Samuel Holberry: Chartist Conspirator or Victim of a State Conspiracy

Abstract

In January 1840, Samuel Holberry a Sheffield Chartist, was committed to trial at Sheffield Assizes for seditious conspiracy. A critical examination of the evidence presented at the committal hearing and subsequent Assize trial demonstrates that the court process was entirely one-sided. The quality of the evidence used to secure a conviction was, at the very least, suspect, and the prosecution appear to have withheld evidence that could have vindicated Holberry. An in-depth analysis of the case seeks to lay bare the workings of the coercive and judicial powers of the nineteenth century state.