RICARDO, Osman (1795-1881), of Bromesberrow Place, Glos. and 71 Eaton Place, London, Mdx.

Born in Kennington, London, Ricardo was the eldest son of the wealthy financier and political economist, David Ricardo (1772-1823). The son of a Dutch Sephardic Jew of Portuguese origin, Ricardo’s father had converted to Christianity, becoming a Unitarian, and sitting as MP for Portarlington.1HP Commons 1820-32, vi. 930-41. Ricardo appears to have conformed to the established church, graduating at Cambridge in 1816,2On his return for Worcester he declared himself ‘a true and faithful friend of the Established Church’: Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 5 Aug. 1847. and marrying the daughter of a Warwickshire landowner at Bath in the following year.3He was presented to the king by the lord in waiting in April 1822. His wife was a personal favourite of Ricardo’s father, and was described by Maria Edgeworth in 1821 as having ‘a beautiful tall figure, and fine face, fair, and a profusion of light hair’. Their only child was born early in 1818 but died in infancy: P. Sraffa (ed.), The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo (1952), vii. 144, 268-9, x. 61, 168. His father purchased an estate and ‘mansion of great extent and elaborate finish’ for the couple near Ledbury on the borders of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. This Ricardo inherited, along with several nearby properties, at his father’s death in 1823, after which he became an active resident landlord’.4Ricardo Correspondence, x. 48-9, 104-5; Post Office Directory of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and the city of Bristol (1863), 212. Ricardo was an executor of his father’s will, and appears to have been responsible for putting his papers and correspondence into good order: Ricardo Correspondence, x. 106, 386-7. Believing that ‘the cause of education ought to be paramount to everything else’, and was the key to extending the suffrage, he and his wife established four new schools in the neighbourhood of his estate.5Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 5 Aug. 1847.

As high sheriff of Worcestershire, Ricardo chaired reform meetings in Worcester in March and November 1831, and was spoken of as a Reform candidate for West Worcestershire in 1832 and 1834, but instead pledged his support to Henry Winnington, nominating him at the 1835 and 1837 general elections.6T.C. Turberville, Worcestershire in the Nineteenth Century (1852), 50; The Times, 5, 8 Nov. 1831; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 29 Nov. 1832, 4, 18 Dec. 1834, 15 Jan. 1835, 3 Aug. 1837. His younger brother David Ricardo (1803-64) sat for Stroud in 1832-3. After serving as an active magistrate and as chairman of the Newent poor law union until 1838, Ricardo was returned for Worcester in 1847 as a Liberal.7Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 22 Feb. 1838. An enthusiastic free-trader, who had been ‘brought up and educated in its principles’, he promised to ‘promote every measure calculated to give increased energy to trade and commerce’. He was also an advocate of the currency system developed by his father, and pledged general support to Lord John Russell’s ministry.8The Times, 8 July 1847; Dod’s Parliamentary Companion (1848), 228.

Having committed himself to remove ‘disabilities of every kind whatever’, Ricardo, who is not known to have spoken in debate, divided for the removal of Jewish disabilities in 1847-8, and the repeal of the game laws, 23 Mar. 1848.9Having once been ‘a strict game preserver’, he had his own game destroyed due to the ‘demoralizing effect’ of the game laws on the peasantry: Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 5 Aug. 1847. He did not introduce any bills, but may have served on several select committees.10A ‘Mr. Ricardo’ served on committees on government schools of design (1849), official salaries (1850), income and property tax (1851, 1852, 1861), postal arrangements (1855), Stade Tolls (1858), and merchant shipping (1860), although it is likely that his cousin sat on some of them. He voted for George Berkeley’s ballot motion, 8 Aug. 1848, but then paired off for the remainder of the session. He opposed Richard Cobden’s motion for the reduction of the revenue, 26 Feb. 1849, but backed William Page Wood’s motion to abolish church rates, 13 Mar. 1849, a cause he continued to support over the next decade. Concerned for the modernisation of agriculture, he also supported Philip Pusey’s tenant right bill that May, and voted for the duration of parliaments bill, 11 July 1849, taking part in 103 of the 219 divisions in that session.11J.R. McQuiston, ‘Tenant Right. Farmer against landlord in Victorian England 1847-83’, Agricultural History, cxlvii (1973), 95-113 [102]; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 24 Aug. 1848, 1 Mar. 1849; Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, 20 Oct. 1849. He opposed Disraeli’s efforts to relieve the burden on agriculture in 1849 and 1851, and divided against Berkeley’s motion to reconsider the corn laws, 14 May 1850, and proposals to repeal the malt tax the following year.

