Edward Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton
Encyclopedia
Edward John Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton PC, FRS (18 March 1791 – 4 May 1863), was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 politician, of first the Canningite
Canningite
Canningites was the name used for a faction of British Tories in the first decade of the 19th century through the 1820s who were led by George Canning. The Canningites were distinct within the Tory party because they favoured Catholic emancipation and freer trade.After the incapacity of Lord...

 Tories and later the Whigs. He had a long political career, active in each of the Houses of Parliament in turn over a period of forty years. He was closely involved in a number of major reforms, particularly Catholic Emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...

, the Truck Act
Truck Acts
Truck Acts is the name given to legislation that outlaws truck systems, which are also known as "company store" systems, or debt bondage. Such laws date back in Britain to the 15th century but have also been implemented in other countries.-History:...

 of 1831, the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832
Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832
The Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which defined the parliamentary divisions in England and Wales required by the Reform Act 1832....

 and the Municipal Corporations Act 1835
Municipal Corporations Act 1835
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835  – sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales...

. Throughout his career he was actively concerned with the Irish question
Irish question
The Irish Question was a phrase used mainly by members of the British ruling classes from the early 19th century until the 1920s. It was used to describe Irish nationalism and the calls for Irish independence....

 and he was Chief Secretary for Ireland
Chief Secretary for Ireland
The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...

 between 1833 and 1834.

Hatherton was also a major Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

 landowner, farmer and businessman. As heir to two family fortunes, he had large holdings in agricultural and residential property, coal mines, quarries and brick works, mainly concentrated around Penkridge
Penkridge
Penkridge is a market town and ancient parish in Staffordshire, England with a population of 7,836 . Many locals refer to it as a village, although it has a long history as an ecclesiastical and commercial centre. Its main distinction in the Middle Ages was as the site of an important collegiate...

, Cannock
Cannock
Cannock is the most populous of three towns in the district of Cannock Chase in the central southern part of the county of Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England....

 and Walsall
Walsall
Walsall is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England. It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation and part of the Black Country.Walsall is the administrative...

.

Background and education

Littleton was born Edward Walhouse, and was educated at Rugby
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...

 and at Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £98m...

. In 1812, he took the name of Littleton in order to inherit the large landed estates of his great-uncle Sir Edward Littleton, 4th and last of the Littleton Baronets
Littleton Baronets
Two Baronetcies have been created in the Baronetage of England for members of the Littleton family.The Littleton family had their origins in South Lyttleton, near Evesham, Worcestershire. Thomas de Littleton was appointed a judge at the Court of Common Pleas in 1464 and was created a Knight of the...

, of Teddesley Hall
Teddesley Hall
Teddesley Hall was a large Georgian country house located close to Penkridge in Staffordshire, now demolished. It was the main seat firstly of the Littleton Baronets and then of the Barons Hatherton...

, near Penkridge
Penkridge
Penkridge is a market town and ancient parish in Staffordshire, England with a population of 7,836 . Many locals refer to it as a village, although it has a long history as an ecclesiastical and commercial centre. Its main distinction in the Middle Ages was as the site of an important collegiate...

, Staffordshire. In 1835, he also inherited large mineral and manufacturing interests in Walsall
Walsall
Walsall is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England. It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation and part of the Black Country.Walsall is the administrative...

 and Cannock
Cannock
Cannock is the most populous of three towns in the district of Cannock Chase in the central southern part of the county of Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England....

 from his uncle, Edward Walhouse.

Political career, 1812–1833

Littleton also took over his great-uncle's parliamentary seat. From 1812 to 1832, he was Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Staffordshire
Staffordshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Staffordshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832...

 and then was the MP for the southern division of that county until 1835. He spent most of that time as a Canningite
Canningite
Canningites was the name used for a faction of British Tories in the first decade of the 19th century through the 1820s who were led by George Canning. The Canningites were distinct within the Tory party because they favoured Catholic emancipation and freer trade.After the incapacity of Lord...

 Tory, but moved over to the Whigs
British Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

 after George Canning
George Canning
George Canning PC, FRS was a British statesman and politician who served as Foreign Secretary and briefly Prime Minister.-Early life: 1770–1793:...

's death in 1827.

In the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

, Littleton was especially prominent as an advocate of Roman Catholic emancipation. In 1825, as a preliminary to a Catholic Relief Bill promoted by Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century...

