John Bright
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The Right Honourable John Bright |
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| President of the Board of Trade | |
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In office 9 December 1868 – 14 January 1871 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | The Duke of Richmond |
| Succeeded by | Chichester Parkinson-Fortescue |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
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In office 30 September 1873 – 17 February 1874 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | Hugh Childers |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Edward Taylor |
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In office 28 April 1880 – 25 July 1882 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | Thomas Edward Taylor |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Kimberley |
| Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Kennedy |
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In office 10 July 1869 – 8 July 1870 |
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| Preceded by | Thomas Henry FitzGerald |
| Succeeded by | Edward MacDevitt |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
16 November 1811 Rochdale, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 27 March 1889 (aged 77) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Elizabeth Priestman (d. 1841) (2) Margaret Leatham |
| Religion | Quaker |
John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889), Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies.
He is most famous for battling the Corn Laws. In partnership with Richard Cobden, he founded the Anti-Corn Law League, aimed at abolishing the Corn Laws, which raised food prices and protected landowners' interests by levying taxes on imported wheat. The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846. Bright also worked with Cobden in another free trade initiative, the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty of 1860, promoting closer interdependence between Britain and France. This campaign was conducted in collaboration with French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament's endemic mistrust of the French.
Bright sat in the House of Commons from 1843 to 1889, promoting free trade, electoral reform and religious freedom. He was almost a lone voice in opposing the Crimean War; he also opposed Gladstone's proposed Home Rule for Ireland. He was a spokesman for the middle class, and strongly opposed to the privileges of the landed aristocracy. In terms of Ireland, he sought to end the political privileges of Anglicans, disestablished the Church of Ireland, and began land reform that would turn land over to the Catholic peasants. He coined the phrase "Mother of Parliaments."
Bright was born at Greenbank, Rochdale, in Lancashire, England – one of the early centres of the Industrial Revolution. His father, Jacob Bright, was a much-respected Quaker, who had started a cotton mill at Rochdale in 1809. Jacob's father, Abraham, was a Wiltshire yeoman, who, early in the 18th century, moved to Coventry, where his descendants remained. Jacob Bright was educated at the Ackworth School of the Society of Friends, and apprenticed to a fustian manufacturer at New Mills, Derbyshire. John Bright was his son by his second wife, Martha Wood, daughter of a Quaker shopkeeper of Bolton-le-Moors. Educated at Ackworth School, she was a woman of great strength of character and refined taste. There were eleven children of this marriage, of whom John was the eldest surviving son. His younger brother was Jacob Bright, an MP and mayor. His sisters included Priscilla Bright (whose husband was Duncan McLaren MP) and Margaret Bright Lucas. John was a delicate child, and was sent as a day pupil to a boarding school near his home, kept by William Littlewood. A year at the Ackworth School, two years at Bootham School,York, and a year and a half at Newton, near Clitheroe, completed his education. He learned, he himself said, but little Latin and Greek, but acquired a great love of English literature, which his mother fostered, and a love of outdoor pursuits. In his sixteenth year, he entered his father's mill, and in due time became a partner in the business.
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