View source for William Cobbett

{{Short description|English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist (1763–1835)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = William Cobbett
| image            = William Cobbett.JPG
| caption          = ''William Cobbett'', portrait in oils possibly by [[George Cooke (painter)|George Cooke]], {{Circa|1831}} [[National Portrait Gallery (London)]]
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1763|3|9}}
| birth_place      = [[Farnham]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1835|6|18|1763|3|9}}
| death_place      = [[Normandy, Surrey]], England
| occupation       = [[Pamphleteer]], journalist, soldier
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = ''[[Rural Rides]]''
| module           = {{Infobox officeholder|embed=yes|
|office = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[Oldham (UK Parliament constituency)|Oldham]]
|party = [[Radicals (UK)|Radical]]
|term_start = 1832
|term_end = 1835
|successor = [[John Frederick Lees]]}}
| education        = [[Gray's Inn]]
| children         = {{Plainlist|[[Anne Cobbett]] (1795–1877) | William (1798–1878)|John (1800–1877)|James Paul (1803–1881)|Eleanor (1805–1900)|Susan (1807–1889)}}
}}
'''William Cobbett''' (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English [[pamphleteer]], journalist, politician, and farmer born in [[Farnham, Surrey]]. He was one of an [[Agrarianism|agrarian]] faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "[[rotten borough]]s", restrain foreign activity, and raise wages, with the goal of easing poverty among farm labourers and small land holders. Cobbett backed lower taxes, saving, reversing commons [[enclosure]]s and returning to the [[gold standard]]. He opposed borough-mongers, [[Sinecure|sinecurists]], bureaucratic "tax-eaters" and stockbrokers. His radicalism furthered the [[Reform Act 1832]] and gained him one of two newly created seats in Parliament for the borough of [[Oldham (UK Parliament constituency)|Oldham]]. His [[polemic]]s range from political reform to religion, including [[Catholic emancipation]]. His best known book is ''[[Rural Rides]]'' (1830, in print). He argued against [[Malthusianism]], saying economic betterment could support global population growth.

==Early life (1763–1791)==
[[File:Farnham Cobbett's birthplace.JPG|250px|thumb|left|William Cobbett's birthplace]]
William Cobbett was born in Farnham, Surrey, on 9 March 1763, the third son of George Cobbett, a farmer and publican, and Anne Vincent.<ref name="ODNB">[[Ian Dyck]], '[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5734 Cobbett, William (1763–1835)]', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 23 July 2011.</ref> He was taught to read and write by his father and he started working from an early age. He later said: "I do not remember a time when I did not earn my living. My first occupation was driving small birds from the turnip seed, and the rooks from the peas."<ref>Daniel Green, ''Great Cobbett: The Noblest Agitator'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 18–19.</ref><ref name="colegdh">G. D. H. Cole, ''The Life of William Cobbett'' (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1971), pp. 16-18.</ref> He worked as a farm labourer at [[Farnham Castle]],<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 38.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 16.</ref> and also worked briefly as a gardener in the King's garden at [[Kew Gardens|Kew]].<ref name="Clifford-Smith, S. 2008, pp. 4–6">S. Clifford-Smith, "William Cobbett: cottager's friend", ''Australian Garden History'', 19 (5), 2008, pp. 4–6.</ref><ref name="colegdh" /> His rural upbringing gave him a lifelong love of [[gardening]] and [[hunting]].<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 19, 21 and 30.</ref>

[[File:The life of William Cobbett - written by himself. No 2' (William Cobbett) by James Gillray.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Cartoon of Cobbett enlisting in the army. From the ''[[Political Register]]'' of 1809. Artist [[James Gillray]].]]
On 6 May 1783, he took a stage coach to London and spent eight or nine months as a clerk in the employ of a Mr. Holland at [[Gray's Inn]].<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 41–42.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', pp. 22–23.</ref> He joined the [[54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot]] in 1783. In his spare time, he improved his knowledge of English grammar.<ref name="ODNB" /><ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 48–49.</ref> Between 1785 and 1791, Cobbett was stationed with his regiment in [[New Brunswick]] and sailed from [[Gravesend, Kent|Gravesend]] in Kent to [[City of Halifax|Halifax]], [[Nova Scotia]]. Cobbett was in [[Saint John, New Brunswick|Saint John]], [[Fredericton]] and elsewhere in New Brunswick until September 1791, as he was promoted through the ranks to [[sergeant major]], the most senior rank of [[non-commissioned officer]].

Cobbett returned to Britain with his regiment, landing at [[Portsmouth]] on 3 November 1791. He obtained his discharge from the army on 19 December 1791. In [[Woolwich]] during February 1792, he married an American-born woman, Anne Reid (1774–1848), whom he had met while stationed at [[Fort Howe]] in Saint John.<ref>[[John Robert Colombo]] ''Canadian Literary Landmarks'' p. 47.</ref><ref>[http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=810d2953–1fd0-4625-b956-717ad9be3568 Jenny's Spring].</ref> Their children were Anne (1795–1877), William (1798–1878), [[John Morgan Cobbett|John]] (1800–1877), James Paul (1803–1881), Eleanor (1805–1900), and Susan (1807–1889).<ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 437.</ref> Their daughter [[Anne Cobbett]] was the author of several domestic books including ''The English Housekeeper: The Manual of Domestic Management.''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cobbett |first=Anne |title=The English Housekeeper: The Manual of Domestic Management |year=1851 |publication-date=2017}}</ref>

{{anchor|Travels to France and the United States|France and the United States}}

==Refuge in France and the United States (1792–1800)==
Cobbett had developed an animosity towards some [[Officer (armed forces)|officers]], suspecting them of corruption, and gathered evidence on the matter while in New Brunswick. His charges against them were ignored. He wrote ''The Soldier's Friend'' in 1792, in protest against the low pay and harsh treatment of enlisted men in the British army.<ref name="ODNB"/> Sensing that he was about to be indicted in retribution, he fled from Britain to France in March 1792 to avoid imprisonment. Cobbett had intended to stay a year to learn the French language, but due to the [[French Revolution]] and [[French Revolutionary Wars]] in progress, he sailed for the United States in September 1792.