, he introduced an Elective Franchise in Ireland Bill. The objective of this was, paradoxically, to raise the property qualification for Irish voters. However, its underlying aim was to end abuse of a distinctively Irish form of freehold, which had to be renewed by payment to the original landlord, and so allowed large landowners to create large numbers of compliant voters. Both the Relief and the Franchise Bills failed. After crossing the floor of the House to join the Whigs in 1827, Littleton voted for the Catholic Emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...

 Bill that finally became law in 1829.

From this point, the style and content of his contributions changed completely. For almost twenty years he had been content generally to make short contributions, usually delivering himself of his considered opinions or changed notions (for he sometimes altered his initial stance during debate) in the chamber of the house in a few unmemorable phrases. From 1830 he became closely involved in committee work on important reforms. As his opinions became more radical, he adopted an increasingly trenchant and discursive style, speaking frequently in long, argued statements, laden with factual detail. One one day in September 1831, for example, he made eight speeches of varying length in the House. One of the important factors in this change of style and focus seems to have been his increasingly close contact with middle and working class opinion in the growing Staffordshire towns - Stoke on Trent, Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...

 and Walsall
Walsall
Walsall is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England. It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation and part of the Black Country.Walsall is the administrative...

. He frequently presented petitions and deployed arguments and reports drawn directly from these disfranchised towns and people. As he became more combative and forensic in his contributions, he was increasingly regarded as a Radical
Radicals (UK)
The Radicals were a parliamentary political grouping in the United Kingdom in the early to mid 19th century, who drew on earlier ideas of radicalism and helped to transform the Whigs into the Liberal Party.-Background:...

 rather than merely a Whig.

After the 1830 General Election ended Tory domination, and brought in a minority Whig government under Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC , known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the...

, Littleton took up the campaign against the truck system
Truck system
A truck system is an arrangement in which employees are paid in commodities or some currency substitute , rather than with standard money. This limits employees' ability to choose how to spend their earnings—generally to the benefit of the employer...

. This was the practice by which employees were forced to accept payment or advances in kind, often becoming effectively enslaved to the company store. First he presented numerous petitions against the system from workers in Staffordshire and Gloucestershire. He asked and obtained leave to introduce a bill against the truck system at the end of the year. The 1831 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1831
The 1831 general election in the United Kingdom saw a landslide win by supporters of electoral reform, which was the major election issue. As a result it was the last unreformed election, as the Parliament which resulted ensured the passage of the Reform Act 1832. Polling was held from 28 April to...

 completely changed the electoral landscape, ushering in a reforming Whig ministry under Grey, and allowing Littleton to proceed with his bill with a fair certainty of success. Moving the vote on the bill in September 1831, he pointed out that "it was notorious that the universal feeling of the working classes was in favour of some attempt to put down this odious system." He summarised its main purpose simply as that "the workmen must be paid in money." Consolidating and extending numerous earlier acts on the subject, the Truck Act
Truck Acts
Truck Acts is the name given to legislation that outlaws truck systems, which are also known as "company store" systems, or debt bondage. Such laws date back in Britain to the 15th century but have also been implemented in other countries.-History:...

 of 1831 (actually the Money Payment of Wages Act) was a landmark piece of social legislation, which was invoked as still relevant in Parliament as as recently as 2003.

The campaign for the Truck Act had revealed an important weakness in Littleton's character that was to have major consequences for his career. In order to get the reform through, he had made the concession that Ireland be excluded from it for the time being. At one point he had let slip the unguarded comment that he did not care about Ireland. This was overheard by one of the members for Waterford - presumably Lord George Beresford
Lord George Beresford
General Lord George Thomas Beresford GCH, PC was an Anglo-Irish soldier, courtier and Tory politician. He served as Comptroller of the Household from 1812 to 1830.-Background:...

, who was hated by the Radicals and Irish Repealers, and who proceeded to broadcast the remark. Littleton took up the challenge in Parliament and, accepting that the report of his comment was accurate, pointed out that it was reported entirely out of context. In fact, it was well known that he he had been a strong proponent of Emancipation. However, the damage was done.

As the Truck Act passed into Law, Littleton was drafted in to detailed work on the Great Reform Bill
Reform Act 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales...

