Henry Hetherington (June 1792 – 24 August 1849) was an English printer, bookseller, publisher and newspaper proprietor who campaigned for social justice, a free press, universal suffrage and religious freethought.
[7][8] In 1822, he registered his own press and type at 13 Kingsgate Street, Holborn, an eight-roomed house, including shop and printing premises, costing £55 per annum rent.
[10] Hetherington then joined the London Mechanics Institute in Chancery Lane, founded by George Birkbeck to provide adult education to working-class men.
In an attempt to prevent working-class people from absorbing radical ideas, the Tory government of Lord Liverpool had increased the stamp duty on newspapers to fourpence in 1815, and extended it to cover periodicals in 1819.
Radical publishers such as Thomas Wooler, Richard Carlile and William Cobbett sold their publications duty paid, their sales declined and there was little attempt to defy the law during the 1820s.
[27] Hetherington published a string of such papers, the best known and most important being The Poor Man's Guardian (1831–1835), whose front page bore the slogan "Established Contrary To "Law" To Try The Power Of "Might" Against "Right"".
[29] Instead he toured the country, addressing NUWC meetings where he denounced the Whig Reform Bill for excluding working-class voters and the government for suppressing press freedom.
[38] One such meeting, at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand in February 1837, led to the LWMA drafting the People's Charter for parliamentary reform and Chartism became the main focus of its activity.
[39] Hetherington and other speakers, including John Cleave and Henry Vincent, toured the country promoting universal suffrage and encouraging local groups to organise along LWMA lines.
[44] Although Hetherington and other LWMA members supported the people's right to bear arms and resist attacks on their liberty, they became identified with "moral-force" Chartism.
[45][46] The rift became permanent in 1841 when Lovett, Hetherington and others announced the formation of the National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People (NA), whose aim was to achieve the Charter through educational and moral self-improvement.
[48][49] Hetherington remained in the NA for six or so years, but it was a small organisation, never able to challenge the supremacy of O'Connor and the NCA, and he turned his attention to other issues, including religious freethought, international politics and Owenism.
[55][56] In 1846 his commitment to freethought led to a rift with Lovett, after which Hetherington left the NA to join the atheist George Holyoake at the Literary and Scientific Institution, John Street.
He attended Owen's Rational Society conference in 1845[59] and, with Owenites such as Holyoake, Lloyd Jones and Robert Buchanan, founded the League of Social Progress in 1848.
[61] In 1844, following meetings to support the German radical, Wilhelm Weitling, Hetherington helped to form the Democratic Friends of All Nations, and he later joined Giuseppe Mazzini's Peoples' International League.
[65] This folded within a year and most of its ruling council, including Hetherington, rejoined the fight for a free press by forming the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee.