William Wrightson, the Yorkshire Whigs and the York 'Peterloo' Protest Meeting of 1819

Abstract

William Wrightson (1752–1827), was MP for Aylesbury from 1784 to 1789, but then played a more significant role in Yorkshire politics over a longer period between 1795 and 1819, in close co-operation with Christopher Wyvill, the leader of the Yorkshire Association. During the years of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars the strengthening of Toryism in the West Riding, together with political differences between moderates and radicals among the Whig gentry, inhibited the public activities of those Whigs favouring moderate reform, previously expressed through county meetings initiated by the Yorkshire Association. After a long period of frustration, an opportunity for the Yorkshire Whigs to reunite was presented by the 'Peterloo' protest meeting held at York in October 1819 as a consequence of the disastrously-terminated public meeting in St Peter's Fields, Manchester, in August of that year. This article considers the York meeting in the context of the difficulties being experienced by Yorkshire Whiggism. The resolutions presented at the meeting are compared with the draft preserved among the archives of Earl Fitzwilliam to show how far traditional Whig modes of thought had to be adjusted to become acceptable to the mood prevailing among anti-Tory reformers in the post-war years.

Keywords:

• PETERLOO
• CHRISTOPHER WYVILL
• EARL FITZWILLIAM
• WILLIAM WRIGHTSON
• YORKSHIRE ASSOCIATION
• PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
• WHIGGISM
• POPULAR PROTEST