Cobbett, William 1763-1835
English writer and champion of the poor

Born in Farnham, Surrey, the son of a small farmer, he taught himself to read and write, and while serving as sergeant-major in New Brunswick (1785-91) studied rhetoric, geometry, logic and French. He bought his discharge in 1791, and the following year sailed for America. In Philadelphia he taught English to French refugees, opened a bookshop and published a paper, the Porcupine's Gazette (1797-99), in which he wrote fierce onslaughts on Joseph Priestley, Tom Paine and the native Democrats. On his return to England in 1800 the Tories welcomed him with open arms. In 1802 he started his weekly Cobbett's Political Register, which was Tory at first, but from 1804, he gradually became the most uncompromising champion of Radicalism. He initiated the publication of Parliamentary Debate (1806, later taken over by Luke Hansard) and State Trials (1809). He spent two years in Newgate Prison, London (1810-12), for his strictures on flogging in the army, and in 1817 financial problems and fear of further imprisonment drove him back to the USA, where he farmed on Long Island. Returning to England in 1819, he started a seed-farm at Kensington, defended himself against a charge of sedition (1831), and in 1832, after the First Reform Bill, became MP for Oldham. His celebrated Rural Rides (1830), a delightful picture of a vanishing world, were reprinted from the Register. His 40 or more other works include a savage History of the Reformation (1824-27), The Woodlands (1825) and Advice to Young Men (1830).

Bibliography: G D H Cole, The Life of Cobbett (1924)