Joseph Gales was born in Eckington, Derbyshire
in 1761. He was apprenticed as a printer in Newark and in 1784 moved
to Sheffield where he started a publishing
business. Soon after arriving in the town Gales became a Unitarian.
This resulted in Gales joining the campaign to end the political disabilities
of dissenters. Gales also supported Radical Whigs
in the House of Commons, such as Charles
Grey and Richard Sheridan, who were
advocating parliamentary reform.
Gales met Tom Paine who inspired him to
start publishing his own radical newspaper. The first edition of the
Sheffield Register was published
on 9th June 1787. Gales pioneered the idea of a newspaper which gave
extensive coverage to local issues while reporting on major national
stories. Unlike most provincial newspapers, the Sheffield
Register did not rely on copying articles that had first appeared
in London journals.
Joseph Gales attempted to educate his readers. He published extracts
from the work of radical reformers such as Tom
Paine, William Godwin, Joseph
Priestley, Richard Price and John
Horne Tooke in the Sheffield Register.
In 1792 Gales began producing the fortnightly, Sheffield
Patriot, a journal that attempted to deal with political
issues in more depth than the Sheffield
Register.
The Sheffield Register both educated
and reflected the views of the artisans and small manufacturers in
the area. In 1791 the newspaper gave support to those people who opposed
the enclosure of 6,000 acres of land in Sheffield without compensation
to holders of common rights.
At the end of 1791 Gales helped form the Sheffield Constitutional
Society. This was the very first artisan political society. Speeches
made at public meetings held by the organisation was published in
great detail in the Sheffield Register.
In 1792 Gales made contact with the recently formed London
Corresponding Society. As an experienced publisher, Gales was
a useful contact and was recruited to serve on the committee of the
society.
In April 1793 Gales chaired an open meeting in Sheffield
on parliamentary reform. At the meeting it was decided to start a
petition in support of universal suffrage. Gales eventually presented
Parliament with a petition signed by 8,000 people from Sheffield.
By May 1794 the Sheffield Register
was selling over 2,000 copies a week. Such a large circulation was
extremely unusual for a provincial newspaper in the 18th century.
Sheffield was now seen as the most radical
town in Britain.
William Pitt and his government became concerned
about the activities of Gales. The authorities were particularly unhappy
when they heard that Gales had published the first ever cheap edition
(6d. a copy) of Tom Paine's Rights of Man.
The government was also worried about the growth and tactics of the
parliamentary reform movement in Sheffield. At a large meeting of
the Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information, chaired by Henry
Yorke, a resolution was passed that abandoned the policy of petitioning
Parliament. William Pitt and his government
feared that this meant that reformers in Sheffield would now resort
to violence.
The authorities had already started arresting members of the Corresponding
Societies. By 1794 Thomas Muir, Thomas
Fyshe Palmer, William Skirving, Joseph
Gerrald and Maurice Margarot had
been found guilty of sedition and had been sentenced to between seven
and fourteen years transportation. Thomas Hardy,
John Horne Tooke and John
Thelwall were also arrested and were in the Tower of London awaiting
trial.
Joseph Gales wrote articles in the Sheffield
Register attacking the arrest of reformers. He also mounted
a campaign against the suspension of habeas
corpus. Gales was now considered a dangerous man and was charged
with conspiracy. Aware that he would not receive a fair trial, Gales
decided to flee the country. After publishing the last edition of
the Sheffield Register on 27th
June, 1794, Gales escaped to Germany.
After a short stay in Europe, Gales emigrated to the United
States. He settled in North Carolina and in October 1799 began
publishing the successful Rayleigh Register.
Joseph Gales died in 1841.
(1)
Joseph Gales, the Sheffield Register (20th June, 1794)
Reader, if thou art a husband or a father, a wife or a mother, look
at thy own fire-side - look at thy own ties of affection at home,
then ask thy heart if it beats in unison to the glory of war, and
if the money so thrown away might not be better applied.
(2)
Joseph Gales, the Sheffield Register (27th June, 1794)
I have committed no crime but in these persecuting days, it is a sufficient
crime to have printed a newspaper which has boldly dared to doubt
the infallibility of ministers, and to investigate the justice and
policy of their measures.
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