ABSTRACT
William Cobbett was part of the 'mental furniture' of the Chartists, contrary to one biographer's claim that they had 'little in common' with him. James Watson, one of London's leading radical publishers remembered his mother 'being habit of reading Cobbett's Register'. However, influence of the Cobbett Club over Chartism receded quickly from the autumn of 1839. This decline mirrored ambiguous reputations of Cobbett's sons. His daughter Anne, whom we have already noticed, was the eldest of William Cobbett's seven children, who comprised two further daughters and four sons. George Julian Harney owned at least eleven volumes of Cobbett's works. Harney gave pride of place in his home to a letter of Cobbett framed together with his portrait; both were gifts from William's second daughter, Eleanor. She was the last surviving Cobbett children and maintained with Harney who, as he grew older, came increasingly to share Tory radical outlook of her father, whom he described as 'that most English of Englishmen'.