, intended to create an entirely new system of parliamentary representation. The reform had two main thrusts: a simplification of the Franchise
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...

 qualification and a complete redrawing of the Constituency boundaries to abolish the rotten boroughs and pocket boroughs. Littleton was appointed as an unpaid Commissioner on the latter task. Here his command of detail and forensic skills found a perfect outlet, as the reform involved careful research, the establishment of principles and their application to hundreds of varying local situations. He was determined that the reform should be based on the latest data about population sizes, not on the traditional status of settlements. He was formidably well-informed and often sarcastic in debate, often tangling with John Wilson Croker
John Wilson Croker
John Wilson Croker was an Irish statesman and author.He was born at Galway, the only son of John Croker, the surveyor-general of customs and excise in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1800...

, a bitterly anti-Reform Irish Tory who sat for the rotten borough of Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh (UK Parliament constituency)
Aldeburgh was a parliamentary borough represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessor bodies.The town was enfranchised in 1571 as a borough constituency...

. In his first major contribution in Committee, he said in reply to an ill-informed remark by Croker that: "his right hon. friend had displayed his want of acquaintance with the county of Stafford when he spoke of the village of Bilston. The village of Bilston, as his right hon. friend was facetiously pleased to style it, contained a population of not less than 14,000 or 15,000 souls.". He made similar contributions to uphold the importance of Wolverhampton, Walsall and Stoke, continually insisting on the principle that constituencies should represent communities and populations, not political or economic interests. He consistently appealed simultaneously to principles and facts, showing a ferocious interest in every region of the country, for example: "as one of the Commissioners upon whom was devolved the duty of fixing the limits of the new borough of Huddersfield, he felt himself called upon to state that, in performing that duty, he did not conceive himself bound to consider the extent of property which any individual might possess within the borough, or his political opinions." Ultimately, the Reform Bill as originally conceived proved unwieldy, and the boundary reform, with its mass of detail and numerous schedules was divided off into a second bill. Hence the "Reform Act of 1832" is really two separate acts: a Representation of the People Act and the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832
Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832
The Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which defined the parliamentary divisions in England and Wales required by the Reform Act 1832....

, which owed much of its effectiveness to Littleton's work.

It is some measure of the regard in which he was held by parliamentary Radicals that in January 1833, against his own wish, he was nominated by the Scottish MP Joseph Hume
Joseph Hume
Joseph Hume FRS was a Scottish doctor and Radical MP, born in Montrose, Angus.-Medical career:He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and moved to India in 1797...

 to become Speaker
Speaker of the British House of Commons
The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...

 of the first reformed House of Commons. He was seconded by Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century...

 himself. Littleton spoke against his own nomination, expressing his confidence in the existing Speaker, Charles Manners-Sutton
Charles Manners-Sutton, 1st Viscount Canterbury
Charles Manners-Sutton, 1st Viscount Canterbury GCB, PC was a British Tory politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 to 1835.-Background and education:...

, a Tory member, and praising his "unexampled patience and urbanity". Littleton had voted for Manners-Sutton consistently since 1817. He correctly diagnosed his own nomination as a political protest and he did not consider the Speakership a party matter. O'Connell countered with a long speech denouncing Toryism, demanding a triumphal vindication of the Reform Act and refusing to withdraw the nomination. He regarded the nomination of Manners-Sutton "as another instance of that paltry truckling on the part of the present Administration towards their ancient enemies, which had already afforded such frequent subjects of complaint." Lord Althorp
John Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer
John Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer PC, FRS , styled Viscount Althorp from 1783 to 1834, was a British statesman...

, a fellow Radical, supported Littleton's non-partisan view but William Cobbett
William Cobbett
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...

 gave a bitterly-partisan speech, claiming that the election of Manners-Sutton would be "an open declaration of war against the people of England." Much of the venom derived from an accompanying proposal to pay the Speaker a large pension. However, Manners-Sutton himself rose to reject the idea of a pension. A division was held on the proposal install Littleton in the Chair and it was defeated by 241 votes to 31: Littleton did not vote for himself. Littleton's nomination, though rejected by himself, had initiated an important constitutional debate, which established permanently in the reformed parliament the non-partisan character of the Speaker.

Chief Secretary for Ireland, 1833–1834

In May 1833 Littleton became chief secretary
Chief Secretary for Ireland
The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...

 to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the British King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

 in the ministry of Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC , known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the...

