John Roebuck, the son of Ebenezer Roebuck, a civil servant in the
East India Company, was born in Madras in
India on 28th December, 1802. When John's father died in 1807 his
mother brought the family back to England. She remarried and in 1815
John was taken to Canada to live.
Roebuck returned to England at the age of twenty-two to study law
at the Inner Temple in London. He joined
the Utilitarian Society became friendly
with John Stuart Mill. Roebuck became active
in the campaign for increasing the franchise and after the 1832
Reform Act was selected to represent the Whigs
at Bath.
After entering the House of Commons he
caused a stir by promoting a wide-range of radical policies including
the expropriation of the property of the Church
of England. Although accused of preaching open rebellion he retained
his Bath seat in the 1835
General Election.
In 1834 Roebuck led the campaign to free the Tolpuddle
Martyrs and called for the repeal of the Corn
Laws. Roebuck joined with Francis Place
and Joseph Hume to produce a volume of essays
entitled Pamphlets for the People (1835). In one of these pamphlets,
The Stamped Press and its Morality, Roebuck attacked the 1815
Stamp Act that had placed a 4d tax on newspapers. Roebuck criticised
those newspaper owners who accepted this law. The editor of the Morning
Chronicle was so upset he challenged Roebuck to a duel. Roebuck
accepted and survived and later that year welcomed the decision to
reduce the tax to one penny.
By 1835 John Roebuck had completely broken with the Whigs
describing them as "an exclusive and aristocratic faction, though
at times employing democratic principles and phrases as weapons of
offence against their opponents. When out of office they are demagogues;
in power they become exclusive oligarchs." Without the support
of the Whigs, Roebuck lost his Bath seat
in the 1837 General Election.
Out of the House of Commons Roebuck's views
became less extreme and in the 1841 General Election
won Bath again. He supported the reforms
of Robert Peel, but he remained radical on
some issues and spoke out in favour of the Chartist
movement and helped present their petition to Parliament in 1842.
Defeated at Bath in the 1847
General Election, Roebuck moved to Sheffield
and was re-elected to the House of Commons
in a by-election in 1849. Roebuck upset his radical friends by losing
interest in domestic reform. After his election he supported the aggressive
foreign policy of Lord Palmerston.
This was popular with his constituents and he was re-elected in 1852,
1857, 1859 and 1865.
The views expressed by John Roebuck became increasingly conservative.
He admitted in 1864 that: "the hopes of my youth and manhood
are destroyed and I am left to reconstruct my political philosophy".
Although a long-term supporter of universal suffrage, during the debate
on the 1867 Reform Act he warned against
placing political power "in the hands of the ignorant".
Roebuck denounced the activities of trade unionists in what became
known as the Sheffield Outrages and
opposed his party leader, William Gladstone,
when he attempted to disestablish the Anglican
Church in Ireland. By this time the members of the Liberal
Party in Sheffield were totally
disillusioned with Roebuck and selected another candidate for the
forthcoming parliamentary election. Roebuck stood as an Independent
but was easily defeated in the 1868 General Election.
With the support of the Conservative Party,
Roebuck won the Sheffield seat in the
1874 General Election. In the House
of Commons he denounced William Gladstone
as a "bastard philanthropist" and praised the policies of
Benjamin Disraeli. John Roebuck died
of heart failure on 30th November 1879.
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