In the spring of 1793, he  settled in [[Philadelphia]], then the provisional capital of the United States. Cobbett initially prospered by teaching English to Frenchmen and translating texts from French to English. He later claimed that he had become a political writer by accident: during an English lesson one of his French students read aloud from a New York newspaper the addresses of welcome that the [[Democratic-Republican Party|Democrats]] had sent to [[Joseph Priestley]] upon his arrival in America, along with Priestley's replies. His student applauded the anti-British sentiments that were expressed, and he quarrelled with Cobbett, who then resolved to "write and publish a pamphlet in defence of my country."<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 125.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 55.</ref> His ''Observations on the Emigration of Dr. Priestley'', which was published anonymously in 1794, was a violent attack on Priestley.<ref name="Green127">Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 127.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', pp. 57−58.</ref>

In 1795, Cobbett wrote ''A Bone to Gnaw for the Democrats'', which attacked the pro-French Democratic Party.<ref name="Green127" /><ref name="Cole59">Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 59.</ref> He replied to his critics with ''A Kick for a Bite'', which was his first work to be published under the pseudonym "Peter Porcupine"; a reviewer had compared him to a [[porcupine]], which pleased him.<ref name="Cole59"/><ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 129.</ref> He took the side of the [[Federalist Party|Federalists]], who were led by [[Alexander Hamilton]], because they were friendlier to Britain than were the pro-French Democrats led by [[Thomas Jefferson]].<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 130 and 132−134.</ref><ref name="Cole, p. 64">Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 64.</ref>

In January 1796, he began writing a monthly tract, ''The Censor''. It was discontinued after eight releases, and replaced by ''Porcupine's Gazette'', a daily newspaper which ran from March 1797 until the end of 1799.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB |wstitle= Cobbett, William |volume= 11 |last= Smith |first= Edward |author-link= Edward Smith (biographer) | pages= 142-145 |short= 1}}</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', pp. 59−60.</ref> [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord|Talleyrand]], at the time a French spy in America, tried but failed to bribe Cobbett to join the French cause.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 140.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 63.</ref>

Cobbett opened a bookstore in Philadelphia in July 1796. Its shop-window displayed a large portrait of George III and its interior featured a huge painting of "[[Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe|Lord Howe]]'s Decisive Victory over the French". This provocative display attracted considerable attention.<ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 62.</ref> He reprinted and published much of the extreme loyalist literature then current, including [[George Chalmers (antiquarian)|George Chalmers]]'s hostile biography of [[Thomas Paine]],<ref name="DNB"/><ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 147.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 60.</ref> as well as his own version, reproducing Chalmer's work interspersed with contemptuous comments.

After [[Spain]] entered into [[Second Treaty of San Ildefonso|an alliance]] with France against Britain, Cobbett expressed his anger through further pamphleteering that was highly critical of [[Charles IV of Spain|Spanish King Charles IV]], in ''Porcupine's Gazette''. The Spanish foreign minister in Philadelphia asked the United States government to prosecute Cobbett for libel of the Spanish king. Cobbett was arrested on 18 November 1797. He was tried in the [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania|State Court of Pennsylvania]] by Chief Justice [[Thomas McKean]] (who was also the Spanish minister's father-in-law). Despite McKean's criticism of Cobbett in his summing up, the grand jury threw out case against him by a one-vote majority.<ref name="Cole, p. 64"/><ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 168–171.</ref>

In the ''Gazette'', he serially denounced [[Benjamin Franklin Bache]], publisher of the Jeffersonian paper, the ''[[Philadelphia Aurora|Aurora]].'' Cobbett suggested that the "stubborn [[Sans-culottes|sans culotte"]] should be treated "as we would a TURK, a JEW, a JACOBIN or a DOG".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bernard A. Weisberger |url=http://archive.org/details/americaafirejeff00weis_0 |title=America Afire: Jefferson, Adams, and the Revolutionary Election of 1800 |date=2000 |publisher=William Morrow |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-380-97763-5 |pages=208–209}}</ref> He directed the same invective against Bache's successor, [[William Duane (journalist)|William Duane]] and his growing circle of [[Society of United Irishmen|United Irish]] émigrés,<ref name=":82">{{Cite thesis |last=MacGiollabhui |first=Muiris |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/75x28210 |title=Sons of Exile: The United Irishmen in Transnational Perspective 1791-1827 |publisher=UC Santa Cruz (Thesis) |year=2019 |pages=94–95, 198}}</ref> describing them as men "animated by the same infamous principles, and actuated by that same thirst for blood and plunder, which had reduced France to a vast human slaughter-house".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cobbett |first=William |url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/N36956.0001.001 |title=Detection of a conspiracy, formed by the United Irishmen, with the evident intention of aiding the tyrants of France in subverting the government of the United States. / By Peter Porcupine. |year=1798 |location=Philadelphia}}</ref> In May 1798, he began publishing accounts of a ''Conspiracy, Formed by the United Irishmen, With the Evident Intention of Aiding the Tyrants of France In Subverting the Government of the United States.''<ref>Cobbett (1798)</ref> Convening in Philadelphia's African Free School, and admitting, together with "all those who have suffered in the cause of freedom", [[Free Negro|free blacks]], the Irish republicans had formed a society dedicated to the proposition (to which each member attested) that "a free form of government, and uncontrouled [sic] opinion on all subjects, [are] the common rights of all the human species".<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal |last=McAleer |first=Margaret H. |date=2003 |title=In Defense of Civil Society: Irish Radicals in Philadelphia during the 1790s |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23546484 |journal=Early American Studies |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=(176–197) 187-188 |issn=1543-4273 |jstor=23546484}}</ref> Against the backdrop of America's [[Quasi-War|Quasi War]] with the French and of the [[Haitian Revolution]] (then still under the flag of the [[French First Republic|French Republic]]),<ref name=":82" /> for Cobbett, this was sufficient proof of an intention to organise slave revolts and "thus involve the whole country in rebellion and bloodshed".<ref name=":32" />

