A Biographical Study of Edward Baines with Special Reference to His Role As Editor, Author and Politician David
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MR MERCURY - A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF EDWARD BAINES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO HIS ROLE AS EDITOR, AUTHOR AND POLITICIAN DAVID THORNTON SUBMITTED INT ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS SCHOOL OF HISTORY JULY 1999 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ABSTRACT ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTATIONS iv CHAPTERS INTRODUCTION - A MAN CALLED BAINES ONE - THE MAKING OF A JOURNALIST 34 TWO - THE THINKER OF MERCURY COURT 72 THREE - MR MERCURY: MAN OF PRINT: 18(71-1815 113 FOUR = THE GREAT LIAR OF THE NORTH: 18154830_159 FIVE - BAINESOCRACY: 1830-1841 210 SIX - A WELL SPENT LEE: 1841-1848 260 CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY 308 II PREFACE This thesis is the result of a total of nine years research. Four of those years were spent in completing an Tv1Phil thesis on the thinking of Edward Baines and on which I have drawn considerably for the current work. I have been fortunate in being able to have access to the reference material of numerous academic institutions and for which I am most grateful. These are the Borthwick Insititute, British Library, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Brotherton Library Special Collections, Cambridge University Library, Duke University William R Perkins Library, North Carolina, Goldsmiths College Library, University of London, and Reading University. The following libraries have been equally as supportive; Arniley Library, Bradford Reference Library, Eccles Local History Library, Leeds Library, Leeds City Libraries, Leeds City Reference Library, Leeds City Local History and Family History Library, and Preston Reference Library. Other institutions which have given invaluable information are: Leeds City Archives, North Yorkshire County Record Office, Northallerton, Public Record Office, Sheffield City Archives, Sotheby's and the Thoresby Society. I must also thank Lord Harewood for permission to consult the Harewood Estate Records and the Head of Leisure Services, Sheffield City Council and the Trustees of the Rt Hon Olive Countess Fitzwilliam's Chattels Settlement for permission to consult the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments; Fourth Earl Fitzwitham's Papers. I would like to thank the following for their support and advice. Mr P Bardon, Mr E Baines, Mr G Baynes, Mr B Chippendale, Miss J Cooper, Mr J Cowton, Mrs E Fahey, Mr G Forster, Mr .1 Richardson, Mrs L Walker, Mr .1 West, and Mr C Wheaton. I would particularly like to thank Dr Simon Green, my tutor, for the guidance and expertise he has so willingly given me through the whole of the nine years I have been engaged on researching Edward Baines. Finally, I would like to pay tribute to my wife, family and friends for all their encouragement and help through that period. III ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the life and work of Edward Baines, editor of the Leeds Mercury from 1801 to 1848 and Member of Parliament for Leeds from 1834 to 1841. It considers his political, journalistic and literary achievements and it investigates why no authoritative complete study of his life has been carried out since his son's filial biography written in 1851. The thesis examines the confusion which has arisen because Edward Baines Senior and Junior were both journalists editing the Leeds Mercury, both campaigning Dissenters, both Members of Parliament for Leeds and that much of their political and journalistic lives ran concurrently and not consecutively. Consideration is given to Baines's antecedents, his early years and the influences that helped shape his thinking. Baine,s's philosophy is examined, particularly as it was expressed in both his newspaper editorials and his academic writings. It shows that his fundamental beliefs were rooted in Protestant Christianity and how this was reflected in his views by his opposition to war and slavery, his lifelong support for individual freedom as expressed through Whig-Liberalism and the cause of Nonconformism. The thesis then follows a chronological approach. The years 1801 to 1815 witnessed his campaign on behalf of the merchants and manufacturers of the West Riding and the active political role he adopted from the election of 1807 onwards. The years 1815 to 1829 revealed Baines at the apotheosis of his journalistic career, with the revelations of the Government Spy scandal, his involvement in the campaigns for Parliamentary Reform, the commencement of his literary career and the launch of his strategy to establish a Whig power base in Leeds by taking control of the Parish Church vestry. The years 1830 to 1841 demonstrated Baines as an active politician, becoming the Member for Leeds and using his parliamentary position