John Frearson of Manchester and Birmingham, the forgotten socialist

by John Frearson 

 John Frearson was born in Leicestershire, a chartist bookseller in Manchester, and buried in a Birmingham guinea grave.  A cutler and political speaker, he worked with Robert Owen in the 1830s and fled to America to avoid arrest in 1840.  Returning to Birmingham, making fastenings, he exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition; patented the cross-head [now Phillips] screw and introduced the Saturday half-holiday to Birmingham.  A radical socialist, he wrote for the Co-operator in the 1860s and wrote advising William Morris in the 1880s.  He also ran a temperance hotel and managed a French giant! 

A5, card cover, stapled,  64 pages with 8 colour and 21 B&W illustrations.