WRIGHTSON, William Battie (1789-1879), of Cusworth Hall, Doncaster, Yorks and 22 Upper Brook Street, London

Of ‘old Whig principles’, Wrightson was generally a loyal supporter of the Liberal party following his return to the Commons in 1835.1Dod’s parliamentary companion (1843), 216. Although called to the bar in 1815, he does not appear to have practised. In the pre-reform Parliament he had sat briefly for East Retford before being unseated on petition in 1827. Later that year, he inherited his father’s extensive estates in Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham, and became patron of the livings of Hemsworth and Edlington in West Yorkshire, the latter then held by his brother, Rev. Arthur Bland Wrightson.2PP 1835 [67], xxii. 956; W. White, History, gazetteer and directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire (1837-8), ii. 177. Rev. A.B. Wrightson was later the incumbent at Hemsworth (1840-78), and became prebendary of York in 1843, quitting Edlington that year: Venn, Alumni cantabrigiensis, vi. 600. He was lord of the manors of Edlington and Warmworth, near Doncaster, and of Hurworth, Durham.3White, History, gazetteer and directory of the West Riding, ii. 177, 213; VCH Durham, iii. 285-93. Returned for Hull in 1830 and 1831, he gave his support to Whig ministers.4HP Commons, 1820-32: ‘Wrightson, William Battie’. In 1832 he sought election for Northallerton, where the Peirse family, to which his mother-in-law belonged, possessed influence, but did not succeed until 1835, when he was elected unopposed, as also happened in 1837. During his absence from the Commons, he served as a commissioner on the inquiry into the state of the Irish poor, which sat in Dublin between September 1833 and February 1836.5PP 1834 (175), xliii. 407; PP 1834 (291), xli. 357; PP 1835 (369), xxxii. 1ff.; PP 1836 [43], xxx. 1ff.; PP 1837-38 (346), xxxvi. 226. Wrightson’s interest in the poor law was long-standing, having written an essay on the subject for the Speculative Society of Edinburgh, to which he had been admitted in 1814.6History of the Speculative Society of Edinburgh (1843), 275.

Shortly after his return to Parliament in 1835, Wrightson was robbed on his way to the Commons of a petition which he was due to present from Northallerton’s licensed victuallers.7Manchester Times and Gazette, 11 Apr. 1835. Although a very infrequent contributor to debate, he volunteered his expertise on the poor relief (Ireland) bill, 5 and 19 Feb. 1838, when he pressed the importance of limiting relief to the lame, blind and elderly. During the 1830s he opposed further measures of electoral reform such as the ballot, and divided with Liberal ministers on key questions such as the Irish church, abolition of church rates, 15 Mar. 1837, slave apprenticeships, 28 May 1838, and the Jamaican constitution, 6 May 1839. On seeking re-election in 1841, however, he denied that he was too attached to the Liberal party, pointing to his conduct on the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act, where, concerned that it ‘would have operated injudiciously upon the landlord and the industrious tenant’, he had opposed ministers on a clause allowing the tithe commissioners to make a standardised deduction for the expenses of collecting tithes, 25 Mar. 1836, and divided the House in a similar vein, 13 May, being defeated by only eight votes. Russell conceded, 17 June 1836, replacing this clause with one which fixed a limit beyond which the tithe could not be varied by the commissioners.8Leeds Mercury, 3 July 1841; E.J. Evans, The contentious tithe: the tithe problem and English agriculture, 1750-1850 (1976), 125-6. The clause in question was clause 29, which became clause 34 in later versions of the bill. It laid out the procedure for cases where an appeal was made against the value of the tithe. Wrightson later privately published material relating to the 1836 Act: W.B. Wrightson, Tithe commutation (1836. Letter to Viscount Eversley etc.) (1870). Wrightson was subsequently appointed to the select committee which investigated how best to conduct the parish surveys necessary to implement this Act.9PP 1837 (285), vi. 78. He also served on the committee on copyhold enfranchisement,10PP 1837-38 (707), xxiii. 189ff. and on several election petition committees, including Westmeath, Ludlow, Taunton and Norwich, chairing the latter.11Ipswich Journal, 28 May 1838; Freeman’s Journal, 2 Apr. 1840; Leeds Mercury, 3 Mar. 1838; Morning Chronicle, 15 May 1838. He opposed a motion that election petitions should be tried by three external assessors, 14 Feb. 1839, arguing that the Commons should not cede its powers. His interest in the minutiae of tithe commutation prompted him to draft a bill in 1841 to clear up doubts about whether tithes and tithe commutation rent-charges were rateable, but this did not make any progress.12PP 1841 sess. 1 (77), iii. 33-6.

