READ, W. (Engraver)

John Frost.

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n.d., but c. London, 1840. Stipple engraving, 354 x 248 mm.; in very good condition with all borders intact, mounted. John Frost (1781-1877) was a magistrate and one-time mayor of the Welsh coal-mining town of Newport. He was one of the leaders of the Chartist Newport Rising of 1839, which involved over five thousand miners and labourers.

For his role in the protest, Frost was tried for sedition, and sentenced "to be hung, drawn, and quartered" - reputedly the last time that notorious sentence was handed down. The sentence was commuted to life transportation to Van Diemens Land, where he arrived in 1840.

As a political prisoner, Frost was excused from hard labour and was instead assigned various clerical and teaching positions. He received his ticket-of-leave in 1846, and ten years later a free pardon. On his return to England he published two accounts of his experiences, Horrors of Convict Life, 1856, and A Letter of the People of Great Britain and Ireland on transportation, 1857.

This portrait is engraved after an original painting by W. Read (fl. 1824-1837), a London portraitist and engraver. It is one of four known portraits of Frost which were published around the time of his arrest and trial. It was subsequently reproduced in the Gentlemen's Magazine in 1893.
Nan Kivell and Spence, p. 118.

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• Bestellnummer: 111_088

• Antiquariat: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)