Lesley Manville reveals her great-great-great grandfather was deported to Australia

From Princess Margaret to Margaret Thatcher, British actress Lesley Manville knows how to portray people with power.

And it seems a talent for leadership could well be in her genes, after The Crown star discovered one of her ancestors was an anti-establishment rebel ringleader who ended up being transported to Australia for his role in a violent peasants’ revolt.

In an upcoming episode of the BBC’s genealogy show, Who Do You Think You Are?, Ms Manville learns that her great-great-great-grandfather, Aaron Harding, played a pivotal role in the so-called Swing Riots of 1830.

Mr Harding, a widowed father- of-nine, and his younger brother, Thomas, were among hundreds of agricultural labourers who destroyed properties and attacked machinery across the country in protest at falling wages, rising taxes and increased mechanisation.

Ms Manville, 67, said the discovery made her ‘burst with pride’, adding: ‘It’s churning up a lot of stuff inside me that he was this poor man who just knew the difference between right and wrong, and being – to use a modern phrase – ripped off. He sounds like such a fantastic character.’

Ms Manville learns that her great-great-great-grandfather, Aaron Harding, played a pivotal role in the so-called Swing Riots of 1830

The Crown star discovered one of her ancestors was an anti-establishment rebel ringleader who ended up being transported to Australia for his role in a violent peasants’ revolt

The rioters went on to attack farms, threshing machines, tithe barns and workhouses.

Mr Harding acted as a ringleader and, in November 1830, he and Thomas were arrested for being part of a 300-strong mob which raided and almost destroyed two workhouses in Hampshire. The Harding brothers and their fellow conspirators faced the death penalty – however, a sympathetic jury found them not guilty of the attack on one of the workhouses as there was no evidence to suggest they had set out to destroy the property. In a separate trial, the brothers were found guilty of the attack on the other Hampshire workhouse, but their sentences were commuted to transportation to Australia.

Aaron, then 41, had to endure four months at sea before arriving in Sydney on June 26, 1831. In the programme, Ms Manville retraces his steps by travelling to Australia to meet distant relations she never knew existed.

In 1836, in the face of continuing public pressure, the British Government granted pardons to the vast majority of Swing rioters.

Mr Harding’s own pardon, however, was conditional, which meant he never left Australia. He later fell in love with and married a local woman, and they started a family. He died in 1851.

• Lesley Manville’s Who Do You Think You Are? episode airs July 27 at 9pm on BBC One.