Themes in the Turner Letters

Summary

The Turner letters focus largely on news of family, neighbourhood and commercial matters. Some correspondents, however, especially John Turner II, Maria Lovell and William Hart, touch on wider issues. The 1830s and 1840s were turbulent decades for British society, the economy and politics: economic shocks from trade cycles – ‘boom and bust’; accelerating technological change in manufacturing and communications – ‘railway mania’; the cholera epidemic of 1831–33; and the catastrophic Irish famine. Political stresses arose from a growing popular clamour for electoral reform and abreaction to the reform of the Poor Law which removed outdoor poor relief and introduced Union workhouses. There was widespread rural protest from 1830 and incendiarism – the ‘Captain Swing’ protests – followed by a Chartist campaign for universal suffrage.

The Whigs were in power for most of the 1830s, led by Prime Ministers Charles Grey, the second Earl Grey (November 1830 – July 1834), followed by William Lamb, the second Viscount Melbourne (July – November 1834 and April 1835 – August 1841). The Whigs introduced wide-ranging reforms: the Great Reform Act 1832 (extended suffrage), the Abolition of Slavery Act 1833, the Factory Act 1833, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 (which, among other changes, enabled councils to set up local police forces), the Tithe Commutation Act 1836 and the Postage Act 1840 (which provided the legislative underpinning for the introduction of Uniform Penny Postage in January 1840). Sir Robert Peel led a Tory government August 1841 – June 1846. Vociferous campaigns for free trade and the abolition of the Corn Laws which Peel supported led, however, to dissension within his party, and he was forced from power in June 1846. A Whig government followed, led by Lord John Russell. These were challenging times, not just for politicians, but also for farmers like John Turner II and even more so for the rural poor.

The Economy and Trade

John Turner II comments frequently, usually pessimistically, on the state of agriculture, both nationally and locally. Occasionally, however, he touches on the wider economy and trade. On 16 November 1832: ‘Farming is about the same and Trade not much, if any, better’, and on 17 July 1842: ‘Both Farming & Trade is now worse than it was here yet we are directly to have the Income Tax to comfort us’.