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Urban elites in Victorian Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2009

Richard Trainor
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Extract

After years of concentration on the working class, social historians of nineteenth-century urban Britain have recently rediscovered the upper and middle classes. Various writers have recognized these groups, and elites within them, as significant subjects in themselves and as major influences in urban society generally.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History Yearbook , Volume 12 , May 1985 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

Notes

1 Among many others: Cannadine, D., ‘From feudal lords to figureheads’, Urban History Yearbook (1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Crossick, G. J. (ed.), The Lower Middle Class in Britain 1870–1914 (1977)Google Scholar; Hooper, A. F., ‘Mid-Victorian radicalism: community and class in Birmingham, 1850–1880’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1978)Google Scholar; Howe, A. C., The Cotton Masters 1830–1860 (1984)Google Scholar; Rubinstein, W. D., ‘The Victorian middle classes: wealth, occupation, and geography’, Economic History Rev., 2nd ser., xxx (1977)Google Scholar; Seed, J., ‘Unitarianism, political economy and the antinomies of liberal culture in Manchester, 1830–50’, Social History, VII (1982).Google Scholar

2 For example: Foster, J., Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution (1974)Google Scholar; Fraser, D., Power and Authority in the Victorian City (1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hennock, E. P., Fit and Proper Persons (1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Joyce, P., Work, Society and Politics (1980).Google Scholar

3 See, for instance: Cook, A. F., ‘Reading 1835–1930: a community power study’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Reading, 1970)Google Scholar; Daunton, M. J., Coal Metropolis: Cardiff 1870–1914 (1977)Google Scholar; Garrard, J., Leadership and power in Victorian industrial towns 1830–80 (1983)Google Scholar; Rubinstein, , ‘Wealth, elites and the class structure of modern Britain’, Past and Present, lxxvi (1977).Google Scholar

4 Waller, P. J., Town, City and Nation: England 1850–1914 (1983), 238.Google Scholar

5 E.g. Fraser, D., Urban Politics in Victorian England (1976), 15CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf.Hennock, , Fit Persons, 61.Google Scholar

6 Perkin, H., ‘The recruitment of elites in British society since 1800’, J. Social History, XII (1978), 223Google Scholar. Classes are understood to be groups which share similar economic situations, status and organizational advantage. It is not assumed that these groups, or their subdivisions, necessarily think alike or act together. (Cf. Morris, R. J., Class and Class Consciousness in the Industrial Revolution [1979], 24–5, 27, 32–4, 34, 62–3.)Google Scholar For relevant studies which emphasize classes rather than elites see: Field, J. L., ‘Bourgeois Portsmouth: social relations in a Victorian dockyard town’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Warwick, 1979)Google Scholar; and Koditschek, T. S., ‘Class formation and the Bradford bourgeoisie’ (Ph.D. thesis, Princeton University, 1981).Google Scholar

7 E.g. as councillors, guardians and the officers and committee members of charity boards. (Cf. Giddens, A., ‘Elites in the British class structure’ in Stanworth, P. and Giddens, A. [eds.], Elites and Power in British Society [1974], 4.Google Scholar) The same approach (sometimes alongside a tacit socio-economic definition) can be found in: Crossick, G. J., An Artisan Elite in Victorian Society: Kentish London 1840–1880 (1978)Google Scholar, ch. 5; Garrard, Leadership; and Morris, R. J., ‘Voluntary societies and British urban elites, 1780–1850: an analysis’, Historical J., XXVI (1983).Google Scholar

8 See, for example, R. E. Pahl and J. T. Winkler, ‘The economic elite: theory and practice’ in Stanworth and Giddens, op. cit., 103–7, 120–1.

9 Garrard, J., Leaders and politics in nineteenth century Salford: a historical analysis of urban political power (n.d.), 27–8.Google Scholar

10 Garrard, , Leadership, 47.Google Scholar The definition is adapted from Harrison, B. H., ‘Philanthropy and the Victorians’, Victorian Studies, IX (1966), 356.Google Scholar For the important role played by philanthropy north of the Border, see Checkland, O., Philanthropy in Victorian Scotland (1980).Google Scholar

11 For extended treatment of these topics see, for instance: Garrard, J., ‘Parties, members and voters after 1867: a local study’, Historical J., xx (1977)Google Scholar; MacLaren, A., Religion and Social Class…in Aberdeen (1974)Google Scholar; McLeod, H., Class and Religion in the Late Victorian City (1974)Google Scholar; Yarmie, A. H., ‘Employers' organizations in mid-Victorian England’, International Rev. Social History, xxv (1980).Google Scholar

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13 L. Davidoff and C. Hall, ‘The architecture of public and private life: English middle-class society in a provincial town 1780–1850’ in Fraser and Sutcliffe, op. cit.; Prochaska, F. K., Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England (1980)Google Scholar, esp. 226 n.11.

