Colonel Richard Martin (15 January 1754 – 6 January 1834), was an Irish politician and campaigner against cruelty to animals. He was known as "Humanity Dick", a nickname bestowed on him by
King George IV. He succeeded in getting the pioneering
Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822
The Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822 (3 Geo. IV c. 71) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the long title "An Act to prevent the cruel and improper Treatment of Cattle"; it is sometimes known as Martin's Act, after the MP an ...
, nicknamed 'Martin's Act', passed into British law.
Early life
Martin was born at Dangan in
County Galway, the only son of Robert Martin FitzAnthony of Birch Hall,
County Galway, and Bridget Barnwall, a daughter of
Robert Barnewall, 12th Baron Trimlestown
Robert Barnewall, 12th Baron Trimlestown (''c.''1704 – 6 December 1779) was a prominent Anglo-Irish landowner, active in the Roman Catholic cause.
Early life
Robert was the eldest son of John Barnewall, 11th Baron Trimlestown (1672–1746). R ...
. He was raised at Dangan House, situated on the
Corrib River, four miles upriver from the town of
Galway
Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
. His father's family were
Jacobites and one of "The
Tribes of Galway," fourteen merchant families who ruled Galway from the 14th to 17th centuries. The Barnwalls were an ennobled family of Norman descent based in the counties of Dublin, Kildare and Meath in
Leinster
Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of ...
. Bridget Barnwall died when Richard was nine years old. Richard's father later married Mary Lynch, a member of another "Tribal" family, with whom he had sons Robert and Anthony. Though both of his parents were born to Catholics, Richard Martin was raised a Protestant and educated in England and later became a wealthy landlord in Ireland.
He studied at
Harrow and then after some tutelage for exams to gain admission at
Trinity College, Cambridge, he "was admitted a gentleman-commoner at Trinity on 4 March 1773." Martin did not graduate with a degree but studied for admission to the bar and was admitted to
Lincoln's Inn on 1 February 1776. He served as a lawyer in Ireland and became
High Sheriff of Galway in 1782.
Adult life
Martin entered the
Irish House of Commons in 1776, sitting for
Jamestown until 1783. After a break of fifteen years, he was returned to Parliament for
Lanesborough in 1798, promoting
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...
. Just before the
Act of Union dissolved the Irish Parliament and obliged Irish MPs to sit in the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...
, he was elected for
Galway County. He continued to represent
Galway County in Westminster as a political independent until 1812 and again from 1818, supporting the
Tory government of
Lord Liverpool. In the House of Commons he was known for his interruptions and humorous speeches. He continued his work towards Irish Catholic Emancipation till 1826, when he had to flee to France. Emancipation was finally granted in 1829, much to his delight. He was also "a member of the Society for the amelioration and gradual abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions which had been formed in 1823."
Anti-animal cruelty and RSPCA
Martin is now best known for his work against animal cruelty, especially against
bear baiting and
dog fighting
Dog fighting is a type of blood sport that turns game and fighting dogs against each other in a physical fight, generally to the death, for the purposes of gambling or entertainment to the spectators. In rural areas, fights are often staged i ...
. Martin's attempt to have an anti-cruelty to animals Bill passed stands in a chronological line with some previous failed efforts in England's Parliament. A sympathetic groundswell of public opinion emerged in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in opposition to cultural amusements such as
bull-baiting
Bull-baiting is a blood sport involving pitting a bull against dogs.
History England
Crowds in London during the Royal Entry of James VI and I in March 1604 were entertained by bull-baiting. During the time of Queen Anne, bull-baiting w ...
and
cock-fighting and in the visible maltreatment of animals that were herded in for slaughter at London's
Smithfield Market. The first unsuccessful legislative attempt was led by
William Johnstone Pulteney on 18 April 1800 to ban bull-baiting but it was lost to the opposition vote in the
House of Commons. A renewed effort was undertaken in 1809 with an anti-cruelty Bill introduced into the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...
by
Lord Erskine
The Lordship of Parliament of Erskine (Lord Erskine) was created around 1426 for Sir Robert Erskine. The sixth lord was created Earl of Mar in 1565, with which title (and the earldom of Kellie) the lordship then merged.
Lords Erskine (c. 1426)
* ...
