William Lawson (co-operator)

William Lawson (1836 – 1916) was the second son to Sir Wilfrid and Caroline Lawson, an English agriculturalist and pioneer co-operator, who owned, at great personal expense, an experimental farm in Cumberland, between the years 1862 and 1872.

William Lawson was born at Brayton, Aspatria, in Cumberland in 1836. Together with other members of his family, he received his education at home, where he later declared: "I learned as little as possible." His parents, he remarked, "were more anxious that their children should be happy and good than that they should be learned and great." However, the children did acquire considerable learning; and at least one member later became great. In his youth, Lawson travelled extensively throughout Europe and the Middle East. At home, he took an active role in field sports, where he managed the Cumberland Foxhounds for his brother, who had acquired some hounds from the famous pack belonging to John Peel. In 1861, he became a vegetarian, and gave up hunting and shooting, which he henceforth called ‘barbarous sports’. Later he recalled: "I found himself in my 25th year, without an occupation, without many acquaintances, except amongst the poor, whom I had not learned to despise because they spoke bad grammar and took their coats off to work."

Seeking for a worthwhile occupation, he packed his saddlebags, mounted a pony at his father's gate, and set off for London, to experience his own ‘rural rides’. The journey via Caldbeck, Penrith, Appleby, Leeds, Sheffield, Chatsworth, Nottingham, Leamington, Oxford and Uxbridge took thirty-three days. During his travels, he visited old acquaintances and made many new ones. He visited steel works at Sheffield and lace manufacturers in Nottingham. As a member of a rural community, he took a particular interest in agricultural matters and noted in his journal that the highest wages earned by farm labourers was two shillings and eight pence (13p) per day. Upon his arrival in London, he learned of Alderman Mechi's experimental farm at Tiptree Hall, Kelvedon, Essex, and sought to visit it. Mechi’s modern methods, his technique of irrigation using liquid manure, his advanced sowing procedures and the novelty of housing livestock on boards above the ground left a memorable impression. Upon his return, he tried to convince his father to adopt modern scientific solutions. Although his father preferred the traditional methods, he allowed his son to experiment on a farm in his own right. In 1863 Lawson and George Moore of Whitehall, Mealsgate invited Mechi to explain his methods to an invited audience of fifty practical farmers.

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