In 1839, there were three lodges of bookbinders in London, and they undertook a thirty-week strike to limit the number of apprentices being taken on.
This was broadly successful, as the masters agreed to recognise the workers' right to unionise, and some limits were placed on future numbers of apprentices.
He remained secretary of the lodge until 1873, when he was severely injured by being hit by a vehicle, and continued to edit the union's journal, the Circular, until his death in 1875.
[1] In later years, the union became known as the London Consolidated Society of Journeymen Bookbinders.
It supported the eight-hour movement, and was a founding member of the Printing and Kindred Trades Federation.