, with Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley
Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley
Richard Colley Wesley, later Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, KG, PC, PC , styled Viscount Wellesley from birth until 1781, was an Anglo-Irish politician and colonial administrator....

, Littleton's father-in-law, as Lord Lieutenant. The appointments met with the approval of Daniel O'Connell. However, Littleton was part of a shaky coalition of Whigs and Radicals. The Whigs were much more concerned with defending property rights and the position of the established church than the Radicals, who were prepared to sacrifice both if they perceived injustice. He was often forced to take positions which might normally have gone against his political instincts, and he also allowed his loose tongue to get him into further trouble.

The main point of conflict was the issue of Irish Tithes. Incensed by the legal requirement to pay tithes to the Protestant Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...

, the Repealers had launched a campaign of refusal to pay among the mainly Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 (otherwise Presbyterian) peasantry. This sporadically flared into violence in the Tithe War
Tithe War
The Tithe War was a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience, punctuated by sporadic violent episodes, in Ireland between 1830-36 in reaction to the enforcement of Tithes on subsistence farmers and others for the upkeep of the established state church - the Church of Ireland...

. Littleton was compelled by the alliance with Whigs to bring in a Tithe Arrears (Ireland) Bill, which set out some concessions in the payment terms but reaffirmed the government's determination to impose tithes on Ireland for the foreseeable future. It was accompanied by one of the many Irish Coercion bills which partially suspended civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 in Ireland in order to suppress rural violence.

Initially, Littleton seemed to be steering a compromise corse fairly successfully. On the one hand he portrayed the recovery of tithes as a painful necessity, while denouncing unwarranted and sometimes illegal police violence. However, this could not last. As early as 10 July, Littleton upset the Irish Repealers in the Commons. Feargus O'Connor
Feargus O'Connor
Feargus Edward O'Connor was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan.- Background :Feargus O'Connor was born into a prominent Irish Protestant family, the son of Irish Nationalist politician Roger O'Connor...

, one of the most radical of the Irish party, brought forward a petition demanding the repeal of the Acts of Union 1800. Littleton responded that: "That was a proposition so utterly devoid of commonsense, that it was scarcely necessary for him to say, that when it was brought forward, it would be met by the most strenuous opposition. He need scarcely use such strong language, for the proposition was so extremely absurd — so opposed to the feelings and interests of both Englishmen and Irishmen, that any strenuous exertion would be totally unnecessary, in order to ensure it a signal defeat." This was clearly far beyond what was necessary to dissociate himself from O'Connor.

However, there was no real chance of repeal going through at that point. Rather hastily he made a compact with O'Connell on the assumption that the new coercion act could not contain certain repressive clauses which were part of the old act. The clauses, however, were inserted; O'Connell charged Littleton with deception; and in July 1834 Grey, Viscount Althorp
Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer
Vice-Admiral Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer KG, CB, PC , styled The Honourable Frederick Spencer until 1845, was a British naval commander, courtier and Whig politician. He initially served in the Royal Navy and fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the Greek War of Independence, eventually rising...

 and the Irish secretary resigned. The two latter were induced to serve under the new premier, Lord Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister . He is best known for his intense and successful mentoring of Queen Victoria, at ages 18-21, in the ways of politics...

, and they remained in office until Melbourne was dismissed in November 1834.

Career in House of Lords, 1835–1863

In February 1835, Littleton won re-election to the House of Commons as member for Staffordshire Southern - part of a Whig victory that returned Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister . He is best known for his intense and successful mentoring of Queen Victoria, at ages 18-21, in the ways of politics...

 to power. Shortly afterwards, the new administration raised Littleton to the peerage as Baron Hatherton, of Hatherton in the County of Stafford. Hatherton took his title from a Staffordshire village which at that time was an exclave of Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...

, where Littleton owned Hatherton Hall, a country house that formed part of the Walhouse inheritance. Since he was now constitutionally barred from serving as a member of the House of Commons, his seat had to be contested again in a by-election in May, won by a fellow Whig, Sir Francis Goodricke.

As a peer, Hatherton was automatically a member of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 and able to make a contribution to parliamentary debate and processes. This he did until the year before his death, although his contributions tailed off considerably after his Address in Answer to the Speech from the Throne
Speech from the Throne
A speech from the throne is an event in certain monarchies in which the reigning sovereign reads a prepared speech to a complete session of parliament, outlining the government's agenda for the coming session...

 in 1847, perhaps for family reasons.

