Yorke, who described himself as ‘an uncompromising friend of the people’, took a particular interest in the poor law while Liberal MP for York, endeavouring to mitigate its harshness.Dod’s parliamentary companion (1843), 217. An assiduous presence in the Commons, where he often took an independent line in the division lobbies, he was regarded by contemporaries as ‘very eccentric’,Morning Chronicle, 15 May 1848. with a ‘firm and somewhat peculiar’ countenance.Morning Post, 13 May 1848. His political career came to a shocking end when he killed himself in 1848.
Yorke was the oldest son of Henry Redhead Yorke (1772-1813), a renowned radical political writer, and his middle name ‘Galgacus’ was one of the pseudonyms under which his father had written for the Star newspaper.Gent. Mag. (1848), ii. 96. Although brought up at Little Eaton, near Derby, his father appears to have been born in the West Indies,J. G. Alger, revised by P. Spence, ‘Yorke, Henry Redhead’, Oxf. DNB [www.oxforddnb.com]. and, according to one account, was the son of ‘a mulatto lady’.Huddersfield Chronicle, 24 Apr. 1858. Born Henry Redhead, his father had taken the additional name Yorke after fleeing France, where a warrant was issued for his arrest while on a visit in 1792.Alger, ‘Yorke, Henry Redhead’, Oxf. DNB. One obituary recorded that he had been an officer in the French army and member of the National Convention.Gent. Mag. (1813), i. 284. Back in England, he was involved with radical bodies such as the London Corresponding Society, and in 1795 was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for conspiracy.Alger, ‘Yorke, Henry Redhead’, Oxf. DNB. Before his release in 1798, his political opinions shifted dramatically, and he became ‘one of the most virulent of ultra-loyalist journalists’.S. Semmel, ‘British Uses for Napoleon’, MLN, 120 (2005), 736. He was a part proprietor of the True Briton: Alger, ‘Yorke, Henry Redhead’. In 1800 he married the daughter of the keeper of Dorchester Castle, where he had been imprisoned.Alger, ‘Yorke, Henry Redhead’, Oxf. DNB. On his death in 1813 he left his family ‘as little fortune as usually befalls the man of letters’.Gent. Mag. (1848), ii. 96.
After studying at Cambridge, Yorke earned his keep as tutor to Sir John Charles Thorold, 11th bt., of Syston Park, Lincolnshire, the ward of Sir Robert Heron, of Stubton Hall, Lincolnshire. Heron recorded that Yorke ‘conducted himself in a manner to command my esteem and gratitude’.R. Heron, Notes (2nd edn., 1851), 258. Yorke improved his position by marrying the only daughter of Lord Brandon, an Irish peer, in 1837.Gent. Mag. (1848), ii. 96. A ‘lady of considerable wealth’,The Times, 25 June 1841. she was described by Heron as ‘a most amiable and delightful woman’.Heron, Notes, 258. Yorke kept up his connection with Thorold, accompanying him on a visit to Killarney in 1839.Freeman’s Journal, 16 Sept. 1839. He also maintained his links with Lincolnshire, becoming the tenant at Fulbeck Hall, near Grantham, which was owned by the Fane family.W. White, History, gazetteer, and directory of Lincolnshire (1842), 677. Heron’s autobiography suggests that Yorke may have exaggerated his position, noting that his claims about having ‘inherited considerable property’ were ‘not true’.Heron, Notes, 258. He owned a property in Castle Gate, Grantham, and was resident in Lincolnshire at the time of his election for York: The Times, 25 June 1841; information from electoral registers.
‘Very anxious to come into Parliament’,Ibid. Yorke was invited to stand for Boston ‘on the Reform interest’, but in June 1840 transferred his loyalties to York, which offered better prospects.York Herald, 27 June 1840. He was introduced through Heron, who had been asked for recommendations by his friend the earl of Zetland, whose brother John Dundas intended to retire from York at the dissolution.Heron, Notes, 258. Yorke made ‘a long and eloquent speech’ on his first appearance in the constituency later that month, declaring himself ‘in the most full and comprehensive sense of the word a Reformer’. He would rather that the government ‘consult the necessities of the poor and the honourably industrious, than coquet to the superfluities of the rich’, but although ‘the poor man’s friend’, he was not ‘the rich man’s enemy’. He wished to see ‘good, wise, and cheap government’ and ‘civil and religious liberty’ and advocated the ballot, shorter Parliaments and extending the franchise. His own views were ‘decidedly in favour’ of altering the corn laws, but he would consider the evidence placed before the Commons. Although an Anglican, he believed that church rates should only fall on church members, and wished to see Anglicans and Dissenters ‘unfettered’ with regard to religious instruction.York Herald, 27 June 1840. He again courted the constituency at the York Liberal Association’s dinner in July 1840, when he attacked the Tories and ‘those who drag heavily at the heels of public opinion until forced on by its irresistible power’. He emphasised his father’s ‘high moral courage’ in sacrificing his liberty for his political opinions.York Herald, 1 Aug. 1840. In February 1841 he addressed a local meeting against Stanley’s Irish registration bill and in support of Morpeth’s ‘liberal, intelligent, and just’ alternative.Morning Chronicle, 22 Feb. 1841. A hostile report dismissed Yorke as ‘the pretty doll which the Liberal Association has imported as a candidate’.The Standard, 22 Feb. 1841.