to campaign for the rights of the Dissenters. His final years 1841 to 1848 showed him still active in politics locally; an examination is also made of his final commitment to evangelical Congregationalism. Primary source material has been used throughout to illustrate Baines, his beliefs and the views his contemporaries held of him. Although few manuscript primary sources are available a considerable amount of printed primary source material is to be found in Baines's books and almost fifty years of his LessisMercury. The newspapers of his opponents, which cover the same period, offer a diverse range of views on the man and these enable a more balanced view of him to be reached than that found in his son's biography. iv ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTATIONS Numeration of newspapers was haphazard, particularly in the Leeds Mercury, consequently editions are referred to by date only. Two digits are used to denote a year in the nineteenth century eg 7 March 1801 is shown as 07.03.01. Eighteenth and twentieth century years are shown as four digits eg 4 October 1794 is 04.10.1794 and 15 November 1929 is 15.11.1929. The following standard abbreviations are used; BL - British Library, DNB - Dictionary of National Biography, EBR - English Historical Review, JMH - Journal of Modern History, NH = Northern History, PRO = Public Record Office, SH = Social History, VCILLancashire - The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, WWM - Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments; Fourth Earl Fitzwilliam's Papers. Generally, the original spelling and the varying fonts in the newspaper extracts have been retained. INTRODUCTION A MAN CALLED BAINES On Thursday 10 August 1848 an eerie stillness descended upon the town of Leeds. Shops were closed and thousands, clad in sober mourning attire, lined the streets. Gentlemen, merchants, traders, shopkeepers and artisans rubbed shoulders with each other as they stood in respectful silence in honour of the memory of a fellow townsman.' Class and political differences, even in this year of revolutions, had been set aside for the moment. Forgotten for the time being were the political divisions caused by the mass Chartist demonstrations held in the town that year at Vicar's Croft, on Woodhouse Moor and in Wellington Street as gentleman and journeyman expressed their mutual regard for the dead man.' In the words of Viscount Morpeth, the deceased was 'one of the foster fathers of my public life'. 3 To J B Davison, an employee in the offices of the Leeds Mercury, he was simply one of the best and kindest employers and one of the best and most benevolent of men.4 Thus people of every social class, religious denomination and political party set aside their opposing views and stood paying silent homage to a man whose influence had touched all their lives to some greater or lesser degree. Bradfordians rubbed shoulders with mourners from Huddersfield, Wakefield and the other West Riding milltovvns as they lined the route awaiting the solemn cortege that would wend its way to the cemetery at Woodhouse.' It was a town that in the recent past had grown used to the sight of black plumed horses and slowly moving hearses. Just over a year earlier typhus, 'the frightful Irish fever' had swept through Leeds.' It had decimated the Irish immigrant population in the overcrowded Bank area of the town and carried off five Catholic priests and a curate from the Parish Church as they had selflessly continued ministering to the sick Leeds Mercury 12.08.48 2 Leeds Times 15.04.48, 20.05.48, 29.04.48, 08.07.48 3 Leeds City Archives Baines Papers MS 1-41 No 4 Earl of Carlisle (Lord Morpeth) to E Baines (Jun) 06.08.48. All the documents in the Leeds City Baines collection are hereafter cited simply as Barnes Papers. 4 Baines Papers: MS No 52.6 J B Davison to E Baines (Jun) 04.08.48 Leeds Mercury 12.08.48 6 E Jackson A Pastor's Recollections (Leeds 1890) No 5 p 110 7 See various editions of the Leeds Times between 10.04.47 to 07.08.47 for accounts of the epidemic. -2- and dying.' They were not the only clergymen to perish in the town in those months. In October, the Reverend John Ely, the minister of the Independent Chapel in East Parade, had died.' One of the mourners at his funeral was Edward Baines, late MP for the borough of Leeds and editor of the Leeds Mercury for over forty years. An ageing and sick man, he followed the cortege in Peter Willans's carriage' reflecting on the death of a dear friend. It was a death, his family acknowledged, which had shaken him severely.' Nine months later Baines himself lay dying in his King Street home. Distressing news was brought to him that another dear and distinguished associate, Dr Richard Hamilton, Minister of Belgrave Independent Chapel, had been 'called to his rest' on 18 July.' Just over a fortnight later 'Old Edward Baines,' as he was affectionately known in the West Riding,' was dead.