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Oldham Radicalism and the Origins of Popular Liberalism, 1830–52*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Michael Winstanley
Michael Winstanley
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
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Abstract

The emphasis on class, industrial structure and workplace relations proffered by Foster and others as an explanation of the nature and development of popular politics in this period is rejected. Continuities in personnel, values, motivation, policies and strategies suggest that militant grass-roots liberalism of the 1850s, and the culture of self-improvement which pervaded it, were essentially continuations of a radical platform of the 1830s which was preserved, even enhanced, through the Chartist period. Radicals' emphasis on retrenchment, tax reform, democratic accountability and local self-government represented a commitment to a democratic, capitalist environment capable of sustaining material progress and promoting moral and spiritual self-improvement and individual responsibility. They sought, rather than rejected, cooperation with more moderate reformers, seeing no contradiction in combining support for Chartism with more limited campaigns to repeal the corn law or to reform local government. Radicals, however, were also divided amongst themselves. This was particularly evident in Oldham with Cobbettism drawing support from an extensive semi-rural hinterland and a more aggressive petit bourgeois artisan, nonconformist radicalism, associated with respectability and moral reform, based in the town itself. Cobbettism was progressively marginalized from the mid-1830s, however, drifting, for a variety of reasons, into the tory camp. For urban radicals, the liberalism of the 1850s represented a logical extension of their campaign, not a betrayal.

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Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 1993 , pp. 619 - 643
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 Foster, J., Class struggle and the industrial revolution (London, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 The literature on this is succinctly discussed in Kirk, N., The Growth of working-class reformism in mid-Victorian England (Beckenham, 1985), pp. 1–31Google Scholar, On Lancashire, see especially, Joyce, P., Work, society and politics: the culture of the factory in later Victorian England (Brighton, 1980)Google Scholar; onOldham, , Musson, A. E., ‘Class struggle and the labour aristocracy, 1830–60’, and Foster's reply, ‘Some comments on class struggle and the labour aristocracy’, both in Social History, I, 3 (1976), 335–66Google Scholar.

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8 Manchester Guardian (M.G.), 27 Oct. 1834.

9 Butterworth, 30 Dec. 1836; Manchester and Salford Advertiser (M.S.A.), 7 Jan. 1837. A subsequent meeting calling for charitable relief for strikers was almost exclusively attended by spinners; Butterworth, 19 Jan. 1837.

10 Butterworth, 27 Mar. 1834, 2 Nov. 1837.

11 Ibid. 21 July 1837, 31 Aug. 1840; Champion, 30 Sept. 1838; Northern Star (N.S.), 29 Sept. 1838.

12 Butterworth, 21–28 July 1837; quote from M.S.A., 26 June 1841.

13 Butterworth, 7 Nov. 1831; June, Sept., Dec. 1832; 26 June 1835. Support for a large reduction in taxation was one of the pledges drawn up in June 1832 and asked of candidates at the election in December.

14 Oldham's, administration was singled out for special praise, see Royal commission on the poor laws (Parl. Papers, 1834, XXVIII), 921–3Google Scholar; Report from G. Henderson on the County Palatine of Lancaster, reprinted in Manchester Herald, 17 Apr. 1834; for the overseer's replies to Henderson's questions see P.P., 1834, XXXV, 71, 345; XXXVI, 71, 345, 619. Contrast withFoster's, view, Class struggle, pp. 61–4Google Scholar.

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16 The interests and rights of ratepayers always featured more prominently in lists of resolutions passed at public meetings, see for example, Butterworth, 26 Jan., 10 Feb., 27 Mar., 25 Dec. 1837. Hostility to the rural police was not exclusively radical: ibid. 2 Jan. 1840.

17 Elijah Hibbert, April 1839, Abraham Clegg & Jonathan Mellor, June 1841: Butterworth manuscripts.

18 Butterworth, Feb.-July 1831. Disagreements over tactics and the extent of reform needed and the choice of candidates subsequently led to divisions, 14 Nov. 1831, June 1832.

