Robert Baxter of Doncaster and Westminster (1802–1889): Lawyer, Businessman, Tory and Millennialist

Abstract

In the course of his long career, the solicitor Robert Baxter (1802–1889), demonstrated what W. G. Gladstone described as his ‘remarkable powers’ in a crowded career of many facets that spanned more than half a century from the 1820s to the 1880s. He exerted a notable impact upon a number of aspects of the regional economy of Yorkshire, particularly in railway and colliery development, and was active in regional politics. He also exercised an influence beyond the region, through his creation of a leading metropolitan law firm which specialised in the promotion of railway and other local Bills and acted as national agent of the Conservative Party. Beyond the world of business, he possessed an intense, if idiosyncratic, Christian faith which expressed itself both in practical ways and in a stream of publications. This article aims to describe these central and closely intertwined preoccupations of a remarkably active life that illuminate several significant aspects of business and belief in Victorian Britain.

Keywords:

• Elections
• railways
• coalfields
• millennialism
• Local Acts
• Doncaster

Notes

¹ N. Wiseman, Michael Paget Baxter, 64, and the Baxter memorial in the parish church of Mancetter, St Peter (Warwickshire). The opinion of Gladstone is to be found in a letter to R. D. Baxter dated 4 December 1866, quoted in (Mary Baxter), In Memoriam, R. Dudley Baxter M.A., 49. An obituary of Robert Baxter can be found in the Doncaster Chronicle, 11 October 1889 and a brief biography in F. Boase, Modern English Biography, vol. iv, 310.

² Law List, 206.

³ Hughes, New Law List, 44, 117.

⁴ Inferred from the surviving client records in Baxter, Loxley and Somerville of Doncaster, held at Doncaster Archives (hereafter DA), with the overall references of DXBAX/D and DXBAX/S.

⁵ For R. D. Baxter and S. H. S. Baxter, see Boase, Modern English Biography, vol. 1, and the O[xford] D[ictionary of] N[ational] B[iography], vol. 4, 434. For M. P. Baxter, see Wiseman, Michael Paget Baxter and an obituary in The Times, January 8, 1910. Elizabeth Baxter, his wife, appears in the ODNB, vol. 4, 408.

⁶ DA, P35/10/6, Doncaster, Christ Church, Vestry minute book, 1847–1858 contains a copy of the Act.

⁷ Edmund Beckett of Doncaster changed his name to Denison in order to receive an inheritance from a relation of his wife, but later reverted to his natal surname on inheriting the baronetcy. See ODNB, vol. 4, 711–2.

⁸ DA, DX/BAX/D/25, poll book (item 2), accounts and correspondence (items 4–5, 1832. The election cost Sir John £1153. See also Dod, Electoral Facts, 261.

⁹ S[elect] C[ommittee] on the Registration of County Voters, P[arliamentary] P[apers] 403 (1864), 2198, 2209 and 2210. See also, Thomas, “System of Registration,” 81–98. See also Thompson, “Whigs and Liberals,” 214–39 and Prest, Politics.

¹⁰ SC on Votes of Electors, PP 451 (1846), 4340–2 and 4347; SC on the Registration of County Voters, 1822. Dowson, Skipton, 365 and 369.

¹¹ Ibid., qus. 4845, 4968–973; Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, October 29, 1842, and November 5, 1842, 8.

¹² West Yorkshire History Centre, Wakefield (hereafter WYHC), John Goodchild Collection, Wakefield, Keir of Barnsley, solicitors, West Riding election papers, 1848.

¹³ DA, DZBAX/S/64377; University of Leeds, Brotherton Library, Special Collections, MS 430, Spencer Stanhope Mss; S[heffield] A[rchives], MD 2197/45 and 51, Papers of Thomas Dunn of Sheffield; Parliamentary Papers, 1866 (160), 89 and 1870 (310), 209–32.

¹⁴ DA, DXBAX/S/607798/1; DA, DXBAX/S/Map 98; DA, DXBAX/S/60798/2 and WYHC, Wakefield, West Riding Registry of Deeds, YS 688/768 to YS 690/772 and YU 725/779 to 727/780.

¹⁵ West Riding Election, 6–7.

¹⁶ SA, MD 3734/6, Printed address and a letter sent to James Wheat, a Sheffield solicitor, 7 April 1835.

¹⁷ DA, DXBAX/S/65182, Factory Education Bill letters, 1843.

