WILSON, Henry (1797-1866), of Stowlangtoft Hall, Suffolk

Wilson, a prominent Suffolk landowner, sat briefly as a Liberal for the western division of his native county. His father, Joseph, had been a silk manufacturer in Spitalfields, London, before relocating to East Anglia where he purchased estates at Little Mossingham, Norfolk, and Stowlangtoft, Suffolk, where Wilson resided.1Bury and Norwich Post, 14 Jan. 1835. While a silk manufacturer, Joseph Wilson had been a prominent figure in the Infant School Society in the East End of London, which was informed by Swedenborgianism, and although Henry was raised an Anglican, his father’s connections with the movement were later used by his political opponents to question his commitment to the established church, prompting him to complain that his ‘family history had been ransacked’ for political purposes.2J. E. M. Latham, Search for a New Eden. James Pierrepont Greaves (1777-1842): the sacred socialist and his followers (1999), 54-5; Bury and Norwich Post, 21 Jan. 1835. Wilson took his degree at Oxford and was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1819, but is not known to have studied there. Instead he pursued the life of a country squire and in 1824 married Mary, the daughter of Ebenezer Maitland, MP for Lostwithiel, 1807-12, Wallingford, 1812-20, then Chippenham, 1826-30, who was the nephew of Wilson’s maternal grandfather, Robert Maitland (1744-1810), a London merchant.3HP Commons, 1820-1832, v. 249-51.

At the 1835 general election Wilson accepted a requisition from local electors to stand for Suffolk West following the retirement of the division’s two sitting Members. He was backed by the 4^th duke of Grafton, who held extensive estates in the region.4Bury and Norwich Post, 21 Jan. 1835. In an extremely bitter campaign, Wilson was continually forced to defend his political principles. Attacked for being too radical and sympathetic to Dissent, he declared that:

I am not a Radical. I hate Radicals, but for that very reason I am a Reformer. Our object is to uphold, not destroy, to perpetuate, not overturn. Though a churchman, I am not a bigot, but am ready to plant my standard upon the platform of religious liberty.5Parliamentary test book (1835), 175.

Reflecting the strength of the local rural interest, Wilson also repeatedly stressed his commitment to agriculture, arguing against free trade in corn (which he had been accused of supporting) and calling for repeal of the malt tax and a reform of tithes.6Bury and Norwich Post, 7, 14 Jan. 1835. He was returned at the head of the poll by 68 votes.7Ibid., 21 Jan. 1835.

Despite his previous assertion that he was a ‘Reformer’, Wilson, alongside the earl of Euston, the eldest son of his patron the 4^th duke of Grafton, voted with Peel’s ministry on the speakership, 19 Feb. 1835, and the address, 26 Feb. 1835. A leading article in the Liberal Bury and Norwich Post reported ‘a good deal of surprise and disappointment’ amongst his supporters in Suffolk, while the Conservative Ipswich Journal cited his two votes as an example of the ‘good sense which prevails in East Anglia’.8Ibid., 25 Feb. 1835; Ipswich Journal, 21 Feb. 1835. Wilson was subsequently absent from the critical vote on Irish church appropriation, 2 Apr. 1835, the issue which brought down Peel’s short-lived ministry. Thereafter he gave steady but silent support to Melbourne’s administration on most major issues, though he opposed the ministerial bill for the abolition of church rates, 15 Mar. 1837. He also backed Sir Andrew Agnew’s bill for the better observance of the Sabbath, 21 Apr. 1837, an issue to which his father, who had been the first honorary secretary of the Lord’s Day Observance Society in 1831, was deeply committed.9Latham, Search for a New Eden, 54. Echoing his defence of the agricultural interest on the hustings, Wilson was in the minority for Chandos’s motion on agricultural distress, 25 May 1835, and opposed the repeal of the corn laws, 16 Mar. 1837. However, his absence from the vote on George Robinson’s motion to alter the law prohibiting the processing of foreign corn, in bond, for exportation, 21 Mar. 1837, was criticised by a group of his constituents, who were unimpressed by his explanation that he was ‘out of town that evening and not aware that the question was coming on’.10Bury and Norwich Post, 2 Aug. 1837. His attendance in the Commons, though, was generally steady. He also sat on select committees on aborigines and the Carlow county election petition.11PP 1836 (538), vii. 2; PP 1837 (307), x. 2.

Wilson put himself forward again at the 1837 general election, but he was too ill to face ‘the labour and anxiety of a contest’ and took no active role in the campaign.12Ipswich Journal, 29 July 1837. His address stated his support for the Liberal government and reiterated his desire to use the ‘channel of Reform’ to ‘perpetuate our institutions’.13Ibid. His opponents, however, capitalised on his physical absence, relentlessly questioning the strength of his commitment to the agricultural interest and the established church, and portraying his candidature as a triviality designed only to create more expense for the Conservatives.14Bury and Norwich Post, 2 Aug. 1837. Wilson, from his sickbed, fired off a missive defending his parliamentary record and asserted that the ‘system of Tory exclusiveness’ would ruin the country, but his candidature seemed increasingly weak.15Ibid. At the nomination his proposer attempted to read out a fresh address, but gave up after being assailed by cries of ‘no letters’. His father, Joseph, spoke briefly on his behalf, describing him as ‘a staunch supporter of the constitution’.16Ipswich Journal, 5 Aug. 1837. The situation, however, was hopeless, and Wilson finished bottom of the poll, over 650 votes behind the second placed candidate.17Bury and Norwich Post, 9 Aug. 1837.

Following his defeat, Wilson, who continued to be plagued by ill health, largely withdrew from political life, though he served as high sheriff of Suffolk in 1845 and played an active role in the Central Suffolk Agricultural Association.18Ibid., 2 Oct. 1844. In the late 1850s he devoted his energies to rebuilding Stowlangtoft Hall.19R. Wilson, Creating Paradise: the building of the English Country House 1660-1880 (200), 146.

Wilson died at Stowlangtoft Hall after prolonged suffering from ‘a severe and painful malady’ in June 1866.20Bury and Norwich Post, 12 June 1866. His obituaries remembered ‘the sweetness of his disposition and refined gentlemanliness of his manners’.21Ibid.; Ipswich Journal, 16 June 1866. He left effects valued at under £180,000 and was succeeded by his eldest son from his first marriage, Fuller Maitland, of Langham Hall, Suffolk, a lieutenant-colonel in the West Suffolk militia.22England and Wales, National Probate Calendar, Index of wills and administrations, 9 July 1866.