Cobbett also campaigned against physician and abolitionist [[Benjamin Rush]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://crusader.bac.edu/library/rarebooks/Pride.htm |title=The Pride of Britannia Humbled |last=Cobbett |first=William |year=1817 |publisher=Belmont Abbey College NC |access-date=27 May 2009 |archive-date=28 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728150946/http://crusader.bac.edu/library/rarebooks/Pride.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> whose advocacy of [[Bloodletting|bleeding]] during the [[yellow fever]] epidemic may have caused many deaths.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Alyn|last=Brodsky|year=2004|title=Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician}} pp. 337–343.</ref> Rush won a libel suit against Cobbett. Cobbett never fully paid the $8,000 judgement, but instead fled to New York and during 1800 via [[Halifax Regional Municipality|Halifax]], Nova Scotia, to [[Falmouth, Cornwall]].<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 170–175.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', pp. 65–70.</ref>

The British government was grateful to Cobbett for supporting Britain's interests in America: the [[Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn|Duke of Kent]] hailed him as "this great British patriot"; the British representative in America, [[Robert Liston (diplomat)|Robert Liston]], offered him a "great pecuniary reward" (which he turned down), and the [[Secretary at War]], [[William Windham]], said that Cobbett deserved a statue of gold for the services he had rendered to Britain in America.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 141.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 58.</ref>

{{anchor|The Political Register}}

==Return to England and ''The Political Register'' (1800–1810)==
Cobbett's American writings were reprinted in Britain, with [[John Wright (bookseller died 1844)|John Wright]] acting as his agent.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 154 and 183.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', pp. 58 and 70.</ref> In August 1800, Windham invited Cobbett to dinner with the Prime Minister, [[William Pitt the Younger|William Pitt]], and contributors to the ''[[Anti-Jacobin]]'', including [[George Canning]].<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 183.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 70.</ref> Pitt's government offered Cobbett the editorship of a government newspaper, but he chose to remain independent.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 184–185.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', pp. 70–72.</ref> His own paper, ''The Porcupine'', bearing the motto "Fear God, Honour the King", started on 30 October 1800, but without success, and he sold his interest in it in 1801.<ref name="ODNB"/> Less than a month later, he started the ''[[Political Register]]'', a newspaper that appeared almost every week from January 1802 until 1835, the year of Cobbett's death.<ref name="ODNB"/> Windham and [[French Laurence]] had suggested the idea of a weekly newspaper to Cobbett and Windham raised the money to fund it by private subscription.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 207.</ref>

When the British government signed a preliminary peace agreement with France in October 1801, Cobbett emerged as one of its foremost opponents, and in the pages of ''The Porcupine'' and in his ''Letters to Lord Hawkesbury'', he denounced the agreement as humiliating to Britain and advantageous to France.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 192.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', pp. 75–77.</ref> When news of the ratification arrived on 10 October, Cobbett refused to illuminate the windows of his house in celebration and it was attacked by a mob, which smashed all the windows.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 197.</ref><ref name="Cole76">Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 76.</ref> When the [[Treaty of Amiens|Peace of Amiens]] was signed in March 1802, Cobbett again refused to illuminate his windows and the [[Royal Horse Guards]] had to protect his house from the mob.<ref name="Cole76"/><ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 197–198.</ref>

War broke out again between Britain and France in May 1803 and [[Napoleon]] [[Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom|planned to invade]] England, assembling the ''[[Grande Armée]]'' at [[Boulogne]]. In June, ''[[The Morning Post]]'' appealed to all newspapers to print articles for "the purpose of arousing the people to the defence of the country".<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 231.</ref> Cobbett immediately began a pamphlet, ''Important Considerations for the People of the Kingdom'', warning the country of the consequences of a French invasion. Cobbett declined an offer of payment from the government and his pamphlet was published anonymously in July.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 231–232.</ref><ref name="Cole, p. 81">Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 81.</ref> The Prime Minister, [[Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth|Henry Addington]], ordered copies to be sent to every parish in England and it had an immediate effect on public opinion.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 232–235.</ref>

Cobbett formed a close friendship with Windham, who became his patron and shared his anti-Jacobinism and his love of rural and athletic sports.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 209–210.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 71.</ref> The Evangelical movement was campaigning to reform the sports and recreations of the common people, intending to replace [[bull-baiting]], [[boxing]], [[singlestick]], [[wrestling]] and [[racing]] with Sunday Schools and psalm singing.<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 218–219.</ref><ref>Ian Dyck, ''William Cobbett and Rural Popular Culture'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 20–22.</ref> Cobbett in the ''Register'' criticised the Evangelicals' hostility to rural and athletic sports, "which string the nerves and strengthen the frame, which excite an emulation in deeds of hardihood and valour, and which imperceptibly instill honour, generosity, and a love of glory. Men thus formed are pupils unfit for the puritanical school; therefore it was, that the sect were incessantly labouring to eradicate, fibre by fibre, the last poor remains of English manners."<ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', p. 219.</ref> Cobbett supported Windham in opposing attempts in the House of Commons to introduce bills against boxing and bull-baiting; he wrote to Windham that the bill "goes to the rearing of puritanism into a system."<ref>[[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|The Earl of Rosebery]] (ed.), ''The Windham Papers. Volume Two'' (London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd, 1913), p. 234.</ref><ref>Lewis Melville, ''The Life and Letters of William Cobbett in England and America: Volume I'' (London: J. Lane, 1913), pp. 205–206.</ref>

