Charles Pelham Villiers
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The Right Honourable Charles Pelham Villiers |
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Engraving by John Cochran after a portrait by C. A. Du Val.
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| President of the Poor Law Board | |
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In office 9 July 1859 – 26 June 1866 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister |
The Viscount Palmerston The Earl Russell |
| Preceded by | Thomas Milner Gibson |
| Succeeded by | Gathorne Hardy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 January 1802 |
| Died | 16 January 1898 (aged 96) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
Charles Pelham Villiers (3 January 1802 – 16 January 1898) was a British lawyer and politician from the Villiers family who sat in the House of Commons from 1835 to 1898, making him the longest-serving Member of Parliament (MP). Pelham Villiers also holds the distinction of the oldest candidate to win a parliamentary seat, at the age of 93.
Villiers was the son of the Hon. George Villiers and the Hon. Theresa, daughter of John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon. He was grandson of Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon and brother of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon. He was educated at East India Company College and St John's College, Cambridge, becoming a barrister at Lincoln's Inn in 1827. He was raised to the rank of an Earl's son in 1839 and thus entitled to be styled the Honourable Charles Pelham Villiers.
Villiers held Benthamite political views, and enjoyed a long career in public service and Parliament. In 1832, he was a Poor Law Commissioner, and from 1833 to 1852 was examiner of witnesses in the Court of Chancery.
Villiers was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton in 1835. In 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845 he launched parliamentary debates in attempts to repeal the Corn Laws. In 1838, he spoke to over 5000 "working class men" in Manchester and told them that the presence of so large an audience gave him the proof that "the working class man was with him". Villiers was unsuccessful in his attempts, but in 1840 sat on the Committee on Import Duties that provided much of the evidence that pressured Robert Peel into his sliding scale concession in 1842. The bluebook produced by the Committee on Import Duties was published in pamphlet form and distributed across the country by the Anti Corn Law League, it was reprinted in America and quoted by all leading newspapers of the day, the Spectator published it in abridged form. In February 1842 Villiers was called by Monckton Milne MP the "solitary Robinson Crusoe standing on the barren rock of Corn Law repeal". In 1842, the majority in favour of retaining the Corn Laws had been 303, at the vote on Villiers motion in June 1845 it was down to 132. After repeal in 1846, the press said of Villiers that he was "the most persevering and undaunted supporter of those principles within the house". David Ricardo, Chairman of the Free Traders in London wished to raise money to give to Villiers in recognition of his work, Villiers declined this.
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