by Christopher Draper
John Coleman
Kenworthy
was one of the North’s most original anarchists. In the 1890’s JCK was Britain’s
leading Tolstoyan but his brand of
thoughtful, exemplary anarchism is anathema to today’s intolerant adolescent agitators.
His ideas are ignored and his life forgotten. Kenworthy didn’t get a mention in
Peter Marshall’s monumental 'History of Anarchism', nor George Woodcock’s five-hundred
page chronicle and David Goodway overlooked him in 'Anarchist Seeds Beneath the
Snow'. Predating these publications, Max Nettlau’s 'Short History of Anarchism',
provides a terse description, 'Christian
anarchist writer and journalist' but perceptively emphasises Kenworthy’s
Tolstoyan philosophy, 'is rich in
libertarian insights we can find nowhere else.'
Liverpool
Libertarian
As
a Northerner and friend of Jesus it’s
unsurprising JCK is overlooked by modern Metropolitan anarchists and even
Nettlau failed to accurately record his birth in Everton on 2nd May 1861. JCK’s dad, another John, was an
often absent master-mariner who died in 1881 while his mother, Amelia nee
Coleman, was a Manchester-born stay-at-home mum.
Raised
as a well-educated Methodist, and early on influenced by the ideas of Emerson, Henry
George, Ruskin and William Morris, from his late teenage years John was active in
the Liverpool socialist movement. Kenworthy
then joined Ruskin’s “Guild of St
George” and in 1885 became an enthusiastic committee member of Liverpool’s Ruskin Society (LRS, founded
1883). The LRS programme of public talks brought Kenworthy into contact with a
variety of interesting characters and he was instrumental in bringing William Morris to Liverpool to address
the Society. By then he was already a family man, with a young son, having
married local girl, Eleanor Emily Robinson on 11th September 1883 at
St Catherine’s Church, Tranmere.
Throughout
the 1880’s Kenworthy’s politics could be loosely described as Christian Socialist
but reading a couple of Tolstoy’s books, 'My
Religion' and 'What Then Must We Do', in
1890, prompted him to question received opinion of both Jesus and politics.
Before arriving at any mature conclusion he departed for America to start a
well remunerated career managing a big bacon factory.
Tolstoy Saves JCK’s Bacon
On
Christmas Eve 1890 John Coleman Kenworthy and his wife Eleanor and three young children,
George, Agnes and Frederick sailed aboard the Adriatic from Liverpool for New York but he never boiled any American
bacon. After arriving in the States JCK read the Kreutzner Sonata and like a bolt from the blue realised commerce
drove an immoral system and he must to strike out in a diametrically opposite direction,
for as Tolstoy explained:
'We
live as though we had no connection with the dying washerwoman, the fifteen
year-old prostitutes, the woman fagged out by cigarette making and the
strained, excessive labour of the old women and children around us who lack a
sufficiency of food; we live – enjoying ourselves in luxury – as if there were
no connection between those things and our life; we do not wish to see that
were it not for our idle, luxurious and depraved way of life, there would not
be this excessive toil, and that without this excessive toil such lives as ours
would be impossible.'
Kenworthy
abandoned business and sought the company of radicals like Ernest Crosby, the
USA’s leading promoter of Tolstoy’s works and ideas. Tolstoy denied
Christianity its pomp and pretension, insisting on the raw, radical teachings
of Christ. Back to the basics of the Sermon on the Mount, 'Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.' Tolstoy’s
respect for the Christian Church ended at the fourth century when it ceased opposing authority and
climbed into bed with the Emperor Constantine. The Established Church abandoned
the dispossessed to become the official religion of the ruling class, the
Imperial Roman State. The Christian Church sold its soul for a mess of potage.
Tolstoy
rejected the State which he recognised as the embodiment of force and violence
and loyalty to the State amounted to idolatry. Kenworthy embraced Tolstoy as a
Christian Anarchist comrade and so in New York he teamed up with John Edelman
and ex-Manchester libertarian, William Charles Owen to found an American William
Morris-style Socialist League. After a transformative eighteen months in the
States, Kenworthy returned with his family to work amongst the dispossessed of
London’s East End.
'Fellowship of the
New Life'
On
29 July 1892, the Kenworthys arrived in England aboard the Mississippi. The family
lodged at 6 St Andrew’s Road, Plaistow whilst John worked on various
cooperative projects associated with the Mansfield House University Settlement
Scheme. By exploiting old contacts, in 1893 JCK persuaded Liverpool’s Henry Lee
Jones Charity to supply his projects with, 'two soup cookers and four
children’s soup corners'. In 1893, he distilled his experiences and political
thinking into book entitled, 'The
Anatomy of Misery; Plain Lectures on Economics'.
During
his time at Mansfield House Kenworthy lectured to The Fellowship of the New Life and wrote for their magazine, Seed Time, which introduced him to Edward
Carpenter, Bernard Shaw, Agnes Henry, Henry Salt, Olive Schreiner, John Bruce
Wallace and Havelock Ellis. In Seed Time
he explained:
'In our bitterness of heart
we have listened to the negations of Karl Marx and shut our ears to the words
of the true prophets of the Reconstruction (Carlyle and Ruskin). The healing of
society must come from within, through individuals and communities who by
living and extending the new life, will at last cast off from Society the
slough of the old.'
In
1894 JCK explained his libertarian approach to the anarchist journal FREEDOM under the heading, 'Reconstruction',
he firstly expressed his disdain for electoral politics,'Why should we waste time, thought and energy in pulling the
legislative jumping-jack which the exploiting classes have set up at
Westminster for us to play with?' Latterly he outlined his constructive alternative:
'If a real co-operative union of workers
on a Socialist and fraternal plan were once largely adopted by men and women
who possessed the needed right spirit, our country – nay Europe might be fired
to a revolution of peace and industry, more deadly to classism, exploitation
and oppression of man by man than the whole sum of armed uprising which have
been since the world began.'
Communist Anarchism
During
1894 Kenworthy planted the seeds of this new society. He teamed up with John
Bruce Wallace to found a 'Brotherhood
Trust' in an attempt to organize a million enthusiasts within four years
into 'a voluntary Co-operative
Commonwealth'. In May he left the Mansfield Settlement (where Bruce Wallace
subsequently became Warden) to act as 'Pastor' to a newly established Croydon Brotherhood Society (CBS).
Nellie Shaw described the proceedings:
'Every kind of crank came and aired his
views on the open platform, which was provided every Sunday afternoon.
Atheists, Spiritualists, Individualists, Communists, Anarchists, ordinary
politicians, Vegetarians, Anti-vivisectionists and Anti-vaccinationists – in
fact, every kind of “anti” had a welcome and a hearing and had to stand a
lively criticism in the discussion which followed…Tea was provided at a
moderate charge in the adjoining room where under the gentle influence of the
cup that cheers affinities got together, friendships were formed, barriers of
class broken down and a feeling of good fellowship prevailed… It soon became apparent that the gospel of
Tolstoy which Kenworthy preached was nothing more or less than Communist Anarchism.'
Having
analysed the problems of society in his previous volume, in 1894 JCK published,
'From Bondage to Brotherhood', to
argue that effective solutions required the creation of a new kind of
co-operative 'Brotherhood' society to replace the cruel, competitive system
that caused so much pain and misery.
Kenworthy
didn’t confine himself to working within the Brotherhood movement. In March
1896 he followed Frank Kitz and
preceded James Harragan, both high
profile anarchists, onto the popular Clerkenwell Green 'Free Discussion'
platform. In May he gave financial support to the 'Land Nationalisation Society – To restore the Land to the People and
the People to the Land'. In July he explained the affinity of Tolstoy’s
ideas with those of John Ruskin, William Morris and St Francis of Assisi in the
columns of, 'THE NEW AGE' and in
September LIBERTY’s libertarian
readers learnt, “Why I am Called a Christian Anarchist.”
To
some anarchists, Kenworthy’s Christianity was a red rag to a bull, and
ex-Unitarian Minister turned born-again Secularist, Touzeau Parris pursued him
relentlessly in print yet JCK retained widespread support. When a large public
meeting to demand an amnesty for the imprisoned Walsall Anarchists was
organised in April 1896 with Keir Hardie, Tom Mann and David Nicoll on the
platform, it’s significant that Kenworthy was selected as Chairman. JCK’s name
also appears on posters advertising the 1896 International TUC at Holborn Town Hall,
alongside Kropotkin, Edward Carpenter, Louise Michel and Bernard Shaw. In 1897
Kenworthy lectured the 'Leicester
Anarchist-Communists' on 'Fighting
the System'. As he explained in FREEDOM,
JCK advocated peaceful class-war, 'The
only means to destroy the State is to withdraw from it, to consider all as
traitors who in any way sold their labour power to maintain the State.'
From Russia to Leeds
Kenworthy
travelled to Russia to visit Tolstoy in 1896 and afterwards the pair continued
to correspond, which further increased JCK’s considerable prestige as a conduit
of the great man’s ideas. Kenworthy believed Tolstoy had granted him
exclusivity over publication of translations of his work in Britain. In January
1897, FREEDOM reported JCK had sent
copies of the anarchist paper to Tolstoy along with his commentary on the recent
progress of the libertarian movement in England. A trip to Yorkshire by JCK
proved a great leap forward when local comrades established, “The Leeds Brotherhood Workshop” at 6
Victoria Road, Holbeck. “At present the
efforts of the comrades are mostly centred in the making of bicycles and
various electrical apparatus. One comrade makes the clothing that is needed by
the others, whilst another mends their boots and soon hopes to be making them.
