George Faithfull

George Faithfull (1790 – 11 March 1863) was an English solicitor and Radical politician.[1][2][3]

Faithfull was a solicitor and partner in G & H Faithfull & Co., one of the three largest law firms in Brighton.[4][5] He became involved in the public life of the rapidly expanding town as solicitor to Thomas Read Kemp, developer of the Kemp Town Estate.[4] He was subsequently a member of the Brighton Improvement Commissioners.[4] Kemp had established his own non-conformist sect, and Faithfull was a regular preacher in the chapel in Ship Street, Brighton.[6] When Kemp returned to the Church of England in 1823, Faithfull became minister of the Ship Street Chapel (later called Holy Trinity Church, in 1827 replacing it with a new building in Church Street.[4][7]

Following the Reform Act 1832, Brighton was enfranchised as a parliamentary borough, returning two members of parliament to the House of Commons. At the 1832 general election Faithfull was elected as one of the town's first MPs alongside Isaac Wigney.[8] His extreme Radical views were not popular with his constituents, however. The diarist Charles Greville, a resident of Brighton, described him as a "bad character".[4] He was defeated at the next general election in 1835.[8]

Faithfull put his defeat down to lack of support from the press, and accordingly began publication of the weekly Brighton Patriot and Lewes Free Press in February 1835 to propagate his views.[9] He was once again defeated in an ill-tempered general election in 1837.[8][9] The middle class readership abandoned Faithfull's newspaper and he found himself aligned with the local Chartists. When a series of Chartist riots and strikes took place in 1839, Faithfull closed the Patriot.[9]

He continued his legal practice until his death, acting as solicitors to a number of railway companies.[10] He died at his Brighton residence in March 1863.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b "Deaths". The Times. 14 March 1863. p. 1.
  2. ^ "Deaths". Morning Post. 16 March 1863. p. 8.
  3. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 5)
  4. ^ a b c d e Dale, Anthony (1967). Fashionable Brighton, 1820-1860 (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-85362-028-0.
  5. ^ National Archives
  6. ^ The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register. Vol. 13. London. 1820. p. 94.
  7. ^ Brighton As It Is 1831; Describing Everything Worthy of Description to the Visitor or Townsman. London: E Wallis. 1831. p. 81.
  8. ^ a b c Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [First published 1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 65. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
  9. ^ a b c "Brighton Patriot". British Newspapers 1800-1900. British Library. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  10. ^ Railway Times, Volume 2 (1839), p.88.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency Member of Parliament for Brighton
1832–1835
With: Isaac Wigney 		Succeeded by


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