Editing Samuel Bamford

{{Short description|Radical reformer from Lancashire, England, 1788–1872}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
[[Image:Samuel Bamford.png|thumb|Samuel Bamford]]
'''Samuel Bamford''' (28 February 1788 – 13 April 1872)<ref>S. Bamford, "Early Days", (London 1849) p. 1: "I have always been given to understand that I was brought into this world on the 28th day of February in the "Gallic era-eighty eight" [1788].</ref> was an English [[Radicalism (historical)|radical]] reformer and writer born in [[Middleton, Greater Manchester|Middleton]], [[Lancashire]]. He wrote on the subject of northern English dialect and wrote some of his better known verse in it.

==Biography==
Bamford was one of five children born to Daniel Bamford (a muslin weaver and part-time teacher, and later master of the [[Salford, Greater Manchester|Salford]] workhouse), and his wife, Hannah. He was baptised on 11 April 1788 at [[St Leonard's Church, Middleton|St Leonard's Church]], Middleton.<ref>Ancestry.com. ''Lancashire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812''[database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. ''Lancashire Anglican Parish Registers''. Preston, England: Lancashire Archives.</ref><ref>Ancestry.com. ''Manchester, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1541-1812''[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. ''Anglican Parish Registers''. Manchester, England: Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives.</ref>

After his father withdrew him from [[Manchester Grammar School]], Bamford became a weaver and then a warehouseman in [[Manchester]].<ref name="ODNB" >{{Cite ODNB |title=Bamford, Samuel (1788–1872) |last=Spence |first=Peter |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/1256 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1256 |accessdate=2008-02-15}}</ref> Exposure to Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' and to the poems of [[John Milton]] influenced Bamford to begin writing poetry himself.<ref name="ODNB" />

On 24 June 1810, he married Jemema (or Jemima) Sheppard, who he called 'Mima', at the Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, in [[Manchester]], now known as [[Manchester Cathedral]].<ref>Ancestry.com. ''Manchester, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1930 (Cathedral)'' [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. ''Anglican Parish Registers''. Manchester, England: Manchester Cathedral. Images produced by permission of Manchester Cathedral and Manchester City Council.</ref> 

Bamford and Mima had at least one child, born outside of wedlock. The "sweet infant, just of age to begin noticing things," was kept a secret and revealed to him the day after the couple married.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bamford |first=Samuel |title=Early Days |date=1849 |publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. |isbn=9781535803731 |location=London |pages=249}}</ref> According to Emma Griffin, Bamford and Mima's daughter, Ann, was six months old at the time and had been baptised in January 1810 under Jemima Sheppard's name.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Griffin |first=Emma |date=May 2013 |title=Sex, illegitimacy and social change in industrializing Britain |url= |journal=Social History |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=152–153 |doi=10.1080/03071022.2013.790236 |via=Taylor & Francis Online}}</ref> Griffin also notes that Bamford had another child out of wedlock to a "Yorkshire lass".<ref name=":0" />

In 1851 or thereabouts, Bamford obtained a situation as a messenger for the Inland Revenue at [[Somerset House]], but soon returned to weaving.<ref name="ODNB" /> The 1861 England Census records that Samuel, as a "public reader and agent" resided with Jemina in Hall Street, Manchester.<ref>Class: ''RG 9''; Piece: ''2974''; Folio: ''69''; Page: ''6''; GSU roll: ''543058.'' Ancestry.com. ''1861 England Census'' [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. ''Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861''. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1861.</ref> 

==Radicalism==
Bamford's radical political beliefs led him to be heavily involved in resistance to the British government and to witness to several important historical events relating to working-class advocacy and public defiance.

===Arrests for treason===
In 1817 he was remanded in jail to the New Bailey Prison in [[Salford]] on suspicion of high treason, on account of his political activities. From there he was taken to London and examined before the Privy Council, presided over by [[Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth|Lord Sidmouth]] as Home Secretary. After promising future good behaviour, Bamford was released and allowed to return to his cottage at Middleton with his wife Jemima.<ref>T. A. Lockett (1968): ''Three Lives: Samuel Bamford, Alfred Darbyshire, Ellen Wilkinson'', London: University of London Press; pp. 9–10.</ref>

In August 1819, he led a group from Middleton to St Peter's Fields for a meeting that pressed for parliamentary reform and repeal of the [[Corn Laws]]. There they witnessed the [[Peterloo Massacre]], and Bamford was arrested and charged with treason. Although there was no evidence shown that either he or any of his group had been involved in the violence, he was found guilty of inciting a riot and sentenced to a year in [[Lincoln (HM Prison)|Lincoln prison]].

The massacre had a deep impact on Bamford, convincing him that state power always succeeded against radical militancy. He came to be seen as a voice for radical reform, but opposed to activism involving physical force.<ref name="ODNB" /> Bamford responded to the claim that his political group had used violence to pursue their reforming ends, in ''Passages in the Life of a Radical and Early Days'' (1840–1844), "It was not until we became infested by spies, incendiaries, and their dupes – distracting, misleading, and betraying – that physical force was mentioned amongst us. After that our moral power waned, and what we gained by the accession of demagogues, we lost by their criminal violence, and the estrangement of real friends."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bamford |first=Samuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ycTUAAAAMAAJ |title=Passages in the Life of a Radical and Early Days |date=1893 |publisher=Unwin |language=en}}</ref>

===Poetry and other writings===
Bamford was the author of poetry mostly in standard English, but of those in dialect, several that showed sympathy with the conditions of the working classes became widely popular.<ref>Brian Hollingworth, ed. (1977) ''Songs of the People''. Manchester: Manchester University Press; p. 151.</ref> Around 1840 he also became associated with the [[The Sun Inn Group|Sun Inn Group]], a collective of fellow working class poets who met regularly at the Sun Inn on Long Millgate in Manchester, where his status as a Peterloo veteran made him an inspiration for younger peers.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last1=Dyos |first1=Harold James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hdtvi4I39IEC |title=The Victorian City: Images and Realities |last2=Wolff |first2=Michael |date=1999 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-19324-5 |language=en}}</ref> This was also when he authored ''Passages in the Life of a Radical'' (1840–1844), his authoritative history of the condition of the working classes in the years after the [[Battle of Waterloo]].

In 1850, he published ''Tawk o'Seawth Lankeshur, by Samhul Beamfort,'' which, following the first one written in standard English, even adds a second title page and publishing information in local dialect. It begins:

<poem>{{lang|en|Good lorjus days whot wofo times ar' these,
Pot bos ar scant, and dear ar seawl an cheese,
Eawr Gotum guides us seely sheep dun rob,
Oytch public trust is cheyng'd into a job;
Leys, taxes, customs, meyn our plucks to throb.}}<ref>Samuel Bamford, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=T08YcA3BFnEC&dq=1850%3A%20Tawk%20o%27Seawth%20Lankeshur%2C%20by%20Samuel%20Beamfort&pg=PA1 Dialect of South Lancashire: or, Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary.]'' Manchester, p. 3.</ref></poem>

Continuing his interest in dialect, he also compiled ''The Dialect of South Lancashire'' in 1854.

===Death and legacy===
In the 1871 England Census, taken the year before Bamford's death, he is recorded as living at 109 Hall Street, [[Harpurhey]], as a widower, with a widowed housekeeper, Elizabeth Hilton.<ref>Class: ''RG10''; Piece: ''4065''; Folio: ''169''; Page: ''20''; GSU roll: ''846347.'' Ancestry.com. ''1871 England Census'' [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. ''Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871''. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1871.</ref>

[[Image:SamBamfordPlaque.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque marking where the Middleton contingent gathered before being led by Bamford to [[Peterloo Massacre|St Peter's Fields]]]]
[[Image:Samuel Bamford Obelisk Portrait.jpg|thumb|right|Relief of Samuel Bamford on the obelisk in Middleton Cemetery]]
Bamford died in Harpurhey on the 13th of April 1872 at the age of 84 and was given a public funeral in Middleton on the 20th, attended by several thousand people.<ref>''Manchester, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813–1985'' [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. ''Anglican Parish Registers''. Manchester, England: Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives.</ref> A memorial obelisk unveiled in Middleton Cemetery in 1877 reads in part, "Bamford was a reformer when to be so was unsafe, and he suffered for his faith."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Samuel Bamford Memorial |work=National Recording Project |publisher=Public Monument and Sculpture Association |url=http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/MR/MR-ROC19.htm |accessdate=2008-02-15 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716184014/http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/MR/MR-ROC19.htm |archivedate=2011-07-16}}</ref>

In 2000 ''The Diaries of Samuel Bamford'' were released, edited by [[Robert Poole (historian)|Robert Poole]] and a critical Martin Hewitt, according to whom "Bamford's career, not least its virulent anti-Chartism, have tainted him with reformism, and left him to be invoked as an example of the weaknesses and limitations of early nineteenth-century working-class political assertion."<ref>Martin Hewitt, "Radicalism and the Victorian Working Class: The Case of Samuel Bamford", ''The Historical Journal,'' Vol. 34, No. 4, 1991, pp. 873–892.</ref>

