From Sheffield to Raleigh: a Radical Publishing Network in the Age of Revolution

The launch of the Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information in 1791 is recognised by historians as one of the earliest and most radical expressions of organised working class calls for parliamentary reform in England. Research for this thesis has shown that Joseph Gales, the Sheffield publisher, was active in supporting the reform movement through his newspaper the Sheffield Register, with the help of his wife Winifred, a novelist, and his assistant, the poet James Montgomery, until the flight of the Galeses to America in 1794-95. However, existing historical scholarship has not explored the archival material in depth to reveal the detailed content of their radical journalism and publishing in the key years 1791-94. There is also a pronounced gap, despite the presence of a significant archive, in the later activities of the Galeses in North America, and of Montgomery in Sheffield in 1794-97. This thesis will seek to fill this gap in historical knowledge by showing in more detail the content and depth of their radical journalism and writings, their links with national and international reformers, and how their later claims of moderation are contradicted by the newly available data. This will be achieved by exploring the letters, poems, and editorials, of the Sheffield Register, the Sheffield Iris, and the Raleigh Register newspapers, the ―Recollections,‖ letters and novels of Winifred Gales, and the poems and prose writings of James Montgomery. There will also be a consideration of their place in the rise of a middling-sort class awareness, transatlantic radicalism, the role of feminist autobiographical diaries, and the boosterist activities of the Galeses in North Carolina.