Thursday, 8 May 2014

501 William Allen



Constituency : Newcastle-under-lyme  1865-86

William  replaced  William  Jackson  as  the  Liberal  representative  for  Newcastle-under-lyme.

William  was  a  Mancunian  conservative  Methodist  educated  at  Oxford. He  was  also  a  wealthy  landowner  in  Staffordshire.

William's  maiden  speech  was  in  support  of  the  1866  Reform  Bill. He  supported  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  church  and   the  right  of  Nonconformist  burial  services  in  parish  churchyards. He  was  also  active  on  the  Wesleyan  Temperance  Committee.

William  was opposed to  Home  Rule  and  complained  to  Gladstone  about  his  haste  saying   it  had  not  been  raised  at  the  last  election.

Shortly  after  leaving  Parliament  William  left  for  New  Zealand  where  he  farmed  and  was  briefly  MP for  Te  Aroha  in  1890  before  being  unseated  on  petition.

In  1913  William  published  a  pamphlet  attacking  the  revisionist  views  of  the  Methodist  preacher   George  Jackson . William  made  an  error  in  attacking  a  statement  which  was  actually  a  direct  quote  from  Wesley  himself  and  had  to  revise  and  reissue  it.

He  died  back  in  England  in  1915  aged  83.

No comments:

Post a Comment