Editing Rayner Stephens (section)

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2017}}
[[File:Joseph Rayner Stephens, by James Posselwhite after Benjamin-crop.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Joseph Rayner Stephens, engraved by James Posselwhite after a painting by Benjamin Garside. Commissioned by [[Feargus O'Connor]], this engraving was distributed with 25.000 copies of the chartist newspaper the ''[[Northern Star (chartist newspaper)|Northern Star]]'' in November 1839. When Stephens less than a month later denounced the movement in reaction to the [[Newport Rising]], chartists responded by publicly burning his portrait]]

'''Joseph Rayner Stephens''' (8 March 1805 – 18 February 1879) was a [[Methodism|Methodist]] minister who offended the Wesleyan Conference by his support for separating the [[Church of England]] from the State. Resigning from the Wesleyan Connection, he became free to campaign for factory reform, and against the New Poor Law. He became associated with 'physical force' Chartism (although he later denied he had ever been a Chartist) and spent eighteen months in jail for his presence at an unlawful assembly and his use there of seditious language. 
Born in [[Edinburgh]] in 1805, he moved to [[Manchester]] when his minister father was posted there in 1819. During his religious career, he worked in a variety of places (including [[Stockholm]] and [[Newcastle-upon-Tyne]]<ref>"some years ago stationed in this town as a Wesleyan Methodist preacher"{{cite news|title=Great Radical Demonstration|work=Newcastle Journal|date=6 January 1838}}</ref>) before arriving in [[Ashton-under-Lyne]] in 1832. He was the brother of the philologist [[George Stephens (philologist)|George Stephens]].;<ref>{{cite book|last=Hovell|first=Mark|author-link=:s:en:Author:Mark Hovell|editor=Thomas Frederick Tout|editor-link=Thomas Frederick Tout|title=The Chartist Movement|year=1918|publisher=University of Manchester|location=Manchester|page=88|title-link=s:The Chartist Movement}}</ref> three of his other brothers ([[John Stephens (editor)|John]], [[Edward Stephens (Australian settler)|Edward]] and [[Samuel Stephens (Colonial Manager)|Samuel]]) emigrated to [[Southern Australia]] and played their parts in the early years of that colony.