For several years after his elevation to the peerage, Hatherton was closely involved in campaigns to extend the political reforms of the Whig administration. Most important of these initially was municipal reform. Hatherton presented numerous petitions, and took up the cause of several small towns, in the campaign preceding the Municipal Corporations Act 1835
Municipal Corporations Act 1835
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835  – sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales...

. He served on the Lords committee on the bill and was often acerbic in debate, much as he had been on earlier reforms. Key to the measure was the enfranchisement of ratepayers
Rates (tax)
Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government...

. When the Tory peers rallied to the cause of the freemen
Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...

, a rather flexible class who dominated the electorate in many towns and cities, Hatherton observed caustically that:
"the freemen, generally speaking, were a very inferior class of persons. They need not possess any property, or pay any rates; and in many instances, their residence was principally in gaols. To show the facilities which they afforded for corruption, the noble Lord read various statements of the vast number of persons who had been admitted as freemen just previous to general elections. For such persons the Bill proposed to substitute a class of men who had paid rates for three years. If their Lordships refused to sanction this proposition, he was afraid they would expose themselves to strong observations out of doors, where it was the universal opinion that they had found the class of individuals which the Bill tended to get rid of extremely convenient, and easily to be managed on certain occasions."


When a similar measure was proposed for Ireland in 1838, Hatherton defended it trenchantly in the Lords, taking particular exception to attempts to tamper with the franchise. In a substantial, detailed speech he used his old tactic of marshalling demographic and financial detail to swamp rhetorical argument. Everywhere he perceived possible corruption, he entered his name in the lists against it. So in 1837, for example, we find his name among the six radical Lords wanting to pursue an urgent enquiry into the the statutes of the Oxbridge
Oxbridge
Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior social status...

 colleges, on the grounds, among others, that the colleges were "of very ancient foundation, and many of their statutes, contemplating a state of society very different from the present, and a religion other than that now established, are totally inapplicable to the present times, and impossible to be observed."

Another cause was the struggle against the Church Rate
Church Rate
The Church Rate was a tax formerly levied in each parish in England and Ireland for the benefit of the parish church. Out of these rates were defrayed the expenses of carrying on divine service, repairing the fabric of the church, and paying the salaries of the officials connected with it...

, the compulsory levy for maintenance of Anglican parish churches that so offended both Catholic and Protestant Dissenter
Dissenter
The term dissenter , labels one who disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. In the social and religious history of England and Wales, however, it refers particularly to a member of a religious body who has, for one reason or another, separated from the Established Church.Originally, the term...

s. The Church Rate agitation was part of a wider campaign for reforms of position of the established Church, which broke its monopoly over the recording of births, marriages and deaths in 1837, but poor rates were not made voluntary until 1868, five years after Hatherton's death. In fact, after this disappointment, and especially in the early 1840's, a period of Tory dominance that brought Robert Peel
Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...

 to power, Hatherton's contributions slackened for a time in number and in focus. Without a clear programme of government reforms to promote, he tended to moralise or equivocate.

Hatherton was always a zealous promoter of Lord's Day
Lord's Day
Lord's Day is a Christian name for Sunday, the day of communal worship. It is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is said in the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament to have been witnessed alive from the dead early on the first day of...

 observance, a cause which united almost all the churches. Both Hatherton and his ecclesiastical allies were at least as concerned with the hours and conditions of the workers as with due decorum on a day of worship. Hatherton presented many petitions on the subject in the 1830's and in 1840 he focussed his attention on the demand for a law to stop Sunday traffic on the canals and railways. Hatherton had a major economic interest in canals, and the Hatherton Canal
Hatherton Canal
The Hatherton Canal is a derelict branch of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in south Staffordshire, England. It was constructed in two phases, the first section opening in 1841 and connecting the main line to Churchbridge, from where a tramway connected to the Great Wyrley coal mines...

 was only part of the network that served his mines and quarries in Staffordshire. He sought legislation to impose a solution on the canal owners, who would not agree among themselves to a holiday for their workers. This issue preoccupied him for the next two years, gradually shading into arguments about working conditions more generally.