(1750-1823) which passed in that House but was defeated by a vote in the House of Commons. Martin voted in favour of both Pulteney's and Erskine's bills.
Martin drafted a new Bill in consultation with the then retired Lord Erskine as well as with the agricultural writer and
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the s ...
advocate
John Lawrence (1753-1839). His actions resulted eventually in
Martin's Act
The Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822 (3 Geo. IV c. 71) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the long title "An Act to prevent the cruel and improper Treatment of Cattle"; it is sometimes known as Martin's Act, after the MP ...
of 1822, entitled "Ill Treatment of Cattle Bill". The Bill passed in the House of Commons by twenty-nine to eighteen votes, then through the House of Lords and was signed by the King on 21 June 1822. He also tried to spread his ideas in the streets of London, becoming the target of jokes and political cartoons that depicted him with the ears of a donkey. He also sometimes paid fines of minor offenders. In May 1824 he attempted to widen the scope of anti-cruelty legislation by introducing the Slaughtering of Horses Bill which would have obliged licensed slaughterhouses to keep proper records of food allocated to each horse and with penalties applied to those using a horse that had a disabled limb to haul carts. This Bill was defeated on 15 June 1824.
In 1821 letters were exchanged by various correspondents in periodicals raising concerns about the maltreatment of animals, which included one written by Rev.
Arthur Broome that was published in ''The Kaleidoscope'' on 6 March 1821. Broome attempted to bring together the patronage of persons who were of social rank and committed to social reforms and he chaired a meeting that was held in November 1822 to create a
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This initial attempt however faltered and a fresh attempt to launch the Society was organized by Broome at a meeting on 16 June 1824 at
Old Slaughter's Coffee House
Old Slaughter's Coffee House was a coffee house in St Martin's Lane in London. Opened in 1692 by Thomas Slaughter, it was the haunt of many of the important personages of the period. The building was demolished in 1843 when Cranbourn Street was c ...
, London. Broome invited various clergy, lawyers and parliamentarians to vote on the resolution to create the Society and among those present were
Thomas Fowell Buxton MP (1786-1845),
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...
(1759-1833), Richard Martin,
Sir James Mackintosh
Sir James Mackintosh FRS FRSE (24 October 1765 – 30 May 1832) was a Scottish jurist, Whig politician and Whig historian. His studies and sympathies embraced many interests. He was trained as a doctor and barrister, and worked also as a jo ...
MP,
Basil Montagu,
William Mudford, Rev. George Avery Hatch (1757-1837), Rev George Bonner (1784-1840),
Sir James Graham, T. G. Meymott,
John Ashley Warre
John Ashley Warre FRS (5 October 1787 – 18 November 1860) was a British Member of Parliament.
Biography
He was born into a family of colonial merchants, the eldest son of John Henry Warre of Queen Square, Bloomsbury, Middlesex and Belmont L ...
and
Lewis Gompertz. Broome was elected as the Society's first honorary secretary.
Due to Martin's profile as a politician and as the drafter of the anti-cruelty legislation, a public perception developed that he was the initiator and creator of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. At the Society's first anniversary meeting Martin set the public record straight and gave credit to Rev Broome by stating: "I have nothing at all to do with it," he said "it is quite a child of Mr. Broome's and he has acted the part of a good father to it." During 1826 the Society's debts became greater than its revenue, and Broome as the Society's guarantor was sentenced by the
Kings Bench to the
debtors' prison, and Martin and Gompertz raised funds to cover the debts and obtain Broome's release. Martin maintained an interest in the Society even after he left England and resettled in France.
Active life
Martin also had a very eventful life. He was a colonel of the County Galway Volunteers. He survived two shipwrecks. He fought over a hundred
duels with sword and pistol and earned the nickname "Hairtrigger Dick". He travelled extensively in Europe and the Americas during the 1770s and was in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
when the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
began. He initiated Galway's first theatre in 1783.
Martin was on a first-name basis with many of the famous names of his age, including
King George IV (who gave him the nickname "Humanity Dick"),
Henry Flood,
Henry Grattan,
William Pitt, Queen
Caroline
Caroline may refer to:
People
*Caroline (given name), a feminine given name
* J. C. Caroline (born 1933), American college and National Football League player
* Jordan Caroline (born 1996), American (men's) basketball player
Places Antarctica
* ...
