PAGET, Charles (1799-1873), of Ruddington Grange, nr. Nottingham

A descendant of the Pagets of Ibstock, Leicestershire, Charles Paget belonged to a family of notable manufacturers and farmers. His father, Joseph, and his uncle, William, owned a hosiery business, Paget and White, and, along with their nephew Thomas, in 1825 established a banking house, Paget and Kirby, in Leicester. Joseph, William, and Thomas were also shareholders in the hosiery company Hollins, Siddons and Co., based at Pleasley, Nottinghamshire, with Paget, who purchased his first shares in 1834, becoming a major shareholder ten years later.1S. Pigott, Hollins: a study of industry, 1784-1949 (1949), 47-68. Having married his cousin Eliza and built Ruddington Grange in 1828 on a four-hundred acre estate near Nottingham, Paget’s primary business concern was agriculture.2R. Mellors, Men of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (1924), 275. A practical and scientific farmer, Paget developed a keen interest in the education of his child labourers, publishing Results of an experiment on the half-time system of education in rural districts, as carried on at Ruddington in 1859, and giving evidence to Edwin Chadwick’s select committee on education, where he championed the system of child labourers spending alternate days in school and working on his farm.3PP 1862 (120), xliii. 40-2. In 1857 he built Stuffynwood Hall, an arresting Victorian gothic country house in Pleasley Vale, for his only surviving son, Joseph.4http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/Jacks1881/stuffynwood.htm

Prior to his unopposed return at the Nottingham by-election of July 1856, caused by the elevation of the Liberal member Edward Strutt to a peerage, Paget had chaired meetings of the Anti-Corn Law League and served as high sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1844.5Liverpool Mercury, 5 Jan. 1844. Although his connection to the constituency was strong, his selection as the Liberal candidate was not without controversy, owing to his support for Sir Joshua Walmsley’s bill to open the British Museum and the National Gallery on Sundays. Paget, a Unitarian, argued that he could not consent to any legislation that would prevent a labourer from using Sunday ‘in the way he believes to be the best for his religious, moral and intellectual improvement’,6http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/Jacks1881/stuffynwood.htm a position that induced a section of the local Liberal party to seek an alternative man, until the intervention of A.J. Mundella, a manufacturer at Nottingham and a local leading Liberal who later served as MP for Sheffield from 1868 to 1897, secured Paget’s candidature.7Daily News, 5 Aug. 1856. At the nomination, Paget showed himself to be a solid Liberal, favouring progressive franchise extension, vote by ballot, and a comprehensive system of education.8Daily News, 31 July 1856. Successfully defending his seat only eight months later at the 1857 general election, he had little parliamentary service on which to campaign, but stressed that he had ‘attended every sitting of the house with one exception’.9Derby Mercury, 1 Apr. 1857. His most notable contribution was his vote to support Palmerston during the government’s defeat over the Canton issue.10House of Commons Division Lists, 1857 sess., 3 Mar. In the following parliament, during which he is not known to have made any speeches, he remained loyal to Palmerston, supporting his defeated conspiracy to murder bill and voting against the Derby ministry’s reform bill.11Ibid., 1858 sess., 19 Feb; Ibid., 1859 sess., 31 Mar.

Paget comfortably topped the poll at the 1859 general election and contributed to debate with a response to the Queen’s speech in 1861, which, according to Sir John Trelawny, was ‘brief, modest, sensible and candid’.12Hansard, 5 Feb. 1861, vol. 161, cc.54-58; The parliamentary diaries of Sir John Trelawny, 1858-1865 ed. T.A. Jenkins (1992), 147. He remained loyal to the government, but was personally defeated over amendments he moved concerning the reform of bankruptcy laws13Hansard, 16 July 1860, vol. 159, c. 1993; 3 May 1864, vol. 174, c. 2120-1. and the lace factories bill.14Hansard, 24 July 1861, vol. 164, cc. 1432-49. An infrequent debater, Paget made his most controversial comments in a debate on the employment of youths in lace factories, by opposing the minimum age boys could work over half-time being raised from 11 to 13, which led to him being accused of misrepresenting working conditions and ignoring children’s health.15Ibid. He also sat on the committee on the Norwich election petition,16PP 1859 sess. 2 (220), xxvi. 118. and served on select committees on the government annuities bill and titles to land in Ireland.17Hansard, 21 Apr. 1864, vol. 174, c. 1473.

After a vitriolic campaign at Nottingham in 1865, he was defeated in third place and although he presented a petition against the return of Sir Robert Clifton,18CJ, vol. cxxi, 7 Feb. 1866, 22. following a second petition against Samuel Morley,19CJ, vol. cxxi, 17 Feb. 1866, 88. Paget himself was accused of bribery, and forced to defend his conduct.20The Times, 10 Apr. 1866, 13. Apr. 1866. The committee subsequently determined that Paget was ‘by his Agents, guilty of bribery’ due to the hiring and payment of voters.21Hansard, 20 Apr. 1866, vol. 182, cc. 1766-8; The Times, 21 Apr. 1866. With his parliamentary prospects on hold, Paget returned to his educationalist roots, helping to establish the Nottingham branch of the National Education League,22Birmingham Daily Post, 16 Dec. 1869. founding extension classes at the university of Nottingham, and gaining election to the first Nottingham School Board in 1870,23Mellor, Men of Nottingham; Pall Mall Gazette, 3 Dec. 1870 although, along with all other nonconformist members, he resigned three years later over the chairman’s opposition to building new board schools.24Birmingham Daily Post, 7 Mar. 1873. This proved to be his last contribution to public life, as seven months later, while holidaying in Filey Brigg, Yorkshire, Paget and his second wife drowned after a huge wave swept them into the sea, their bodies never being recovered.25Pall Mall Gazette, 14 Oct. 1873.