¹⁸ Barber, “County Election in Miniature,” 167–9.

¹⁹ Finlayson, “Politics of Municipal Reform,” 684.

²⁰ Doncaster Borough Minute Books, 13, 26 June and 18 August 1835, 180–2 and 183–4.

²¹ The papers of the committee are to be found at DA, DS/BAX/S/60852-60861.

²² DA, DXBAX/S/60855.

²³ It has not been possible to find documentary evidence of Baxter’s involvement beyond the assertions in Wiseman, Michael Paget Baxter, 77–8. The newspaper continued in publication until 1963.

²⁴ See Grinling, Great Northern Railway, chaps. II–VI and Wrottesley, Great Northern Railway, esp. 15–24.

²⁵ Doncaster Borough Minute Books, 13 November 1835, 188–9.

²⁶ P[arliamentary] A[rchives], HL/PO/PB/5/13/3, 6 July 1847, 3–5.

²⁷ DA, DX/BAX/S/60980/2, Act of 10 and 11 Vict. cap. ccxci (22 July 1847). At the same reference may be found Baxter’s copies of other SYR Acts up to 1862; see also DX/BAX/S/61016.

²⁸ DA, DX/BAX/S/60980/2, The South Yorkshire Railway and River Dun Company Transfer Act, 15 and 16 Vict. cap. cliii (30 June 1852), in which the clause the Midland Railway obtained is number XIX.

²⁹ PA, HC/CL/PB/2/41/32, Evidence 1873, vol. 32, 24 April 1873, 105.

³⁰ Dow, Great Central, 240.

³¹ Barnsley Archives, Wombwell Main Colliery Co. Ltd, letter of James Bartholomew with attached account of annual profits, 3 January 1947, part of item 26.

³² DA, DX/BAX/S 62330, 64376 and 64380.

³³ South Yorkshire Railway Act, 1847, sections 3 and 15.

³⁴ SA, Cortonwood archives, NCB 960/1/1, 4/11, 4/13, 8/48 and 9/51.

³⁵ ODNB, vol. 44, 650–1; Boase, Modern English Biography, vol. 2, 1656.

³⁶ SA, Cortonwood archives, NCB 960/4/12, 9/25, 9/51–52 and 11/64. Dead rents were payments to be made to the landowner whether or not mining took place.

³⁷ St George, Norton Rose, 36–7.

³⁸ See Clifford, Private Bill Legislation, vol. 1, appendix A, 491–2; see also Kostal, English Railway Capitalism, 112–39.

³⁹ Calculated from a search of London Gazette in this period, as the records of the Parliamentary Private Bill Office held in the Parliamentary Archives were found not to record the names of the solicitors for local Bills.

⁴⁰ Rydz, Parliamentary Agents, appendix B. The Times, January 28–29, 1885, contains a leading article and letters relating to Baxter and Co. and the planning of the South Kensington subway for the Metropolitan District Railway Co.

⁴¹ Blake, Conservative Party, 141.

⁴² For Spofforth, see ODNB, vol. 51, 956.

⁴³ PP (1860) 451, and Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 20 August 1860, cols. 1593–1600.

⁴⁴ Blake, Disraeli, 443, 452, 457–8 and 462–3 and Buckle, Disraeli, vol. iv, 498–9.

⁴⁵ SC on the Registration of County Voters, PP 403 (1864), minutes of evidence from Baxter, qus. 1821–1990 and 2134–2463, pages 107–16 and 125–4.

⁴⁶ See for instance, PP 1857, 195, 217, 240, 277 and subsequent years.

⁴⁷ Wiebe et al., Disraeli’s Letters, vol. 4, letters 1582 and 1584, July 1847 and vol. 8, letter 3740; Blake, Disraeli, 424, 526, 685, and 754.

⁴⁸ Hanham, Elections, 358.

⁴⁹ Baxter, Disestablishment and Disendowment, 13.

⁵⁰ Hull Packet and East Riding Times, October 23, 1868, 6, 13 and November 20, 1868. The result was Norwood 7282, Clay 6874, Atkinson 6383 and Baxter 5444. (Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results, 169–70).

⁵¹ Baxter, Voice of the Country, preface dated 4 February 1869.

⁵² Baxter, Ministerial Plan for Ireland, 4, preface dated 10 March 1869.

⁵³ The matter is discussed at length in Steele, Irish Land, chap. 1.