Hatherton made a number of important speeches in the period leading up to Mines and Collieries Act 1842. As a coal-owner, his economic interests were even more closely involved than in the case of the canals. His economic liberalism was thus brought into conflict with his zeal for social reform. A Commission, headed by Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury KG , styled Lord Ashley from 1811 to 1851, was an English politician and philanthropist, one of the best-known of the Victorian era and one of the main proponents of Christian Zionism.-Youth:He was born in London and known informally as Lord Ashley...

, had investigated conditions in the mines and its proposals for reform included prohibitions on female and child labour underground. Hatherton found himself in the unusual and uncomfortable position of defending the status quo alongside Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, a Tory grandee hated in the mining areas of Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

 and Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

. However, Hatherton claimed that conditions in the Midland coal mining areas were much better than in the north and portrayed the miners as an aristocracy of labour, with the child labourers as "apprentices". Partly through his intransigence, the age lower limit for boys to work underground was set at ten. On the other hand, Hatherton welcomed a ban on women working in the mines and defended against all attempts to dilute it.

The Railway Mania of the 1840's saw Littleton trying to get to grips with the pace of modernisation. Early in 1845 he spoke at length in support of a petition from the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a narrow navigable canal in the English Midlands, passing through the counties of Staffordshire and Worcestershire....

 Company, attacking predatory pricing by railways. A little later he encouraged people affected by railway development to group together in corporate bodies to defend their joint interests. and speaking in defence of the coastal trade in coal. The following year, however, he was showing a very positive attitude and was advocating a streamlined system for dealing with railway development. In fact, he had informed himself sufficiently to hazard the opinion that broad gauge
Broad gauge
Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...

 was the future.

Proposed changes to the Game Act 1831
Game Act 1831
The Game Act 1831 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom which was passed to protect game birds by establishing a close season when they could not be legally taken. The act also established the need for game licences and the appointing of gamekeepers...

 also gave him a chance to advertise himself as a modern and improving landlord. He proposed removing hares from the status of game, so that tenants might eliminate them from their land and boasted of his near-extermination of hares and rabbits on his own estates: "he could scarcely exaggerate the satisfaction which had resulted from that course, both to himself and to his tenants."

However, the Irish Question was again coming to dominated debate and it had never ceased to be one of Hatherton's major concerns. During the 1830's he had spoken often on Irish matters, steering a tortuous path. On the one hand he supported most of the the causes of equality and social reform dear to Irish nationalists. In 1836, for example, we find him defending the suppression of Orange lodges and denouncing the poor representation of Catholics on public bodies. However, he also supported coercive Government measures to suppress disorder, often taking a hardline position. In 1844 Hatherton promoted a reform popular with Irish Catholics: the Charitable Bequests (Ireland) Act, which created a corporate body to accept bequests in favour of the Irish clergy. In so doing, he seized the opportunity to attack the poor provision for Catholic clerical education. This helped stoke the agitation that led to the Maynooth Grant
Maynooth Grant
The Maynooth Grant was a major British political controversy of the 1840s which arose partly due to the general anti-Irish and anti-Catholic feelings of the British population....

 of 1845, with its disastrously divisive consequences for the Tory party.

However, the disaster of the Great Famine soon pushed even these important issues to the periphery. Peel recognised that the famine could not be ended while the Corn Laws
Corn Laws
The Corn Laws were trade barriers designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The barriers were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...

, major protective tariffs on food imports, continued in force. Although it had never dominated Hatherton's radicalism, he had long been loyal to the anti-Corn Law cause and had spoken most effectively on the subject when he presented no less than six petitions from Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...

 in 1839 There was never any doubt of his support for the repeal of the laws in 1846, a volte-face for the Tory party that split it more disastrously and more permanently than Maynooth and brought down Peel's government. The minority Whig government of John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....

 dealt with the famine, as closely as possible according to laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....

 principles, through the administrator Charles Trevelyan
Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet
Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan, 1st Baronet, KCB was a British civil servant and colonial administrator. As a young man, he worked with the colonial government in Calcutta, India; in the late 1850s and 1860s he served there in senior-level appointments...

. He was so preoccupied with a market solution that he restricted relief through public works and forced millions to starve or emigrate.

