Francis Place (3 November 1771 – 1 January 1854) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
social reformerA reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society rather than rapid or fundamental changes. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements.Reformists' ideas are often...
.
He worked as a
tailorA tailor is a person whose occupation is to sew and scissor menswear style jackets and the skirts or trousers that go with them.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits,...
, but found time to be an early supporter of contraceptives, and a
radicalThe term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
of the early 19th century who befriended and supported many important figures, including
Joseph HumeJoseph Hume FRS was a Scottish doctor and politician, born in Montrose, Angus.-Medical career:He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and moved to India in 1797...
,
Sir Francis Burdett, 5th BaronetSir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet was an English reformist politician, the son of Francis Burdett and his wife Eleanor, daughter of William Jones of Ramsbury manor, Wiltshire, and grandson of Sir Robert Burdett, Bart...
, and
Jeremy BenthamJeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He was the brother of Samuel Bentham. He was a political radical, and a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law...
. He also helped to influence
John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill , English philosopher, political theorist, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century whose works on liberty justified freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control...
. He published his influential and shocking book,
Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population, in 1822, his only published book.
In 1794, Place joined the
London Corresponding SocietyLondon Corresponding Society was a moderate-radical body concentrating on reform of the Parliament of Great Britain in the 1790s.The London Corresponding Society was a corresponding society founded on 25 January 1792. The creators of the group were John Frost , an attorney, and Thomas Hardy, a...
, a reform club, and for three years was prominent in its work.
Francis Place (3 November 1771 – 1 January 1854) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
social reformerA reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society rather than rapid or fundamental changes. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements.Reformists' ideas are often...
.
Early career and influence
He worked as a
tailorA tailor is a person whose occupation is to sew and scissor menswear style jackets and the skirts or trousers that go with them.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits,...
, but found time to be an early supporter of contraceptives, and a
radicalThe term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
of the early 19th century who befriended and supported many important figures, including
Joseph HumeJoseph Hume FRS was a Scottish doctor and politician, born in Montrose, Angus.-Medical career:He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and moved to India in 1797...
,
Sir Francis Burdett, 5th BaronetSir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet was an English reformist politician, the son of Francis Burdett and his wife Eleanor, daughter of William Jones of Ramsbury manor, Wiltshire, and grandson of Sir Robert Burdett, Bart...
, and
Jeremy BenthamJeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He was the brother of Samuel Bentham. He was a political radical, and a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law...
. He also helped to influence
John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill , English philosopher, political theorist, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century whose works on liberty justified freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control...
. He published his influential and shocking book,
Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population, in 1822, his only published book.
In 1794, Place joined the
London Corresponding SocietyLondon Corresponding Society was a moderate-radical body concentrating on reform of the Parliament of Great Britain in the 1790s.The London Corresponding Society was a corresponding society founded on 25 January 1792. The creators of the group were John Frost , an attorney, and Thomas Hardy, a...
, a reform club, and for three years was prominent in its work. After ten years of retirement (1797–1807), during which he studied social and economic questions, he returned to politics. He lobbied successfully for the 1824
repealA repeal is the removal or reversal of a law. This is generally done when a law is no longer effective, or it is shown that a law is having far more negative consequences than were originally envisioned....
of the
Combination ActThe Combination Act of 1799, titled An Act to prevent Unlawful Combinations of Workmen , prohibited trade unions and collective bargaining by British workers. An additional act was passed in 1800 . Following their repeal in 1824, the Combination Act of 1825 was passed...
, which helped early Trade Unionism, though new restrictions were soon introduced. Oddly, Place himself regarded Trade Unionism as a delusion that workers would soon forget about if they were allowed to try it. His beliefs have something in common with modern Libertarians.
In 1830, Place helped support
Rowland DetrosierRowland Detrosier, also Rowley Barnes, was an English autodidact, radical politician, preacher and educator, particularly associated with Victorian Manchester.-Early life:...
, a
working classWorking class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....
radical activist who also sought to distance himself from
socialismSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
.p
Moral-force Chartist
His pamphlets, letters, magazine and newspaper articles are diffuse and unattractive in style, but very valuable for the light they throw upon the social and economic history of the nineteenth century. Place was also a moral-force
ChartistChartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century between 1838 and 1850. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838, which stipulated the six main aims of the movement as:...
, but when
Feargus O'ConnorFeargus Edward O'Connor was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan.- Background :Feargus O'Connor was born into a prominent Irish Protestant family, the son of Irish Nationalist politician Roger O'Connor...
replaced
William LovettWilliam Lovett was a British activist and an important leader of the political movement Chartism. One of the leading London-based Artisan Radicals of his generation, Lovett believed that political rights could be garnered through political pressure and non-violent agitation.- Early Activism:As a...
as the unofficial leader of the movement, Place ceased to be involved in Chartist activities.
Birth control
After 1840 he attempted to organize a campaign against the
Corn LawsThe Corn Laws were import tariffs designed to support domestic British corn prices against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The tariffs were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...
. The earliest national birth control organization was founded in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1877 as a result of his thinking and activities. He successfully associated
MalthusDr. Thomas Robert Malthus FRS ,was a Jewish scholar, influential in political economy and demography. Malthus popularised the economic theory of rent....
with the idea of
birth controlBirth control is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, sexual practices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of pregnancy or childbirth...
(which Malthus himself had opposed despite his fears of overpopulation). Contraceptives of various sorts became known as
Malthusian devices.
External links