House of Lords

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Occupation Mary Countess Cowper
She loved her job, or her career. When in 1716 her husband was considering retiring from court and living in the country, she generously offered if he wished to quit too, and what was more...
Occupation Alfred Tennyson
Having twice refused a title, AT accepted, at the urging of Queen Victoria , a baronetcy and seat in the House of Lords , becoming the first English writer to be raised to the peerage.
Ricks, Christopher. Tennyson. Macmillan, 1972.
288
Other Life Event Dorothea Du Bois
The deaths of both her parents did not put an end to the family's internecine strife. In April 1771, the House of Lords judged her mother's marriage certificate to be a forgery, though the evidence...
Other Life Event E. Arnot Robertson
On 27 September 1946 MGM complained to the BBC about an allegedly hostile review by EAR . This led her to a court battle. The High Court awarded her £1,500 in libel damages, but on...
Other Life Event Maria Theresa Longworth
The House of Lords , the highest court of appeal, found in favour of William Charles Yelverton in declaring that his marriage to MTL was not legally valid.
Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Editor Gibbs, Vicary, St Catherine Press, 1910–1959, 14 vols.
Erickson, Arvel B., and John R. McCarthy. “The Yelverton Case: Civil Legislation and Marriage”. Victorian Studies, Vol.
14
, 1971, pp. 275-91.
283
Other Life Event Maria Theresa Longworth
In 1863 Yelverton took his case to the highest possible authority, with an appeal to the House of Lords against the Dublin verdict.
politics Ruth Rendell
As a member of the House of Lords , RR took the work (speaking as well as attending) seriously. She said: At first I felt absolutely trapped and imprisoned. . . . But gradually you...
politics Winifred Maxwell Countess of Nithsdale
WMCN had little hope she could secure a pardon for a Catholic rebel, but nevertheless she tried. She drummed up support, appeared regularly in the gallery at the House of Lords , organized a petition...
politics Caroline Norton
Thomas Noon Talfourd gave notice early in 1837 of a House of Commons motion on this subject, and the Bill was printed. But immediately after this CN 's husband relented and allowed her to see...
politics Mary Delany
A group of upper-class Opposition women caused a politically-angled disturbance at the House of Lords : they included Mary Pendarves (later MD ).
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Editor Halsband, Robert, Clarendon Press, 1965–1967, 3 vols.
2: 135-7
politics Frances Jacson
FJ was a Whig in politics and late in her life a reformist. She followed the slow gestation of the Reform Bill with close interest. When the House of Lords rejected the Bill in September...
politics Monica Furlong
MF founded the Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod or GRAS at an evening meeting held in the Moses Room of the House of Lords , Westminster, and hosted by novelist Ruth Rendell
politics Margaret Haig Viscountess Rhondda
Viscountess Rhondda petitioned the king for a writ of summons to allow her to sit as a peeress in the House of Lords .
Eoff, Shirley. Viscountess Rhondda: Equalitarian Feminist. Ohio State University Press, 1991.
82
politics Margaret Haig Viscountess Rhondda
The Committee of Privileges ruled that on the basis of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, Viscountess Rhondda should be allowed to sit as a peeress in the House of Lords .
Chisholm, Hugh, editor. Encyclopædia Britannica. 12th ed., Encyclopædia Britannica Company, 1922, 3 vols.
32: 1040
Eoff, Shirley. Viscountess Rhondda: Equalitarian Feminist. Ohio State University Press, 1991.
82-3
Beddoe, Deirdre. Back to Home and Duty: Women Between the Wars, 1918-1939. Pandora, 1989.
143
politics Mary Carpenter
The Bristol riots in favour of electoral reform (and their savage suppression) helped to arouse a deep interest in MC in the welfare of the poor and uneducated.
In 1831 the House of Lords defeated...

Timeline

1 June 1792: Charles James Fox's Libel Act passed the...

National or international item

1 June 1792

Charles James Fox 's Libel Act passed the House of Lords . It altered the handling of libel cases (including seditious libel) in England and Wales: juries were given the right to decide, instead...

28 May-16 June 1794: Edmund Burke made his nine-day speech, spread...

Writing climate item

28 May-16 June 1794

Edmund Burke made his nine-day speech, spread over the course of this period, in reply to the defence offered at the trial of Warren Hastings .
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Burke

30 June 1814: A petition against the re-opening of the...

National or international item

30 June 1814

A petition against the re-opening of the slave trade by the restored French monarchy was presented to the House of Lords .
Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 1992.
354

4 July 1828: The House of Lords affirmed Lord Eldon's...

Building item

4 July 1828

The House of Lords affirmed Lord Eldon 's epoch-making decision which awarded custody of three children whose mother was dead to the mother's sisters instead of to the father.
Quarterly Review. J. Murray.
39 (1829): 183-209

7 June 1832: The Representation of the People Act, known...

National or international item

7 June 1832

The Representation of the People Act, known as the First Reform Bill, extended the male franchise and, for the first time, explicitly excluded women from the electorate.
Craig, Fred W. S. British Electoral Facts 1832-1987. 5th ed., Parliamentary Research Services, 1989.
177
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2024.
1832: 154-9
Chapman, Annie Beatrice Wallis, and Mary Wallis Chapman. The Status of Women Under the English Law. George Routledge and Sons, 1909.
65-6
Cook, Chris, and John, 1946 - Stevenson. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History 1714-1987. 2nd ed., Longman, 1988.
65-6
Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Editor Gibbs, Vicary, St Catherine Press, 1910–1959, 14 vols.

1838: The Infant Custody Bill passed in the House...

National or international item

1838

The Infant Custody Bill passed in the House of Commons but was rejected by the House of Lords .
Huddleston, Joan, and Caroline Norton. “Introduction”. Caroline Norton’s Defense, Academy Chicago, 1982, p. I - XIII.
ix

1838: Lord Shaftesbury first brought up for discussion...

National or international item

1838

Lord Shaftesbury first brought up for discussion in the House of Lords the protection of young females from vice.
Bristow, Edward. Vice and Vigilance: Purity Movements in Britain Since 1700. Gill and Macmillan, 1977.
61

July 1842: Edwin Chadwick presented his Report on the...

National or international item

July 1842

Edwin Chadwick presented his Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain to the House of Lords .
Yarwood, Doreen. Five Hundred Years of Technology in the Home. B. T. Batsford, 1983.
96
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
265
Woods, Robert, and John Woodward. “Mortality, Poverty and the Environment”. Urban Disease and Mortality in Nineteenth-Century England, edited by Robert Woods and John Woodward, St Martin’s Press, 1984, pp. 19-36.
26-7
Wohl, Anthony S. Endangered Lives: Public Health in Victorian Britain. Harvard University Press, 1983.
5

18 May 1843: In what was called the Disruption, led by...

National or international item

18 May 1843

In what was called the Disruption, led by Thomas Chalmers , roughly a third of the ministers and half the members of the established Presbyterian Church of Scotland seceded on the issue of a...

5 February 1851: A public meeting of women in the Democratic...

National or international item

5 February 1851

A public meeting of women in the Democratic Temperance Hall, Sheffield, adopted the first petition for the enfranchisement of women to be submitted to both houses of parliament.
Herstein, Sheila R. A Mid-Victorian Feminist: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. Yale University Press, 1985.
156
Schwarzkopf, Jutta. Women in the Chartist Movement. St Martin’s Press, 1991.
250

14 March 1856: A petition for Reform of the Married Women's...

National or international item

14 March 1856

A petition for Reform of the Married Women's Property Law, organized by the Married Women's Property Committee and signed by many prominent women, was presented to both Houses of Parliament.
Shanley, Mary Lyndon. Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England. Princeton University Press, 1989.
32, 35
Helsinger, Elizabeth K. et al. The Woman Question. Garland, 1983.
2: 14
Dunicliff, Joy. Mary Howitt: Another Lost Victorian Writer. Excalibur Press of London, 1992.
208
Karl, Frederick R. George Eliot: Voice of a Century. W.W. Norton, 1995.
214

13 February 1857: Lord Brougham introduced an unsuccessful...

National or international item

13 February 1857

Lord Brougham introduced an unsuccessful Married Women's Property Bill to the House of Lords .
Shanley, Mary Lyndon. Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England. Princeton University Press, 1989.
45
Holcombe, Lee. Wives and Property: Reform of the Married Women’s Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England. University of Toronto Press, 1983.
253

29 May 1868: The case of Routledge vs. Low led the House...

Writing climate item

29 May 1868

The case of Routledge vs. Low led the House of Lords to expand the meaning of British Soil to include the whole British Empire under existing copyright protection laws.
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.

29 June 1868: A bill introduced in the House of Lords proposed...

National or international item

29 June 1868

A bill introduced in the House of Lords proposed extending the Contagious Diseases Acts to London, and any other borough that chose to follow.
Walkowitz, Judith R. ’We Are Not Beasts of the Field’: Prostitution and the Campaign Against the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1869-1886. University of Rochester, 1974.
114

2 July 1868: An extension of the Contagious Diseases Acts...

National or international item

2 July 1868

An extension of the Contagious Diseases Acts to eleven more jurisdictions was recommended by a House of Lords committee.
Walkowitz, Judith R. ’We Are Not Beasts of the Field’: Prostitution and the Campaign Against the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1869-1886. University of Rochester, 1974.
114

Texts

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