ROUND, Charles Gray (1797-1867), of 25 Upper Brook Street, London and Birch Hall, Essex

Round, a barrister and committed evangelical, sat for a decade as Conservative Member for the northern division of his native Essex, but is probably best known for standing against William Gladstone at Oxford University in 1847. A member of one of Colchester’s leading families, he was a direct descendant of James Round (1680-1745), a successful bookseller who had purchased Birch Hall, near Epping, in 1724. Thereafter the family, mainly through favourable marriage alliances, inherited substantial property in the region.1W. R. Powell, John Horace Round (2001), 2; G. Martin, The story of Colchester from Roman Times to the present day (1959), 72; Shani D’Cruze, Colchester People (2010), ii. 171. After obtaining a first-class degree in classics from Oxford, Round embarked on a legal career. Called to the bar in 1822, he practised on the Home circuit, where he became known as a ‘very able and intelligent lawyer, though not an eloquent pleader’.2Gent. Mag. (1868), i. 107-8. The gift of public speaking would continue to elude him for the rest of his career. In 1832 he was appointed recorder of Colchester and two years later, on the death of his father, Charles, he inherited Birch Hall, which he later rebuilt, and Colchester Castle, which had previously been in the possession of Charles Gray, a distant ancestor who had sat as a Tory for Colchester in the eighteenth century.3VCH Essex (2001), x. 44-6; T. Wright, The history and topography of Essex (1836), 315. An active president of the Colchester and East Essex Auxiliary Bible Society, Round was ‘a firm advocate of Evangelical truth’, believing that the principles of the gospel were paramount.4Essex Standard, 6 Dec. 1867.

At the 1837 general election Round was brought forward for Essex North by the local Conservative party. His address made clear his staunch support for the established church and agricultural protection.5Ibid., 14 July 1837. In a rather uncomfortable nomination speech, replete with clumsy attempts at self-deprecation, he repeated his defence of the church. He was elected without a contest. 6Ibid., 4 Aug. 1837. At the Essex borough of Maldon, meanwhile, his cousin John Round was returned unopposed.7Ibid., 28 July 1837.

A silent Member who is not known to have served on any select committees, Round made little impression in the Commons. In his first Parliament he followed Peel into the division lobby on most major issues, and supported his motion of no confidence in the Whig ministry, 4 June 1841. At the 1841 general election he put agricultural protection at the heart of his campaign, asserting that its withdrawal would bring ‘ruin and misery’ to British farmers. He was again re-elected unopposed.8Ibid., 25 June, 9 July 1841.

Round’s votes in his second Parliament underlined his evangelical instincts. He opposed the Dissenters’ chapels bill, 6 June 1844, the permanent endowment of Maynooth college, 18 Apr. 1845, and the Roman Catholic relief bill, 6 May 1846. After initially supporting Peel’s commercial policy, voting for a sliding scale on corn duties, 9 Mar. 1842, and the sugar duties bill, 17 June 1844, he opposed the premier by voting against corn law repeal at the bill’s critical second and third readings, 27 Mar. 1846, 15 May 1846.

At the 1847 dissolution Round retired from his seat at Essex North in order to accept a requisition from members of Oxford University’s convocation to stand against Gladstone for the opening created by the retirement of Thomas Estcourt.9Ibid., 4 June 1847; Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 5 June 1847. Gladstone’s perceived Tractarian sympathies and support from the university’s ‘high church’ movement had alarmed a significant portion of the convocation, who saw in Round an evangelical committed to the Protestant cause. The ensuing contest was therefore fought on religious rather than political lines.10R. Jenkins, Gladstone (1995), 88-9; J. Wolffe, The Protestant Crusade in Great Britain, 1829-1860 (1991), 224. Proposed by the master of Balliol college, Round swiftly secured the backing of the majority of the Heads of Houses, who feared that Gladstone wished to curtail their power.11Ibid.; Standard, 28 June 1847. There was widespread derision, however, concerning his qualifications for such a prestigious seat. The Oxford and Cambridge Review did not mince its words:

There is undoubtedly a strong feeling that an Oxford representative should be an eminent man, distinguished by honours at the University and success in the political world, ... but Round is without so much academic distinction. As to success in political life ... Round is – nobody.12Oxford and Cambridge Review (1847), 746-7.

The editor of the Morning Post concurred, writing that ‘Mr Gladstone may not be the man whom we would have selected for Oxford, but as, between him and Mr Round, we think there can be no comparison’.13Morning Post, 28 July 1847. As the contest progressed, his supporters’ tactics were also widely criticised. Discussing their characterisation of Gladstone as a closet ‘papist’, a leading article in The Times asserted that Round’s election committee ‘chose a candidate with the stature of a pigmy, and then brings all opponents down to his level’.14The Times, 29 July 1847. Following an extremely acrimonious campaign, Round polled a surprisingly respectable 824 votes, but was defeated into third place by Gladstone, who received 997. Sir Robert Inglis comfortably topped the poll with 1,700 votes.15Daily News, 30 July 1847.

Despite remaining a popular figure in Essex, Round showed little appetite to seek a return to Parliament, preferring instead to focus exclusively on county matters. In 1854 he was appointed chairman of Essex’s lunatic asylum and he continued in his role as recorder of Colchester until his retirement in 1863, whereupon the town council commissioned a full-length portrait of him for the assembly room.16Essex Standard, 6 Dec. 1867. Alongside his wife, Emma, he also devoted his energies to philanthropy, particularly the improvement of rural labourers’ dwellings.17VCH Essex (2001), x. 38-44.

Round died at Birch Hall in December 1867, leaving effects valued at under £120,000.18Essex Standard, 6 Dec. 1867; National Probate Calendar, 29 Feb. 1868. His marriage having produced no children, he was succeeded in his estates by his nephew James Round (1842-1916), a talented cricketer and Conservative MP for East Essex, 1868-85, and Harwich, 1885-1906. This Member’s diary, covering intermittently the years between 1819 and 1867, is held by Essex Record Office.19Essex RO, D/DR F60-72. His 1863 portrait, by John Lucas, can still be seen at Colchester town hall.20http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/charles-gray-round-ma-2423.