John Wilson-Patten
John Wilson-Patten, Baron Winmarleigh (1802–1892), politician
1802 Born John Wilson on 26 April 1802, the second of the two sons of Thomas Wilson of Bank Hall, Warrington, Lancashire, and his wife Elizabeth.
His father was born Thomas Patten but on marriage in 1800 had assumed the sole surname of Wilson in accordance with the will of Thomas Wilson to whose estates he succeeded.
Educated at Eton College and at Magdalen College, Oxford, matriculating on 14 February 1821.
1823 on reaching his majority he changed his surname to Wilson-Patten. He became heir to the family industrial wealth, church livings of Warrington and land in Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire.
After leaving Oxford Wilson-Patten travelled for some years on the continent.
1827 Following his father's death he took charge of the family firm which became John Wilson Patten and Co
1828 he married his cousin, Anna Maria Patten-Bold; they had a son, Arthur, and four daughters.
1830 Wilson-Patten entered the Commons as one of the members for Lancashire
Amongst his contributions were developments in the law in relation to industrial relations and factory law. He supported an early bill to remedy the truck system and helped to remove the tax on printed calicoes, so liberating trade in south Lancashire.
1833 'The Factory Question will be brought under discussion in the House of Commons this evening, the motion of Mr. WILSON PATTEN for A Select Commission to collect " more evidence ; " or, in other words, a Select Commission to prolong the existence of Child-slavery to the latest possible moment. More evidence! The parties, then, whom Mr. PATTEN represents, are not satisfied with the volumes of testimony that have already harrowed up the feelings of all classes of persons, of all ages, of all conditions ; they want more evidence — not indeed of the unnatural horrors and iniquities of the system by which they flourish — but evidence, we presume, of the necessity of the system, of the moral effects of the miseries it creates, and of the delusion that pervades the public mind relative to ordaining children of a tender age to endure torture, disease, and martyrdom. This Select Commission can scarcely be called for, with the most distant hope of throwing any doubt upon the long array of evidence already collected. It cannot be asked for, with the faintest idea of counteracting the appalling statements that have been made by witnesses, whose ghastly faces, and whose deformed and shrivelled limbs, bore terrible testimony to the accuracy of their assertions. It cannot be demanded with the slightest view of proving, that wretchedness and horrors unparalleled are not the result of the present system of factory legislation. No; it can only be applied for with a view of demonstrating, that the existence of such a system is not at all incompatible with the progress of an enlightened humanity in all other respects; and that the public are grossly in error in supposing that the character of Englishmen will retain a single blot by suffering the system to be retained in full perfection. It must be sought for with the hope of showing, that torture and slavery, though things bad in themselves, and to be resisted by persons of mature years, are of little consequence when inflicted upon little children, who may be bred up to bear anything — so that the infliction be administered by degrees, and they happen not to sink under it in their infancy. This we conjecture to be the object of Mr. WILSON PATTEN'S proposed Commission — to prove that eighteen hours are not too many for a child to labour—that the inconvenience of shrunk limbs may be got rid of to a certain extent by the use of a stick or a crutch — that the billyroller is an admirable corrective of infant irregularities, and a miraculous balm for infant exhaustion — that disease and misery, vice and hunger, a pestilential atmosphere, and incessant labour, are all nothing when the sufferers grow used to it a little ; and that even if death should ensue, prematurely — if the healthy, the happy, and the innocent should be stricken at the very threshold of life with the afflictions and infirmities of age, and thus carried at once from the cradle to the grave — still it is of small consequence compared with the interests of the cotton-manufacturers — and, in fact, of small consequence in any case, seeing that there is no scarcity of children in England, and that the cotton-market is always abundantly supplied!
It will be a ten-fold disgrace to Parliament should any farther delay, upon such a pretence as a demand for "more evidence," be granted. Think of the months that have gone by since Mr. SADLER'S Bill was first proposed. Think of the wasted forms, the crippled limbs, the visits to the church-yard, that fill up the interval. Delay would scarcely be less criminal now, than a positive denial of relief. The friends of the poor factory child should reiterate their calls for justice — not tardy, not distant, but immediate. Every moment is an object. Some of those friends, we must admit, are exerting themselves most nobly and unsparingly; and among the advocates for the abolition of child-slavery, our contemporaries the Guardian and the Herald, deserve most honourable mention, for their unremitting exertions and forcible appeals to the sympathies of Englishmen upon this occasion.'[1] However:-
'The conduct of Government relative to the Factory Bill is quite of a piece with the rest of its labours. When the "Commission" was sent into the Provinces, on the motion of Mr. Wilson Patten, those who reprobated it on account of the delay which it would occasion, were told that the Report should he made in time for discussion and legislation during the present Session.
The Commissioners proceeded to their task. We must do them the justice to admit that they acted their part to admiration, with reference to the views of those by whose influence they were appointed. Their mode of inquiry was worthy of the cause, and the result is in perfect keeping.
The night of yesterday week had been fixed on Lord Ashley for going into Committee on his Bill - Lord Althorp did not of course consent - he interposed the business of the Bank Charter, and named last evening. When we see that that pledge has been kept we shall believe it — not before.