From August 1846, Parliament was continuously prorogued and the government avoided facing its critics. As 1847 began, the government was forced to think again, and decided to bring in soup kitchen
Soup kitchen
A soup kitchen, a bread line, or a meal center is a place where food is offered to the hungry for free or at a reasonably low price. Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, they are often staffed by volunteer organizations, such as church groups or community groups...

s and outdoor relief
Outdoor relief
This article refers to Britain's welfare provision after the 1601 Poor Law. For welfare programmes see Social securityAfter the passing of the Elizabethan Poor Law , outdoor relief was that kind of poor relief where assistance was in the form of money, food, clothing or goods, given to alleviate...

. Parliament was reconvened on 19 January and the government's revised strategy sketchily outlined to in Speech from the Throne
Speech from the Throne
A speech from the throne is an event in certain monarchies in which the reigning sovereign reads a prepared speech to a complete session of parliament, outlining the government's agenda for the coming session...

 that gave Ireland prominence but wandered across such topics as the marriage of the Spanish Infanta, and problems in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. As a senior Whig peer, Hatherton rose to make a formal Address in Answer. He immediately stated that the condition of Ireland was topic of "all-absorbing importance" and went on to give a long speech in which all other matters were relegated to a formal mention at the end. He stressed the vast scale of famine and the inadequacy of government attempts to tackle it. He welcomed public works programmes but declared that if they were now pointless or impractical, other means of relieving the famine had to be found. Hatherton stated that his purpose was to "implore their Lordships, in considering this question, to make the case of Ireland their own" and demanded the government treat it exactly as if it had happened in England. He asked the peers to consider what would have been their response if some pest had destroyed England's cotton imports: would they leave Manchester to its own devices? He demanded abolition of all residual restrictions on food imports. The government was proposing to finance relief from future taxes on Ireland. Hatherton rejected this explicitly. What would be the response to a famine in England: would Parliament really expect English landlords to pay thee entire cost of relief. Hatherton made clear that he was not speaking on the government's behalf:
"These remarks emanated solely from himself, and had not been made at the suggestion of any party; but he could not have undertaken the duty of proposing the Address to the Crown, unless he had been allowed free license to express his own opinions. Whatever might be the issue of this fearful calamity, one thing was certain, and that was, that it was the bounden duty of all parties, both in England and Ireland, from the highest Minister of the Crown, down to the lowest member of society, to combine, and by every exertion, and by every personal sacrifice, if necessary, to do all in their power to arrest the fearful progress of this giant evil. Let them reflect what would have been the condition of England if the Channel had not existed between the two countries. The consequence to England would then have been as dire as if the calamity had occurred in England itself."


His speech, which had departed far from the usual formal paean to the monarch's words and criticised the central pillar of government policy, elicited considerable outrage. It was the peak of his career as a working peer. From this point, his contributions became briefer and less frequent. This roughly corresponds to the onset of important family bereavements. Hyacinth Anne, his daughter had died in July 1847 after a long struggle against tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

. His wife, Hyacinthe Mary, too became seriously ill, dying at the beginning of 1849. Hatherton served as Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire
Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire
This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant for Staffordshire. Since 1828, all Lord Lieutenants have also been Custos Rotulorum of Staffordshire.-Lord Lieutenants of Staffordshire:*Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford 1559...

 between 1854 and 1863 - an honorific local post with considerable ceremonial duties that perhaps filled his time as he himself became less able to travel. His last contribution to debate, in 1852, was characteristically trenchant attack on the arrogance of the telegraph companies who inconvenienced residents without notice, and a demand that they pay compensation.

Business and property interests

Hatherton was a very wealthy man, partly because of his inherited interests, and partly because of his own business activities. The Littleton inheritance brought almost the whole of the manor of Penkridge
Penkridge
Penkridge is a market town and ancient parish in Staffordshire, England with a population of 7,836 . Many locals refer to it as a village, although it has a long history as an ecclesiastical and commercial centre. Its main distinction in the Middle Ages was as the site of an important collegiate...

, as well as the former Penkridge deanery manor, and other estates in that area - land accruing in the hands of the Littletons since 1502. The Walhouse inheritance brought large coal mines in Cannock
Cannock
Cannock is the most populous of three towns in the district of Cannock Chase in the central southern part of the county of Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England....

 and Walsall
Walsall
Walsall is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England. It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation and part of the Black Country.Walsall is the administrative...

, as well as extractive works supplying the construction industry, including sandstone and limestone quarries, brickyards, gravel pits and sand pits. This made him immensely influential as a landlord and employer across a large tract of south and central Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

.