Although initially staunchly anti-[[Jacobin]], by 1804 Cobbett was questioning the policies of the Pitt government, especially the immense [[national debt]] and profligate use of [[sinecure]]s, which Cobbett believed were ruining the country and increasing class antagonism.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Cobbett lived in [[Botley, Hampshire]] from 1805,<ref name=BBC>{{cite news |last1=Almroth-Wright |first1=Indy |title=William Cobbett |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/content/articles/2009/03/02/history_william_cobbett_feature.shtml |access-date=15 July 2024 |work=BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight |publisher=BBC |date=2 March 2009}}</ref> farming and raising his family, initially at Botley House near Botley Mills, and then, from 1812, in a smaller house at Botley Hill.<ref name=BBC/><ref>{{cite web |title=Botley House |url=http://research.hgt.org.uk/item/botley-house/ |website=Hampshire Gardens Trust |access-date=15 July 2024}}</ref>

By 1807, he was endorsing reformers such as Francis Burdett and [[John Cartwright (political reformer)|John Cartwright]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

Cobbett published the ''Complete Collection of State Trials'' between 1804 and 1812 and amassed accounts of parliamentary debates from 1066 onwards, but financial difficulties obliged him to sell his shares in it to [[Thomas Curson Hansard|T. C. Hansard]] in 1812.<ref name="ODNB"/> This unofficial record of parliamentary proceedings later became known officially as [[Hansard]].

Cobbett intended to campaign for Parliament in [[Honiton (UK Parliament constituency)|Honiton]] in 1806, but was persuaded by [[Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald]] to let him campaign in his stead. Both men campaigned together but failed, having refused to bribe voters by "buying" votes. This situation encouraged his opposition to [[rotten borough]]s and belief in parliamentary reform.<ref>[[David Cordingly]], ''Cochrane the Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane'', Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2008 ({{ISBN|978-0-7475-8545-9}}), pp. 105–113.</ref>

{{anchor|Prison}}

==Prison (1810–1812)==
[[File:The Hampshire hog in the pound LOC ds.10846.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|The 'Hampshire hog in the pound']]
Cobbett was found guilty of treasonous [[libel]]{{dubious|"Treasonous libel"|date=November 2024}} on 15 June 1810, after objecting in ''The Register'' to the [[flogging]] at [[Ely, Cambridgeshire]] of local [[militia]]men by [[Electorate of Hanover|Hanoverians]]. During his two years' incarceration at [[Newgate Prison]], he wrote the pamphlet ''Paper Against Gold'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cobbett |first=William |title=Paper Against Gold |url=https://archive.org/details/cobbettspaperaga00cobbrich |work=Cobbett's Paper Against Gold |publisher=California Digital Library |access-date=27 November 2013}}</ref> warning of the dangers of [[Banknote|paper money]], and many essays and letters. His daughter Anne lived with him in prison.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Cole |first=G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MsM17kfk9UMC&dq=Anne+Cobbett+1795&pg=PA437 |title=The Life of William Cobbett |date=2010 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-136-88558-7 |language=en}}</ref> On his release, a dinner in his honour in London was attended by 600 people and directed by [[Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet|Sir Francis Burdett]], who like Cobbett was a strong advocate of parliamentary reform. 

{{anchor|Two-Penny Trash}}

=="Two-Penny Trash" (1812–1817)==
By 1815 the tax on newspapers had reached four [[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|pence]] a copy. As few people could afford to pay six or seven pence for a daily newspaper, the tax restricted the circulation of most journals to those with fairly high incomes. Cobbett could sell only about a thousand copies a week. Nonetheless, he began criticising [[William Wilberforce]] for endorsing the Corn Laws, for his personal wealth and opposition to bull and [[bear-baiting]], and particularly for his approval of "the fat and lazy and laughing and singing negroes".<ref>{{Cite book |first=Eric |last=Metaxas |author-link=Eric Metaxas |year=2007 |title=Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery |url=https://archive.org/details/amazinggrace00meta |pages= 251–252 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=9780061173882 }}</ref>

In 1816 Cobbett began publishing the ''Political Register'' as a pamphlet. It now sold for only two pence and soon had a circulation of 40,000. Critics termed it "two-penny trash", a phrase Cobbett adopted.<ref name="ODNB" /> It became the main newspaper read by the working class. 
Radical campaigner [[Samuel Bamford]] later wrote:

<blockquote>At this time the writings of William Cobbett suddenly became of great authority; they were read on nearly every cottage hearth in the manufacturing districts of South Lancashire, in those of Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham; also in many of the Scottish manufacturing towns. Their influence was speedily visible. He directed his readers to the true cause of their sufferings—misgovernment; and to its proper corrective—parliamentary reform.<ref>Samuel Bamford, ''Bamford's Passages in the Life of a Radical, and Early Days: Vol. II'' (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905), pp. 11–12.</ref><ref>Green, ''Great Cobbett'', pp. 384−385.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 211.</ref></blockquote>

This made Cobbett a dangerous man. In 1817, he became aware that the government was planning to arrest him for [[sedition]]. With the government intending to [[Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1817|suspend ''habeas corpus'']], and fearing arrest for his arguably seditious writings, Cobbett again fled to the United States.<ref name="DNB"/> On Wednesday 27 March 1817, he embarked at [[Liverpool]] for New York on the ship ''Importer'', with D. Ogden as master, accompanied by his two eldest sons, William and John.

