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Henry Warburton (12 November 1784 – 16 September 1858) was an English merchant and politician, and also an enthusiastic amateur scientist. Elected as Member of Parliament for
Bridport Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England, inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and with ...
, Dorset, in the 1826 general election, he held the seat for 15 years until his
resignation from the House of Commons Members of Parliament (MPs) sitting in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom are not permitted to resign their seats. To circumvent this prohibition, MPs who wish to step down are instead appointed to an " office of profit under the Cro ...
in 1841. He was returned to the Commons at a by-election in November 1843, for Kendal, but did not seek re-election in 1847. On Parliament he was active in the reform of bankruptcy, the repeal of
stamp duty Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions). A physical revenu ...
on newspapers, introduction of the penny post and in the campaigns of the
Anti-Corn Law League The Anti-Corn Law League was a successful political movement in Great Britain aimed at the abolition of the unpopular Corn Laws, which protected landowners’ interests by levying taxes on imported wheat, thus raising the price of bread at a time ...
.


Early life

The son of John Warburton of
Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of E ...
, Kent, a timber merchant, he was educated at Eton College, and at
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, where he was admitted 24 June 1802, aged 18. He was in the first class of the college examinations as freshman in 1803, and as junior soph in 1804. He was admitted scholar on 13 April 1804, graduated B.A. (being twelfth wrangler and placed next to
Ralph Bernal Ralph Bernal (2 October 1783 ''available online to subscribers, and also in print'' or 2 October 1784 – 26 August 1854) was a British Whig politician and art collector. His parents, Jacob Israel Bernal and wife Leah da Silva, were Sephardi Je ...
) in 1806, and proceeded M.A. in 1812. George Pryme knew him in his undergraduate days, and both Bernal and Pryme were later his colleagues in politics. For some years after leaving the university Warburton was engaged in the timber trade at
Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...
, but his taste for science and politics ultimately led to his abandoning commercial life. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 16 February 1809.
William Hyde Wollaston William Hyde Wollaston (; 6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium. He also developed a way to process platinum ore into malleable ingot ...
was his closest friend, and in the autumn of 1818 they made a tour together on the continent. When Michael Faraday desired to become F.R.S., Warburton felt objections to his election, thinking that he had in one matter treated Wollaston unfairly. Correspondence ensued, and these objections were dispelled. Warburton was also a member of the Political Economy Club from its foundation in 1821 to his death, bringing before it on 13 January 1823 the question 'how far rents and profits are affected by tithes'.
David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and James Mill. Ricardo was also a politician, and a m ...
was one of his friends, and often mentions Warburton in his ''Letters to Malthus''. 'Philosopher Warburton,' as he was known, was one of the leading supporters of Henry Brougham in founding
London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
, and was a member of its first council in 1827.


In politics

At the general election of 1826 Warburton was returned to parliament in the Radical interest for the borough of Bridport in Dorset, making his first long speech on 30 November on foreign goods, and was re-elected in 1830, 1831, 1833, 1835, 1837, and 1841, all of the elections after the
Reform Bill In the United Kingdom, Reform Act is most commonly used for legislation passed in the 19th century and early 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...
being strongly contested. On 8 September 1841 he resigned his seat for that constituency on the ground that a petition would have 'proved gross bribery against his colleague' in which his own agent would have been implicated. It subsequently came out that before the passing of the Reform Bill he himself had paid large sums of money improperly to certain of the electors. The question whether bribery had been practised at Bridport was referred to a select committee, but nothing resulted from its investigations. Warburton was out of the house until 9 November 1843, when he was returned for the borough of Kendal. In the House of Commons he worked with
Joseph Hume Joseph Hume FRS (22 January 1777 – 20 February 1855) was a Scottish surgeon and Radical MP.Ronald K. Huch, Paul R. Ziegler 1985 Joseph Hume, the People's M.P.: DIANE Publishing. Early life He was born the son of a shipmaster James Hume ...
, and after 1832 found fresh colleagues in
Charles Buller Charles Buller (6 August 1806 – 29 November 1848) was a British barrister, politician and reformer. Background and education Born in Calcutta, British India, Buller was the son of Charles Buller (1774–1848), a member of a well-known Cor ...
, George Grote, and Sir William Molesworth. The medical reformers selected him as their advocate. He brought forward on 20 June 1827, and Robert Peel supported, a motion for an inquiry into the funds and regulations of the
College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations a ...
. He was chairman of the parliamentary committee on the study of anatomy, which began its sittings on 28 April 1828, and after one failure, through the action of the House of Lords, succeeded in 1832 in carrying an anatomy bill. A committee on the medical profession was appointed on 11 February 1834, and Warburton became its chairman. He examined
Sir Astley Cooper Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet (23 August 176812 February 1841) was a British surgeon and anatomist, who made contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology ...
, Sir Charles Bell, and many others; but the conclusions of the committee were not submitted to parliament. Warburton took an active part in 1831 in debates on bankruptcy. Early in 1833 he formed a project with Grote and John Arthur Roebuck for establishing a society for the diffusion of political and moral knowledge. He was intent in February 1835 on arranging a union of the Whigs under Lord John Russell with the followers of Daniel O'Connell; and it was he that sent to O'Connell a bundle of circulars from Russell, asking his friends to meet him at
Lord Lichfield Earl of Lichfield is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England (1645 and 1674) and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom (1831). The third creation is extant and is held by a member of the Anson family. Hi ...
's house in
St. James's Square St James's Square is the only square in the St James's district of the City of Westminster and is a garden square. It has predominantly Georgian and Neo-Georgian architecture. For its first two hundred or so years it was one of the three or fo ...
, from which action resulted the Lichfield House compact. Warburton was for the repeal of the newspaper tax, and was active in the work of the Anti-Corn Law League. On the select committee of the House of Commons on postage in 1837 he strongly supported penny postage. At the dissolution of 1847 he retired from political life, saying that the reforms which he had at heart had been made. He died at 45 Cadogan Place, London, on 16 September 1858, aged 73.


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* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Warburton, Henry 1784 births 1858 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies English businesspeople English scientists UK MPs 1826–1830 UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1832–1835 UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 Presidents of the Geological Society of London Fellows of the Royal Society 19th-century British businesspeople Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge