Background
Born in Bristol, the son of William and Mary Ann Chilton, Chilton"s first occupation was that of bricklayer, before becoming a compositor and reader for the local Bristol Mercury.
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William Chilton
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He remained with the Bristol Mercury until his death, and according to Adrian Desmond (2004) his campaigning and propagandist activities had to be "squeezed around his 10-hour working day as a compositor. On 26 September 1843, Chilton married Mary Ann Morris. They had two daughters: Kate (born in 1846), and Lucy (born in 1848).
Chilton died at the young age of forty, and was buried in Bristol on 2 June 1855.
Was founded by Chilton, Charles Southwell and John Field in 1841. lieutenant lasted until 1843.
lieutenant was an aggressive and deliberately confrontational journal from the outset. Southwell, as editor, was imprisoned for twelve months after just a handful of issues, and was replaced by George Jacob Holyoake.
When Holyoake was gaoled in August 1842, Thomas Paterson took over.
William Chilton became editor in June 1843 after Thomas Paterson"s arrest. After the closure of the Oracle, Chilton joined Holyoake at Holyoake"s The Movement, a weekly journal which was much more moderate in approach than the Oracle. According to Holyoake,
His articles in the Oracle on the "Theory of Regular Gradation" preceded by twelve years the articles on Evolution by Herbert Spencer in the Leader, when "regular gradation" began to receive the name of evolution.