19 N.S., 15 May 1841.

20 Edwin Butterworth was the only resident press correspondent in the town. He supplied reports for all of the Manchester newspapers in this period, see Winstanley, M., ‘News from Oldham: Edwin Butterworth and the Manchester press, 1829–1848’, Manchester Region History Review, IV, 1 (Spring, 1990), 3–10Google Scholar. The manuscript accounts were often fuller than the press reports.

21 Sykes, , ‘Some aspects’, pp. 174–8Google Scholar; Butterworth, July 1832, 12 Dec. 1832.

22 For the best description of these townships' fortunes seeSmith, M. A., ‘Religion in industrial society: the case of Oldham and Saddleworth, 1780–1865’ (unpublished D.Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, 1987)Google Scholar, ch. I. J. M. Cobbett's share of the vote in 1835 in the urbanized Oldham Below Town was only 18%; in the largely rural Oldham Above Town, 55%; Chadderton 49%; Crompton 58%; Royton 79%. The boundary commissioners recommended that the townships be excluded from the urban borough (Parl. Papers, 1831–2, XXXIX), pp. 68–70. The boundaries were only extended after petitions from the out-townships, Butterworth, 10 June 1831.

23 Butterworth, 15 Sept., 10 Nov. 1832.

24 Ibid. 15 Sept., 11 Dec. 1832; 3 Jan. 1840.

25 Ibid. 28 July 1837.

26 Ibid. 18 July 1833; 30 Jan. 1835.

27 Ibid. 22 Dec. 1834.

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29 Butterworth, Oct. 1833–1836 passim. For policing generally seeWinstanley, M., ‘“Pre ventive policing ” in Oldham, 1826–56’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, LXXXVI (1990), 16–35Google Scholar.

30 Butterworth, Feb. 1834, for detailed background to the opposition to church rates. Vestry elections were particularly hard fought between April 1833, when the Cobbettite John Halliwell was elected as people's churchwarden, and April 1835 when dissenters successfully voted through their own list.

31 M.S.A., 15 Feb., 5 Apr. 1834; Butterworth, 26 Mar., 1 Apr., June 1834.

32 M.S.A., 24 May 1834.

33 Butterworth, 4 Jan. 1832, 14 Mar. 1835; M.S.A. & M.G., 24, 31 May 1834.

34 See for example, Butterworth, 4 Feb. 1833 (Holladay); Champion 30 Sept. 1838 (Fielden on Nehemiah). On Carlile's visits, Butterworth, Oct. 1833, Oct./Nov. 1836.

35 Butterworth, July 1832; 14 Aug., 17, 30 Oct. 1833. The aims and social composition of society were discussed in M.S.A., 19 Aug. 1848. The nature and timing of Oldham's development reflected national trends, see Harrison, B. H., Drink and the Victorians (London, 1971), pp. 107–47Google ScholarShiman, L., The crusade against drink in Victorian England (London, 1988), pp. 9–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Butterworth, 21 Apr., 1 Sept. 1835; 9 Feb. 1836; 2 Jan., 21 Apr. 1837; July 1839; 9, 10, 30 Nov. 1840. For Eclectic Society see, 17 Oct. 1833; 15 June 1839.

37 Butterworth, 5 Sept. 1833; 2 Sept. 1834; 8 Aug. 1836; 7 Jan. 1839; 4 Sept. 1841.

38 M.S.A., 14 June 1834; Butterworth, 1 Apr. 1839; 8–16 Nov. 1840; 23 Jan. 1841.

39 Butterworth, 7 Nov. 1831; 10 Oct. 1833; 13 Mar. 1835. Manchester Examiner (M.E.), 31 July 1852; Oldham Chronicle (O.C.), 23 Sept. 1854.

40 Butterworth, 26 Feb., 4 Mar. 1837; 11 Sept. 1838; 1 Apr. 1839. M.S.A., 25 Apr. 1840, 30 Sept., 16 Dec. 1843, 30 Mar. 1844.

41 Butterworth, 9 Feb. 1831; 23 Dec. 1834; 21 Apr. 1835; 9 Feb., 12 Apr. 1836; 30 Nov. 1840; 1 Jan. 1841. N.S., 9 Feb. 1839.