Wrightson’s enduring support for repeal of the corn laws – he had declared his opposition to them in his election address at Hull in 1830, and divided for Villiers’ motion that the corn law petitioners be heard at the bar of the House, 19 Feb. 183913HP Commons, 1820-32: ‘Wrightson, William Battie’. – ‘highly offended’ local farmers, and he faced a serious, although unsuccessful, Conservative challenge at Northallerton in 1841.14Ipswich Journal, 12 June 1841. While his election address backed the 8s. fixed duty proposed by Liberal ministers, at the nomination he would not pledge to any particular amount of fixed duty, and declared his willingness to ‘make a sacrifice of his own personal interest for the sake of the community at large, as he was himself a landowner’.15Ipswich Journal, 12 June 1841; Leeds Mercury, 3 July 1841. He argued in the Commons, 11 May 1843, in a speech subsequently published as a pamphlet, that ‘if the landowners would not make a march in advance, their own tenants would very soon be before them’.16W.B. Wrightson, Corn laws: substance of a speech in the House of Commons, May 11, 1843 (1843). His speech on the subject at Doncaster in the same year was cited approvingly by Richard Cobden in an address to the Anti-Corn Law League, describing Wrightson ‘a most estimable man’.17Morning Chronicle, 23 Oct. 1843. Apologising for his inability to attend a free trade demonstration at Wakefield in 1844, Wrightson declared that ‘there is no public question in which I feel so strong an interest as the abolition of the Corn Laws’, and he consistently divided in that direction.18Leeds Mercury, 3 Feb. 1844. Wrightson did speak at a free trade meeting at Wakefield the following year: The Times, 18 Dec. 1845. He voted with his party on religious issues, supporting the Maynooth grant, 24 Apr. and 21 May 1845. He did, however, divide against Liberal leaders in support of a motion that imported cattle should be taxed by weight, not per head, a matter of interest to his constituents, 23 May 1842. He was opposed to factory reform, voting for a twelve rather than a ten hour day, 22 Mar. 1844, and against the third reading of the ten hours bill, 3 May 1847. He continued to be an assiduous committee-man, serving on the 1844 committee on commons’ inclosure, the committee which recommended the abolition of Gilbert Unions for poor relief in 1845, and the 1846 committee on county registration, which investigated complaints about fraudulent and vexatious claims and objections by the Anti-Corn Law League.19PP 1844 (583), v. 1ff.; PP 1844 (543), x. 1ff.; PP 1845 (409), xiii. 1ff.; PP 1846 (451), viii. 176. He was also a member of the committee on the Durham election petition.20The Examiner, 15 July 1843.

