The Rt Hon. Jacob Bright (26 May 1821 – 7 November 1899) was a British Liberal politician serving as

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

and later Member of Parliament for

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Background

Bright was born at Green Bank near

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. He was the fourth of eleven children of Jacob Bright and Martha Wood. His father was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

and had established a

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

-spinning business at Fieldhouse. His elder brother, John Bright, was a radical politician, and his sister, Priscilla Bright McLaren, campaigned for

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

.''Obituary'', The Times, 9 November 1899, p.6 Jacob Bright was educated at the Friends School in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

before entering the family business of John Bright & Brothers, cotton-spinners. Bright and his brother Thomas managed the firm, and by 1885 the business had expanded into carpet manufacture. He was also responsible for introducing the

linotype machine The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing which is manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for one-time use. Li ...

to England. Bright was an anti-vivisectionist. He was an honorary member of the

National Anti-Vivisection Society The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is an international non-profit Animal welfare, animal protection group, based in London, working to end animal testing, and focused on the replacement of animals in research with advanced, scientific t ...

Career

Civic politics

Bright became involved in radical politics and supported

Chartism Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of ...

. He was the first

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

on the town's incorporation as a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

. He stood for election in 1865 in Manchester. Although unsuccessful on his first attempt, he won a by-election in 1867. The election was notable because Lilly Maxwell voted for Bright. This vote by a woman was later overturned.In Prise of ... Lily Maxwell
19 March 2011, The Guardian, Retrieved 30 January 2016 Bright was one of the earliest supporters of the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal.

National politics

Bright held his seat at the general election in 1868. He lost his seat at the 1874 general election, but was returned to parliament at the by-election in 1876. When the three-seat Parliamentary Borough of Manchester was divided into eight single-seat constituencies in 1885, Bright was selected as the Liberal candidate for the new Manchester South West constituency. He was defeated in 1885, but successful in the general election in

1886 Events January * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British rule in Burma, British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5–January 9, 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson ...

. As a Member of Parliament, Bright was considered an "advanced radical". He was a peace campaigner and supported

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. Bright remained as MP for South West Manchester until 1895. Upon retirement, Bright was sworn into the privy council at the suggestion of Lord Rosebery. Jacob Bright died at midnight on 7/8 November 1899, aged 78, at his residence, "Nunn's Acre", Goring-on-Thames,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. He was cremated without a funeral service. The central committee of the Society for Women's Suffrage passed a resolution recognising his contribution to the movement. There is a memorial for Jacob and Ursula at St George's Church, Esher.

Family

In 1855, Bright married Ursula Mellor Bright, daughter of a Liverpool merchant and campaigner for women's rights. They had three children.

Gallery

Jacob Bright, Vanity Fair, 1877-05-05.jpg, "The Apostle to the Women". Caricature by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1877 Esher, St Georges Church, the Bright memorial (2).jpg, The Bright memorial, St Georges Church, Esher

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Jacob 1821 births 1899 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1865–1868 UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1880–1885 UK MPs 1886–1892 UK MPs 1892–1895 Mayors of Rochdale Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Manchester British women's rights activists