42 Butterworth, Mar. 1831; May, Sept., Oct., 1832; 3 July 1835. M.G., 4 July 1835; N.S., 3 July 1847; O.C., 28 Oct. 1854, 9 Jan. 1855.

43 Butterworth, 27 Sept., 17 Oct., 1833.

44 Ibid. Jan., Oct. 1832; 28 Feb. 1833.

45 Ibid. 12 Mar. 1833.

46 Ibid. 14 Mar. 1835; 12 February 1837; For Sutciffe's, (the speaker's) radical credentials, see 18 Feb. 1836, Champion, 26 02 1837Google Scholar.

47 Butterworth, 12 Mar. 1833.

48 Ibid. Nov. 1832.

49 M.S.A., 15 Feb., 29 Mar. 1834; Butterworth, 22 Feb. 1834.

50 Butterworth, 20 Dec. 1832; Sept., Nov. 1833; 25 Mar. 1834.

51 Butterworth, 22, 24, 26, 29 Dec. 1834.

52 Ibid, 11 Feb. 1835.

53 Ibid. 26June-8July 1835; M.G., 27 June, 4, 11 July 1835.

54 For Fielden's perspective on this seeWeaver, S. A.,John Fielden and the politics of popular radicalism, 1832–1847 (Oxford, 1987), pp. 132–5Google Scholar.

55 Butterworth, 6 July, 24 Aug., 25 Dec. 1835.

56 Oldham Local Studies Centre, Poll book, 1835. O'Connor polled 34 votes; Lees' majority was 13.

57 Butterworth, Jan., 15 Aug., Dec. 1836; 4 Mar. 1837.

58 M.S.A., 29 Sept. 1838; Champion, 30 Sept. 1838.

59 Butterworth, 8 Nov. 1838; M.S.A., 10 Nov. 1838; Champion, 18 Nov. 1838.

60 Butterworth, 25 Feb. 1839.

61 Ibid. 25 May 1839; N.S., 1 June 1839; Champion, 2 June 1839.

62 N.S., 16 & 23 Feb., 21 Sept., 19 Oct. 1839; Champion, 17 & 24 Feb., 10 & 17 Mar., 22 Sept., 20 Oct., 10, 17 & 24 Nov. 1839.

63 N.S., 23 Nov. 1839.

64 N.S., 18 Jan. 1840; M.S.A., 1 Feb. 1840;Jubilee Celebration of the Charter of Incorporation, 1849–99, (County Borough of Oldham, 1899), p. 34Google Scholar.

65 N.S.& M.S.A., 24 Dec. 1842, 11 Mar. 1843.

66 N.S., 2 Sept. 1843; 13 Mar. 1844; 29 Mar. 1845.

67 N.S., 3 July 1847.

68 N.S., 24 July 1847.

69 N.S., 10 Apr. 1841: Haslam – 24 Apr., 20 Nov. 1841, 29 Oct. 1842, 28 Jan., 25 July 1843, 31 May 1845: Haslop – 20 Nov., 4 Dec. 1841: Hame – 19 Aug. 1843, 14 June, 4 Oct., 1 Nov. 1845: Yardley – 30 Oct. 1841, 24 Sept., 10 Dec. 1843, 10 Mar. 1844; M.S.A., 2 Dec. 1843.

70 N.S., 24 Oct. 1840, 16 Dec. 1843, 30 Mar. 1844, 19 July 1845, 4 Sept. 1847.

71 N.S., 24 & 31 Oct. 1840, 2 July 1842, 8 May 1843, 16 & 30 Mar. 1844, 7 & 19 June 1845.

72 N.S., 22 Aug. 1840, 4 Dec. 1841, 13 May 1843.

73 N.S., 20 Apr. 1844, 20 & 27 Dec. 1845.

74 Butterworth, Aug. 1842; N.S., 27 Aug., 3 & 24 Sept., 22 Oct. 1842, 22 Apr., 18 Aug. 1843; M.S.A., 27 Aug. 1842, 15 Oct. 1842.