14 The middle class here excludes the smallest retailers and craftsmen but includes other marginals (e.g. those with a very few employees) who, more frequently than working men, enjoyed the parliamentary vote 1832–67, the effective municipal vote, and eligibility for posts such as Poor Law guardian.

15 Morris, , ‘Voluntary societies’, 101Google Scholar; Keith-Lucas, B., The English Local Government Franchise (1952)Google Scholar, passim; G. Crossick, ‘Urban society and the petty bourgeoisie in nineteenth-century Britain’ in Fraser and Sutcliffe, op. cit., 310.

16 Bealey, F., ‘Municipal politics in Newcastle under Lyme 1872–1914’, North Staffordshire J. Field Studies, v (1965), 64Google Scholar; McCord, N., ‘The Poor Law and philanthropy’ in Fraser, D. (ed.), The New Poor Law in the Nineteenth Century (1976), 105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Sheppard, M. G., ‘The effects of the franchise provisions on the…municipal electorate 1882–1914’, Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History, XIV (1982)Google Scholar; Hennock, , Fit Persons, 10–13, 308, 316.Google Scholar

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19 Fraser, , Urban Politics, 18Google Scholar; Garrard, J., ‘The middle classes and nineteenth century national and local politics’, in Garrard, et al. (eds.), The Middle Class in Politics (1978), 43, 54Google Scholar; Harrison, B. H., Peaceable Kingdom (1982), 225Google Scholar; Reynolds, op. cit., 273; Trainor, Authority, 86–9.

20 Daunton, , Coal Metropolis, 150–1.Google Scholar

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22 Crossick, , ‘Urban society’, 309.Google Scholar

23 The boundaries of these subdivisions of the middle class would vary with the size and economic structure of towns. Modest minimum levels, adapted to a town typified by smaller-scale industry, might be: (for the upper middle class) 100 non-family employees: £250 rateable value or £20,000 probate value; (for the middle middle class, with most of its elite members comfortably exceeding these levels) 10 non-family employees (5 for dealers), £40 rateable value or £2,000 at probate; and (for the lower middle class) 1 non-family employee, £20 rateable value, or £200 probate value. Professional and commercial men ordinarily qualify for the middle middle class, white-collar employees for the lower middle class. A broad intermediate category is appropriate in order to isolate the extremes of great and minimal resources (cf. Hennock, , Fit Persons, 363Google Scholar). For the derivation of these guidelines and discussion of other variables see Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 394–8.Google Scholar

24 Fraser, , Power, 4, 131.Google Scholar

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26 Ibid., 168; Bailey, V., ‘The dangerous classes in late Victorian England’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Warwick, 1975), 21, 28–9, 31–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zangerl, C. H. E., ‘The social composition of the county magistracy in England and Wales 1831–1887’, J. British Studies, XI (1971)Google Scholar; Jones, P., ‘The recruitment of office holders in Leicester 1861–1931’, Trans. Leicestershire Archaeological (and Historical) Society, LVIII (1981–1982), 65, 68–70Google Scholar; Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 240–1.Google Scholar

27 For example: ibid., 92–3, 111, 318–21; Morris, , ‘Voluntary societies’, 101–2Google Scholar; Crossick, , Artisan Elite, 92, 94Google Scholar; Hennock, , Fit Persons, 13–14Google Scholar. There has been comparatively little analysis of the social background of philanthropic leaders, however.

28 Cf. Hennock, E. P., ‘Finance and politics in urban local government in England, 1835– 1900’, Historical J., VI (1963)Google Scholar; Nossiter, T. J., ‘Shopkeeper radicalism in the nineteenth century’ in Nossiter, et al. (eds.), Imagination and Precision in the Social Sciences (1972).Google Scholar

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32 Joyce, op. cit., 25–9; Reynolds, op. cit., 77 and ch. 4, passim; Trainor, R. H., ‘Sir Benjamin Hingley’ in Jeremy, D. J. (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography, 3 (1985).Google Scholar

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34 Trainor, Authority, 260, 265; Garrard, , Leadership, 171Google Scholar; Laybourn, K., ‘“The Defence of the Bottom Dog”: The Independent Labour Party in Local Politics’ in Wright, D. G. and Jowitt, J. A. (eds.), Victorian Bradford (1982).Google Scholar

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36 Hennock, , Fit Persons, 221, 237, 284Google Scholar; Cannadine, , ‘Transformation’, 115–17Google Scholar; Morgan, H. N. B., ‘Social and political leadership in Preston 1820–60’ (M.Litt. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1980), 261–3Google Scholar; G. W. Jones, op. cit., 153, 161, 348–9; Fraser, , Power, 35–6, 158–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Meller, op. cit., 78–84; Thompson, F. M. L., Hampstead (1974), 412.Google Scholar

37 Daunton, , Coal Metropolis, 151Google Scholar; G. W. Jones, op. cit., passim; Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 274–5Google Scholar; Offer, A., Property and Politics 1870–1914 (1981), 226–7.Google Scholar

38 Daunton, , Coal Metropolis, 171–2.Google Scholar Cf. ibid. 151 for the difficult question of whether wealthy leadership was ‘better’ for the towns; this issue is related to the allegedly declining ‘quality’ of elite members (cf. Hennock, , Fit Persons, 308–34).Google Scholar

39 Fraser, Urban Politics, passim; Morris, , ‘Voluntary societies’, 111Google Scholar; Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 328.Google Scholar

40 Trinder, B., Victorian Banbury (1982), 4Google Scholar; Phillips, P. T., The Sectarian Spirit…in Victorian Cotton Towns (Toronto, 1982), 4, 9, 24, 35, 143CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hennock, , Fit Persons, 287–8Google Scholar; Garrard, , Leadership, 107Google Scholar; Fraser, , Power, 161–2.Google Scholar

41 Ibid., 41, 49, 57, 77; Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 325–8, 417.Google Scholar

42 Free Press (West Bromwich), 14 Dec. 1878; Fraser, , Urban Politics, 15.Google Scholar

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44 Meller, op. cit., 77–9, 84, 122, 126; Cannadine, , ‘Transformation’, 116Google Scholar; Newton, R., Victorian Exeter 1837–1914 (1968), 102–6, 183–1, 213–38Google Scholar; Garrard, , Leadership, 107.Google Scholar

45 Dudley Herald, 27 Oct. 1883; Trodd, G. N., ‘The local elite of Blackburn and the response of the working class to its social control, 1880–1900’ (M.A. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1974), 17–18Google Scholar; Morris, , ‘Voluntary societies’, 96, 110Google Scholar; Joyce, op. cit., 25; Meller, op. cit., 8–10, 41, 73–4.

46 Ibid., 72, 76, 241; Garrard, , Leadership, 19, 51Google Scholar; Smith, D., Conflict and Compromise …1830–1914 …Birmingham and Sheffield (1982), 74–5Google Scholar; Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 105–10, 376–8.Google Scholar

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48 Cannadine, D., Lords and Landlords (1980), and (ed.), Patricians, , power and politics in nineteenth-century towns (1982).Google Scholar

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51 Garrard, , ‘Local political power’, 261, 265–6Google Scholar. For an exceptional case see Garrard, Leadership, chs. 7 and 8.

52 For the turn-of-the-century problems of the latter see Daunton, , House and Home in the Victorian City (1983), 123, 126–7, 202.Google Scholar

53 Garrard, , ‘Local political power’, 264.Google Scholar

54 Cf. Rubinstein, , ‘Wealth, elites’, and Men of Property (1981).Google Scholar

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56 Cahill, M. and Jowitt, T., ‘The New Philanthropy: the emergence of the Bradford City Guild of Help’, J. Social Policy, IX (1980), 381Google Scholar; Garrard, , Leadership, 91Google Scholar; Elliott, A., ‘Municipal government in Bradford in the mid-nineteenth century’ in Fraser, (ed.), Municipal reform and the industrial city (1982), 120, 126–30.Google Scholar

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58 Waller, op. cit., 314.

59 Morris, , ‘Middle class’, 303Google Scholar; Garrard, , Leadership, 50Google Scholar; Trinder, op. cit., 105; Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 370Google Scholar; Harris, J., Unemployment and Politics (1972), 90, 98, 100Google Scholar. The relative contribution of the public and private spheres varied among the towns.