==Refuge in the United States (1817–1819)==
[[File:Cobbett - Rural rides in the southern, western and eastern counties of England, 1930 - 5214769.tif|thumb|''Rural rides in the southern, western and eastern counties of England'', 1930.]]
Cobbett lived for two years on a farm on [[Long Island]], where he wrote ''Grammar of the English Language''.  With help from [[William Benbow]], a friend in London, he continued to issue the ''Political Register''. He also wrote ''The American Gardener'' (1821), one of the earliest horticultural books published in the United States.<ref name="Clifford-Smith, S. 2008, pp. 4–6"/>

Cobbett observed alcohol-drinking habits in the United States. He stated in 1819, "Americans preserve their gravity and quietness and good-humour even in their drink." He believed it would be "far better for them to be as noisy and quarrelsome as the English drunkards; for then the odiousness of the vice would be more visible, and the vice itself might become less frequent."<ref>Ronald G. Walters, ''Getting Rid of Demon Alcohol''.</ref>

A plan to return to England with the remains of the British-American radical pamphleteer and revolutionary [[Thomas Paine]] (who had died in 1809) resulted in the ultimate loss of the remains. The plan was to disinter Paine's remains from his [[New Rochelle, New York]] [[Thomas Paine Cottage|farm]] for a heroic reburial on his native soil, but the bones were still among Cobbett's effects when he died 16 years later. There is no confirmed story of what happened to them after that, although claims to parts of the body have been made down the years, including his skull and right hand.

Cobbett arrived back in Britain at Liverpool by ship in November 1819.

{{anchor|Later life}}

==Later life (1819–1835)==
Cobbett's arrival came soon after the [[Peterloo Massacre]]. He joined with other [[Radicalism (historical)|radicals]] in attacks on the government and was charged with libel three times in the next couple of years.

Cobbett published on behalf of [[Caroline of Brunswick]] in her fight against the [[Pains and Penalties Bill 1820]]. His daughter Anne believed that he would have had fewer legal difficulties if he had stopped supporting Queen Caroline, but noted that they gained much needed source of income from supporting her. The family all expected notable rewards following the outcome of the trial being seen to be in Caroline's favour, however her death soon after meant that this did not happen to the expected degree.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Robins |first=Jane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-c6W2dDkrLwC&dq=Anne+Cobbett&pg=PA164 |title=The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair that Nearly Ended a Monarchy |date=2006-08-07 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-5590-5 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Image:Batteuse 1881.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The introduction of horse-powered threshing machines to farms was one of the principal causes of the [[Swing Riots]] in 1830.]]
In 1820, he campaigned for Parliament in [[Coventry (UK Parliament constituency)|Coventry]], but finished last in the poll. That year he also founded a plant nursery at Kensington, where he grew many North American trees, such as the black locust ''(Robinia pseudoacacia)'', and with his son, a variety of maize he called "Cobbett's corn".<ref name="Clifford-Smith, S. 2008, pp. 4–6"/> This was a dwarf strain found in a French cottage garden, which turned out to grow well in England's shorter summer. To help sell the strain, he issued a book entitled ''A Treatise on Cobbett's Corn'' (1828).<ref name="Clifford-Smith, S. 2008, pp. 4–6"/> Meanwhile, he also wrote his popular ''[[Cottage Economy]]'' (1822), which taught cottagers some skills necessary for self-sufficiency, such as bread-making, beer-brewing and livestock farming.<ref name="Clifford-Smith, S. 2008, pp. 4–6"/>

===Advocacy for the English poor and working-class===
Not content to let information be brought to him for his newspaper, Cobbett did his own journalistic work – especially on his repeated theme of the plight of rural Englishmen. He began riding about the country observing events in towns and villages. ''[[Rural Rides]]'', a work for which Cobbett is still known, appeared first in serial form in the ''Political Register'' from 1822 to 1826, and then in book form in 1830. While writing it, Cobbett also produced ''The Woodlands'' (1825), a book on [[silviculture]].<ref name="Clifford-Smith, S. 2008, pp. 4–6"/>

In the first supplement to the ''Political Register'', Cobbett had defended the [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trade]] as necessary to British commerce.<ref name="Cole, p. 81"/> After the [[Slave Trade Act 1807]] prohibited slave trade, Cobbett wrote in the ''Register'' that "there is not a reflecting man in the kingdom that cares one straw about it."<ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 136.</ref> In the ''Register'' for 30 August 1823, Cobbett published his ''Letter to William Wilberforce'', an answer to Wilberforce's ''Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies''.<ref name="Carroll">Nicole Carroll, 'William Wilberforce and William Cobbett: Reformers in Conflict in Early 19th-Century Britain', ''Voces Novae'', Vol. 2 , Article 9, p. 8.</ref> Here, he attacked Wilberforce's support for the [[Combination Act 1799|Combination Act]], which prohibited trade unions among British workers,<ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', pp. 257–258.</ref> and said: "Never have you done one single act, in favour of those labourers, but many and many an act you have done against them."<ref name="Carroll"/> The ''Letter to Wilberforce'' was widely distributed in working class areas and gave an impetus to the Combination Act's repeal in 1824.<ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 258.</ref>

Cobbett contrasted the Evangelical reformers' campaign for the abolition of black slavery with their support for the "factory slavery" of British workers.<ref name="Cole259">Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 259.</ref> He argued that black slaves were better fed, clothed and housed than British workers, and were better treated by their masters.<ref>Dyck, ''William Cobbett and Rural Popular Culture'', p. 35.</ref><ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', pp. 259–260.</ref> He wrote: "Will not the care, will not the anxiety of a really humane Englishman be directed towards the Whites, instead of towards the Blacks, until, at any rate, the situation of the former be made to be ''as good'' as that of the latter?"<ref name="Cole259"/> In 1833, Cobbett voted for the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|abolition of slavery]] but in the ''Register'' he was still contrasting Parliament's concern for black slaves with their indifference to the sufferings of British "factory slaves".<ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 423.</ref>

