William Jones (Chartist)

William Jones
1874 engraving
Born	William Jones 1809
Died	20 February 1873 (aged 64)[1] Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Occupations	Actor Watchmaker
Criminal charge	High Treason
Criminal penalty	Death, commuted to Transportation
Criminal status	Full Pardon granted 1856

William Jones (1809–1873) was a political Radical and Chartist, who was a former actor, working as a watchmaker at Pontypool in Monmouthshire and also kept a beer house.

He was prosecuted for his part in the Chartist Newport Rising at Newport, Monmouthshire on 4 November 1839.

Along with John Frost and Zephaniah Williams, he was appointed a leader of a column of men in what is sometimes regarded as the greatest armed rebellion in 19th-century Britain.^[2]

Jones was supposed to be bringing men to Newport from the Pontypool area and the eastern valleys of Monmouthshire on the night of the rising, but they never arrived, delaying the main body of Chartists final march into Newport into the daylight hours and thus partly contributing to its defeat.

He was captured a few days after the rising. He was imprisoned in Monmouth County Gaol and placed on trial at the Shire Hall in Monmouth. He was sentenced to death for High Treason, but his sentence was commuted and he was sentenced to penal transportation to Australia for life.