Sir Edward Baines
Encyclopedia
Sir Edward Baines, also known as Edward Baines junior (28 May 1800, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 - 1890) was a nonconformist English
England
England 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, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 newspaper editor and Member of Parliament.

Biography

Edward Baines, of St Ann's Hill, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, was the second son (and biographer) of Edward Baines (1774–1848), proprietor of the Leeds Mercury
Leeds Mercury
The Leeds Mercury was a newspaper in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was published from 1718 to 1755 and again from 1767. Initially it consisted of 12 pages and cost three halfpennies. In 1794 it had a circulation of about 3,000 copies, and in 1797 the cost rose to sixpence because of increased...

 and MP for Leeds in the 1830s, and his wife Charlotte Talbot. His elder brother, Matthew Talbot Baines
Matthew Talbot Baines
Matthew Talbot Baines QC, DL was a British lawyer and Liberal politician. He most notably served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Lord Palmerston's 1855 to 1858 administration.-Background and education:...

, was also a politician.

Edward Baines junior was educated at a Leeds private school and then at the nonconformist grammar school New College, Manchester. From 1815 he worked as journalist and editor of the Leeds Mercury, becoming a partner in 1827 . He married Martha Blackburn in 1829. He became editor and, after his father's death, proprietor of the Leeds Mercury.

Baines helped to found the Leeds Literary and Philosophical Society. He was also a prominent advocate of working-class adult education, founding Yorkshire Mechanics' Institutes
Mechanics' Institutes
Historically, Mechanics' Institutes were educational establishments formed to provide adult education, particularly in technical subjects, to working men...

 in imitation of George Birkbeck
George Birkbeck
George Birkbeck was a British doctor, academic, philanthropist, pioneer in adult education and founder of Birkbeck College.-Biography:...

's London mechanics' institute. An educational voluntarist, he opposed state-sponsored education until the 1860s. A political Liberal, he supported the 1832 Reform Act and the 1834 new poor laws
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, sometimes abbreviated to PLAA, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Lord Melbourne that reformed the country's poverty relief system . It was an Amendment Act that completely replaced earlier legislation based on the...

. His History of the Cotton Manufacture (1835) was written in opposition to the corn laws
Corn Laws
The Corn Laws were trade barriers designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The barriers were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...

, and he also published criticisms of Owenism
Owenism
Owenism is the utopian socialist philosophy of 19th century social reformer Robert Owen and his followers and successors, who are known as Owenites....

. In 1840 he attended the World's Anti-Slavery convention where he was captured in a group painting. He served as Liberal M.P. for Leeds
Leeds (UK Parliament constituency)
Leeds was a parliamentary borough covering the town of Leeds, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1885....

 from 1859 to 1874. He was knighted in 1880.

Edward Baines' sister Maragret, married Charles Reed the educationist and M.P. Edward's third daughter, Jane Eleanor, married Edward Crossley
Edward Crossley
Edward Crossley was an English businessman, Liberal Party politician and astronomer.-Biography:Edward Crossley was the eldest son of Joseph Crossley J.P., of Broomfield, Halifax, Yorkshire, of the Crossley carpets dynasty. He inherited his family's carpet manufacturing business from his father...

 of Halifax, the carpet-manufacturer, astronomer and MP who gave his name to the Crossley reflector 

telescope

.

Works

  • History of the Cotton Manufacture, 1835
  • The Social, Educational and Religious State of the Manufacturing Districts, 1843
  • Mr Owen's Establishment at New Lanark, a Failure!!', 1838
  • The Socialists, A Society of Beasts, 1840?
  • An alarm to the nation, on the unjust, unconstitutional and dangerous measure of state education proposed by the government, 1847
  • Life of Edward Baines, 1861.

External links

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