Thomas Bigge (1766–1851)

Thomas Bigge (1766–1851) was an English political writer and activist, in later life a partner in Rundell, Bridge & Co., goldsmiths.

He was the son of Thomas Bigge (died 1791) of Ludgate Hill, and his wife Elizabeth Rundell, elder sister of Philip Rundell the jeweller and goldsmith; William Bigge (1707–1758) was his uncle. The family owned property at Little Benton, near Longbenton, Northumberland, through his grandfather Thomas Bigge's marriage to the heiress Elizabeth Hindmarsh; and Thomas Bigge the father built the White House there.

Bigge was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1787.

From a prosperous family in business, with landowning interests, Bigge has been described as a "wealthy associate" of Christopher Wyvill. They both wrote political tracts, from the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars; and shared channels of distribution in Newcastle, through William Charnley (fl. 1755–1803), a bookseller, and Solomon Hodgson, owner of the Newcastle Chronicle which was at this time a leading Whig journal in the region.

Bigge was a close friend too of John Tweddell, an outspoken student radical; his own views tended to a middle position between the radical and loyalist extremes, as did those of Wyvill and some other prominent reformers. He corresponded with Charles Grey in the later 1790s.

In 1795 Grey advised Bigge on an intended anti-war meeting for the county of Northumberland, with a view to keeping the radicals at arm's length: for prudence, no criticism of ministers, and no reform proposals. Bigge prepared the ground, with handbills. When the meeting came about, in December, ostensibly to vote a loyal address, the local Whig grandees successfully took it over. A reported near 5,000 voted petitions against recent legislation.

Bigge has also been described as a "wealthy friend" of James Losh. Losh visited Newcastle in 1797, and at that time stayed with Bigge at Little Benton. The monthly periodical The Oeconomist, which appeared in 1798–9, was sustained by Bigge.

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