Call Number:

MSS.011

Repository:

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Extent:

1.5 linear ft. (3 boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item or series here], Collection of John Bright correspondence, MSS 011, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.

Date:

1839-1888 (inclusive)

Creator:

Bright, John, 1811-1889

Abstract:

Collected correspondence of John Bright, a British Quaker. He was a Radical and Liberal statesman, a promoter of free trade policies, and one of the greatest orators of his generation. The collection contains about 200 letters.

John Bright was born at Greenbank, Rochdale, in Lancashire, England, the son of Jacob Bright, a Quaker, who had started a cotton mill at Rochdale in 1809. John Bright was his son by his second wife, Martha Wood. Like her husband, she was educated at Ackworth School. Bright is most famous for battling the Corn Laws. In partnership with Richard Cobden, he founded the Anti-Corn Law League, aimed at abolishing the Corn Laws, which raised food prices and protected landowners' interests by levying taxes on imported wheat. Bright sat in the House of Commons from 1843 to 1889, promoting free trade, electoral reform and religious freedom. He was almost a lone voice in opposing the Crimean War; he also opposed Gladstone's proposed Home Rule for Ireland. He was a spokesman for the middle class, and strongly opposed to the privileges of the landed aristocracy. In terms of Ireland, he sought to end the political privileges of Anglicans, disestablished the Church of Ireland, and began land reform that would turn land over to the Catholic peasants. He coined the phrase "Mother of Parliaments."

Arranged chronologically.