Jones Ernest Charles

Jones, Ernest Charles, the son of an equerry to the Duke of Cumberland, was born in Berlin in 1819, and having come to England attracted notice by a clever romance, The Wood Spirit, published in 1841. He was called to the bar, but neglected his profession to take up the Chartist movement, of which he became the literary leader. So zealous was he that he refused a fortune of £2,000 a year coupled with the condition that he should abandon the cause. In 1848 he was sentenced to a couple of years' imprisonment for sedition. He wrote in jail with his own blood on the leaves of his prayer-book, ink and paper being denied him, an epic poem entitled The Revolt of Hindustan. On his release he made several ineffectual attempts to enter Parliament, and was at last successful in Manchester, but on January 26, 1869, three days after his election, died from the effects of a chill incurred in the contest. .