Joshua Rowntree (6 April 1844 – 10 February 1915) was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

in 1886 and served, as a Gladstonian Liberal, until 1892, when he was succeeded by the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

, Sir George Reresby Sitwell, whom he had defeated in 1886.

Early life

He was educated at

Bootham School Bootham School is a private Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19 and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school was ...

, York.

Quakers

He was an active

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 ...

. After he left

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, in 1892, he 'gave himself with whole heart and mind to the modern interpretation of Quakerism'. He took a quiet part in enabling British Friends to come to terms with scientific discoveries and biblical criticism and with shaking off outdated customs—notably through the Manchester conference (1895), Scarborough summer school (1897), and the establishment in 1903 of a study centre at Woodbrooke,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. He was editor of The Friend from 1872 to 1875. He gave the

Swarthmore Lecture Swarthmore Lecture is one of a series of lectures, started in 1908, addressed to Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The preface to the very first lecture explains the purpose of the series. “This book is t ...

in 1913 under the title ''

Social Service – Its Place in the Society of Friends ''Social Service: Its Place in the Society of Friends '' was the title of the controversial Swarthmore Lecture given by Joshua Rowntree, a Liberal politician, in 1913.''The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society'', Volumes 11-12, p. 40 The pr ...

''.

Joshua Rowntree's publications

*''

Opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

habit in the East: A study of the evidence given to the Royal Commission on Opium, 1893–94''. P. S. King & Son: Westminster, 1895. *''Applied Christianity and War. An address.'' . 1904.*''The Imperial Drug Trade.'' Methuen, First edition, 1905, Second edition, 1906''The Imperial Drug Trade.''(1906 edition), available online
/ref> *''Social Service, its place in the Society of Friends.'' (Series: ''Swarthmore Lectures'') Headley Bros.: London, 1913.

References

Sources

Notes

External links

*
The Rowntree Society
1844 births 1915 deaths People educated at Bootham School Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English Quakers UK MPs 1886–1892 Politicians from Scarborough, North Yorkshire {{England-Liberal-UK-MP-stub