Christopher Wyvill

Christopher Wyvill

Christopher Wyvill (1740-1822) was an English political reformer who inspired the formation of the Yorkshire Association movement in 1779.

The American Revolutionary War had forced the government of Lord North to increase taxation. Frustrated with government profligacy, Wyvill and the gentry of Yorkshire called for a package of 'economical reforms': cuts in government spending and patronage, annual parliaments and an increase in the number of county seats in parliament.

Wyvill's cause was taken up by the Rockingham Whig opposition, culminating in the carrying of Dunning's motion in 1780. Some moderate reforms were implemented by the Rockingham-led administration of 1782. William Pitt the Younger raised a number of issues surrounding parliamentary reform in opposition to the Fox-North Coalition in 1783, but his proposal failed to gain necessary support. In the wake of the French Revolution, Wyvill's platform came to be seen as moderate. Nonetheless, its influence can be detected in the Chartist movement and the Great Reform Act in the nineteenth century.

See

Ian R. Christie (1960) The Yorkshire Association, 1780-4: A Study in Political Organization The Historical Journal, Vol.3, No.2, pp.144-161 [1]

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Name	Wyvill, Christopher
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Date of birth	1740
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Date of death	1822
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