Frederick Lucas (30 March 1812 – 22 October 1855) was a British religious polemicist and founder of

The Tablet ''The Tablet'' is a Catholic international weekly review published in London. Brendan Walsh, previously literary editor and then acting editor, was appointed editor in July 2017. History ''The Tablet'' was launched in 1840 by a Quaker convert ...

. His brother Samuel Lucas was a newspaper editor and

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

Biography

He was born in Westminster, the second son of Samuel Hayhurst Lucas, a London corn-merchant, who was a member of the

Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

. He was educated at a Quaker school in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

, and then at

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

. He studied law at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

, and was called to the bar in 1835. Lucas converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in 1839. In 1840, Lucas founded The Tablet, published in London, a progressive international Catholic weekly newspaper, just 11 years before the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales. It is the second oldest surviving weekly journal in Britain after

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

(which was founded in 1828). It has an international readership of over 55,000. After establishing the Irish

Tenant Right League The Tenant Right League was a federation of local societies formed in History of Ireland (1801–1923), Ireland in the wake of the Great Famine (Ireland), Great Famine to check the power of landlords and advance the rights of tenant farmers. An i ...

with

Charles Gavan Duffy Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, KCMG, PC (12 April 1816 – 9 February 1903), was an Irish poet and journalist (editor of ''The Nation''), Young Irelander and tenant-rights activist. After emigrating to Australia in 1856 he entered the politics of ...

in 1850, he was elected as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for Meath in 1852. After failing in a complaint-mission to Rome on behalf of the league,Hickey, D.J. & Doherty , J.E., ''A new Dictionary of Irish History from 1800'', Tenant League pp.466-7, Gill & MacMillan (2003) Lucas died in October 1855 at

Staines, Middlesex Staines-upon-Thames is a market town in northwest Surrey, England, around west of central London. It is in the Borough of Spelthorne, at the confluence of the River Thames and Colne. Historically part of Middlesex, the town was transferred to ...

, and is buried in

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Estab ...

, London.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, Frederick 1812 births 1855 deaths British publishers (people) British male journalists Burials at Brompton Cemetery Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Meath constituencies (1801–1922) Converts to Roman Catholicism from Quakerism English Roman Catholics UK MPs 1852–1857 19th-century British journalists Male journalists 19th-century British businesspeople