etheridge
[Written vertically across the text]

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______________________the 16th Inst
I was discharged on Thursday on
the following Friday morning I went to
return thanks to Mr Feargus OConnor
for employing a Counsel for me.
Mr O'Connor and Mr Geach were in the
___at the Beaufort Arms at Monmouth
room ^ Mr O Connor asked me to
let him have the Papers which I had
the day before received from Mr Phillips.
They were all destroyed by Mr O Connor
and Mr Geach in the presence of
Mr Owen the Attorney - When I gave
up the papers to Mr O'Connor I -
did not expect he was going to
destroy them - I thought he was
going to take them with him -
The Prisoner had formerly given me -
manuscripts containing the History of his
life, those manuscripts were in the same
hand writing as the Paper I have been
speaking of - I never saw the Paper
in his presence and I have never

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heard him speak about it. While I was
Secretary I never recollect his refusing
a Card. I cannot tell whether the Prisoner
was a member of the Association at the
time I found the Paper, he had been
a member before that time & I don't
know that he had resigned -
Sam l Etheridge

Taken before us

Octavius Morgan

James Coles

Sam l Homfray

Thos Hawkins

Thos Phillips

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27th Jany 1840

The Queen
agt
Richard Rorke -
For Riot & Conspiracy.
Depositions.
(out on Bail)

Borough of
Newport

Q S D 32 0016

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