At the 1841 election Yorke stood as ‘an advocate of free trade’.Morning Post, 29 June 1841. His proposer described him as ‘a man of unblemished honour, of independent fortune, in the vigour of youth, with all his faculties about him’. Yorke emphasised that he was ‘an independent man’ and ‘not a hanger on to that or any ministry’. However, he defended ministerial plans for a fixed duty on corn. He robustly refuted opposition allegations that he supported workhouses or favoured the separation of man and wife in the workhouse.York Herald, 3 July 1841. Placards had been displayed describing him as ‘Yorke the Bastile tyrant – the poor man’s enemy’ and ‘Yorke, the separatist between man and wife’: York Herald, 28 Jan. 1843. The lone Liberal candidate, he secured the second seat.
An extremely diligent attender at Westminster, Yorke later claimed that during parliamentary sessions he ‘devoted himself entirely and exclusively to the interests of his country, giving up all his private and social relations’ and living ‘a secluded life in the House of Commons’. One supporter suggested that he voted in at least 500 divisions in the 1841-7 Parliament.York Herald, 31 July 1847. Yorke did not, however, unthinkingly enter the division lobbies. Discussing whether MPs should be allowed to vote if they had not been present when the question was put, Yorke noted that few MPs were ‘more regular in their attendance’, but that his name appeared less frequently in the division lists because ‘he never gave a vote unless he distinctly understood the question’, 29 July 1842. Yorke described himself as ‘a moderate Reformer, when moderation is sufficient; a decided Reformer, when decision is better; a radical Reformer, when radicalism is best, but above all things, an uncompromising friend of the people’, and his votes reflected this, generally dividing with the Liberals, but willing to take a more radical line on issues such as the poor law.Dod’s parliamentary companion (1843), 217. He is listed by Nicholls as one of the parliamentary ‘friends of the people’ who regularly divided in support of popular radical causes.D. Nicholls, ‘Friends of the people: parliamentary supporters of popular radicalism, 1832-1849’, Labour History Review, 62: 2 (summer 1997), 135. The York Herald remembered him as ‘ever true to his political principles’ with ‘an independence of mind which could never bend to expediency or even to courtly favour’.York Herald, 20 May 1848.
He consistently voted for Villiers’ anti-corn law motions, and accused supporters of the sliding scale on corn of allowing ‘the greatest gambling to take place with the famishing stomachs of the people, upon the principle of this phantom of protection’, 8 July 1842. Although in 1844 he ‘coolly’ told a local deputation which asked him to attend an Anti-Corn Law League meeting that ‘he repudiated the League’,Bradford Observer, 1 Feb. 1844. he continued to support repeal, for which he voted in 1846.He was erroneously identified in the index to Hansard as having spoken in favour of protection, 17 Mar. 1846, but this speech was in fact made by the Conservative MP for Cambridgeshire, Hon. Eliot Yorke. He joined the minorities in support of Sharman Crawford’s motion for further parliamentary reform, 21 Apr. 1842, and the ballot, 21 June 1842. He supported the Dissenters’ chapels bill, 28 June 1844, and routinely backed the Maynooth grant, Catholic relief and the removal of Jewish disabilities. He prompted dissatisfaction among his constituents by his absence from the vote on the income tax bill, 13 Apr. 1842, despite having received a ‘numerously signed’ petition against it, and his subsequent vote for a 3½d. rather than a 7d. income tax rate, 29 Apr. 1842, was evidently insufficient to redeem what the York Herald described as an ‘awkward mistake’.York Herald, 28 Jan. 1843. He presented this petition, 15 Apr. 1842. He defended his ‘passive course’, which had ‘somewhat brought me into collision… with a few of my most important and valued friends’, at a local gathering in January 1843. Given the prevailing economic distress, which he had seen on ‘a practical tour of the country’, he did not feel able to vote against the bill, having promised ‘that the rich should be taxed in favour of the pauper’. He noted, however, that he was not pledged to an income tax.York Herald, 28 Jan. 1843. He divided against the Irish coercion bill, 31 May 1843, 25 June 1846, and despite his desire to support the Russell ministry ‘whenever he could do so with honour and consistency’, he repeated this vote, 10 Aug. 1846. In keeping with his sympathies with the working classes, Yorke consistently divided for the ten hour factory day in 1844 and 1847. He also voted for the abolition of flogging in the army, 7 Aug. 1846, and of capital punishment, 9 Mar. 1847, against which he had presented a constituency petition the previous day.