60 L. J. Jones, op. cit, 254; Fraser, , Power, 120, 167–9.Google Scholar

61 Daunton, , Coal Metropolis, 225Google Scholar; Walton, J. K., The English Seaside Resort (1983), 152–5.Google Scholar

62 For example: G. W. Jones, op. cit., 26, 138; Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 282–4Google Scholar; Thompson, , Hampstead, 412.Google Scholar

63 Municipal utilities, acquired for a variety of mainly pragmatic purposes, were often popular with well-off councillors and ordinary residents alike. (Cf. Kellett, J. R., ‘Municipal socialism, enterprise and trading’, Urban History Yearbook [1978]Google Scholar; and Roberts, R., ‘Businessmen, politics and municipal socialism’ in Turner, J. [ed.], Businessmen and Politics [1984].)Google Scholar

64 M. J. Daunton, ‘Public place and private space: the Victorian city and the working-class household’ in Fraser and Sutcliffe, op. cit., 231–2; Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 273–87, 369–71, 383, 386–9.Google Scholar

65 Among many recent studies of popular recreation and culture, see Cunningham, H., Leisure in the Industrial Revolution (1980), 168.Google Scholar

66 Kidd, op. cit., 56 and passim.

67 Trainor, , ‘Authority’, 278–80, 311–14, 349–53Google Scholar; Walton, op. cit., 208–16; Harris, op. cit., 3–5, 49–51, 90, 93. Cf. Foster, op. cit, 3, 149, 186–93.

68 Tholfsen, T. R., Working Class Radicalism in Mid-Victorian England (1976), 61–2Google Scholar; Donajgrodzki, A. P., ‘Introduction’ in Donajgrodzki, (ed.), Social Control in Nineteenth Century Britain (1977), 22, 24Google Scholar. Cf. Perkin, , The Origins of Modern English Society 1780–1880 (1969), 346Google Scholar and ch. 9, passim.

69 Lees, op. cit., 41.

70 For this argument see Crossick, , Artisan Elite, 103Google Scholar; Daunton, , Coal Metropolis, 200Google Scholar; and Gray, R. Q., The Labour Aristocracy in Victorian Edinburgh (1976), 21Google Scholar. Such juxtapositions might prove especially awkward at times of employers' militancy such as (in many industries) the 1890s.

71 For examples see Trainor, ‘Authority’, chs. 4, 5 and 7.

72 For a weak elite almost devoid of employers' influence see Field, op. cit., 632–40. Compare that situation with the Northern textile towns in Joyce, op. cit., only partly modified by critiques such as Dutton, H. I. and King, J. E., ‘The limits of paternalism: the cotton tyrants of North Lancashire, 1836–54’, Social History, VII (1982).Google Scholar

73 Garrard, ‘Parties, members and voters’; Evans, G., ‘Social leadership and social control: Bolton 1870–98’ (M.A. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1974)Google Scholar; Cook, R. P., ‘Political elites and electoral politics in late 19th century Burnley’, (M.A. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1974).Google Scholar

74 Jones, P. op. cit.

75 Political and (especially in Nonconformity) religious institutions gave much scope for prominent activity by such groups, usually under the supervision of the upper ranks of the middle class.

76 On these dangers see Crossick, , Artisan Elite, 253.Google Scholar

77 Gray, op. cit., 143; Yeo., op. cit., 254, 323.

78 Garrard, , Leadership, 55Google Scholar; Jones, G. Stedman, Outcast London (1971)Google Scholar, pt III.

79 The elites of medium-sized towns—less prone to such separation but better able than small localities to afford extensive projects and stand up to outside interference—probably had the best chance of achieving a favourable impact.

80 Crossick, , Artisan Elite, 252.Google Scholar

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84 See Fraser, , Urban Politics, 283Google Scholar, for the dangers this trend posed to elites. During most of the period the substantial middle class had been much better able than working-class leaders to forge ties with counterparts elsewhere. Thus the mainly middle-class elites had gained from the distinct but analogous provincial cultures which, enhanced by early industrialization, were fading by the end of the century. (Cf. Briggs, A., Victorian Cities, New York, 1963, 43Google Scholar; Yeo, op. cit., 46–8.)

85 Sheppard, M. G. and Halstead, J. L., ‘Labour's municipal election performance in provincial England and Wales’, Bull. Soc. for the Study of Labour History, XXXIX (1979).Google Scholar

86 Keith-Lucas, B. and Richards, P. G., A History of Local Government in the Twentieth Century (1978), 99–100, 111, 115Google Scholar; Cannadine, , ‘Transformation’, 123n. 63, 125–6Google Scholar, 126n. 76.

87 Comparisons with American cities should prove especially useful. See, for instance: Hammack, D., ‘Problems of power in the historical study of cities, 1800–1960’, American Historical Rev., lxiii (1978)Google Scholar; and II, E. J. Davies, ‘Regional networks and social change…’, J. Social History, XVI (1982).Google Scholar