Comrades wanting anything in the shape of bikes etc should make an enquiry…” As
Billy MacQueen commented in FREEDOM, 'The
experiment is extremely interesting to us who have approached Anarchy from
another road'.
That
was the beauty of Kenworthy’s politics, 'approaching Anarchy from another road'
yet some saw only an unappealing prospect. Although FREEDOM opened its columns to Kenworthy it often appended editorial
put-downs:
'Surely both Tolstoy and
Kenworthy will admit that there are many things in Christianity which no
sensible person can accept since it is a compost of the teachings of many
and various individuals, to regard all this as the word of God is really too
childish.' FREEDOM also wasn’t keen
on Kenworthy’s advocacy of Tolstoyan 'Non-Resistance': “Since it is obviously a criminal thing to teach men to allow others to
do as they please with them. It is simply a downright encouragement of all
tyrannies and infamies that mankind has suffered through the long ages.”
This
was a distortion of Kenworthy’s politics as “non-resistance” does not simply reduce
to allowing others to do as they please. The crux of JCK’s argument is that
moral force can overcome physical force as activists like Gandhi, Rosa Parks,
CND and thousands of others have since demonstrated. In a nutshell, Kenworthy
argued that there aren’t just two options, supporting the system or fighting
against it. He promoted a third way, non-cooperation, doing things differently.
It was an optimistic philosophy that believed in having faith in comrades to do
the right thing. As Kenworthy explained in the Brotherhood’s magazine Seed
Time:
'Our times impose upon us
a necessity which was never before so extreme. We must organize, and that on a
grand scale; we must confront capitalist organization by fraternal
organization. The healing of society must come about from within; through
individuals and communities, who by living and extending the new life will at
last cast off from society the slough of the old.'
Whatever
FREEDOM’s reservations Kenworthy’s
Croydon Brotherhood flourished and as Nellie Shaw observed, fellowship trumped
ideology. Kenworthy’s crowd created a society that radicals wanted to be part
of. They were no sackcloth sect but knew how to enjoy themselves. A surviving sixpenny
admission ticket for a January 1897 'Social Evening' promises; “Music! Dancing!
Contraptions!” and includes “light refreshments” but advises at the bottom, 'BOMBS EXTRA. BRING YOUR OWN DYNAMITE.'
Anarchist Arcadia
It
was the aim of the Brotherhood to establish self-sufficient land colonies and
in January 1897 Kenworthy led most of the Croydon crowd off to the promised land
of Purleigh, Essex where they’d acquired land from a sympathetic farmer. Over
the next couple of years the community grew to include about 65 adults and
children with the original core being joined by refugees from foreign regimes
where Tolstoyans were harshly persecuted.
JCK
continued to spread the political gospel and in April 1897 with the help of
local residents, including Eliza Pickard and Tom Ferris, set up a Tolstoyan
bicycle workshop at 6 Victoria Road, Leeds. In November, Eliza Pickard, who was
later to prove an invaluable comrade, contributed an article on “Anarchism” to
Kenworthy’s Brotherhood magazine.
After
making a couple of visits to Blackburn at the request of the local ILP, in 1899
Kenworthy succeeded in establishing a Brotherhood workshop there in 1899, with
the assistance of Ernest Ames and Tom Ferris who had transferred from Leeds.
Meanwhile
divisions of opinions arose at Purleigh over the question of whether anyone
should be allowed to just turn up and join the community and at the end of 1898
a group broke away to found their own colony in the Cotswolds, naming it 'Whiteway' (which still operates). Kenworthy
stayed in Essex where his two sons, John and George, attended the Quaker school
at Saffron Walden.
By
1900, largely thanks to Kenworthy’s efforts, Tolstoy’s influence reached across
Britain. There was a Tolstoy Society in Manchester run by Co-op socialist Percy
Redfern, a London Society organised by libertarian publisher Charles W Daniels
and a Tolstoyan circle in Derby around the Quaker pacifist William Loftus Hare.
In Spring 1900, Kenworthy again travelled to Russia to consult with Tolstoy.
Lively Editorship
On
his return, JCK continued to lecture around the country until, early in 1902,
he was appointed editor of the “Midland
Weekly Herald” and took up temporary residence in Bilston. It was to prove no sinecure and in July he was 'indicted
for publishing in his paper an article whereby he attempted to pervert the
course of justice'. It was alleged that Kenworthy, 'commented strongly upon the
action of the police in the prosecution of a man who was committed for
trial…Kenworthy contended that he had acted from a high sense of duty. A
verdict of guilty was returned…and the accused was bound over.' After
publishing another article that summer, 'that was derogatory to the King…on
Tuesday night a crowd repaired to the residence of Mr Kenworthy… After booing
they improvised a battering ram to smash in the door but the police prevented
this. Mr Kenworthy appeared in the street and the crowd rushed him but the
police again protected him from violence.'
