Jesse Collings
Encyclopedia
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, a Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
(later Liberal Unionist
Liberal Unionist Party
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party formed a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule...
) member of Parliament, but was best known nationally in the UK as an advocate of educational reform and land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
.
Background
Collings was the youngest son of Thomas Collings, Littleham-cum-ExmouthLittleham, Exmouth
Littleham is an area of Exmouth in Devon, England. It was historically a village and civil parish, much older than Exmouth itself.The ecclesiastical parish is now known as Littleham-cum-Exmouth . The original parish church dates back to the 13th century and is dedicated to St Margaret and St...
, Devon, and Annie Palmer. His father was a bricklayer, who later established a small building firm. He was educated at a Dame School and for a time at Church House School, Stoke, Plymouth. He started work as a shop assistant aged 15 years, later becoming a clerk and a traveller for an ironmongery firm. In 1850, he started working for Booth and Company, a firm of ironmongers in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
; in 1864 he became a partner in the renamed business, Collings and Wallis. In 1879, he retired from the partnership. Jesse Collings came under the influence of George Dawson
George Dawson
George Dawson may refer to:* George Dawson , American author, learned to read at age 98* George Dawson , English cricketer in the 19th century* George Dawson , English preacher of the 19th century...
and worshipped in the Unitarian Church
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662...
of the Saviour along with other prominent families.
In 1858 he married Emily Oxenbould, the daughter of a master at King Edward's Grammar School, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. They had one daughter.
Birmingham Town Council
He was a close friend of Joseph ChamberlainJoseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....
and supported the radical group around Chamberlain in developing local improvement schemes in Birmingham, parks, and what at the time was called 'gas-and-water socialism'. He took over practical management of the education committee and served as Mayor in 1878-1879. He was responsible for free libraries in Birmingham and was the original proponent of the Birmingham Art Gallery funded from the profits of the gas company.
Free Education
Early on, Collings had shown an interest in education by helping to found the Devon and Exeter Boys Industrial School in 1862. He visited America to study its education system and published An Outline of the American School System in 1868. This pamphlet recommended that a similar free and non-sectarian (non-denominational) form of school education to that of the USA should be set up in England and Wales. Collings' pamphlet led directly to the formation of the National Education LeagueNational Education League
The National Education League was a political movement in England and Wales which promoted elementary education for all children, free from religious control....
by Birmingham Liberals in 1869, with George Dixon
George Dixon
George Dixon may refer to:*George Dixon , Canadian boxer*George Dixon , Canadian Football League Hall of Fame player*George Dixon , sea captain and explorer...
as President and Jesse Collings as Secretary. The League became a major campaigning organisation, but Forster's Education Act retained the dominance of Church Schools in providing education for the young in England, Wales and Ireland. Collings called for Local Authorities to be obliged to set up sufficient schools to enable all children to attend; these schools should be inspected by the state and managed by local government; they should be free; and attendance should be compulsory.
Land reform
Collings' background in Devon gave him an appreciation of the problems of the agricultural worker and small-scale farmer rare in a major industrial city like Birmingham. He was a friend of Joseph ArchJoseph Arch
Joseph Arch was an English politician, born in Barford, Warwickshire who played a key role in what Karl Marx called the "Great awakening" of the agricultural workers in 1872.-Biography:...
, the founder of the National Agricultural Workers Union
National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers
The National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers was a trade union in the United Kingdom.It was established as the Eastern Counties Agricultural Labourers & Small Holders Union at a conference of Norfolk agricultural workers at the Angel Hotel, North Walsham on 20 July 1906...
, who lived in Barford, Warwickshire
Barford, Warwickshire
Barford is a village and civil parish in the Warwick district of Warwickshire, England, about three miles south of Warwick. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,171...
, near Birmingham. Collings believed that education was essential to improving the conditions of agricultural workers and that it needed to be free. The National Agricultural Workers Union joined the National Education League
National Education League
The National Education League was a political movement in England and Wales which promoted elementary education for all children, free from religious control....
. Collings ensured that Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....
, Mayor of Birmingham and a millionaire industrialist, chaired the meeting in Birmingham to support the Agricultural Workers'
Joseph Arch
Joseph Arch was an English politician, born in Barford, Warwickshire who played a key role in what Karl Marx called the "Great awakening" of the agricultural workers in 1872.-Biography:...
first strike. When Chamberlain became President of the Board of Trade, Collings acted as his unofficial advisor on agricultural matters affecting peasants in Britain and Ireland.
Collings advocated land reform through providing allotments and small holdings for the rural poor, landless peasants, and even the industrial poor. He cited the Chartist
Chartist
Chartist may refer to:*Chartist , a person who uses charts for technical analysis*Chartist , a British social democratic periodical*An adherent of Chartism, a 19th-century political and social reform movement in the UK...
settlement at Great Dodford
Dodford, Worcestershire
Dodford is a village in the Bromsgrove district of Worcestershire, England, approximately west of Bromsgrove, officially founded on 2 July 1849 by members of the Chartist movement. It was one of five settlements created in the land scheme and retains a characteristic grid street plan, along with...
as a successful example of what could be achieved. The slogan for Collings' 1885 land-reform campaign Three Acres and a Cow
Three acres and a cow
Three acres and a cow was a slogan used among land reform campaigners of the 1880s, and revived by the distributists of the 1920s. It refers to ideal land holding for every citizen....
became the battle cry of land reform and the fight against rural poverty. Three acres and a cow was seen as being sufficient for a family to live on, particularly when compared to the rural poverty common at that time. To some, however, this slogan was backward looking and the source of amusement amongst many Conservatives and farmers.
