A DRAWING by a Victorian artist who witnessed the Chartist uprising has been unveiled in Newport Museum.

James Flewitt Mullock is Newport's most significant Victorian artist. Born in 1818, he witnessed the Chartist Uprising and the battle at the Westgate Hotel in 1839 and experienced the unprecedented industrial and commercial growth of the town whose population increased tenfold in his own lifetime.

Not only did he experience the phenomenon, he faithfully recorded many of the important events associated with it on canvas and in print.

He always claimed to have watched the Chartists marching down Stow Hill from a shop opposite the hotel. When the shooting started and bullets flew through the window, he made his escape and very quickly produced the iconic illustration of the chartist’s battle at the Westgate.

Following the arrest of the Chartist leaders John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones a Grand Jury was held in Monmouth in the Shire Hall in December 1839 to decide if the charges being brought against them were correct. One of those jury men was William Addams Williams of Llangibby Castle and MP for Monmouthshire.

Artist Mr Mullock sat in the court room and made a number of sketches, one of which recently surfaced and was purchased by the Friends of Newport Museum and Art Gallery and donated to the collection.

Following some restoration the work was unveiled by David Addams Williams, a descendant of the then-Monmouthshire MP, on December 9.