===Catholic emancipation===
Although not a Catholic,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hanink |first=James G |date=November 2005 |title=William Cobbett. By G. K. Chesterton. Review |journal=[[New Oxford Review]] |volume=LXXII |issue=10 |url=http://www.newoxfordreview.org/briefly.jsp?did=1105-briefly |access-date=30 March 2009 |archive-date=4 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080504010749/http://www.newoxfordreview.org/briefly.jsp?did=1105-briefly |url-status=dead }}</ref> Cobbett at this time also advocated the cause of [[Catholic Emancipation]]. Between 1824 and 1826, he published his ''History of the Protestant Reformation'', a broadside against the traditional [[Protestant]] historical narrative of the reformation, stressing the lengthy and often bloody persecutions of Catholics in Britain and Ireland. Catholics were still forbidden at that time to enter certain professions or become members of Parliament. Although the law was no longer enforced, it was officially still a crime to attend Mass or build a Catholic church. Although Wilberforce also worked and spoke against discrimination against Catholics, Cobbett resumed his strident opposition to the noted reformer, particularly after Wilberforce in 1823 published his ''Appeal in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies.''<ref>{{Cite book |first=Eric |last=Metaxas |author-link=Eric Metaxas |year=2007 |title=Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery |url=https://archive.org/details/amazinggrace00meta |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/amazinggrace00meta/page/264 264–265]|publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=9780061173882 }}</ref> Wilberforce, long suffering from ill health, retired the next year.

[[File:John Doyle 1833 MPs.JPG|200px|right|thumb|William Cobbett (left foreground), [[John Gully]] (middle) and [[Joseph Pease (railway pioneer)|Joseph Pease]] (right) (the first Quaker elected to Parliament) arriving at Westminster, during March 1833. Sketch by [[John Doyle (Irish artist)|John Doyle]].]]
In 1829, Cobbett published ''Advice To Young Men'', in which he criticised ''[[An Essay on the Principle of Population]]'' by the Reverend [[Thomas Robert Malthus]]. That year he also published ''The English Gardener'', which he later updated and expanded. This book has been compared favourably with other contemporary garden tomes, such as [[John Claudius Loudon]]'s ''Encyclopædia of Gardening''.<ref name="Clifford-Smith, S. 2008, pp. 4-6">Clifford-Smith, S., "William Cobbett: cottager's friend", ''Australian Garden History'', 19 (5), 2008, pp. 4–6.</ref>

Cobbett continued to publish controversial content in his ''Weekly Political Register'' and was charged in July 1831 with [[seditious libel]] for a pamphlet entitled ''Rural War'', endorsing the Captain [[Swing Riots]], in which rioters were smashing farm machinery and burning haystacks. Cobbett successfully conducted his own defence.<ref>[[John Macdonell (judge)|Macdonell, John]] (ed.) (1888). ''[[State Trials]]'' (New Series), [https://archive.org/details/reportsstatetri00commgoog/page/n407/mode/1up Vol. II, col. 789.]</ref>

===Member of Parliament===
Cobbett still sought to be elected to the House of Commons. He was defeated in [[Preston (UK Parliament constituency)|Preston]] in 1826 and in Manchester in 1832, but after the passage of the [[Reform Act 1832]], Cobbett won the seat of [[Oldham (UK Parliament constituency)|Oldham]].

In Parliament, Cobbett concentrated his energies on attacking corruption in government and the [[Poor Law Amendment Act 1834|1834 Poor Law]]. He believed that the poor had a right to a share in the community's wealth and that the [[Poor Relief Act 1601|Old Poor Law]] was the last remaining right that English workers possessed, and which set them apart from other countries which had no such provision.<ref>{{cite book |last=Green |first=Daniel |date=1983 |title=Great Cobbett: The Noblest Agitator |location=London |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |pages=458–459 |isbn=9780340223789}}</ref><ref name=idyck>{{cite book |last=Dyck |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Dyck |date=1992 |title=William Cobbett and Rural Popular Culture |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=208–209 |isbn=9780521413947}}</ref> Because the New Poor Law deprived the people of this right to relief, Cobbett believed that the social contract was broken and that therefore the duty of allegiance was dissolved.{{r|idyck|p=208}} A week before his death, he wrote to a friend: "[B]efore the passing of the Poor-Law Bill, I wished to avoid [a] convulsive termination. I now do not wish it to be avoided."{{r|idyck|p=208}}

During later life, [[Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay|Thomas Macaulay]], a fellow [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]], remarked that Cobbett's faculties were impaired by age. From 1831 until his death, Cobbett managed a farm named Ash in the village of [[Normandy, Surrey]], a few miles from his birthplace at [[Farnham]]. Cobbett died there after a brief illness in June 1835 and was buried in the churchyard of [[St Andrew's Church, Farnham]].

==Parliamentary career==
During his lifetime Cobbett campaigned for parliament five times, of which four attempts were unsuccessful:
*1806 [[Honiton (UK Parliament constituency)|Honiton]]
*1820 [[Coventry (UK Parliament constituency)|Coventry]]
*1826 [[Preston (UK Parliament constituency)|Preston]]
*1832 [[Manchester (UK Parliament constituency)|Manchester]]

In 1832 he was elected as a member for [[Oldham (UK Parliament constituency)|Oldham]].