Yorke consistently opposed the poor law amendment bill at all stages in 1842 and supported efforts to modify the measure, such as allowing guardians to grant outdoor relief, 20 July 1842. He was in the minorities for John Fielden’s anti-poor law motion, 19 July 1842, and John Walter’s motion that the poor laws be reconstructed to make them ‘conformable to Christianity, sound policy, and the ancient Constitution’, 23 Feb. 1843. The poor law also prompted the majority of Yorke’s intermittent and usually brief contributions to debate. His first intervention was to ask Peel whether it would possible to add a clause prohibiting ‘indiscriminate separation of man and wife’ in the workhouse to the amendment bill, 20 Sept. 1841. His attempt the following week to secure this change, urging that people should not be punished for their poverty, was defeated by 36 votes to 187, with Yorke as a minority teller, 27 Sept. 1841. The following day, impervious to cries of ‘Yorke, you are not wanted’, he endorsed giving poor law guardians the power to grant immediate relief in ‘cases of pressing misery’. In common with other opponents of the poor law, he was keen that Gilbert’s Unions retain their separate existence, 17 Mar. 1842.
After a period of ill health which reduced his contributions in the 1843 session, he resumed his defence of Gilbert’s Unions, 30 May 1844, and voted in the minority for their retention, 18 July 1844.York Herald, 28 Jan. 1843. He was keen to emphasise his persistent interest in the poor law debates, informing The Times that he had been ‘as usual, in my place’, 5 July 1844, until ‘compelled’ to leave due to illness.The Times, 6 July 1844. He tried again to insert a clause preventing indiscriminate separation of man and wife, but was defeated by 6 votes to 96, 18 July 1844. He continued to vote against the measure, and was in the minority for ending the prohibition on outdoor relief, 24 June 1847.
The second theme on which Yorke intermittently spoke was the need to tackle bribery and corruption. Protesting about the ‘most disgusting’ bribery at the 1841 election, 21 Apr. 1842, he also voiced his support for abolishing the property qualification for MPs, but expressed doubts about annual Parliaments. His assertion that ‘all sides of the House’ were ‘generally tainted’ with corruption in 1841 prompted William Ferrand to repeat rumours that Yorke ‘had spent several thousands of pounds in corrupting’ York’s electors. Yorke rebutted this, offering to take the Chiltern Hundreds immediately if it would enhance electoral purity, 26 May 1842. He opposed the issue of the Nottingham writ, 29 July 1842, wishing to see ‘more effectual means for purifying the borough’ adopted.
The other topics on which Yorke intervened were an eclectic mix and included allowing solicitors to offset the duty paid on their certificates against their income tax obligations, on which his motion was defeated by 18 votes to 183, 6 May 1842. He was in the minority for the university oaths abolition bill, 25 May 1843, when he observed that as a gentleman pensioner at Christ’s College, Cambridge, he had been able to purchase ‘immunity’ from daily attendance at chapel, which he felt exposed the lack of necessity for obligatory religious observances. He also took an interest in legislation on ecclesiastical courts, securing the defeat of the second reading of the court of arches bill by 17 votes to 30, 10 July 1844. He raised the case of Joseph Mason, transported to Norfolk Island after his conviction at York assizes, but subsequently pardoned, wishing to know when he would return home, 14 July 1845, and pursued this matter after presenting a petition from Mason’s wife, 19 and 20 Mar. 1846. When Mason finally arrived in England that May, he visited Yorke to express ‘his gratitude for his unwearied exertions on his behalf’.The Times, 7 May 1846.
