Thomas Attwood
Thomas Attwood (1783-1856), politician and currency theorist
1783 Born son of Matthias Attwood
1799 Thomas entered the family bank in New Street, Birmingham, in 1799.
1806 Married Elizabeth Carless (1784/5–1840)
By 1811 Thomas Attwood had gained sufficient local recognition to be appointed high bailiff, the highest office of local government then available in the unincorporated town of Birmingham.
1812 Faced with an embargo on trade with America and parts of Europe, Attwood led a successful local movement to revoke the orders, and headed a deputation to London which gave evidence to a select committee of the House of Commons.
Attwood became a leader of the new industrial middle class seeking its place in a society still dominated by landed wealth and political influence. His leadership of the extra-parliamentary reform movement in 1830–32 is widely recognized, though its impact on the passage of the Reform Act remains debatable. Promoted ideas about currency ideas that were eccentric and have been challenged in the wake of Keynesian economics.
1844 Attwood married Elizabeth Grice, who had been a family friend for some years.
1855 he moved to Ellerslie, Great Malvern, to attend a clinic run by a Dr Johnson, where he remained until his death on 6 March 1856.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of Thomas Attwood, ODNB [1]