The Tolpuddle Martyrs and Greensted

In August 1838, upon their return from Australia, George Loveless his wife and four children and James Loveless, his wife and one child, together with James Brine who was single, were installed in New House Farm, Greensted, which consisted of some eighty acres of arable and pasture land. The lease on the farm had been paid by the Central Dorchester Committee and had a further seven years to run. The price paid by the Committee for the farm was £600, plus a further £40 for furniture. The land was in poor condition and difficult to farm - one of the fields is still known as 'Starve Goose Field'!

Thomas Standfield, wife and five children were also re-located to Essex on a farm at High Laver, which consisted of some forty-three acres. The farm was described as in a dreadful condition – three years untenanted and the house in ruins. The committee paid £100 for the farm.

James Brine, aged 26, married Elisabeth Standfield, 21, daughter of Thomas Standfield, in Greensted church, in 1839.

The Dorchester Committee organised a Chartist association in Greensted, following the six points of 'The People's Charter':

1) Manhood Suffrage,
2)Voting by secret ballot,
3)Payment of MPs,
4) Annual Parliaments,
5) Abolition of property qualifications for MPs and
6) Equal electoral districts.

The presence of the Loveless family in Greensted was not well received by the Rector of Greensted, Revd. Ray, who preached against their chartist activities. He felt that the foundations of decent society were being undermined; paternal, beneficial order where everyone knew his proper place must be restored. He alerted the Home Office.

According to the Essex Standard:

"George Loveless, instead of quietly fulfilling the duties of his station . . . is still dabbling in the dirty waters of radicalism and publishing pamphlets to keep up the old game."

Another article in newspapers published in December 1839 said:

“The new settlers at Greensted and High Laver had not been long established among the hitherto quiet and well-conducted population of these parishes before they began to agitate, and to agitate in a manner and with a degree of success which showed but too plainly that their mission of mischief had not been entrusted to unpractised of unskilful hands. Chartist newspapers were quickly seen in active circulation. The beer shops in which they were to be found became more frequented and more noisy than heretofore. A Chartist Association was formed at Greensted, and by the combined or alternate influence of persuasion and of terror, nearly the whole of the agricultural labourers in that and adjoining parishes were induced to join it…..”

Eventually both families emigrated to Canada.