==Legacy==
[[File:William Cobbett Grave 2016.jpg|thumb|right|The tomb of William Cobbett in the churchyard of St Andrew's church in Farnham.]]
Cobbett is considered to have begun as an inherently conservative journalist. He was angered by the corrupt British political establishment, and became increasingly radical and sympathetic to antigovernment and democratic ideals. He provided a panegyric extolling rural England during the [[Industrial Revolution]], which he was not in sympathy with. Cobbett wished England would return to the rural England of the 1760s, in which he had been born.

Unlike fellow radical Thomas Paine, Cobbett was not an internationalist cosmopolitan and did not endorse a republican Britain. He boasted that he was not a "citizen of world.... It is quite enough for me to think about what is best for England, Scotland and Ireland."<ref name="ODNB"/> Possessing a national identity, he often criticised rival countries and warned them that they should not "swagger about and be saucy to England."<ref name="ODNB"/> He said his identification with the Church of England was due in part because it "bears the name of my country."<ref name="ODNB" /> Among historical biographers, [[Ian Dyck]] claimed that Cobbett endorsed "the eighteenth-century [[Country Party (Britain)|Country Party]] platform";<ref>[[Ian Dyck]], 'Introduction' in William Cobbett, ''Rural Rides'' (Penguin Classics, 2005), p. xxiii.</ref> [[Edward Tangye Lean]] described him as "an archaic English Tory".<ref>[[Edward Tangye Lean]], ''The Napoleonists. A Study in Political Disaffection. 1760–1960'' (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 206.</ref><ref name="herring">{{Cite web |url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/herring.htm |title=The Lure of the Red Herring |last=Quinion |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Quinion |date= 25 October 2008 |work=World Wide Words |access-date=28 May 2019}}</ref>
[[File:William Cobbett (1763-1835) bust.jpg|thumb|Bust of William Cobbett, Farnham Museum garden]]
His writing style was parodied by Horace and James Smith in their collection, [[Rejected Addresses]] (1812).{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Cobbett has been praised by thinkers of various political persuasions, such as [[Matthew Arnold]], [[Karl Marx]], [[G. K. Chesterton]], [[A. J. P. Taylor]], [[Raymond Williams]], [[E. P. Thompson]] and [[Michael Foot]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

A story by Cobbett issued in 1807 popularized the term "[[red herring]]", to mean a distraction from an important issue.<ref name="herring" /><ref>Martin Chilton, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9917758/William-Cobbett-forgotten-chronicler-of-England.html William Cobbett: forgotten chronicler of England], The Telegraph, 9 March 2015.</ref>

Cobbett's sons were trained as barristers and founded a partnership in Manchester named [[Cobbetts]] in his honour. The firm dissolved in 2013. His second son [[John Morgan Cobbett]] (1800–1877) followed him into politics and like his father became MP for [[Oldham (UK Parliament constituency)|Oldham]].<ref>Cole, ''Life of William Cobbett'', p. 436.</ref>

Cobbett's birthplace, a public house in Farnham once named ''The Jolly Farmer'', has been renamed ''The William Cobbett''. The Brooklyn-based history band [[Piñataland]] performed a song about William Cobbett's quest to rebury [[Thomas Paine]] entitled "An American Man". An equestrian statue of Cobbett was being planned for a site in Farnham in 2009,<ref>BBC [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/surrey/7842303.stm Home town plans statue of Cobbett] 21 January 2009</ref><ref>Waverley Borough Council Committee Document [http://waverweb.waverley.gov.uk/live/wbc/NewComDB.nsf/163fb885c18530cb802575ae003875fd/e953dfbc1b202107802575ae00364b94?OpenDocument William Cobbett Statue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721001803/http://waverweb.waverley.gov.uk/live/wbc/NewComDB.nsf/163fb885c18530cb802575ae003875fd/e953dfbc1b202107802575ae00364b94?OpenDocument |date=21 July 2011 }}</ref> which already has the William Cobbett Primary School named in his honour.

After Cobbett's death, Benjamin Tilly, who had served Cobbett as companion, secretary and factotum, initiated the Cobbett Club. Members sent petitions to Parliament demanding radical reform and produced radical pamphlets and leaflets to keep Cobbett's politics alive. Some of these are still available in libraries. The William Cobbett Society, based in Farnham, produces a yearly edition of 'Cobbett's New Register', and celebrates Cobbett's life, works and spirit in various activities, including an annual Rural Ride and lecture.