In
November 1902 the SUN newspaper published an article headed, “Among the
Anarchists: The Gospel of Knife, Revolver, Torch and Bomb” identifying Kenworthy
as a leading anarchist exponent of violence. JCK sued and clarified in Court
that whilst he would readily describe himself as a “Christian-Anarchist-Communist”, 'his life’s work had been devoted
to the warning of Anarchists from violence and of preaching the doctrine of
non-resistance'. 'The jury found for the plaintiff' and Kenworthy was awarded
£140 damages plus costs.
Trouble in Paradise
Whilst
Kenworthy was at Bilston, the Blackburn Brotherhood moved en masse to Purleigh
creating an unholy problem. Where Kenworthy promoted an inclusive, thoughtful,
ethical and organised anarchy, Ames and Ferris and their acolytes practiced a
primitive anarchism more akin to the seventeenth-century 'Ranter' tradition,
'Come one, come all!' The Blackburn bunch exhorted all and sundry to join them
and put no store on sexual exclusivity and at Purleigh this erupted into an
interminable rash of prosecutions. Bringing tramps into the community allied to
a refusal to immunise caused a fatal epidemic of smallpox that infected the
wider population and invited legal action from the local authority. One of
Ernest Ames’ sexual partners, Eliza Jane Hepples, subsequently sued him for the
maintenance of their three children when he abandoned her for a younger woman.
Meanwhile the 31-year-old Tom Ferris seems to have started a sexual
relationship with Kenworthy’s daughter, Agnes, who was less than half his age.
Whilst
all this was going on JCK realised that exclusive right to publishing Tolstoy
in Britain had broken down and various other imprints were operating. In June
1903 Kenworthy threatened to sue Aylmer Maude if he didn’t desist from
publishing Tolstoy’s writings. Feeling under ever increasing pressure, on May 4th,
1904 JCK left Liverpool for New York aboard the Teutonic. He planned to spend time talking and relaxing with Alonzo
Hollister of Mount Lebanon, Columbia, a leading authority on the Shaker movement.
War and Peace
On
his return from America, assisted by an old 'Brotherhood' contact, Eliza
Pickard, JCK tried to track down his daughter Agnes but with little success. In
recent years former comrades had abandoned direct involvement in building
'Jerusalem in England’s Green and Pleasant Land' and instead pinned their hopes
on electing Labour politicians to do the job for them. In the new century Tolstoy
was but a fading star. Kenworthy was both politically and mentally bereft and his
wife, Eleanor, was ill and had to move into a Kelvedon nursing home. In 1909
John Coleman Kenworthy had a mental breakdown and on 24th November was
admitted to Essex County Lunatic Asylum.
After
leaving their Saffron Walden Quaker school, both of Kenworthy’s sons moved to
live at the Whiteway Community as farmers and as “essential workers” were able
to avoid the attention of the military during the 1914 war. By then their
mother was dead (1912) and their sister, Agnes settled. After a year in the Essex Asylum JCK showed no sign of
improvement and so that he could be nearer Eliza Pickard at Leeds he was
transferred first to Middlesborough
Asylum and then to the 'West Riding
Pauper Lunatic Asylum' (latterly “Stanley Royal Hospital”, Leeds). JCK
spent most of the rest of his life in the asylum. Eliza never married and
supported JCK so faithfully until her death in 1942, that she was identified at
probate as, “Eliza Pickard or Kenworthy”.
Forgotten
by erstwhile comrades, John Coleman Kenworthy lived out his final years in 'York City Mental Hospital' at Fulford
where he finally passed away on September 13th 1948, aged 87. It would
be facile to claim John Coleman Kenworthy was driven mad by an insane society
but would it be entirely untrue? Perhaps his steadfast refusal to accommodate
to the demands of an iniquitous system whilst all around voted for expediency
isolated him beyond bearing but his anarchist gospel still inspires;
“Cease from following
after those who dangle before you new Laws, new Acts of Parliament, who ask you
to do nothing but – vote!...give heed to those who tell you that the first
change is in your hearts, in your own ways of looking upon life and upon each
other…if you workers so willed, the General Strike and General Co-operative
would gain England for you in a week, and turn it into Paradise in a
twelvemonth” (”From Bondage to Brotherhood”, 1894).
For
Peace, Love & Anarchy
Christopher
Draper, Llandudno (August 2016)
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