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:-
From a pamphlet by John Fielden: '..... 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, ....'[2]
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[3]
1874 Created Baron Winmarleigh
1892 Died at Winmarleigh House at Garstang.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of John Wilson-Patten, ODNB