A listing of his economic interests in 1862, the year before his death, includes:
  • Teddesley Hall, Woods and Farm; Hatherton Hall, Pillaton Gardens, Teddesley and Hatherton Estate Rentals - all in his own occupation

  • 288 holdings in the following townships: Abbots Bromley, Acton Trussell, Bednall, Beaudesert and Longdon, Bosoomoor, Congreve, Coppenhall, Cannock, Drayton, Dunston, Huntington, Hatherton, Linell, Levedale, Longridge, Otherton, Pipe Ridware, Penkridge, Pillaton, Preston, Stretton, Saredon and Shareshill, Teddesley, Water Eaton, Wolgarston

  • Walsall Estate Rental

  • 236 holdings, in Walsall

  • Royalties from mineral extraction at Hatherton Colliery, Bloxwich; Hatherton Colliery, Great Wyrley; Serjeants Hill Colliery, Walsall; Hatherton Lime Works, Walsall; Walsall Old Lime Works; Paddock Brickyard, Walsall; Sutton Road Brickyard, Walsall; Serjeants Hill Brickyard, Walsall; Butts Brickyard, Walsall; Old Brooks Brickyard, Walsall; Long House Brickyard, Cannock; Rumer Hill Brickyard, Cannock; Penkridge Brickyard; Wolgarstone Stone Quarry, Teddesley; Wood Bank and Quarry Heath Stone Quarries, Teddesley; Gravel Pit, Huntington; Sand Pit at Hungry Hill, Teddesley. Also land rentals from some of the mine properties.

  • Tithes from 579 occupiers in Hatherton, Cannock, Leacroft, Hednesford, Cannock Wood, Wyrley, Saredon, Shareshill, Penkridge, Congreve, Mitton, Whiston, Rodbaston, Coppenhall, Dunston, Bloxwich, Walsall Wood.


Although most of Hatherton's income from agriculture came in the form of rents and tithes, he was also a considerable farmer on his own account. He drained and developed a large area of land to expand the farm at Teddesley into a holding of some 1700 acres. Here he had 200 head of cattle and 2000 sheep. 700 acres were under cultivation, using a four-course crop rotation
Crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...

. By 1860, he had established a free agricultural college at Teddesley for 30 boys, many the sons of tenants. The boys worked for part of each day on the estate as well as receiving practical and formal instruction.

Family

Lord Hatherton married Hyacinthe Mary Wellesley, eldest illegitimate daughter of Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley
Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley
Richard Colley Wesley, later Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, KG, PC, PC , styled Viscount Wellesley from birth until 1781, was an Anglo-Irish politician and colonial administrator....

, in October 1812. She died after a long illness on 6 January 1849. A daughter, Hyacinth Anne, had already died in 1847. In 1852 Hatherton married Caroline Davenport, née Hurt, (1810-1897) of Wirksworth
Wirksworth
Wirksworth is a small market town in Derbyshire, England, with a population of over 9,000.The population of the Wirksworth area including Cromford, Bolehill and Middleton-by-Wirksworth is about 12,000. Wirksworth is listed in the Domesday Book in 1086. Within it is the source of the River...

, Derbyshire. He died at his Staffordshire residence, Teddesley Hall, in May 1863, aged 72, and was buried, with his first wife and daughter, at Penkridge
Penkridge
Penkridge is a market town and ancient parish in Staffordshire, England with a population of 7,836 . Many locals refer to it as a village, although it has a long history as an ecclesiastical and commercial centre. Its main distinction in the Middle Ages was as the site of an important collegiate...

 parish church. He was succeeded in the barony by his son Edward
Edward Littleton, 2nd Baron Hatherton
.Edward Richard Littleton, 2nd Baron Hatherton , was a British peer and Liberal Member of Parliament.Hatherton was the son of Edward John Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton, and Hyacinthe Mary Wellesley, eldest illegitimate daughter of Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley...

.

Further Reading

  • Reeve, H. (ed.) Memoirs and Correspondence relating to Political Occurrences, June-July 1834. London : 1872.
  • Walpole, Sir Spencer
    Spencer Walpole
    Sir Spencer Walpole KCB was an English historian and civil servant.-Background:He came of the younger branch of the family of the famous Whig prime minister, Robert Walpole, being descended from his brother, the 1st Baron Walpole...

    . History of England, vol. iii. (1890).
  • Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.

External links

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