Edward Baines (1800–1890)

Sir Edward Baines
Sir Edward Baines, c.1870
Born	28 May 1800 Leeds
Died	1890
Occupation	Politician
Known for	Abolitionism
Parents	Edward Baines (1774–1848), Charlotte Baines née Talbot

Sir Edward Baines, also known as Edward Baines junior (1800–1890) was a nonconformist English newspaper editor and Member of Parliament.

Biography

Edward Baines, of St Ann's Hill, Leeds, was the second son (and biographer) of Edward Baines (1774–1848), proprietor of the Leeds Mercury and MP for Leeds in the 1830s, and his wife Charlotte Talbot. His elder brother, Matthew Talbot Baines, was also a politician.

Edward Baines junior was educated at a Leeds private school and then at the nonconformist grammar school New College, Manchester. From 1815 he worked as journalist and editor of the Leeds Mercury, becoming a partner in 1827 . He married Martha Blackburn in 1829. He became editor and, after his father's death, proprietor of the Leeds Mercury.

Baines helped to found the Leeds Literary and Philosophical Society. He was also a prominent advocate of working-class adult education, founding Yorkshire Mechanics' Institutes in imitation of George Birkbeck's London mechanics' institute. An educational voluntarist, he opposed state-sponsored education until the 1860s. A political Liberal, he supported the 1832 Reform Act and the 1834 new poor laws. His History of the Cotton Manufacture (1835) was written in opposition to the corn laws, and he also published criticisms of Owenism. In 1840 he attended the World's Anti-Slavery Convention where he was captured in a group painting.^[1] He served as Liberal M.P. for Leeds from 1859 to 1874. He was knighted in 1880.

Works

• Baines, Edward (1834), A companion to the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire : in a descriptive account of a family tour and excursions on horseback and on foot : with a new, copious, and correct itinerary (3 ed.), Simpkin and Marshall 
• Baines, Edward (1835), History of the Cotton Manufacture, H. Fisher, R. Fisher, P. Jackson 
• Baines, Edward (1843), The Social, Educational and Religious State of the Manufacturing Districts (3 ed.), Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; T. Ward & Co. 
• Baines, Edward; Oastler, Robert; Cawood, John (1838), Mr Owen's Establishment at New Lanark, a Failure!!: As Proved by Edward Baines, Esq. M.P., and Other Gentlemen, Deputed with Him by the Parishioners of Leeds, to Visit and Inspect that Establishment, and Report Thereon 
• Baines, Edward (1840), The Socialists, A Society of Beasts, Important and interesting Proposal addressed to Robert Owen Esq. 
• Baines, Edward (1847), An alarm to the nation, on the unjust, unconstitutional and dangerous measure of state education proposed by the government 
• Baines, Edward (1851), The life of Edward Baines, late M.P. for the Borough of Leeds, Longman, Brown, Green and Longman (London); Reid Newsome (Leeds) 

See also

• John Wrigley Willans (1881-1910), married Edward Baines's daughter Charlotte Baines on 4 October 1855
• Charles Reed, educationalist and M.P., married Edward Baines' sister Margaret
• Edward Crossley, of Halifax, carpet-manufacturer, astronomer and MP, married Edward Baines' third daughter, Jane Eleanor

References

Sources

• Lowerson, J.R. (2004). "Edward Baines". The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1090. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward Baines (1800–1890).

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Edward Baines