William Lovett

A cabinetmaker, Lovett drafted the People's Charter of 1838 for the London Working Men's Association after the 1832 Reform Act left most working men voteless. Its six points, votes for all men, secret ballot, no property qualification for MPs, payment of MPs, equal constituencies and annual parliaments, were dismissed by Parliament despite petitions with millions of signatures. All but the last became law over the next eighty years. Lovett favoured "moral force" education over Feargus O'Connor's mass confrontation.