⁵⁴ Baxter, Irish Tenant Right Question, 22.

⁵⁵ Walker, Parliamentary Election Results, 295–6.

⁵⁶ Murphy, Derry, Donegal, 110–22; Hoppen, Elections, Politics, 43–6, 268–9, 288–9, 308, 395 and 402–3.

⁵⁷ Wiseman, Michael Paget Baxter, 84.

⁵⁸ Ibid., 85–8, where Disraeli’s letter is reproduced in facsimile.

⁵⁹ St George, Norton Rose, 139.

⁶⁰ PA, HC/CL/PB/2/32/60, Evidence 1864, vol. 61, 13.

⁶¹ Boase, Modern English Biography, vol. iv, 310.

⁶² Royal Cornwall Gazette, 10 February 1872.

⁶³ London Gazette, 28 December 1873, 5694 (Boase wrongly gives the date as 28 November); St George, Norton Rose, 122–39.

⁶⁴ WYHC, West Riding Registry of Deeds, 741/401/484.

⁶⁵ Leeds Mercury, May 26, 1882.

⁶⁶ Wiseman, Michael Paget Baxter, 81 and 96; Principal Probate Registry, probate dated 18 February 1890.

⁶⁷ Wiseman, Michael Paget Baxter, 65 and 58.

⁶⁸ Ibid., 67 and 82.

⁶⁹ Baxter, Liberalism Revolutionary, 4.

⁷⁰ Ibid., 48, 51, 54–6. Baxter, by implication, misdated the ‘Glorious Revolution’ to 1668, three years after the London epidemic of 1665.

⁷¹ Ibid., 73–4.

⁷² Waldegrave, New Testament Millenarianism, (Oxford University’s 1854 Bampton Lectures); and see ODNB, vol. 56, 755–6.

⁷³ Best, “Popular Protestantism,” 119.

⁷⁴ Baxter, Liberalism Revolutionary, 85. See also Bebbington, Evangelism, esp. 78–88 and Oliver, Prophets and Millennialists, especially chap. V.

⁷⁵ For Cumming see ODNB, vol. 14, 634–5.

⁷⁶ Baxter, Layman’s Appeal, 48.

⁷⁷ Baxter, Prophecy, xi.

⁷⁸ Prophecy, table following xxi and 45–56.

⁷⁹ Baxter, Brief Outline, 20–1.

⁸⁰ Zemka, Victorian Testaments, 46, 52, 56–7 and 66; Allan, “Theory of Millennialism,” esp. 305–9.

⁸¹ Baxter, Narrative of Facts.

⁸² Wiseman, Michael Paget Baxter, 68.

⁸³ Leeds Mercury, July 27, 1835, January 2, 1866, December 31, 1868 and October 20, 1870.

⁸⁴ Morning Chronicle, May 8, 1850, October 16, 1855 and June 12, 1858; Daily News, June 18, 1853, where Baxter is listed as a donor of £250 to the Church of England Education Society, and 6 April 1866; Leeds Mercury, June 19, 1856. The purpose of the Midnight Meeting Movement was to reclaim prostitutes.

⁸⁵ Daily News, February 4, 1852, July 8, 1868; Morning Chronicle, April 19, 1854, April 24, 1856.

⁸⁶ Morning Chronicle, September 2, 1857; Leeds Mercury, July 30, 1859.

⁸⁷ Daily News, September 26, 1872.

⁸⁸ Malchow, Agitators and Promoters, 14.

⁸⁹ Wigley, Victorian Sunday, 115.

⁹⁰ Daily News, December 16, 1867 (Baxter was one of five donors to give £100), December 17, 1867, January 23 and 31, 1868, Leeds Mercury, April 11, 1868.

⁹¹ Wiseman, Michael Paget Baxter, 81 and 96.

⁹² Best, “Protestant Constitution,” 106.

⁹³ Blake, Disraeli, 242.

⁹⁴ Matthews dates Disraeli’s change in outlook to 1852, in “Disraeli, Gladstone,” 621.

⁹⁵ Best, “Popular Protestantism.” See also Paz, Popular Anti-Catholicism, e.g. 107–9.

⁹⁶ Johannes Brahms’ Triumphslied (opus 55), includes a verse from the Book of Revelation (chap. XIX, verse 2): ‘For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication’.

⁹⁷ ODNB, vol. 14, 634–5; Baxter, Louis Napoleon. Nine thousand copies were printed within four years.