THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT ALSO TO LOOK AT KIP FENN, A MAJOR NOVEL ABOUT THE 21st CENTURY
- freely available on this site
Cobbett, William ___ 1763-1835 ___
British ___ politician, writer
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Cobbett was born in Farnham, Surrey,
the son of a tavern keeper. He was educated at home, and worked as a farm
labourer until 1783 when he moved to London. He worked as a clerk for a
year, and then joined the army seeing service in New Brunswick, Canada.
But, after making accusations of theft against some officers, he left the
army. Thereafter, he studied in France, taught in the United States, where
he published pro-British pamphlets under the pseudonym of Peter Porcupine,
and returned to Britain in 1799-1800. He applied himself to journalism,
starting out as as a Tory, but becoming more radical with time, and launched
the 'Political Register' which was often critical of the government. In
1809 he attacked the use of German troops to put down a mutiny in Ely, and
subsequently was tried and convicted for sedition and sentenced to two years'
imprisonment in Newgate Prison. When Cobbett was released he continued his
popular campaigns, and, by reducing the price of the 'Political Register',
turned it into the main newspaper for the working class. In 1817, on rumours
that he might be arrested again for sedition, Cobbet fled to the US. There
he wrote a text on English grammar and, with the help of a friend in London,
continued to publish the 'Political Register'. However, by the time he returned
to England, in late 1819, he had lost all influence, and was poor, but still
he remained politically active. In 1821, he began a tour of Britain on horseback,
which led to a series of articles in the 'Political Register' and the book
'Rural Rides'. In 1830, he was tried and acquitted of sedition. In 1832,
he was elected to Parliament for Oldham.
One
biography link
DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1817-1818 1821-1832 ___ political
travel social village weather farming US
WEB TEXT LINKS
abuot
Hampshire
a
bit about his Parliamentary diary
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Oxford
University: Nuffield College Library
___ possibly here
SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Rural Rides
Travel diary in Scotland
A Year's Residence in the United States of America
December 2005
THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
Please
email if you have any corrections, additions or comments. |
IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS:
1) The first line of basic information
may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different
names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or
uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown,
or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British'
a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was
compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts
were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if
they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates
and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with
caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are
only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies.
4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges,
and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising.
I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some
variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited
myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their
original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the
titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries. |