Wrightson was re-elected unopposed in 1847 and 1852, and saw off Conservative challenges in 1857 and 1859, albeit by very narrow margins. Having first been appointed to the select committee on standing orders prior to the 1847 election (although he did not attend its sittings that year), he was re-appointed to it annually for the remainder of his time in the Commons and was a regular attender.21PP 1847 (631), xii. 224; PP 1847-48 (537), xvi. 294; PP 1849 (525), xii. 462; PP 1850 (717), xlvi. 24; PP 1851 (660), xlvii. 60; PP 1852 (512), v. 513; PP 1852-53 (856), xxxiv. 159; PP 1854 (459), liii. 15; PP 1854-55 (489), xliv. 13; PP 1856 (450), li. 17; PP 1857 sess. 2 (0.76), xxxiv. 5; PP 1857-58 (460), xii. 225; PP 1857-58 (0.103), xlvi. 749; PP 1859 sess. 2 (0.39), xxvi. 169; PP 1860 (0.128), lvi. 51; PP 1861 (0.97), l. 468; PP 1862 (0.100), xliv. 213; PP 1863 (0.114), xlviii. 50; PP 1864 (0.132), xlviii. 107; PP 1865 (0.99), xliv. 428. He chaired the committees on the Sligo and Bewdley election petitions in 1848, but was excused from service on election petitions thereafter, having reached the age of 60.22PP 1847-48 (194), x. 209; The Era, 2 July 1848. His knowledge of procedural matters led to him being among five MPs appointed to deputise for the speaker in 1859, and when Denison went abroad during the 1862 recess, Wrightson acted as his deputy.23London Gazette, 12 Aug. 1859; Leeds Mercury, 25 Aug. 1862. In the latter capacity, Wrightson issued the writ for Stoke-on-Trent: London Gazette, 2 Sept. 1862. This concern was also reflected in his attempts to pass a bill to enable ministers to move between different offices without having to seek re-election, a proposal which the Daily News condemned as ‘a bill further to facilitate the power of shuffling, and otherwise changing without assignable cause’.24Daily News, 16 Mar. 1855. It received its first reading, 13 Mar. 1855, but the second reading was defeated by 69 votes to 73, 28 Mar. 1855. Wrightson’s efforts to reintroduce it were defeated, 16 Feb. 1858 and 5 July 1859, and although he gave notice, 28 July 1862, that he intended to try again next session, he did not pursue the matter. Wrightson served on a plethora of select committees, particularly on procedural and judicial matters, including the 1848 committee which aimed to improve procedure on private bills, the 1850 committee which considered local acts, and the committees on the parish constables bill and the criminal justice bill.25PP 1847-48 (32), xvi. 221ff.; PP 1850 (582), xiii. 532ff.; PP 1852-53 (946), lxxxiii. 59; PP 1854-55 (489), xliv. 5. He also served on committees which considered election petition recognisances (PP 1847-48 (114), xi. 1ff.), bills relating to the administration of justice (PP 1847-48 (641), li. 21), the bribery at elections bill (PP 1850 (340), xlvi. 13), the office of registrar of bankruptcy (PP 1850 (153), xviii. 420), the county rates and expenditure bill (PP 1850 (468), xiii. 2), the law of partnership (PP 1851 (509), xviii. 13) and the locomotive bill (PP 1859 sess. 2 (116), v. 353). Having served on the committee on the 1848 highways bill and acted as chairman of various private bill committees on roads, he took a particular interest in turnpikes.26PP 1847-48 (641), li. 2; PP 1857-58 (450), xii. 63. He served on the 1856 committee on metropolitan turnpike roads, and was appointed in 1859 as a commissioner to consider the best means for their abolition.27PP 1856 (333), xiv. 82; PP 1859 sess. 2 [2552], xi. 183ff. An active member of the 1864 committee on turnpikes, to which he also gave evidence, he ‘threw himself energetically into the agitation for relieving the traveller from an unpopular impost’, although this was only achieved gradually from the 1870s.28PP 1864 (383), ix. 331ff; S. & B. Webb, English local government: the story of the king’s highway (1920), 221.

Although an industrious committee member, Wrightson was not the most regular attender in the division lobbies, voting in 40 out of 219 divisions in the 1849 session, 55 out of 202 in 1853, and 43 out of 198 in 1856.29Hull Packet, 19 Oct. 1849; Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; J.P. Gassiott, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck, with a full analysis of the divisions in the House of Commons during the last session of Parliament (1857), 23. His votes in the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s followed a similar pattern to the 1830s, generally dividing with Liberal ministers. He supported Palmerston on the Canton question, 3 Mar. 1857, but although he sided with him for leave to bring in the conspiracy to murder bill, 9 Feb. 1858, he paired against him on the second reading, 19 Feb. 1858.30Morning Chronicle, 22 Feb. 1858. While in line with the bulk of his party on religious and fiscal questions, he continued to oppose further electoral reform, voting in the minority against the equalisation of the county and borough franchises, 10 June 1858. He was one of only 30 Liberal MPs who opposed the second reading of Baines’s £6 borough franchise bill, 8 May 1865.31Liverpool Mercury, 10 May 1865. His last known contribution to debate was on the prisons bill, 9 June 1865, when he argued that cutting off lads’ hair was a useful punishment: ‘Sometimes, when they obstinately refused to pay small fines, they gave way and paid the money as soon as the barber came into the room.’