Yorke regularly presented petitions and was active in the committee rooms. He was added to the select committee on health of towns, 19 Apr. 1842, which recommended legislation on burials within large towns, and was an assiduous questioner of witnesses to the inquiry on the operation of the Truck Acts.PP 1842 (327), x. 350; PP 1842 (471), ix. 126. He was added to the select committee on colonial accounts, 21 Apr. 1845, which recommended greater uniformity in the way these accounts were drawn up.PP 1845 (520), viii. 2. Yorke also served on inquiries into allegations that signatures had been forged on anti-corn law petitions from Epworth, Cheltenham and elsewhere,PP 1843 (447), xi. 34; PP 1843 (511), xi. 126; PP 1846 (139), viii. 126. as well as committees on private bill legislation, including railway bills.Daily News, 5 May 1846; Freeman’s Journal, 26 Apr. 1847; Morning Post, 17 May 1847, 27 Mar. 1848. He was in the minority for a motion that private bill committees should contain five members who were not directly interested in the legislation, which he felt would increase MPs’ ‘honour and independence’, 20 Jan. 1847.
Seeking re-election in 1847, Yorke and his supporters cited his assiduous attention to his parliamentary duties. He praised corn law repeal and noted that he had ‘done what he could’ to modify the poor law’s severity.York Herald, 31 July 1847. Proposing him at the nomination, where Yorke was returned unopposed alongside a Conservative,Their return was not without controversy, as the high sheriff refused to accept the nomination by electors of the outgoing Conservative MP, John Henry Lowther, who had not himself sought re-election. Sir John Simpson commended him as ‘the poor man’s friend’ and ‘a consistent and liberal minded man’ who was ‘not tied to the chariot wheels of any Minister’. Although at a subsequent election dinner, Yorke stated that he would ‘continually and gratefully support’ Russell, he emphasised that his first duty was to his constituents.York Herald, 31 July 1847.
Having given notice before the dissolution that he would move for an address to the queen urging that the new Houses of Parliament be completed ‘without further delay’, Yorke spoke in support of Bernal Osborne’s amendment to the same effect, 2 Mar. 1848.Morning Post, 16 July 1847. Yorke had also raised this issue, 5 Mar. 1845, and had presented a petition from Dr. Reid for copies of correspondence regarding the ventilation of the House to be laid on the table, 20 July 1847: Morning Chronicle, 21 July 1847; PP 1847 (750), lvii. 233. His last known speech was in a debate on the Chartist petition, when, somewhat surprisingly given his own radical sympathies, he endorsed an attack by William Cripps, Conservative MP for Cirencester, on Feargus O’Connor for exaggerating the number of signatories, 13 Apr. 1848.
Yorke voted in the Commons for the last time on 11 May 1848, when he also visited the Reform Club, where he was observed to be ‘rather taciturn’ and ‘exhibited more eccentricity in his manners than was usual to him’.The Standard, 13 May 1848. The following day he committed suicide in Regent’s Park by swallowing prussic acid, which he had acquired from a chemist on the pretext of wishing to euthanize his dog.Gent. Mag. (1848), ii. 96; Morning Chronicle, 15 May 1848. Suspicious as to Yorke’s intentions, another chemist had refused to supply the prussic acid, for which he was praised at the inquest. Yorke did, however, possess a dog, as three years earlier he had been fined 40s. after his ‘ferocious dog’ was left unmuzzled and bit a neighbour’s child: The Times, 21 July 1845. His fellow MP Thomas Wakley, who as a Middlesex coroner conducted the inquest, testified that since first meeting Yorke, ‘he was under a strong impression that he was not altogether right in the head’, and noted that Yorke had referred 100 times to the prospect of an inquest into his death, which he wished Wakley to oversee.Morning Chronicle, 15 May 1848. Another MP and neighbour, Thomas Hildyard, also gave evidence regarding Yorke’s eccentricity, as did his butler. A post-mortem revealed that Yorke’s brain ‘was in a very unhealthy state, and contained a quantity of water’, suggesting that he had been unwell for some time before his suicide.Newcastle Courant, 19 May 1848. The jury returned a verdict of ‘temporary insanity’.Freeman’s Journal, 15 May 1848. Yorke was buried at Kensal Green cemetery.York Herald, 20 May 1848. He left a widow and three young children, for whom he made provision in his will, which also granted a £100 annuity to his mother.PROB 11/2077/237. Yorke’s younger son, George Galgacus Aylmer Redhead Yorke (1847-8), died later that year. His Eaton Square residence was purchased by Admiral Sir John West.The Standard, 1 Nov. 1848. After serving in the navy, his elder son, Henry Francis Redhead Yorke (1842-1914) rose through the ranks of the admiralty to become director of victualling of the navy, 1886-1905, and was knighted in 1902.The Times, 15 Jan. 1914.
