John
Shuttleworth, who was born in Strangeways in 1786, was a successful
Manchester wholesale cotton manufacturer.
John Shuttleworth was a supporter of parliamentary reform and was
a member of a group of liberals that used to meet in the home of John
Potter. Others in the group included John Edward
Taylor, Archibald Prentice, Absalom
Watkin, Joseph Brotherton, William
Cowdray, Thomas Potter and Richard
Potter. The group was strongly influenced by the ideas of Jeremy
Bentham and Joseph Priestley and
objected to a system that denied such important industrial cities
such as Manchester, Leeds
and Birmingham, representation in the
House of Commons.
All the men held Nonconformist religious
views. John Shuttleworth was a Unitarian
and was a supporter of Joseph Lancaster
and the Nonconformist school that he opened in Manchester
in 1813. Shuttleworth, like other members of the group, was an avocate
of religious toleration. After the Peterloo
Massacre, John Shuttleworth played an important role in the campaign
to obtain an independent enquiry into Peterloo. In December 1819,
the radical Whig, H. G. Bennet presented
a petition signed by 7,000 people requesting an enquiry but the government
refused to take action. Shuttleworth also gave evidence at Thomas
Redford and Hugh Birley court case in April
1822.
The government responded to the events at St.
Peter's Field by passing the Six Acts.
Shuttleworth and other liberals were furious with the government and
felt that Manchester needed a new paper to express their opposition
to Lord Liverpool and his Tory
government. John Shuttleworth and ten other businessmen involved in
the textile industry raised £1,050 for the venture.
It was decided to call the newspaper the Manchester
Guardian. A prospectus was published which explained the aims
and objectives of the proposed newspaper: "It will zealously
enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty, it will warmly
advocate the cause of Reform; it will endeavour to assist in the diffusion
of just principles of Political Economy." The first four-page
edition, edited by John Edward Taylor,
appeared on Saturday 5th May, 1821 and was soon selling a thousand
copies a week.
Although Taylor was successful in using the Manchester
Guardian to gain more supporters for his political views,
he had upset some old friends in the process. Archibald
Prentice, Thomas Potter, Richard
Potter and John Shuttleworth
all accused him of moving to the right. They complained when the Manchester
Guardian refused to support the campaign by John
Hobhouse and Michael Sadler to reduce
child labour in the textile industry. Taylor's view was "though
child labour is evil, it is better than starvation". He also
refused to support Richard Oastler and
the Ten Hour Movement. Taylor argued that this proposed legislation
would cause "the gradual destruction of the cotton industry".
Taylor's views on parliamentary reform also became more conservative.
John Edward Taylor now argued that "the
qualification to vote ought to be low enough to put it fairly within
the power of members of the labouring classes by careful, steady and
preserving industry to possess themselves of it, yet not so low as
to give anything like a preponderating influence to the mere populace.
The right of representation is not an inherent or abstract right,
but the mere creation of an advanced condition of society."
John Shuttleworth and Archibald Prentice
decided that they could no longer rely on the Manchester
Guardian to represent their political views. purchased the
Manchester Gazette and moved it
to the left of the Manchester Guardian.
In the early 1830s John Shuttleworth and Thomas
Potter led the campaign for the parliamentary reform measures
proposed by the Whig government. In Manchester
100,000 people signed a petition advocating reform. Shuttleworth proposed
that the seats of rotten boroughs convicted
of gross electoral corruption should be transferred to industrial
towns. Boroughs such as Penryn and East Retford were targeted but
Parliament refused to take action.
As a result of the 1832 Reform Act Manchester
had its first two Members of Parliament, Mark Philips and Charles
Poulett Thomson. Two close friends of John Shuttleworth, Joseph
Brotherton (Salford) and Richard Potter
(Wigan) also became Members of Parliament in 1832.
John
Shuttleworth continued to be involved in politics and in was delighted
when the government passed the Municipal
Corporations Act in 1835. John Shuttleworth was one of the first
aldermen to elected to the borough council and his friend, Thomas
Potter, became Manchester's first mayor. John Shuttleworth retired
in 1860 and died four years later on 26th April, 1864.
(1)
In March 1820, John Shuttleworth gave evidence at the trial of those
accused of organising the meeting at St. Peter's Field.
I witnessed several parties pass the Exchange, to go to St. Peter's
Field. They were marching with considerable regularity, in the form
of a procession. In consequence of the observations which had been
made as to the number of sticks carried at previous meetings at Manchester,
I determined to count, as accurately as I could, the proportion.
(2)
In April 1822, John Shuttleworth gave evidence at the Hugh Birley
court case in Lancaster.
I saw the line of constables drawn back. They left an open space of
perhaps 30 or 40 yards in front of the Yeomanry troop. As soon as
this place was cleared I heard Mr. Birley saw something and in a few
moments after the Yeomanry proceeded towards the hustings. The first
two or three files went off in order, but the remainder of the troop
galloped after them in considerable confusion; the speed of the horses
was increased as they passed through the open space, until they got
to the compact part of the crowd, they assumed a circular appearance,
and I saw them striking the people; I continued watching until they
got up to the hustings, and then I left the ground.
(3)
Archibald Prentice, Personal Recollections
of Manchester (1851)
John Shuttleworth and John Edward Taylor could sell their cotton to
men who could not buy it cheaper elsewhere. In like manner, Thomas
and Richard Potter could sell their fustians, Joseph Brotherton and
William Harvey their yarns, Baxter his ginghams and shirtings, and
I my fine Glasgow muslins. And yet our position was uncomfortable.
We were safe ourselves, but every day brought us report of wrong and
outrage done to our humble fellow countrymen - wrong and outrage which
we felt could not fully redress. We thought, in our own cheerful homes,
of the poor men in prison for alleged political offences - the main
offence being that they, like ourselves, were of opinion that our
representative system was susceptible of amendment. The whole aspect
of society was unfavourable. The rich seemed banded together to deny
the possession of political rights; and the poor seemed to be banding
themselves together in an implacable hatred to their employers, who
were regarded as their oppressors.
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