75 N.S., 13 Mar., 10 Apr. 1841; The English Chartist Circular and Temperance Record for England and Wales, nos. 9 & 10, Mar./Apr. 1841.

76 M.S., 5 & 17 Oct. 1840, 24 Sept., 26 Nov. 1842, 30 Aug. 1845. Chartist counter-attractions to the popular festivities associated with the Wakes overlapped with those of churches, schools and temperance societies; Poole, R. J. R., ‘Wakes, holidays and pleasure fairs in the Lancashire cotton district, c 1790–1890’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1985), pp. 144–55Google Scholarand ‘Oldham Wakes’, in Walton, J. K. and Walvin, J. R. (eds.), Leisure in Britain, (Manchester, 1983), pp. 71–98Google Scholar.

77 M.S., 12 Aug. 1843, 13 Apr. 1844, 29 Mar. 1845.

78 Butterworth, 19 June 1836; 30 Nov. 1840. M.S.A., 23 Apr. 1842.M.E., 7 Aug. 1850.

79 Butterworth, 1 Apr., 8 May 1839.

80 Quarmby was politically active from 1837 to the 1850s: see N.S., 31 Dec. 1837, 21 Apr. 1838; M.S.A., 29 Nov. 1845, 21 Feb. 1846 (anti-poor law); M.S., 7 July, 10 Nov. 1838, M.E., 3 Dec. 1851 (suffrage and retrenchment); M.S.A., 14 Mar. 1840, M.E., 3 Mar. 1852 (Anti-Corn Law League); M.S., 14 Oct. 1840, 2 Sept. 1843 (Hunt and O'Connor supporter); M.S.A., 1 Feb. 1840 (aid to political prisoners); M.S.A., 20 May 1843, 24 Jan, 11 Dec 1846, (factory reform); M.S.A., 13 Mar. 1847 (education); M.S., 29 Mar. 1845 (working men's hall); M.S.A., 12 June 1847 (Holladay's election committee); Freeholder, 1 May 1850, M.E., 8 Feb. 1851 (Freehold Lan d Movement); M.S.A., 2 Mar. 1844, O.C., 4 Nov. 1854 (local talks to improving societies). For Hirst see, Butterworth, 29 Jan. 1842, M.S.A., 30 Apr. 1842, 5 & 12 Aug. 1843, 30 Mar. 1844, 5 Sept. 1846 (poetry recitals and temperance); N.S., 4 May, 13 July, 31 Aug. 1844, 28 June, 29 Nov. 1845 (lectures to Chartists); M.S., 20 Aug., 24 Sept., 22 Oct. 1842 (arrest); M.S., 14 June 1845 (S-Lanes, delegate); M.S.A., 16 Mar. 1844, 5 July 1845 (Anti-Corn La w League); M.S.A., 24 Jan., 19 Dec. 1846, 16Jan. 1847 (factory reform); M.S., 29 Nov. 1845 (anti-poor law); Manchester Times (M.T.), 20 May 1848 (calls for Charter). He, Quarmby and many other Radicals also supported the cross-party campaign for a public park, in Oldham, , M.T., 11 12 1846Google Scholar.

81 N.S., 19 Oct. 1839; Butterworth, Aug. 1840.

82 Butterworth, 8 Nov. 1838; M.S.A., 10 Nov. 1838; N.S., 29 Dec. 1838. N.S., 10 Nov. 1838 and Champion, 18 Nov. 1838, however, both report that Deegan was greeted with ‘deafening cheers’.

83 Butterworth, Mar.-Apr., 1839, 25 May 1839; M.S.A., 17 Aug. 1839. Oldham was unusual in not participating in the National Holiday; see Sykes, R., ‘Physical-force Chartism: the cotton district and the Chartist crisis of 1839’, International Review of Social History, XXX, 2 (1985), 207–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 230.

84 Butterworth, 25 May 1839.

85 Memorial in favour of John Swire to John Fielden for the Home Secretary from the Constables, Churchwardens and Overseers, 11 Feb. 1840, P.R.O., HO/44/36. Names attached included men of all political persuasions. See also Alex Taylor's defence of Swire, M.S.A., 12 Oct. 1839.