, and
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...
. Despite his nickname he was considered a very harsh landlord in Ireland.
On his death in 1834 his son Thomas became his heir.
[Lynam, ''Humanity Dick Martin'', p 282] A workhouse was built on his estate during the
Irish famine
The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...
. Although the workhouse was an apparent pledge to help the poor suffering from starvation, it is agreed that Thomas and his family did little to help and approximately 150,000 people died on their land during this period from starvation and fever.
Most of Martin's estate (approx. 200,000 acres) was in the west of Ireland and this area had one of the highest death tolls during the Famine.
Unseating and escape
After the election of 1826, Martin (now a heavy gambler) lost his parliamentary seat because of a petition which accused him of illegal intimidation during the election. He had to flee into hasty exile to
Boulogne, France, because he could no longer enjoy a parliamentary immunity to arrest for debt. He died there peacefully in the presence of his second wife and their three daughters on 6 January 1834.
Family
Martin's first wife was the
Honourable Elizabeth Vesey, a daughter of Lord Trimblestown. They had nine children, of whom only three survived childhood. His daughter, Mary, was born in 1783. Her brothers were
Thomas B. Martin (1786–1847) and St. George (died 1805). Following the revelation of her affair with a Mr. Petrie in Paris, Martin sued Petrie for
criminal conversation in 1791 and was awarded £10,000. He had this distributed to the poor by throwing it out the windows of his coach on the long journey back from London to Galway.
[Phillips (2003) pp.87–93]
In 1793, he married the novelist
Harriet Evans Martin in
Nenagh, and had by her four surviving children, including Rev. Richard Martin (1797–1878) and the writer
Harriet Letitia Martin (1801–1891). The former emigrated to Canada in 1834 and had descendants who included
D'Arcy Argue Counsell Martin
D'Arcy Argue Counsell Martin (October 23, 1898 – June 7, 1992) was a Canadian lawyer and political figure. He represented Hamilton West in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1931 to 1934 as a Conservative member.
Martin served on Hamilt ...
(c. 1899–1992). During the period of the family's exile in Boulogne they became well acquainted with the poet Sarah Burdett (herself a relative of
Baroness Burdett-Coutts 1814–1906) and she wrote a poem on 12 April 1834 expressing admiration and blessings on Mary Jane Martin (Richard's daughter born in 1810). Burdett was an early supporter of the RSPCA and had her views published in 1839 in ''The Rights of Animals''.
[Sarah Burdett]
''The Rights of Animals; or, The Responsibility and Obligation of Man in the treatment he is bound to observe toward the animal creation'' (London: John Mortimer, 1839)
Notes
References
* Rob Boddice, "A History of Attitudes and Behaviours Toward Animals in Eighteenth- And Nineteenth-Century Britain: Anthropocentrism and the Emergence of Animals" (Lewiston, New York; Queenston, Ontario; Lampeter, Wales: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008).
*
* Edward G. Fairholme and Wellesley Pain, "A Century of Work For Animals: The History of the RSPCA, 1824-1934" (London: John Murray, 1934).
* Stephen Farrell, "Richard Martin 'Humanity Dick' (1754–1834)," "History Today," Vol 54 no. 6 (June 2004), p 60.
* Shevawn Lynam, "Humanity Dick Martin: 'King of Connemara,' 1754–1834," (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1989).
* Adrian James Martyn, "The Tribes of Galway," (Galway, Ireland: The Author, 2001).
* Arthur W. Moss, "Valiant Crusade: The History of the RSPCA" (London: Cassell, 1961).
* Peter Phillips, "The Eccentric Member for Galway: The Story of Richard Martin, Animal Rights Pioneer, 1754-1834," (Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Parapress, 2003).
* Harriet Ritvo, "The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age" (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1987).
* Richard D. Ryder, "Animal Revolution: Changing Attitudes Towards Speciesism" Rev Ed (Oxford; New York: Berg, 2000).
* Kathryn Shevelow, "For the Love of Animals: the Rise of the Animal Protection Movement" (New York: Henry Holt, 2008).
External links
*
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