Acland [formerly Ackland], James (1799–1876), orator and political reformer, was born on 21 March 1799, in the city of London, where he was baptized at All Hallows on 21 April, the second son of Headley Ackland (or Acland) (1774–1846...
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Baynes, John (1758–1787), lawyer and political reformer, was born in April 1758 (probably on the 6th) at Middleham in Yorkshire, the son of William Baynes of Middleham, who later moved to Embsay Kirk in Craven. After attending school at Bradford under Mr Butler...
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Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) by Henry William Pickersgill, 1829 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Bentham, Jeremy (1748–1832), philosopher, jurist, and reformer, was born on 4 February 1748 in Church Lane, Houndsditch, London, the eldest of the seven children of Jeremiah Bentham (1712–1792), attorney, and Alicia Woodward Whitehorne (d. 1759), the eldest daughter of Thomas Grove, a mercer of ...
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Biggs, John (1801–1871), hosier and political reformer, was born at Leicester, first of the seven children of John Biggs (1774–1827), hosier, and his wife, Elizabeth, née Heggs (1780–1862), of Arnesby, Leicestershire. By the time his father died in 1827 the firm of John Biggs & Sons...
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Stephen Conway
Bingham, Peregrine (1788–1864), legal writer and reformer, was born on 15 April 1788 at Radclive, Buckinghamshire, where he was baptized on 19 April 1788, the eldest son of the Revd Peregrine Bingham (1754–1826) and his wife, Amy, née Bowles (1769–1859). He was educated at ...
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Martin Faragher
Brown, James (1815–1881), journalist and political reformer, was born in Liverpool on 2 August 1815. His father, James Brown, also known as Cato, was a black Nova Scotian, probably from the loyalist community which had settled there in consequence of the American War of Independence, and had served in the ...
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Rory T. Cornish
Cartwright, John (1740–1824), political reformer, was born on 17 September 1740 at Marnham, Nottinghamshire, the third son of William Cartwright (d. 1781) of Marnham, and Anne (d. 1787), daughter of George Cartwright of Ossington, also in Nottinghamshire. The family had risen to prominence in the sixteenth century owing to the fortuitous marriage of ...
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John Cartwright (1740–1824) by Adam Buck © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Digby, William (1849–1904), journalist and social campaigner, the third son of William Digby and his wife, Ann Drake, was born on 1 May 1849 at Walsoken, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Mostly self-taught, Digby became an apprentice in the office of the Isle of Ely and Wisbech Advertiser...
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Drennan, William (1754–1820), physician, poet, and political reformer, was born in Belfast on 23 May 1754, the child of the Revd Thomas Drennan (1696–1768) and his wife, Anne, née Lennox (1719–1806). Of Thomas Drennan, the minister of Belfast's First Presbyterian Congregation...
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Dyer, George (1755–1841), author and advocate of political reform, was born on 15 March 1755 in east London, the son of John Dyer, a shipwright of Bridewell, London. As a child he attended a charity school, and on 1 July 1762 entered Christ's Hospital...
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George Dyer (1755–1841) by Elizabeth Cristall, pubd 1795 (after Joshua Cristall) © National Portrait Gallery, London
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David Steuart Erskine, eleventh earl of Buchan (1742–1829) by John Finlayson, pubd 1765 (after Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1764) [in Van Dyck-style costume] © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Emma Vincent Macleod
Erskine, David Steuart, eleventh earl of Buchan (1742–1829), antiquary and political reformer, was born on 1 June 1742 in Edinburgh, the second son of Henry David Erskine, tenth earl (1710–1767), and his wife, Agnes (1717–1778), daughter of Sir James Steuart, bt, and the elder brother of ...
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Robert Poole
Fildes, Mary (1789x1792–1876), reformer, was the daughter of John Pritchard of Stockport, bookkeeper, and his wife, Ann, née Price. Her birthplace was later given as Cork, although there are no known family connections to explain this. Her age in 1819 was given as twenty-seven, indicating a birth date of about ...
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Firth, Joseph Firth Bottomley [formerly Joseph Firth Bottomley] (1842–1889), politician and municipal reformer, was born Joseph Firth Bottomley at Dobroyd, Shepley, near Huddersfield, Yorkshire, on 21 February 1842, the eldest son of Joseph Bottomley, woollen manufacturer and merchant, and his wife, Ann, ...
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William Robert Fitzgerald, second duke of Leinster (1749–1804) by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1774 photograph by courtesy Sotheby's Picture Library, London
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Liam Chambers
Fitzgerald, William Robert, second duke of Leinster (1749–1804), landowner and political reformer, was born on 12 March 1749 at Arlington Place, Piccadilly, London, the second of nineteen children of James Fitzgerald, first duke of Leinster (1722–1773), politician, and his wife, Lady Emily Mary Lennox (1731–1814)...
