Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 2nd Baronet (4 September 18291 July 1906) was an English temperance campaigner and radical, anti-imperialist Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1859 and 1906. He was recognised as the leading humourist in the House of Commons.

Lawson was Member for Carlisle, 1859–65, 1868–85; Cockermouth, 1886–1900; Camborne, 1903–1906; and Cockermouth 1906. He was the son of Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 1st Baronet, of Brayton, who changed his name from Wybergh, and Caroline Graham, daughter of Sir James Graham. He was privately educated at home. He was a founder member of both the National Liberal Club and the Reform League, a prominent member of the Peace Society, and the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade. He was a director of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway and a Justice of the Peace for Cumberland.Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1881 He was always an enthusiast in the cause of temperance and in 1879 he became president of the United Kingdom Alliance. He was, like his younger brother William, a forward-thinking co-operator and agriculturalist.The Concise Dictionary of National Biography, Vol 2-page 1743

Early days Wilfrid Lawson the son of Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 1st Baronet, of Brayton, was born at Brayton Hall, Aspatria, Cumberland on 4 September 1829. Since the family preferred a simple sporting life, they encouraged their children to enjoy a string of outdoor pursuits, including fishing, shooting, ice skating, cricket and the family obsession, foxhunting. He bought John Peel's pack of hounds after Peel's death and became Master of the Cumberland Foxhounds. From early childhood, he developed an exceptional talent for mimicry and a talent for writing rapid, fluent, and vigorous verse that played so conspicuous a part in the serious correspondence of his mature life.Sir Wilfrid Lawson: A Memoir, Russell page 9

He received his education at home under the tutorship of John Oswald Jackson, a Congregational minister of some repute.Some Notable Cumbrians, Chance page 60 In later life, both Lawson and his celebrated brother WilliamTen Years of Gentleman Farming, Lawson and Hunter, page 14 openly declared their lack of formal education. Jackson predominantly taught his pupils Greek and Latin prose, complemented with mathematics, natural sciences, political economy, English and foreign history, with the elements of rhetoric and logic to enhance the curriculum. Lawson also gained a fondness for poetry, in particular the works of Lord Byron, whose lines often adorned his political speeches.Sir Wilfrid Lawson: A Memoir, Russell page 56-57

Family

On 13 November 1860, Lawson married Mary, daughter of Joseph Pocklington Senhouse of Netherhall, Maryport, Cumberland.Carlisle Journal 16 November 1860 Their union produced eight children; four boys, Wilfrid, Mordaunt, Arthur and Godfrey; and four girls. Ellen, Mabel, Lucy and Josephine. Ellen married Arthur Henry Holland-Hibbert, 3rd Viscount Knutsford (1855–1935),Maryport Advertiser, 7 November 1884 they produced one daughter named Elsie and one son named Thurstan. In 1895, Mabel married Alan de Lancey Curwen of Workington Hall, and they had three children. In 1896, Lucy married Edward Heathcote Thruston of Pennal Tower, Mochgullith, North WalesWest Cumberland Times, 9 May 1896.

In 1909, Josephine married Frederick William Chance, the member of Parliament for the city of Carlisle. Mary's sister, Blanche, married Alfred Curzon, 4th Baron Scarsdale (1831–1916). Blanche was the mother of Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India. Lawson succeeded to the baronetcy and estates upon the death of his father in 1867.

Early political influences

With limited access to his intellectual peers, Lawson received his political convictions from his father and a constant stream of influential household guests. In 1840, the family explored the consequences of adopting free trade and the repeal of the iniquitous Corn Laws. They eagerly digested the speeches of Granby, Disraeli, and the Duke of Richmond on one side and of Cobden, Bright and Villiers on the other, with the caricatured comments of Mr. Punch, to enrich the subject.

The Lawsons shared the opinions of radicals, who argued that aristocrats were parasites of the state raising the price of the people's bread as a means of helping the landed interests and to add revenue to the state coffers which could be used for the anti-Christian purposes of corruption and foreign war.The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain, Jonathon Parry, (Yale 1993), page 163 In 1843, after attending a series of travelling lectures given by Chalmers and Candlish, they re-enacted the prominent debates relating to the question of Church and State and discussed the Scottish church and its recent schism, when 451 ministers seceded, leaving the Kirk to form the Free Church of Scotland. In 1843, they debated the Rebecca Riots; and after Daniel O'Connell electrified Ireland with his desire to repeal the union they consumed endless hours debating the everlasting Irish Question. In 1848, they contemplated the events surrounding the revolution, when the morning newspapers reported some fresh upheaval, spreading relentlessly across Europe, shaking kingdoms and thrones, causing terrific slaughter in France, provoking Chartist riots in England, and bringing home lessons of deep political importance. Throughout the 1840s, they debated the morality of war, with particular reference to the Afghan and the Chinese Opium Wars. As the wars concluded the question of peace came to the fore. The leaflets of Elihu Burritt' a leading peace campaigner were awaited and absorbed on publication, while another apostle of peace, Henry Richard made a lecturing visit to Brayton. Lawson completed his education by reading The Nonconformist, edited by Edward Miall. Many of these early Whig refrains forged his character and formed his opinions and convictions pushing him along a path that led from romanticism and Evangelicalism to Cobdenism.Sir Wilfrid Lawson: A Memoir, Russell page 296-300

Political style In his lifetime Lawson was one of Britain's most celebrated and popular political figures and yet he was not a pamphleteer or an essayist, nor was he the owner of a newspaper or a periodical like his radical colleagues, Joseph Cowen and Henry Labouchere. His strength of argument came from his unique way of transmitting the spoken word, which seldom lacked qualities of humour or entertainment such that his precise, logical, well-balanced arguments ranked high, when compared to contemporary political orators. Lawson became the chief jester to the House of Commons, where he contributed a rich, racy style to debates, earning him the epithet the "witty baronet".A Diary of Two Parliaments: Disraeli's Parliament 1874–1880, Henry. W Lucy, published in 2 Vol.s, (London 1885), page 100-1

Lawson was a member of innumerable societies and pressure groups, and made many political speeches throughout his life on a wide variety of subjects and related incidents. Today he is widely remembered for his pursuit of the lost cause of temperance reform, when temperance was only one strand of a very complex set of ideas he espoused. Lawson was in fact, the most Cobdenite of the Cobdenites and his contribution to the debate on radical reform, and foreign and colonial policy was significant. In the context of his radical philosophy as a whole, Lawson was a full-blooded radical, whose views covered a wide range and were almost always, very extreme. If the voting habits of an individual Member of Parliament can be used to place that person along the radical spectrum then Lawson belongs on the outer fringes, for it is doubtful if any member of any British political party or of any time in the history of the modern British parliamentary system, has ever voted in as many minority divisions as Lawson.Wilfrid Lawson: Attitudes and Opinions on Britain's Imperial and Foreign Policy (1868–1892) by Terry Carrick (Unpublished Thesis for a PhD) pages 33–36

Political career

Entry into politics After Lord Palmerston dissolved Parliament in 1857, Lawson came forward as a radical to contest the West Cumberland stronghold owned by the Lowther family. The Lawsons were obsessed with the concept of political freedom and since the constituency had for over twenty years been denied the opportunity to select their representative Lawson senior was determined, at personal expense to offer the electorate a choice.The Carlisle Patriot, 10 April 1857 Lawson stood as a Little Englander, with a radical programme endorsing the Liberal watchwords, Peace, Retrenchment and Reform. Lawson identified with the Manchester School of politics and consistently advocated their principles, particularly in response to conflict undertaken to promote selfish British interests. Although Lawson, a disappointing third in the poll, lost the election, the Manchester School in the form of Bright, Cobden, Miall, Milner Gibson and Layard all lost their seats.

1859 Carlisle election

After Lord Derby dissolved Parliament in 1859, Lawson was invited to stand with his uncle, Sir James Graham for the Carlisle constituency.The Carlisle Patriot, 10 April 1859 Although Graham's address was moderate, he informed his agent, "Lawson and his father sincerely entertain extreme opinions, and may be considered partisans of Mr Bright. Lawson would go the whole length, would pledge himself to the ballot, and would go ahead of me."Life and Letters of Sir James Graham, 1792–1861, Vol. 2, Charles Stuart Parker, page 379-380, (London 1907) Lawson concurred; "I may honestly confess I am rather more of a radical than he (Graham)."The Carlisle Patriot,16 April 1859 When questioned on the lengths he would go in lowering the franchise, he replied, "As far as any proposition is likely to be brought into Parliament, which has the least chance of success."Carlisle Patriot, 16 April 1859 When the poll closed Graham stood at its head with 538 votes, Lawson trailed by 22 votes, 40 votes ahead of his Tory rival.Sir Wilfrid Lawson, W.B. Luke, Simpkin (London 1900) page 17 As a result, he became a Member of Parliament. Lawson made his maiden speech on 20 March 1860, in a debate relating to the introduction of the Secret Ballot.Hansard Vol 157, 20 March 1860, Col. 940

1865 Carlisle election

Under normal circumstances Lawson should have returned to the House of Commons in 1865; however, during the previous year he had introduced the Permissive Bill. A Bill so unpopular, he struggled to find a member to second the proposal. Needless to say Lawson lost the division by 294 votes to 37.Hansard Vol. 175 Col. 1423 For suggesting that people had the right to restrict the access of others to the liquor shops, the full weight of public opinion favouring the liberty of the subject, backed by the Tories and brewing industry, rained down upon him. Although Lawson was popular for other reasons, and lost the election by a mere seventeen votes, it prompted The Times newspaper to run an article suggesting that no future sensible constituency would ever return him to the house.The Times, 13 July 1865 However, an opportunity arose for an early return to parliament in July 1866, after Lord Naas, the Conservative member for the small ancient borough of Cockermouth became Chief Secretary of Ireland. When the redistribution of parliamentary seats became an electoral issue Lawson informed his would-be supporters that if elected he would not hesitate to do everything in his power, to support some form of borough disenfranchisement. However, when his defeat became a forlorn conclusion he retired from the contest.Carlisle Journal, 13 July 1866

1868 Carlisle election