86 M.S.A., 24 Apr. 1840, 13 Oct. 1842; N.S., 13 & 20 Oct. 1842, Butterworth, Aug. 1842. There is evidence to suggest that radicals enrolled as special constables to police meetings: PRO, HO/44/36 for May 1839; Yardley was acting as special constable when he was arrested in 1842, M.S.A. 28 Aug. 1842.

87 Butterworth, Feb. 1839.

88 Ibid. 24 Jan. 1839. Alex Taylor, James Greaves and James Holladay were also on the platform.

89 M.S.A., 14 Mar. 1840.

90 M.T., 24 Jan. 1846.

91 N.S., 8 May 1841. He was still described as a carder at this time, ibid. 10 Apr. 1841. cf. Gadian, , ‘Glass formation’, p. 31Google Scholar.

92 N.S., 15 May 1841.

93 Ibid. 5 Feb. 1842, 14 Jan. 1843; M.S.A., 24 Dec. 1842. The other C.S.U. delegate was a Cobbettite, but Greaves did not go on to support Cobbett in 1847.

94 N.S., 23 Jan., 25 July, 15 Aug. 1840; 27 Feb. 1841.

95 Butterworth, 10 Jan. 1842, 25 Jan. 1843; Anti-Bread Tax Circular, 21 Apr. 1841; M.T., 24 Jan. 1846; M.S.A., 7, 14 Mar. 1840, 12 Feb., 5 Mar., 7 Dec. 1842, 16 Mar. 1844, 11 Jan. 1845. For orthodox view, Brown, L., ‘The Chartists and the Anti-Corn Law League’ in Briggs, A., Chartist Studies (London, 1959), pp. 342–71Google Scholar.

96 For excluded speakers see N.S., 16 Apr. 1841 (Leach and Robinson), 10 Feb. 1842 (West), 12 Feb. 1842 (Bell, Clarke and Griffin). Smethurst was appointed circuit lecturer at the same time as Greaves – N.S., 15 Aug. 1840; Crowther, also from Greaves's home village of Waterhead Mill, was appointed just before the latter's sacking, N.S., 21 Mar. 1841.

97 Smethurst's career – N.S., 23 Nov. 1839, 24 Oct. 1840 (N.C.A. secretary); 12 Oct. 1839, 18 Jan., 25 Jan., 4 July 1840, 23 Oct. 1841 (support for political prisoners); 27 June, 14 Oct., 5 Dec. 1840, 2 Jan., 30 Jan., 6 Feb., 17 Apr. 1841, 27 Aug. 1842 (lecturer); 17 Oct. 1840 (delegate meeting); M.S.A., 5 Nov. 1842 (arrest). Smethurst was elected to the select vestry in 1841 but unseated by the J.P.s after a challenge from the Cobbettite assistant overseer; Butterworth, 1 Apr. 1841, For Crowther see M.S., 20 Nov., 24 Dec. 1841, 28 Oct. 1843 (S. Lanes delegate); 24 Dec. 1842, 14 Jan. 1843 (delegate to Birmingham conference); 27 Aug., 22 Oct. 1842 (arrest and acquittal); 27 Jan. 1844 (lectures); M.T., 12 Feb. 1848 (with Ernestjones); M.E., 21 Apr. 1852 (calls for radical unity). For speeches at Anti-Corn Law League see note 95 above.

98 M.T., 11 Feb. 1843, M.E., 4, 7 July 1849.

99 M.S.A., 28 Nov. 1846; Tait, A., History of the Oldham Lyceum, 1839–1897 (Oldham, 1897), pp. 97, 102–3Google Scholar.

100 M.S.A., 15, 22 Apr. 1843, 19 Oct. 1844, 13 Mar. 1847, 19 Feb. 1848.

101 M.T., 6 Nov. 1846.

102 M.S.A., 19 Oct. 1844, 29 Nov. 1845, 17 June 1848.

103 M.S.A., 5, 12, 19 June, 31 July 1847.

104 Grime, B., Memory sketches (Oldham, 1887), pp. 58–9Google Scholarreproduces Fox's election address; for later affirmation of principles, M.E., 29 Oct. 1851.

