John Goodwyn Barmby (Bapt. 12 November 1820 – 18 October 1881) was born at Yoxford in Suffolk and educated at Woodbridge School. He was an English Victorian utopian socialist thinker. He and his wife Catherine Barmby (1816/17–1853) were influential supporters of Robert Owen in the late 1830s and early 1840s before moving into the radical Unitarian stream of

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in the 1840s. Both had established reputations as staunch feminists and proposed the addition of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

to the demands of the Chartist movement. Barmby was involved as an editor, writer, and organiser of

communitarian Communitarianism is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. Its overriding philosophy is based upon the belief that a person's social identity and personality are largely molded by community relati ...

ventures around

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from 1838 to 1848. He is often associated with the growth of

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...

projects during the rise of Chartism. He founded a utopian community on the

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and at times corresponded with radicals including William James Linton and

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' the same year he went there to meet the advocates of ''le communisme'' as had been written in at least a French article and pamphlet by then, the former by Étienne Cabet and latter by both Théodore Dezamy and Jean-Jacques Pillot. By his claim, he first discussed "communism" with some followers of François-Noël Babeuf, describing them as "some of the most advanced minds of the French metropolis". He introduced Engels to the French ''communiste'' movement. They founded the London Communist Propaganda Society in 1841 and in the same year the Universal Communitarian Association. Barmby founded the ''Communist Chronicle'', a monthly newspaper later published by

Thomas Frost Thomas Frost (born March 7, 1925) is a multiple Grammy Award-winning classical music producer, who won many of his awards for producing the albums of Vladimir Horowitz. Frost is the father of producer David Frost."Like Father, Like Son", ''Billbo ...

. By 1843, the Barmbys had recast their movement as a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

. The term "communism" was used slightly later, but certainly by the 1840s. As Donald F. Busky wrote, "Barmby may have thought that he invented the words ''communism'' and ''communist'', but he was mistaken ... all probability 'communist'' and ''communism'' were in useby the 1830s or 1840s". Researchers at Rutgers University explain: Disillusioned with communism, Barmby became involved with Unitarianism in 1848. After leading congregations at Southampton, Topsham, Lympstone and Lancaster, he was minister of Wakefield Unitarian Chapel from 1858 to 1879. He continued to contribute to liberal politics and published poetry and hymns."Chartist Lives - John Goodwyn Barmby"

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