Henry Hetherington, the son of a London tailor, was born in 1792. When he was thirteen he began work as an apprentice printer at Luke Hansard's printing works. In the 1820s Hetherington became influenced by the ideas of Robert Owen and joined the co-operative printers association. He also became active in the Radical Reform Association. 1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Luke Hansard (July 5, 1752 - October 29, 1828), English printer, was born in St Marys parish, Norwich. ... Robert Owen Robert Owen continues to be looked up to in this Manchester statue Robert Owen (May 14, 1771 – November 17, 1858) was a Welsh socialist and social reformer. ...

In 1822 Hetherington started his own printing and publishing company. This was a time when reformers like Richard Carlile were being imprisoned for publishing material that was critical of the government. However, for people like Hetherington and Carlile, the publication of newspapers and pamphlets were vitally important in the political education of the working class. 1822 (MDCCCXXII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Richard Carlile (9 December 1790 – 10 February 1843) was an important agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom. ...

In the 1830s Hetherington published a series of radical newspapers including: The Penny Papers (1830); The Radical (1831) and The Poor Man's Guardian (1831-1835). In 1833 Hetherington was selling 22,000 copies a week of the Poor Man's Guardian. Hetherington was punished by the authorities several times for these activities. This included being fined on numerous occasions, imprisoned in 1833 and 1836, and having all his printing presses seized and destroyed in 1835.

Hetherington played a leading role in the campaign against the heavy stamp duty taxation on newspapers and pamphlets. This campaign resulted in several reforms in the law. In 1833 when the four-penny tax on newspapers was reduced to one-penny. The same year Parliament agreed to remove the tax on pamphlets. Stamp duty is a form of tax that is levied on documents. ...

In his newspapers Henry Hetherington campaigned against child labour, the 1834 Poor Law and political corruption. Hetherington joined William Lovett, James Watson and John Cleave to form the London Working Man's Association (LWMA) in 1836. Hetherington, who became the LWMA first treasurer, helped draw up a Charter of political demands. By 1836 Hetherington was one of the leaders of the Chartist movement. Hetherington was a moral force Chartist and was very critical of the ideas of Feargus O'Connor and in 1849 helped create the moderate Peoples Charter Union. Feargus Edward OConnor (1794 – August 30, 1855) was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan. ...

Hetherington continued his campaign against taxes on newspapers and in 1849 formed the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee. A few months later, on 23rd August 1849, Hetherington died of cholera. Two thousand people gathered at Kensal Green cemetery to pay their respects to the the man who had spent his adult life fighting for social reform.

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