Some inhabitants of Bradford in the 1890s - the Tillett petition - contents

THE TILLETT PETITION
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Some inhabitants of Bradford in the 1890s - the Tillett petition - contents

Some inhabitants of Bradford in the 1890s - the Tillett petition

Introduction

Some years ago I undertook an Open University course (DA301 Family and community history). The final project for this had to be a piece of original research carried out to very exacting standards. My project was based on an analysis of the so-called 'Tillett petition', a small notebook held at the Bradford office of the West Yorkshire Archive Service (document 56D80/11/2), the aim being to draw a portrait of those who supported Ben Tillett in Bradford, and thus the independent labour movement, about which very little is known.

Ben Tillett came to Britain's notice for the part he played in the successful London Dock Strike of 1889. It is likely that he appealed to many in Bradford where the Manningham Mills strike had come to an unsuccessful conclusion at the end of April 1891; the strike had a significant effect on the attitude of working men to those holding political power. Tillett was initially approached at this time to stand as Parliamentary candidate for the Eastern Division of Bradford. After some delay Tillett replied (his letter was reprinted in its entirety in the Yorkshire Factory Times of 22 May 1891) stating 'I shall never seek Parliamentary honours until I have the hearts and consciences of a constituency to back me up in the most spontaneous fashion'.

On July 12 Tillett 'was principal speaker at a great mass meeting in Shipley Glen' (Bradford Observer, 13th July 1891). And on July 24 the Yorkshire Factory Times reported that he had 'consented to contest the seat [for the Western Division] in the Labour interest - loud applause - in the event of 1,000 electors signing a petition asking him to do so'. The Yorkshire Factory Times reported on August 28 'The necessary signatures have now been got'.

It is these signatures, with addresses, which are in the notebook. It is not known how the signatures were collected. The notebook is made up of twenty separate sections bound together at some later date. Each section is prefaced with the following:
To Mr Ben Tillett of London
We the undersigned being/electors in the Western/Division of Bradford/hereby request you to/allow yourself to be put/forward as a candidate/for the said Division at the next election for the/Imperial Parliament,/your Candidature to be/conducted distinctly/on Independent labour lines.

Most signatures are in pencil; in some cases addresses are written in by the signatory, in some by another hand. Some addresses have the addition of an area, for example Four Lane Ends or Manningham, in a different hand. There are oddities, for example, on one page all thirty nine names were written in one hand, all with the street given as Church Street, without numbers; twenty five of these people were found in Heaton Road, off which Church Street is located, the rest could not be traced. Of the 1167 signatories 211 had no vote; 25 did not live in the Western Division, 9 signed twice, and 35 could not be traced in other sources. But we don't know what questions the canvasser asked: 'will you support?' and 'will you vote for?' could elicit quite different responses, although the 'petition' itself specifies 'electors'.

Having found out who the typical supporter was, I had to establish whether he was, in fact, any different from his neighbours, those who did not support Tillett (or were never asked). Because the density of support (52%) around Manningham Mills was very noticeable, this area was used to make a practicable comparison.

The result of all this analysis (apart from gaining a reasonable grade at the completion of the course) was a list of an appreciable number of names just sitting in my computer. It occured to me that some people might find ancestors in that list and that is why it appears on Genuki.

In the event, the election in July 1892 proved that there were 2749 voters who supported Tillett, well over twice the number signing the petition. The belief was that he had gained not only a significant number of Liberal votes, but also a not insignificant number of Conservative ones too. The Liberal candidate received most votes in 1892, and not until 1906 was an Independent Labour Party candidate voted in to represent Bradford's Western Division.

The list itself contains 1630 names. Mostly men, although there were women householders in the Manningham sample and several women signed the petition. They may not have had the Parliamentary vote, but their signatures showed they cared. Not all of these individuals have any more information than was in the petition, constraints on time prevented full information being given for all.

The project was later published under the title Ben Tillett, Bradford and the independent labour movement in the journal: Family and community history, Vol.2/2, November 1999, pp101-117. You should be able to get this through your public library.

Key to list

• Signatory? Indicates those who did or did not sign the Tillett petition.
• Street as given - in the Tillett petition, not all were given 'correctly'; one or two have not been identified.
• Street - the street which has been identified as 'correct'
• Voter? Indicates (Y - yes; N - no; F - female) whether the individual had voting
• rights; which Division he or she fell within; and in which ward.

• BR stands for Burgess Roll (the voters' register);
• dh stands for dwelling house, that for which the voting right was held before moving house;
• succ as given - the address to which the person had moved and where he/she appears in the census and/or in the Tillett petition.

Carol Bartlett

The data that Carol has produced is divided into 4 files of approximately 600 names per file:

• Surnames A to D.

• Surnames D to J.

• Surnames K to R.

• Surnames S to Y.