105 Foster, , Class struggle, pp. 207–8Google Scholar; Sykes, , ‘Some aspects’, p. 176Google Scholar.

106 Fox's campaign team included Haslam, Hirst, Quarmby, Yardley, Haslop, Heap, A. F. Taylor; M.S.A., 21 Mar. 1846, 5, 12, 19 June 1847. Fielden's and Cobbett's; Joshua Milne, Wm. Taylor, Alex Taylor, Richard Fletcher, Jonathan Mellor.

107 M.S.A., 20 Apr. 1844, 24 Jan., 14 Mar. 1846, 16 Jan. 1847.

108 M.S.A., 4 Sept. 1847, M.T., 10 June 1848, M.E., 2 Sept. 1848, 29 Aug. 1849.

109 M.E., 2 Sept. 1848 (Cobbett and Mellor); for Fielden's distrust of Jews see M.S.A., 26 June 1841; for full discussion of this aspect of Cobbettite radicalism, Rubinstein, W. D., ‘British radicalism and the “Dark Side” of populism’ in his Elites and the wealthy in modem British history (Brighton, 1987), pp. 339–73Google Scholar.

110 M.E., 13 Oct. 1849; Fox was less committed to malt tax repeal, ibid. 20 Oct. 1851.

111 Police Commission minutes, 13 Dec. 1848, Oldham Local Studies Centre, PCO/1/2, J. F. Lees (1842), William Jones (1846), Nathan Worthington (1846) and Andrew Schofield, were the tory J.P.s appointed in the 1840s.

114 Poll books in Oldham Local Studies Centre: 1847, July 1852, Dec. 1852, 1857, 1859, 1865. Crompton voted 4–1 for Cobbettite/tory candidates. Fox recognized this spatial variation in voting behaviour, M.E., 10 July 1852. See also Manai, M. A., ‘Electoral politics in mid 19th-century Lancashire’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1991)Google Scholar, ch. 4.

118 M.E., 4 Dec. 1852, 26 Mar. 1853; The Rising Sun, Oldham Illuminator, Free Trader, Reformer, Oldham Independence, Liberal election broadsheets, Oldham Local Studies Centre. For detailed description of elections, see Grime, B., Memory sketches, pp. 91–293Google Scholar.

114 M.E., 25 Sept., 2 Oct. 1852.

115 Vincent, J., The formation of the British Liberal Party, 1857–68 (London, 1966)Google Scholar, ch. 2; Nossiter, T.J., Influence, opinion and political idioms in reformed England, 1832–74 (Brighton, 1975)Google Scholar, ch. 9 on similarities in social support over the period for radical/liberal candidates.

116 Read, D., Peel and the Victorians (Oxford, 1987), pp. 287–312Google Scholar. For an indication of radicals' delight yet confusion over the 1842 budget, see editorial in M.S.A., 19 Mar. 1842.

117 Matthew, H. C. G., ‘Disraeli, Gladstone and the politics of mid-Victorian budgets’, Historical Journal, XXII (1979), 615–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.I have developed this argument in Winstanley, M., Gladstone and the Liberal party (London, 1990), pp. 33–6, 40–6Google Scholarand The shopkeeper's world, 1830–1914 (Manchester, 1983)Google Scholar, ch. 2. For local concern over taxation, see Garrard, J., Leadership and power in Victorian industrial towns (Manchester, 1983)Google Scholar, passim; Hennock, E. P., ‘Finance and politics in urban local government, 1835–1900’, Historical Journal, V (1963), 212–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

118 Harrison, B. H. and Hollis, P., ‘Chartism, Liberalism and Robert Lowery’, English Historical Review, LXXXII (1967), 503–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Harrison, B. H., ‘Teetotal Chartism’, History, LVIII (1973), 193–217CrossRefGoogle Scholar.