Thomas Hepburn (c. 1795 – 9 December 1864), often known as Tommy Hepburn, was an English coal miner and trade union leader.
Background
Hepburn was born in
Pelton, County Durham
Pelton is a village and electoral ward in County Durham, in England. The population of the village and ward taken at the 2011 census was 8,250. It is located about two miles to the northwest of Chester-le-Street. The village of West Pelton is loca ...
. He began employment as a
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
miner
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...
as a child, aged just 8 years old at
Fatfield
Fatfield is an area of Washington, Tyne and Wear, England.
The southern part of the village by the River Wear is popular for country walks and the three public houses and working men's club on the banks of the river. The site of the original vil ...
Colliery
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
. Despite economic circumstance forcing his employment in childhood, as was common for
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
children at the time, he was an intelligent child, able to read the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
from an early age, remaining interested in education all his life.
Industrial Action
He moved to
Jarrow
Jarrow ( or ) is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is situated on the south bank of the River Tyne, about from the east coast. It is home to the southern portal of the Tyne ...
Colliery, and then
Hetton
Hetton is a small Dales village in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England, situated 5.75 miles north of Skipton by the B6265 road. It is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Hetton-cum-Bordley. The population of the former ...
Colliery before forming ''The Colliers of the United Association of Durham and Northumberland'' soon after 1825, which was colloquially known as ''Hepburn's Union''. Some of the first industrial action undertaken by this union, under Hepburn's guidance was to go on strike to seek improved conditions. In this aim the strike was largely successful, with working hours being reduced from around 18 hours a day to a 12-hour shift, and ensuring that payment for labour was always in money, ending the system of "
Tommy Shops" whereby the miners
had to purchase provisions from a shop either owned or preferred by the colliery owner, with wages being confiscated to pay off the shop owner before the employee could directly receive them.
Conflict
Hepburn then quickly had to involve his
union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
in further industrial action in 1832 to ensure that unionised workers were given employment as pit owners threatened to cease employment of them. This
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
was more bitter than the previous one, and despite Hepburn's best efforts to ensure that all action was peaceful, violence broke out on a number of occasions, such as at Friar's Goose, where unionised lead miners attacked non-unionised miners from
Cumberland
Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...
who had been brought in to replace them. In another action a
South Shields
South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...
magistrate,
Nicholas Fairless was beaten so badly by a striking miner that he died from his wounds. A miner, William Jobling became one of the last men in Britain to be
gibbeted for this, although not guilty of the murder. Elsewhere a miner Cuthbert Skipsey
[Father of ]Joseph Skipsey
Joseph Skipsey (17 March 1832 – 3 September 1903) was a Northumbrian poet during the Victorian period and one of a number of literary coal miners to be known as 'The Pitman Poet'. Among his best known works is the ballad "The Hartley Ca ...
, The Pitman Poet was shot by a police constable during a disorder.
This strike withered and the union crumbled as the miners realised the necessity of employment and a wage to live was greater than the principle of
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
solidarity. The strike leaders were scapegoated by the authorities, and Thomas Hepburn became unable to secure employment as a miner thereafter, being banned from the coalfield.
Thereafter he attempted to sell tea at the mines to make a living, but in this venture he was largely unsuccessful.
Destitute, he was eventually re-employed at a colliery, at
Felling
Felling is the process of cutting down trees,"Feller" def. 2. and "Felling", def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009 an element of the task of logging. The person cutting the tree ...
, on the grounds that he did not get involved in trade union activity. He did not re-engage in any union activity but remained active in radical political circles. During 1838-39 he worked on behalf of the
Chartists
Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement, w ...
. He continued to work at Felling until retiring due to ill health in 1859.
Death
He continued to live in the area until the last few months of his life, when he moved to live with his son-in-law in
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
. He died on 9 December 1864, aged 69, after a career spanning 56 years and a retirement of just five years.
Buried at Heworth Churchyard, there stands a headstone with a testimony to his trade union activity.
Thomas Hepburn Community Academy
Thomas Hepburn Community Academy (formerly Thomas Hepburn Community School) was a Mixed-sex education, coeducational secondary school with Academy (English school), academy status, located in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. The school served ...
in Felling is named in his honour.
References
External links
Durham Mining MuseumSummary of Local Records for 1832.
Wanless WebTrial of Constable George Weddell for the murder of Cuthbert Skipsey. Transcript from Newcastle Courant, 11 Aug 1832.
Further study
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hepburn, Thomas
1795 births
1864 deaths
Chartists
People from Pelton, County Durham
Trade unionists from County Durham
British trade union leaders
English miners
English trade unionists