Talk:John Bright

Topics
I'm feeling that this article is in need of a update; as a Brummie I find this article woefully inadequate with respect to John Bright's association with Birmingham, which merits barely a single paragraph. Even Birmingham city council's own site mentions more on this subject! The entire text seems barely changed since it's 1911 publication in Brittanica. I might attempt a re-write if i can find the time. anyone else have an opinion?


 * A rewrite would be excellent. Rewrites for most articles derived from the 1911 Britannica would, I think, be in order. john k 16:46, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

ODNB has 19 pages, with some useful modern items in the bibliography: R. B. O'Brien, John Bright (1910) · G. M. Trevelyan, The life of John Bright (1913) · J. T. Mills, John Bright and the Quakers, 2 vols. (1935) · H. Ausubel, John Bright: Victorian reformer (1966) · D. Read, Cobden and Bright: a Victorian political partnership (1967) · J. L. Sturgis, John Bright and the empire (1969) · K. Robbins, John Bright (1979) · M. Taylor, The decline of British radicalism, 1847–1860 (1995). I read Ausubel's book some time back - pretty good!

Do we also need a list of Quaker MPs - would include: Percy Alden, Edmund Ashworth, Philip Noel-Baker, Edmund Backhouse, Joseph Pease .. .. . None in Parliament at the moment (May 2006) see Sue Doughty

Vernon White 11:43, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Early Life
As a great x2 nephew of John Bright I have some doubt about his mother being Martha WOOD. According to my records this should be Martha BANCROFT. Martha's mother was Elizabeth WOOD, so this may explain the confusion.

The Bancroft family can be traced back to the 16th and 17th Centuries in the Parish Registers of Cheadle and Stockport in Cheshire, pre-eminent in that age being Richard Bancroft, who, in the reign of James I, became Archbishop of Canterbury (1604-1610) and overseer for the compilation of the Authorised Version of the Bible. Later in the 17th Century, Bancrofts joined the Society of Friends, John (1633-1699), being a Quaker Minister for forty years. After William Penn (1644-1718), had led a train of Quakers across the Delaware River to found the state of Pennsylvania in 1682, Jacob Bancroft (1664-1742) sought a patent for land and for a town plot in Philadelphia. So began the family's connection with America which culminated when John Bancroft emigrated with his family in 1822. In the 19th Century the name Bancroft was prominent in American Literature, History, Science and Diplomacy, notable being the historian John Bancroft (1800-1891), who was US minister to Great Britain (1846-49), and who was elected to the American Hall of Fame in 1910.

If nobody objects, I will make this correction.Tractorboy60 14:42, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

I did not make the correction since it may be the case that Elizabeth Wood was Martha's sister. Until I look at the relevant parish registers it could be that ODNB is correct.

Tractorboy60 08:53, 25 August 2007 (UTC) Revised Tractorboy60 15:48, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

More on Birmingham
Folks might want to draw on more from Bill Cash's A Working Class Hero article for the Birmingham Post, p.18, 27 October 2008. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 17:29, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Bot-created subpage
A temporary subpage at User:Polbot/fjc/John Bright was automatically created by a perl script, based on this article at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. The subpage should either be merged into this article, or moved and disambiguated. Polbot (talk) 16:22, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

What did he actually do?
Although this is a "good" article, I have the feeling I now know this man's life story without knowing the first thing about what he actually did. Could someone please expand the leading section to address 1) What his philosophy was (e.g. wanted to take vested interests out of Parliament) and 2) What he did about it (e.g. made use of mass printing and modern travel to get his word out). This article really needs some at-a-glance facts because I feel like I haven't learned anything. GM Pink Elephant (talk) 07:14, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

I don't know how to reference properly. I edited the article to include details of his cabinet positions, and included a footnote link to Britannica online. Could someone clean this up for me? (Tom, Oxford 31 May 2013) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.170.102.174 (talk) 11:12, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

Views on Disraeli
The Telegraph "best British political insults" quotes him describing Disraeli as a self made man who worshipped his creator which is certainly witty.

Anyone know the context? JRPG (talk) 12:58, 8 October 2015 (UTC)


 * The earliest mention I can find of this in the Australian newspapers is this 1870 article (when both Disraeli and Bright were alive) but it's written in a way that suggests to me that it is from earlier. Kerry (talk) 04:33, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for that. Unfortunately as it is, atm without the context, adding it could appear to be trivia. JRPG (talk) 15:45, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

Manchester Examiner
I am not sure where best to place it in this article but Bright was a co-founder of the radical Manchester Examiner newspaper in 1846, per sources at that article. - Sitush (talk) 21:26, 6 February 2018 (UTC)

Home rule being Rome rule
The Rome Rule page credits Bright with the coining of the slogan  "Rome rule" being coined by Bright...  (cited Searle, G. R.: A New England? Peace and War 1886–1918 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005), p. 142.)and thought it ought to be in here but couldn't see it. (Msrasnw (talk) 11:11, 12 December 2020 (UTC))

The Legacy Section citing AJP Taylor is utterly absurd.
John Bright stood for smaller government - lower government spending, taxation and less regulations. AJP Taylor suggests the exact opposite - he associates John Bright with bigger government forces, the Liberal Party of David Lloyd-George, and even the socialist Labour Party. It is a breathtakingly dishonest assessment by the late AJP Taylor. 2A02:C7C:E183:AC00:FC92:111:D5F6:D7CE (talk) 20:09, 3 September 2023 (UTC)