Well, and what have the Commissioners done? Have they shewn that the friends of the Ten Hour Bill were wrong in their efforts to prevent the overworking of children ? Have they shewn that no cruelties exist — that the allegations of the witnesses before the Select Committee (whose testimony was controverted in the mass) were untrue or overcharged ? They have not. On the contrary, they have gone beyond the friends of the Ten Hour Bill and more than admitted its great and merciful principle recommending that children under fourteen years of age should be allowed to work only eight hours a day.
It is true that they have an object in this, and that they load their decision with recommendations which cannot be carried into effect; but the friends of the Ten Hour Bill are not responsible for follies of this kind. Here we have, on the authority of the Government Commission, a solemn record that it is both cruel and inexpedient to work children in factories more than eight hours a day: that is enough; what remains is plain sailing, for shifty as the Whigs are, Ministers will hardly venture to act in opposition to what we are justified in terming their own proposition. The Commissioners talk of two sets, but two sets cannot be obtained in nine places out of ten, and would involve great trouble and expense to the manufacturers; and in places were two sets may be had, are the adults and children who have just attained the age of fourteen to labour sixteen hours a day? The Commissioners do not say so, but that that would be one of the effects of their new project no one can doubt who knows any thing of the Factory System.
The report contains many fallacious views; many gross misrepresentations; many a libel upon the friends of the factory children and the working classes. The latter, in their efforts to obtain justice for their offspring, are stated to be actuated by motives of selfishness and deception. Their humanity is held up as a pretence; their zeal is denounced as base hypocrisy. Children above fourteen, say these Commissioners, are rarely injured by long hours; and most of them are represented as comfortable and fond of their employment. We shall hereafter call the attention of our readers to some of the most prominent passages of this bulky document; contenting ourselves at present with these intimations as to its character.
On Monday last a meeting of at least one hundred thousand persons was held on Wibsey Moor, near Bradford, for the purpose of again recording their adherence to the principle of the Ten Hour Bill, and to raise their voice against those alterations which Ministers, egged on the Millowners, are understood to contemplate. In that meeting Mr. Oastler read a letter from Lord Ashley, in which his Lordship stated that he understood Ministers would take up the Bill as a Government measure, and that they intend to propose alterations in Committee; his Lordship expressed doubts of being able to obtain ten hours up to eighteen years of age. The meeting received this announcement of Ministerial intentions with shouts of defiance, and declared that they would have the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill, — if not this session, certainly next,— and if not by aid of Parliament, by regulations among themselves.
We are prepared for further treachery on the part of the persons who entailed upon the land the expenses of the insulting and useless Commission. It will in all probability be Lord Althorp's tactique so to change the measure in Committee as to compel Lord Ashley to give it up. But let the Noble Lord consider the consequences of such a procedure. He would raise an agitation which might shake the frail Cabinet to its foundation. Most assuredly he will excite the deep resentment of many hundred thousand men, women, and children, the welfare of every individual of whom is at least as dear to the State as the paltry party interests of an incapable and doubly degraded Administration. Although we are in some degree out of the vortex of the Factory Question, it comes home to our business and bosoms as men and Christians. We are anxious for the wellbeing of all classes; we would not offer one word of encouragement to any one disposed to trench upon the just rights of person and capital; at the same time we know that the cry of peace, peace, is vain while you refuse to give rational freedom and to do justice.
Lord Althorp is of course a reader of our Journal; and as this article will meet his eye, we conjure him to remember that he is but a steward, and that it is his duty to give the greatest possible happiness to the greatest possible number.'[2]
From a pamphlet by John Fielden, 1836: '..... The late Mr. Sadler, In 1832, attempted to pass an act through the House ef Commons, providing that no person under 18 years of age should work more than 10 hours a day in factories. He failed, and was not returned to the succeeding Parliament in 1833: but Lord Ashley took up the subject, brought in a 10-hour bill, and had proceeded with it to the second reading, when, on 3d. April, 1833, Mr. Wilson Patten moved an amendment that a commission should be appointed to take evidence as to the expediency of the measure. The commission went forth, and the result was, a report in which they state distinctly (pp. 33, 34) that Lord Ashley’s bill for restriction to 10 hours' labour will not afford a sufficient protection to children, and then they go on to recommend as follows:- '"That children under nine of age years shall not be employed in mills or factories, subject, however, to the conditions hereinafter stated, ....'[3]
1850s he was parliamentary spokesman of the National Association of Factory Occupiers, the lobby of the textile employers against the Factory Act.
He commanded his regiment at Gibraltar during the Crimean War and was militia aide-de-camp to the Queen from 1857 until his death.
1870 John Wilson-Patten, 1st Baron Winmarleigh, sold Bank Hall hall to Warrington Borough Council for £9000, and 13 acres (5.3 ha) of surrounding land for a further £15,000[4]
1874 Created Baron Winmarleigh
1892 Died at Winmarleigh House at Garstang.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of John Wilson-Patten, ODNB