Thomas Hinton Burley Oldfield (1755–1822) was an English political reformer, parliamentary historian and antiquary. His major work, ''The Representative History'', has been called "a domesday book of corruption".

Life

He was born in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, and reputedly an attorney. During the 1780s he lived in

Hoxton Square Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digital and design) ...

, east of London. Oldfield joined the

Society for Constitutional Information The Society for Constitutional Information was a British activist group founded in 1780 by Major John Cartwright, to promote parliamentary reform and knowledge of the English constitution. It was an organisation of social reformers, many of who ...

in 1782, when he was proposed by John Jebb and seconded by

Thomas Brand Hollis Thomas Brand Hollis (1719 – 9 September 1804), born Thomas Brand, was a British political radical and dissenter. Early life Thomas Brand was born the only son of Timothy Brand, a mercer of Ingatestone, Essex, and his wife Sarah Michell of R ...

. He was very active with

Richard Brocklesby Richard Brocklesby (11 August 1722 – 11 December 1797), an English physician, was born at Minehead, Somerset. He was educated at Ballitore, in Ireland, where Edmund Burke was one of his school fellows, studied medicine at Edinburgh, an ...

at the time of The Case of the Dean of St Asaph in 1784. Subsequently he joined the Society of Friends of the People. He died at

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

on 25 July 1822.

Election management

Over a long period, Oldfield operated as an election agent or manager. He was secretary of the Westminster electoral committee in 1780; and again secretary of the Westminster Association in 1783/4. In 1785 he introduced

Henry Flood Henry Flood (1732 – 2 December 1791) was an Irish people, Irish politician, statesman and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he becam ...

at Seaford. Over numerous procedural difficulties, Flood was elected in 1786. At

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 ...

in 1812 Oldfield offered himself as election manager to

George Osbaldeston George Osbaldeston (26 December 1786 – 1 August 1866), best known as Squire Osbaldeston, was an English politician who served as a Member of Parliament but who had his greatest impact as a sportsman and first-class cricketer. Early life He w ...

. His candidate was elected, but then refused to settle financially with Oldfield. Oldfield then turned informer on the

electoral corruption An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated s ...

that had been involved.

Views

Oldfield took the view that participation in deliberation and legislation was an inherent ancient right. In this he had something in common with

Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter born in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-k ...

. This attitude was contested by the ''

British Review British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

'' in 1818, taking the line that rights had been attained by struggle. Oldfield mixed the concepts of

historic right History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

and

natural right Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights. * Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', '' fundamental'' and ...

freely.

Works

Oldfield was a pioneer of parliamentary reform, and the author of: * ''An Entire and Complete History, Political and Personal, of the Boroughs of Great Britain, together with the Cinque Ports; to which is prefixed an original Sketch of constitutional rights from the earliest Period until the present Time'', London, 1792, 3 vols.; 2nd ed. 1794, 2 vols.

George Tierney George Tierney PC (20 March 1761 – 25 January 1830) was an Irish Whig politician. For much of his career he was in opposition to the governments of William Pitt and Lord Liverpool. From 1818 to 1821 he was Leader of the Opposition in the ...

's work ''State of the Representation'' on parliamentary representation was largely based on this work. * ''History of the Original Constitution of Parliaments from the Time of the Britons to the present Day; to which is added the present State of the Representation'', London, 1797. Both works were subsequently reprinted under the title ''A Complete History, Political and Personal, of the Boroughs of Great Britain, together with the Cinque Ports; To which is now first added the History of the Original Constitution of Parliaments'', &c., London (no date), 3 vols. A final edition, revised and amplified, entitled ''The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland; being a History of the House of Commons, and of the Counties, Cities, and Boroughs of the United Kingdom from the earliest Period'', appeared in 1816, London, 6 vols. Oldfield also compiled ''A Key to the House of Commons, being a History of the last General Election in 1818; and a correct State of the virtual Representation of England and Wales'', London, 1820.

References

*Rosemary Jann, ''Democratic Myths in Victorian Medievalism'', Browning Institute Studies Vol. 8, (1980), pp. 129–149. Published by: Cambridge University Press.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Oldfield, Thomas Hinton Burley 1755 births 1822 deaths English lawyers 18th-century English historians People from Derbyshire English reformers 19th-century English historians