Cartwright, JOHN

Cartwright, JOHN, the 'Father of Reform,' was born in 1740, and was a brother of the preceding. At eighteen he entered the navy, saw some service under Howe, and in 1766 was gazetted first-lieutenant of the Guernsey, on the Newfoundland station. He returned in 1770, and was appointed in 1775 major to the Notts militia. He now began to think and write on political questions, and found himself unable to take service under Lord Howe in North America. From the beginning he advocated annual parliaments, vote by ballot, and manhood suffrage, and throughout his busy life he advocated with equal ardour causes so different as reform in farming, abolition of slavery, the foundation of a Valhalla for English seamen, the improvement of national defences, and the liberties of Spain and Greece. Cartwright was fined £100 for sedition in 1820. He died in London, 23d September 1824. Of Cartwright's eighty books and tracts a list is given in his Life by his niece (1826).