Mark Crail
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markcrail.bsky.social
Mark Crail
@markcrail.bsky.social
3.5K followers 680 following 1.3K posts
Chartism and other #C19th stuff. Chartist Ancestors website, author of Tracing Your Labour Movement Ancestors and Chartist Lives, web editor Society for the Study of Labour History. Science fiction reader. https://linktr.ee/markcrail
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markcrail.bsky.social
Yes, it bears the stigmata use!
January 17, 2026 at 8:12 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
William Coleman Balls was born in Norwich #OnThisDay 16 January 1790. He was a key member of the City of London Charter Association, but in 1846 he was sent in chains to Norfolk Island, 900 miles off Australia. His is one of dozens of stories in Chartist Lives www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Map showing mostly sea to the east of Australia. Norfolk Island is a small dot east of Cairns and north of New Zealand surrounded by ocean.
January 16, 2026 at 7:41 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
What a great letter! I love Abney Park: I visited a while back to hunt down the grave of London Chartists Henry & Lucy Vincent and John Cleave. Walked round in circles for ages peering in bemusement at my map in a fruitless search for Bronterre. I suspect I walked past him two or three times.
January 13, 2026 at 4:57 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
A blatant and shameless advert…
Chartist Lives is just £9.99 in paperback, and you can also get it in hardback or as an ebook. Forty-two life stories for less than a tenner
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Front cover: Chartist Lives - 42 pen portraits that tell the stories of Chartist leaders and activists
January 11, 2026 at 11:06 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
This is the spot in Westminster Hall where, in January 1649, England put on trial an over-powerful and autocratic monarch as a prelude to his execution #NoKings
January 8, 2026 at 1:15 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Did the official Big Ben tour at Westminster today. Highly recommend it: get to climb the tower (from the inside, using stairs!), see the mechanism and clock faces, watch the bell strike up close. Excellent, knowledgable guide, too. Only issue is no photos, so here’s one of Westminster Hall.
Inside of medieval Westminster hall with 14th century hammer beam ceiling. Very few people there.
January 7, 2026 at 4:28 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Does anyone know a way to download multiple results from a search in Ancestry? I’d like to put all these (see screengrab) into a spreadsheet, but the only option seems to be to cut and paste each page.
#FamilyHistory #Genealogy
Results from searching ‘Feargus’ as a given name in the civil registration birth index. First 50 results listed in rows, but multiple pages to follow.
January 4, 2026 at 12:55 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Henry Vincent, Chartist orator and editor of the Western Vindicator, died #OnThisDay 29 December 1878. He was buried at Abney Park Cemetery, on a day that was ‘bitterly cold, the frozen snow lying everywhere upon the grass and paths’. His story is in Chartist Lives www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
December 29, 2025 at 3:05 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Susanna Inge, Secretary of the City of London Female Chartist Association, died #OnThisDay 26 December 1902 in New York aged 82. Hers is one of dozens of stories in Chartist Lives (£9.99 in paperback if you are looking to spend those Christmas Amazon vouchers) www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Portrait of woman in Victorian clothes. The photo is in an ornate gold photo frame, the left hand side of which is red velvet lined so that it folds closed.
December 26, 2025 at 7:43 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
Pick of the Christmas books. Looking forward to reading @katrinanavickas.bsky.social Contested Commons.
December 25, 2025 at 11:54 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
Sorry to bring bad news, but…

The Irish Chartist James Bronterre O’Brien, ‘the schoolteacher of Chartism’, died #OnThisDay, 23 December 1864, aged 59. He is buried at Abney Park Cemetery. His is one of dozens of stories told in Chartist Lives 📚
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Book cover. Text: Chartist Lives: 42 pen portraits that tell the stories of Chartist leaders and activists, by Mark Crail
December 23, 2025 at 7:31 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
Prove you’re not a Whig.
December 20, 2025 at 4:29 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Our picture shows members of the General Convention of the Industrious Classes writing their Christmas cards. A Chartist Happy Christmas to one and all.
Engraving of the 1842 Chartist convention members sitting round a table on which there is a large amount of paperwork. The image has been edited so that there is a Christmas tree in the corner of the room and some members wear Christmas hats and jumpers.
December 19, 2025 at 2:50 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Frances Wyatt was the matriarch of a prominent Chartist family and a mainstay of the City of London Female Charter Association. Her story is one of many to feature in Chartist Lives, out now in hardback, paperback and as an ebook #BookSky #C19th #History
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Sepia portrait photograph of elderly woman in 19th century working class clothing include a lace bonnet.
December 17, 2025 at 12:07 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Buy it now, ‘arrives before Christmas’
Chartist Lives 📚
Paperback £9.99; hardback £19.99; kindle £8.99.
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
December 12, 2025 at 8:36 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
Southampton Street, looking down towards the Strand. The National Charter Association had its offices at number 14 in the 1840s and early 1850s. I don’t think a single brick remains from that time in the entire street.
December 10, 2025 at 9:40 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
Been enjoying the Joseph Wright of Derby exhibition at the National Gallery this morning.
December 9, 2025 at 11:46 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
Chartist Lives 📚
#C19th #HistoryBooks
Paperback £9.99; hardback £19.99; kindle £8.99.
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
December 9, 2025 at 8:29 AM
markcrail.bsky.social
#Chartism #BookSky #History
Forty-two inspirational, committed, tumultuous, stirring, eccentric, breathtaking, unwavering, astonishing, entertaining, hapless, tragic and reprehensible Chartist lives for a tenner…
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Pile of green books showing just the spines on which are the title ‘Chartist Lives’ and the author name ‘Mark Crail’
December 7, 2025 at 12:39 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Pictured: Thomas Slingsby Duncombe is disappointed by the response to his rabbit-from-a-hat conjuring trick at the Chartist Christmas party.

The real story of the radical MP’s life is told in Chartist Lives…
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
December 5, 2025 at 1:40 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Something for the weekend?
Meeting all your #Chartism needs this Christmas
🇬🇧 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇮🇪 www.amazon.ie/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇺🇸 www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇦🇺 www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇨🇦 www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Cover of book Chartist Lives and QR code link to amazon.
December 5, 2025 at 12:48 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Heard about the Nottingham Chartist caught running guns into South Wales? George Black’s story is one of 42 told in Chartist Lives
🇬🇧 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇮🇪 www.amazon.ie/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇺🇸 www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇦🇺 www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
🇨🇦 www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
November 30, 2025 at 1:36 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Clerkenwell Green, a rallying place for Chartists throughout the 1840s. Green building is the Marx Memorial Library.
November 29, 2025 at 1:25 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
Saffron Hill, home to Charles Dickens’ Fagin, where London Chartists met to plan an armed uprising at Hopkinson’s Coffee House in the summer of 1848. www.chartistancestors.co.uk/orange-tree-...
November 29, 2025 at 1:18 PM
markcrail.bsky.social
This was Turnagain Lane, home to the Political and Scientific Institute where the City of London Chartist Association met in the 1840s. Truncated in 1867 by the Holborn Viaduct and now disappearing entirely. www.chartistancestors.co.uk/55-old-baile...
. www.chartistancestors.co.uk/55-old-baile...
November 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM