On this day in 1840 three Chartists who had been condemned to death following the Newport Uprising, the last large armed rebellion against government in Britain arrived in Hayle harbour.  Beginning on Monday November 4th, 1839, five to ten thousand Chartist sympathisers marched on Newport determined to free fellow Chartists who were believed to be detained in the Westgate Hotel.  

At least 22 Chartists were killed when the troops fired on them after the reading of the Riot Act. 

The three leaders, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones were the last men in Britain to be sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered but had been reprieved and sentenced to transportation for life.  They arrived  in Hayle on their way from Newport to a prison ship in Portsmouth prior to transportation. 

Williams earned a fortune from the coal industry in Tasmania and after all three were pardoned (May 3^rd, 1856) he and Frost returned to England.  Jones remained in Tasmania working as a watchmaker but was unsuccessful and died in poverty. Zephaniah Jones settled in  Launceston where he died in 1874 and he is buried in East Devonport.