Ricardo, who had dined with Lord John Russell that February, attended receptions given by the prime minister’s wife in March 1850, and by Lord Palmerston in February 1851.12The Times, 26 Feb. 1849, 14 Mar. 1850, 10 Feb. 1851. He was presented to the queen on 2 May 1849: Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 10 May 1849. He regularly presented petitions to the Commons on a variety of issues, including two in favour of the marriages bill, 6, 21 Mar. 1850, and one against the continuance of the Kaffir war in South Africa, 6 Feb. 1852.13Morning Chronicle, 7 Mar. 1850; Morning Post, 22 Mar. 1850; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 12 Feb. 1852. He remained true to the ministry over the ‘Papal Aggression’, and presented a memorial on behalf of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association on the subject of medical reform to the home secretary, Sir George Grey, in April 1851.14Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, lxxix. 498; The Times, 30 Apr. 1850. He was a strong opponent of the militia bill of February 1852 and, when proposals to renew the poor law commission were made, Ricardo’s opposition to ‘centralisation’ led him to vote with the minority for Hume’s proposal to allow rate-payers to control local expenditure. Having supported the equalisation of the county and borough franchises, 27 Apr. 1852, he favoured further extensions, but only under ‘the protection of the Ballot’, which he had supported since before entering parliament.15Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 23 Jan. 1858.

Ricardo was criticised for his absence from the city’s reform meeting, 12 Jan. 1852.16His letter of apology was ‘received with a storm of hisses, groans, and vehement cries of “Ah! – turn him out.”’: Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 15 Jan. 1852. He was also forced to justify his recent support for the income tax at the 1852 general election, representing it as ‘a choice of evils’ which, having become a party issue, obliged him to set aside his own objections to the tax and support the ministry.17Worcester town council had unanimously petitioned against the measure in April 1851. Ricardo, however, voted for the income tax bill, 6 June 1853, and opposed Disraeli’s motion for its abolition, 23 Feb. 1857. In spite of criticism of his ‘Whiggery’ and ‘penchant … for toadyism’, Ricardo’s ample property was regarded as a guarantee that he would act independently on behalf of his constituents and so secured his re-election.18Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 8 July 1852. Ricardo even suggested that he ought to ‘be free to support Lord Derby or any other Minister’ who was ‘prepared to ensure the well-being of the people’. On the hustings he remained firmly opposed to a protective duty on corn, arguing that it would simply shift a burden from the farmers on to the artisans.19Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 8 July 1852. A regular attender at Westminister, (he voted in half of the divisions in the 1853 session), he consistently supported the removal of religious disabilities, the ballot, and the abolition of church rates in 1853-4, he divided in favour of the Aberdeen ministry’s conduct of the war with Russia in three critical motions in 1855, voted for the removal of newspaper stamp duties, 26 Mar. 1855, but opposed Austen Layard’s motion on administrative reform, 18 June.20Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; The Times, 2 Mar. 1853.

During this parliament Ricardo sat alongside both his uncle Sampson Ricardo (1792-1862), MP for Windsor, 1855-7, and his cousin John Lewis Ricardo (1812-62), MP for Stoke 1841-62. He served on the select committee on civil service superannuation in February 1856, and that month joined a deputation to the home secretary, Sir George Grey, to defend the principle of local self-government, with particular reference to control over policing.21PP 1856 (337) ix. 1; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 23 Feb. 1856. He continued to be a regular attender, voting in 87 of the 198 divisions of 1856.22J.P. Gassiot & J.A. Roebuck, 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), 22.

Having supported the Palmerston ministry over Canton, 3 Mar. 1857, he again secured the backing of the Worcester Parliamentary and Financial Reform Association at the 1857 general election. In spite of ducking a debate with his Liberal opponent, and facing an increasing degree of personal unpopularity among radical voters, he was re-elected.23Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 14, 21, 28 Mar. 1857. Having endorsed the Worcester Reform Association’s radical reform proposals in January 1858, opposing only the demand for triennial parliaments, he dismissed Derby’s reform bill as a ‘perfect sham’, arguing that it tampered with, but did not improve the existing system. He criticised the measure’s failure to redistribute seats and enfranchise the working classes, and objected strongly to the proposed disenfranchisement of 40s. borough freeholders.24Birmingham Daily Post, 18 Jan. 1858; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 19 Mar., 23, 30 Apr. 1859. He opposed the removal of remaining protective duties on imports, 3 Mar. 1859, and was returned without opposition at that year’s general election. He supported Lord John Russell’s resolution on parliamentary reform in April 1859, and divided in favour of the county and borough franchise bills in 1861. In May 1862 he joined a deputation from the Worcester Chamber of Commerce to the chancellor of the exchequer to seek the privileges of a port for the city.25The Times, 30 May 1862. Having supported the ministry on the Schleswig-Holstein question in July 1864, and voted for the borough franchise bill, 11 May 1864, Ricardo announced his impending retirement in February 1865. Being now free, so it was suggested by the Conservative press, from the dictation of local reformers, he opposed Baines’s £6 borough franchise bill, 8 May 1865, and was said to have demonstrated some sympathy with Disraeli’s ‘fancy franchise’ proposals.26Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 13 May, 8 July 1865.

Ricardo withdrew into private life at the 1865 general election, the judgment being that he had been a ‘conscientious and faithful’ representative of the Liberal cause.27Birmingham Daily Post, 1 Feb. 1865; York Herald, 10 June 1865. He died at his residence in January 1881 and was buried at Bromesberrow church, his funeral being largely attended by his tenants. He bequeathed his estates to his nephew, Francis Ricardo.28The Times, 8 Jan. 1881; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 15 Jan. 1881. Ricardo’s will empowered his trustees to continue making a return or allowance to his tenants ‘on account of bad harvests or other causes’: The Times, 13 Aug. 1881.