This interjection undoubtedly drew on Wrightson’s extensive experience as a magistrate, acting for many years as chairman of the Doncaster Quarter Sessions.32Leeds Mercury, 14 Feb. 1879. He was one of the leading advocates for the introduction of the rural police into West Yorkshire in 1851, when a committee was appointed to consider the question, and again in 1855, when his efforts were defeated.33Leeds Mercury, 12 Apr. 1851; Newcastle Courant, 23 Nov. 1855. The Leeds Mercury noted that ‘he took a practical interest in county business generally, and was a useful man’.34Leeds Mercury, 14 Feb. 1879. He attended the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s first annual meeting in 1838, and was elected to its council in 1857.35Hull Packet, 31 Aug. 1838; Leeds Mercury, 6 Aug. 1857. He also served on the council of the Royal Agricultural Society.36Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 28 June 1856. Within his constituency he was president of the Northallerton Mechanics’ Institute, established in 1849, contributed prizes for Northallerton races, and was a prominent presence at local events such as the Northallerton cattle show.37T. Whellan, History and topography of the city of York and the north riding of Yorkshire (1859), ii. 98; Newcastle Courant, 25 Oct. 1839, 30 Aug. 1844. He gave £25 to be distributed among the constituency’s poor to mark Queen Victoria’s coronation.38Newcastle Courant, 6 July 1838. Closer to his Cusworth seat, he was a trustee of the Doncaster Savings Bank, and chairman of the committee for rebuilding Doncaster parish church in 1854, towards which he donated £500 and the requisite stone from a quarry on his estate.39PP 1852 (521), xxviii. 841; Newcastle Courant, 20 Jan. 1854.

Wrightson canvassed Northallerton in 1865, but withdrew when it became apparent that his opponents were using corrupt methods against him. Jasper Johns, a wealthy London iron merchant, who stood in Wrightson’s place, successfully pursued a petition against the victorious Conservative, and then stood aside to allow Wrightson to contest the ensuing by-election, 11 May 1866.40The Times, 5 May 1866. However, the Conservatives again triumphed at the poll, with Wrightson’s age – he was by then 76 – said to have told against him.41J.L. Saywell, The history and annals of Northallerton (1885), 190. Remarkably, this was not his last contest, for the ‘gallant old veteran’, who although slightly hard of hearing was said to be ‘still full of life and activity’, responded to a requisition and unsuccessfully contested Northallerton in 1874.42Northern Echo, 25 Feb. 1873, 27 Feb. 1873, 2 Apr. 1873. Five years later, having been in declining health for some years, Wrightson died at his London residence.43Pall Mall Gazette, 14 Feb. 1879; Leeds Mercury, 14 Feb. 1879. His personal estate was valued at under £180,000. He left his London house to his wife, together with Cusworth Hall and its contents for life; his estates in Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland passed to his brother, Richard Heber Wrightson.44The Times, 10 Apr. 1879. As Richard and his other surviving brother were without male heirs, provision was made for the estates to pass subsequently to the sons of Wrightson’s niece, Georgiana Thomas. William Henry Thomas assumed the name of Battie-Wrightson by royal licence when he inherited the estates in 1891 (The Times, 4 May 1903). Cusworth Hall’s contents were sold in 1952 to pay death duties, but the hall itself remained in family hands until 1961 when it was sold to Doncaster council: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=197-ddbw&cid=11#11 Wrightson’s personal and estate papers are held at Doncaster Archives and Leeds District Archives.45http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=197-ddbw&cid=11#11; P. Salmon, Electoral reform at work: local politics and national parties, 1832-1841 (2002), 269.