=== Influence on Literature ===
Samuel Bamford's ''Passages in the Life of a Radical'' (1839–41) is widely recognized not only as a historical account of working-class radicalism but also as an influential source for later literary works. [[George Eliot]] drew extensively on Bamford's writings while researching her 1866 novel ''[[Felix Holt, the Radical]]''. In her diary, Eliot noted reading passages from ''Passages in the Life of a Radical'' during the writing process. Bamford’s political views—his advocacy of lawful protest, rejection of violence, emphasis on education, and moral improvement—find clear parallels in the character of Felix Holt, whose political stance closely mirrors Bamford's brand of moderate radicalism.<ref name=":3">{{citation |author=Christopher Hobson |title=The Radicalism of Felix Holt: George Eliot and the pioneers of labor |date=1998 |periodical=Victorian Literature and Culture |pages=19–39 |location=United States of America |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

==Bibliography==
Bamford's publications include: 
*1817: ''An Account of the Arrest and Imprisonment of Samuel Bamford, Middleton, on Suspicion of High Treason''<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=DBZlAAAAcAAJ&dq=%C2%A01817%3A+An+Account+of+the+Arrest+and+Imprisonment+of+Samuel+Bamford%2C+Middleton%2C+on+Suspicion+of+High+Treason&pg=PA1 1817: ''An Account of the Arrest and Imprisonment of Samuel Bamford, Middleton, on Suspicion of High Treason''.]</ref>
*1819: ''The Weaver Boy, or Miscellaneous Poetry''<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=WnWBPgAACAAJ&q=%C2%A0The+Weaver+Boy,+or+Miscellaneous+Poetry The Weaver Boy, or Miscellaneous Poetry.]</ref>
*1834: ''Hours in the Bowers: Poems, etc.''
*1843: ''Homely Rhymes''<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Oto0AAAAMAAJ&dq=%C2%A0+1843%3A+Homely+Rhymes&pg=PA1 ''Homely Rhymes''.]</ref>
*1840–1844 ''Passages in the Life of a Radical'' (published in parts with many later editions, includes a glossary of Lancashire words).<ref>Jarndyce catalogue: ''The Romantic Background c.1780–1850'' (London, 2015), item 219. [http://www.jarndyce.co.uk/online_catalogues/212.pdf Retrieved 31 March 2015]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.</ref>
*1843: ''Poems''<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n83-124248/ |title=Bamford, Samuel }}</ref>
*1844: ''Walks in South Lancashire and on its Borders. With letters, descriptions, narratives and observations current and incidental''<ref>[http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/bamford/b_walks.htm 1844: ''Walks in South Lancashire and on its Borders. With letters, descriptions, narratives and observations current and incidental''.]
*1849: ''Early Days'', 2nd ed. 1859.]</ref>
*1849: ''Early Days''
*1850: ''Tawk o'Seawth Lankeshur, by Samhul Beamfort'']<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=T08YcA3BFnEC&dq=1850%3A+Tawk+o%27Seawth+Lankeshur%2C+by+Samuel+Beamfort&pg=PA1 1850: ''Tawk o'Seawth Lankeshur, by Samhul Beamfort''.]</ref>
*1853: ''Life of Amos Ogden''
*1854: ''The Dialect of South Lancashire, or Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary, with his Rhymes, with Glossary''<ref>[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001958831 1854: ''The Dialect of South Lancashire, or Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary, with his Rhymes, with Glossary''.]</ref>
*1864: ''Homely Rhymes, Poems and Reminiscences''<ref>[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000282007 1864: ''Homely Rhymes, Poems and Reminiscences'']</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Poetry}}
*[[Blanketeers]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=%22Bamford,%20Samuel,%201788-1872.%22&type=author&inst= Works by or about Samuel Bamford] at [[HathiTrust]]
*[https://archive.org/search.php?query=Samuel%20Bamford Works by or about Samuel Bamford] at [[Internet Archive]]
*[https://www.google.com/search?sa=X&tbm=bks&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Samuel+Bamford%22&ved=0ahUKEwjj-oGl0frgAhUQWqwKHYR-CxAQ9AgILDAA&biw=1225&bih=793&dpr=1 Works by or about Samuel Bamford] at [[Google Books]]
*{{librivox author|Samuel+Bamford}}
*Works by Samuel Bamford at [https://web.archive.org/web/20080614094914/http://domain1041943.sites.fasthosts.com/bamford/b_radical_index.htm Bamford's "Passages in the Life of a Radical" and "Early Days" in two volumes edited with an introduction by Henry Dunckley ("verax") London: T. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster Square: MDXCCCXCIII]
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
*[http://gerald-massey.org.uk/bamford/index.htm Biography & selected writings] at gerald-massey.org.uk
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081120230349/http://www.thisismiddleton.co.uk/samuelbamford.htm Biography] at thisismiddleton.co.uk
*{{Cite DNB|wstitle=Bamford, Samuel|volume=3}}
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bamford, Samuel}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bamford, Samuel}}
[[Category:1788 births]]
[[Category:1872 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Middleton, Greater Manchester]]
[[Category:British weavers]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:Peterloo massacre]]
[[Category:People educated at Manchester Grammar School]]