{{anchor|Writings|Publications|Books}}

==Works==
<!--chronological order-->
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |title=A Bone to Gnaw for the Democrats |location=Philadelphia |date=1795}}, as "Peter Porcupine", reprinted at London in 1797
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001746911 |title=Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England from the Norman conquest in 1066 to the Year 1803, from Which Last-Mentioned Epoch It Is Continued Downwards in the Work Entitled "Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates" |location=London |publisher=T.C. Hansard |date=1806–1820 |volume=I{{ndash}}XXXV}}
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |title=A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period to the Year 1783 |volume=I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, & XXI |location=London |publisher=T.C. Hansard |date=1816}}, with [[Thomas Bayly Howell]]
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |title=A Grammar of the English Language |location=New York |date=1818}}
*[https://archive.org/details/treatingoftheface00cobbrich/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater  ''A Year's Residence in the United States of America'' London. 1818-19 &#91;1828&#93;]
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |date=1822 |title=Cottage Economy |publisher=C. Clement |title-link=Cottage Economy}}
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/contents_page.jsp?t_id=Cobbett |title=Rural Rides |date=1822}}
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=te4nAAAAYAAJ |title=The Woodlands |date=1825}}
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |title=The Housekeeper's Magazine and Family Economist |location=London |publisher=Knight & Lacey |date=1826}}
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |author2=Juan Enrique Sievrac |display-authors=0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x8qoHHFUKdoC |location=London |publisher=Mills, Jowett, & Mills |title=Elements of the Roman History in English and French from the Foundation of Rome to the Battle of Actium, Selected from the Best Authors, Ancient and Modern, with a Series of Questions at the End of Each Chapter for the Use of Schools and Young Persons in General |date=1828 }}, with Juan Enrique Sievrac
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |url=http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/cobbett/PoorMan%27sFriend.pdf |title=The Poor Man's Friend, or, Essays on the Rights and Duties of the Poor |date=1829 |access-date=5 September 2006 |archive-date=19 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119005133/http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/cobbett/PoorMan%27sFriend.pdf |url-status=dead }}
*[https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/gdc/lhbtn/24759/24759.pdf  ''Emigrant's Guide: In Ten Letters, Addressed to the Tax-Payers of England'', London 1829]  
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |date=1830 |title=Rural Rides in the Counties |publisher=Cobbett}}
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |date=1833 |title=Cobbett's Tour in Scotland and in the four Northern Vounties in England |publisher=Cobbett}}
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |title=The Life of Andrew Jackson, President of the United States |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Bros |date=1834}}
<!--need dates and publishers-->
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15510 |title=Advice to Young Men, and (Incidentally) to Young Women, in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life}}
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |url=http://www.exclassics.com/protref/protint.htm|title=A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland}}
*{{Citation |last=Cobbett |first=William |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |url=https://archive.org/details/listabbeysprior00cobbgoog |title=List of Abbeys, Priories, Nunneries, Hospitals, and Other Religious Foundations in England and Wales and in Ireland Confiscated, Seized on, or Alienated by the Protestant "Reformation" Sovereigns and Parliaments|year=1868 |publisher=T. Richardson and son }}
*{{Citation |last=Knight |first=Denis (Ed.) |author-link=William Cobbett |display-authors=0 |url=https://archive.org/details/cobbettinireland0000cobb |title=Cobbett In Ireland: A Warning to England | location=London |publisher=Lawrence and Wishart |date=1984}}

==See also==
*[[Tilford#Tilford Oak or King's Oak or Novel's Oak|Tilford]], with an ancient oak tree described by Cobbett

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*[[G. D. H. Cole]], ''The Life of William Cobbett'' (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1971). {{ISBN|0837147816}}
*Ian Dyck, "[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5734 Cobbett, William (1763–1835)]", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 23 July 2011.
*Daniel Green, ''Great Cobbett: The Noblest Agitator'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985). {{ISBN|0192818651}}

==Further reading==
*[http://www.journoblog.com/2010/03/cobbetts-rural-rides/ Journoblog] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409002240/http://www.journoblog.com/2010/03/cobbetts-rural-rides/ |date=9 April 2010 }}: A Brief History, Analysis and Discussion of Cobbett and Rural Rides
*[[G. K. Chesterton]], ''William Cobbett'' (1925). {{ISBN|0-7551-0033-6}}
*{{Cite book|last=Heath|first=Richard|title=The English Peasant|year=1893|publisher=T. Fisher Unwin|location=London|chapter=[[s:The English Peasant/William Cobbett|William Cobbett]]|pages=245–291}}
*[[Richard Ingrams]], ''The Life and Adventures of William Cobbett'', HarperCollins (2005) {{ISBN|0-00-255800-9}}
*{{Cite book|last=Young|first=Penny|title=Two Cocks on the Dunghill – William Cobbett and Henry Hunt: their friendship, feuds and fights|publisher=Twopenny Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-9561703-3-0|url=http://www.twopennypress.co.uk/|access-date=10 June 2009|archive-date=18 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218072924/http://www.twopennypress.co.uk/|url-status=dead}}
*M. L. Pearl, ''William Cobbett: A Bibliographical Account of His Life and Times'', OUP (1953)

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|William Cobbett}}
*[http://www.williamcobbett.org.uk The William Cobbett Society]
*[https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentwork/communicating/from-the-parliamentary-collections/collections/cobbett-watercolour/ William Cobbett Exhibition - UK Parliament - Living Heritage]
* {{cite EB9 |wstitle = William Cobbett |volume= VI | pages=83-85 |short=1}}
*[http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Cobbett.htm Biography by Peter Landry]
*[http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2809 Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']
*[http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/William_Cobbett.txt Biography by G. K. Chesterton]
*[http://www.spartacus-educational.com/PRcobbett.htm Brief history: gives additional reference to ''The Political Register'']
*[http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aphea/history.htm History of Hansard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041220064229/http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aphea/history.htm |date=20 December 2004 }}
*[http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/contents_page.jsp?t_id=Cobbett William Cobbett's Rural Rides on Vision of Britain]
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
*{{Hansard-contribs|mr-william-cobbett|William Cobbett}}
*{{Gutenberg author|id=6098}}
*{{Internet Archive author|sname=William Cobbett}}
*{{Librivox author|id=1932}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-new|constituency}}
{{s-ttl
|title = Member of Parliament for [[Oldham (UK Parliament constituency)|Oldham]]
|with = [[John Fielden]]
|years = [[1832 United Kingdom general election|1832]]–[[1835 United Kingdom general election|1835]]}}
{{s-aft|after= [[John Fielden]] and<br />[[John Frederick Lees]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobbett, William}}
[[Category:1763 births]]
[[Category:1835 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century English farmers]]
[[Category:19th-century English essayists]]
[[Category:19th-century English farmers]]
[[Category:19th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:British radicals]]
[[Category:English reformers]]
[[Category:English male essayists]]
[[Category:Burials in Surrey]]
[[Category:English activists]]
[[Category:English essayists]]
[[Category:English male journalists]]
[[Category:Linguists of English]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies]]
[[Category:People from Farnham]]
[[Category:Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham]]
[[Category:Radicals (UK)]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1832–1835]]