26 Facts About Francis Burdett

Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet was a British politician and Member of Parliament who gained notoriety as a proponent of universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, vote by ballot, and annual parliaments.

Francis Burdett was the godfather of Francisco Burdett O'Connor, one of the famed Libertadores of the Spanish American wars of independence.

Sir Francis Burdett was the son of Francis Burdett and his wife Eleanor, daughter of William Jones of Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire.

Francis Burdett inherited the family baronetcy from his grandfather Sir Robert Burdett in 1797.

Francis Burdett was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.

Francis Burdett was in Paris during the earlier days of the French Revolution.

Francis Burdett's inheritance included the family seat of Foremarke Hall and "the hamlets of Ingleby and Foremark which were under his Lordship".

Francis Burdett denounced the war with France, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and the proposed exclusion of John Horne Tooke from parliament, and quickly became the idol of the people.

Francis Burdett had made the acquaintance of Tooke in 1797, becoming his pupil not only in politics but in philology.

Together they were instrumental in securing a parliamentary inquiry, and as a result Francis Burdett was for a time prevented by the government from visiting any prison in the kingdom.

In 1803, after Despard was tried and executed for treason, Francis Burdett helped secure Catherine Despard a pension.

In Paris, 1802, Francis Burdett presented the radical writer Thomas Paine with a gift of money to enable him to discharge his debts and return to the United States.

At the general election of 1802 Francis Burdett, assisted by the radical Irish journalist and publisher Peter Finnerty, was returned as Member of Parliament for the county of Middlesex, but his return was declared void in 1804 and he lost the ensuing by-election owing to the machinations of the returning officer.

In 1805 this return was amended in his favor, but as this decision was again quickly reversed, Francis Burdett, who had spent an immense sum of money over the affair, declared he would not stand for parliament again.

At the general election of 1806 Francis Burdett was a leading supporter of James Paull, the reform candidate for the City of Westminster; but in the following year a misunderstanding led to a duel between Francis Burdett and Paull in which both combatants were wounded.

In January 1809, Francis Burdett participated with Gwyllym Wardle in the Duke of York scandal, by which Prince Frederick was relieved of his duties as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, only to be reinstated two years later when Wardle had been shown to encourage the hostile testimony of Mary Anne Clarke, the mistress of Frederick.

Francis Burdett again attacked abuses, agitated for reform, and in 1810 came sharply into collision with the House of Commons.

The radical John Gale Jones had been committed to prison by the House, and Francis Burdett questioned the power of the House to take this step, and tried in vain to have him released.

Francis Burdett then issued a revised edition of his speech on this occasion which was published by William Cobbett in the Weekly Register.

Francis Burdett then brought legal actions against the speaker and the sergeant-at-arms, but the courts upheld the action of the House.

In parliament Francis Burdett denounced corporal punishment in the army, and supported all attempts to check corruption, but his principal efforts were directed towards procuring a reform of parliament, and the removal of Roman Catholic disabilities.

Francis Burdett succeeded in carrying a resolution in 1825 that the House should consider the laws concerning Roman Catholics.

In 1820 Francis Burdett had again come into serious conflict with the government.

Francis Burdett refused all food and died just ten days later on 23 January 1844.

Francis Burdett left a son, Robert, who succeeded to the baronetcy and inherited his very large fortune, and five daughters, the youngest of whom became the celebrated Baroness Burdett-Coutts after inheriting the Coutts fortune from her grandfather's widow Harriet, Duchess of St Albans and appending the Coutts surname under the terms of Harriet's will.

Francis Burdett brought up two of the sons of his friend the Irish nationalist Roger O'Connor, who both became notable political radicals.