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....
adapted the Three Acres and a Cow
Three acres and a cow
Three acres and a cow was a slogan used among land reform campaigners of the 1880s, and revived by the distributists of the 1920s. It refers to ideal land holding for every citizen....
slogan for his own Radical Programme: he urged the purchase by local authorities of land to provide garden and field allotments for all labourers who might desire them, to be let at fair rents in plots of up to 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) of arable and three to 4 acres (16,187.4 m²) of pasture.
Collings founded the Allotments Extension Association in 1883 to promote the formation of allotments and smallholdings. he also collaborated closely with the Highland Land Reform Association.
The 1882 Allotments Extension Act was put through Parliament by Collings. By 1886 there were 394,517 allotments of under 4 acres (16,187.4 m²) and 272,000 garden allotments (Haywood, 1991).
In 1886, Collings' work defeated Lord Salisbury
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC , styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868, was a British Conservative statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years...
's Government, which lost the vote on the Queen's speech, when Collings moved his 'Small Holdings Amendment Act'. A Liberal Government under William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
took its place.
Collings' work also led to 1908 Small Holdings and Allotments Act (which led to 30,000 families being resettled on the land) and the 1919 Land Settlement Act. However, the programme of land reform via allotments and small holdings never made a considerable impact upon the countryside, either in Collings' time or in the interwar period.
Member of Parliament
He was Liberal Member of ParliamentMember 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,...
(MP) for Ipswich
Ipswich (UK Parliament constituency)
Ipswich is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...
from 1880
United Kingdom general election, 1880
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher *...
until he was unseated on petition in April 1886, and then for Birmingham Bordesley
Birmingham Bordesley (UK Parliament constituency)
Birmingham Bordesley was a borough constituency in the city of Birmingham, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
from 1886 until 1918 (until 1912 as a Liberal Unionist
Liberal Unionist Party
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party formed a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule...
, when the party was wound up, thereafter as a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
).
On Chamberlain's recommendation, Collings served in Gladstone's administration as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board
Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board was, from 1871 – 1919, a junior ministerial post in the United Kingdom subordinate to the President of the Local Government Board...
in 1886, although at a reduced salary. Collings joined the Liberal Unionist group set up by Chamberlain in 1886 as a result of the split with the Gladstonian Liberals over Ireland. Collings served in Salisbury's government as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
-Non-permanent and parliamentary under-secretaries, 1782-present:*April 1782: Evan Nepean*April 1782: Thomas Orde*July 1782: Henry Strachey*April 1783: George North*February 1784: Hon. John Townshend*June 1789: Scrope Bernard*July 1794: The Hon...
from 1895-1902.
Although he served in Parliament from 1880 (with a small interruption) and was a junior minister in two Governments, he was most influential outside Parliament - his ministerial posts were not connected to his lifelong advocacy of free education and land reform. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
in 1892.
As a Liberal Unionist
The concern of Liberal Unionists was that what they perceived as the need for important reforms was being subordinated to a preoccupation with Ireland. The land reform movement was split. Joseph ArchJoseph Arch
Joseph Arch was an English politician, born in Barford, Warwickshire who played a key role in what Karl Marx called the "Great awakening" of the agricultural workers in 1872.-Biography:...
remained a Gladstonian Liberal and ensured that Collings was deposed from the Allotments Extension Association. Collings later set up the Rural Labourers' League, which supported land reform and advocated tariffs on imported food in order to support the rural economy. Collings proposed a system of vocational education through free schools in rural areas. Erroneously or not, Collings along with Chamberlain and others believed that land reform in Ireland would give the peasants a stake in the country and reduce poverty, but convinced neither the Liberals
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
nor the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
to attempt it.
Collings continued to be active in promoting land reform until 1918, when he retired from Parliament.
He was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Birmingham
Honorary Freedom of the City of Birmingham
Honorary Freemen of the City of BirminghamThe City of Birmingham, England has granted Honorary Freedom to individuals and military organisations since 1888. Designation as a Freeman of the City is an honorary title and, subject to a two thirds majority of the Council, is granted to persons of...
in 1911.
Collings published Land Reform in 1906 and in 1914 The Colonization of Rural Britain. He also published The Great War: Its Lessons and Warnings in 1915.
Portrait
A portrait of Collings, painted circa 1885, by Jonathan Pratt (1835-1911), hangs in Birmingham Council HouseCouncil House, Birmingham
Birmingham City Council House in Birmingham, England is the home of Birmingham City Council. It provides office accommodation for both employed council officers, including the Chief Executive, and elected council members, plus the council chamber, Lord Mayor's Suite, committee rooms and a large and...
. It is not in a public area but may be viewed by prior application.
Sources
- Collings, J. and Green, J. L. (1920) The life of Jesse Collings (2 vols).