WILLIAM BENBOW
Although a Protestant Minister himself he called for major reform of the church. He made little headway except to inform public opinion. He died in prison where he was incarcerated for “libel and sedition” major crimes in England at that time which had no freedom of speech or of the press guaranteed by a Bill of Rights.
In 1840 Benbow traveled the countryside promoting his one month general strike. He was arrested and imprisoned a few days before the strike was scheduled to begin. This did intimidate all the other strike leaders and the strike was called off. Benbow died in prison the following year.
William Benbow (1787 – 1864) was a nonconformist preacher, pamphleteer, pornographer and publisher, and a prominent figure of the Reform Movement in Manchester and London. He worked with William Cobbett on the radical newspaper Political Register, and spent time in prison as a consequence of his writing, publishing and campaigning activities. He has been credited with formulating and popularising the idea of a general strike for the purpose of political reform.
