The Little Circle was a
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 ...
-based group of
Non-conformist Liberals, mostly members of the
Portico Library
The Portico Library, The Portico or Portico Library and Gallery on Mosley Street in Manchester, England, is an independent subscription library designed in the Greek Revival style by Thomas Harrison of Chester and built between 1802 and 1806. ...
, who held a common agenda with regards to political and social reform. The first group met from 1815 onwards to campaign for expanded political representation and gain social reform in the United Kingdom. The second group operated from 1830 onwards and was key in creating the popular movement that resulted in the
Reform Act 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the Reform Act 1832, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. 4. c. 45), enacted by the Whig government of Pri ...
.
Background
In 1819,
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 ...
was represented by two members of parliament (MPs). Voting was restricted to the adult male owners of
freehold land valued at 40
shillings
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...
or more – the equivalent of about
£80 as of 2008 – and votes could only be cast in the county town of
Lancaster, by a public spoken declaration at the hustings. Constituency boundaries were out of date, and the "
rotten borough
A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or Electoral district, constituency in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, or the United Kin ...
s" had a hugely disproportionate influence on the membership of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...
compared to the size of their populations:
Old Sarum
Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest recor ...
, with one voter, elected two MPs,
[Reid (1989), p. 28.] as did
Dunwich which had almost completely disappeared into the sea by the early 19th century. The major urban centres,
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 ...
,
Salford
Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...
,
Bolton
Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...
,
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...
,
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 ...
,
Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 48,604 at the 2021 census. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, Greater Manchester, ...
,
Oldham
Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...
and
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...
, with a combined population of almost one million, were represented by either the two county MPs for Lancashire, or the two for
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
in the case of Stockport. By comparison, more than half of all MPs were elected by a total of just 154 voters.
These inequalities in political representation led to calls for reform.
First Little Circle
The first Little Circle was formed from 1815 onwards by cotton merchant John Potter. The group was influenced by the ideas of
and
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, Unitarian, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, English Separatist, separatist theologian, Linguist, grammarian, multi-subject educator and Classical libera ...
, objecting to a political representation system that denied booming industrial cities such as
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 ...
,
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
and Manchester proportionate representation in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
.
Meetings were held at John Potter's home and its core membership were
Unitarians.
Archibald Prentice
Archibald Prentice (1792–1857) was a Scottish journalist, known as a radical reformer and temperance campaigner.
Life
The son of Archibald Prentice of Covington Mains in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, and Helen, daughter of John Stoddart of ...
(later editor of the ''
Manchester Times'') called them the "Little Circle" and its members included John Potter and his sons
Thomas (later
first mayor of Manchester),
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...
(later
MP for Wigan) and William;
Joseph Brotherton (Non-conformist minister and pioneering vegetarian);
John Edward Taylor (cotton merchant);
John Shuttleworth (industrialist and municipal reformer);
Absalom Watkin (parliamentary reformer and
anti corn law campaigner); and William Cowdroy Jnr (editor of the ''
Manchester Gazette
The ''Manchester Gazette'' was a conformist non-Tory newspaper based in Manchester, England.
Founded by William Cowdroy (previously editor of the ''Chester Chronicle'') in 1795, the newspaper was written and printed by him and his four sons. Al ...
'').
After witnessing the
Peterloo massacre
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Eighteen people died and 400–700 were injured when the cavalry of the Yeomen charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who ...
in 1819, and the closure of the liberal ''
Manchester Observer
The ''Manchester Observer'' was a short-lived non-conformist Liberal newspaper based in Manchester, England. Its radical agenda led to an invitation to Henry "Orator" Hunt to speak at a public meeting in Manchester, which subsequently led to ...
'' in successive police prosecutions, the group decided that the time was right to advance its liberalist agenda.
In 1820 Brotherton, Shuttleworth and Thomas Potter founded the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. In the following year, the group supported John Edward Taylor in founding a liberal newspaper the ''
Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', to which they all contributed. Taylor continued to edit the newspaper which was published by law only once a week until his death.
Second Little Circle
From 1830 a second Little Circle, comprising 11 Manchester businessmen, met at the Cannon Street warehouse of Potter's trading company.
Seven were Unitarians, including five from the
Cross Street Chapel: Thomas and Richard Potter; Absalom Watkin;
Mark Philips, John Shuttleworth,
John Benjamin Smith
John Benjamin Smith (7 February 1794 – 15 September 1879) was an English Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1847 to 1874.
Life
Smith was the son of Benjamin Smith, a merchant of Manchester. He was himself a merchan ...
, and brothers, Edward and William Baxter (all cotton merchants); Fenton Atkinson (Manchester attorney);
William Harvey
William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions to anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, pulmonary and systemic circulation ...
; John Edward Taylor.
The group supported social reform issues closely but discreetly: Taylor survived a trial for libel; Shuttleworth organised the defence of plebeian reformers accused of administering an illegal oath.
[
The group initially proposed that the seats of ]rotten boroughs
A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act of 1832, which had a very small electo ...
convicted of gross electoral corruption should be transferred to industrial towns, citing and targeting example boroughs including Penryn and East Retford
East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...
. But when Parliament refused to take action, in 1831 Absalom Watkin drew up a petition asking the government to grant Manchester two members of parliament. Parliament passed the Reform Act in 1832, and the group gave Manchester its first post-reform MPs: Mark Philips and Charles Poulett Thomson.[
]
Legacy
By the time the Reform Act 1832 had become law, Manchester had become a borough and many social reforms had come to fruition. Members of the group had established themselves in society, with[ Joseph Brotherton becoming MP for ]Salford
Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...
, Richard Potter, MP for Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...
and John Benjamin Smith became MP for Stirling Burghs and later Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...
. Thomas Potter became the first Mayor of Manchester on its incorporation. Ten out of the first 28 mayors of Manchester were associated with Cross Street Chapel.[
]
References
{{reflist
History of Manchester
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom