- Rowland Detrosier
Rowland Detrosier, also Rowley Barnes, ("c."
1800 -23 November ,1834 ) was an Englishautodidact , radicalpolitician ,preacher andeducator , particularly associated with VictorianManchester .Early life
Detrosier's parents were Manchester
merchant Robert Norris and a French woman named Detrosier. He was born inLondon but abandoned and adopted by Charles Barnes, aSwedenborgian tailor who raised him inHulme , Manchester. Barnes treated him as his own son and named him Rowley.Lee (2004)]Before he started work aged nine, Detrosier had received only informal education, including that from the Manchester Benevolent Vegetarian Institute. He worked in a variety of menial jobs and married aged nineteen but managed to teach himself something of French, Latin,
mathematics ,astronomy ,physics ,chemistry ,botany , andgeology . Unfortunately, his appetite for learning reduced Detrosier to dire financial straights by 1821 and he was only rescued by thepatron age of John Shuttleworth, who found him a more secure and responsible job as a clerk and salesman. At this time, he also discovered his birth parentage.Lecturer and preacher
Now, Detrosier had even more scope for education. He had lectured on
science at SwedenborgianSunday School s since he was sixteen and he now travelled widely advocatingadult education forworking class people. Detrosier was a religious follower ofJoseph Brotherton and Brotherton recruited him to preach at the Brinksway Chapel,Stockport where he gained a huge following. In 1827, he was inspired to publish "A Form of Public Worship on the Principles of Pure Deism" but hisdeism was too radical for Brotherton who expelled him from his sect.Radical
In March 1829, Detrosier led a break-away from the
Manchester Mechanics' Institute , which he considered to be undemocratic, and established theNew Mechanics' Institution . [Kargon (1977)] John Doherty sought his help in establishingtrade union s but Detrosier was nosocialist , believing thatdemocracy posed real dangers unless individual moral development preceded political freedom.Detrosier attracted the further patronage of
Francis Place who established him as a full-time lecturer. Shuttleworth arranged for the 1831 publication of "On the Necessity of an Extension of Moral and Political Instruction among the Working Classes" and his work attracted the attention ofJeremy Bentham andAnne Isabella Byron, Baroness Byron . In 1831, Detrosier became secretary of theNational Political Union whereby he became friends withJohn Stuart Mill and metThomas Carlyle ,Gustave d'Eichtal ,George Birkbeck , andJohn Arthur Roebuck . Detrosier's new position in the liberal political establishment led him to work with health campaignerThomas Southwood Smith .Detrosier lectured on
meteorology andpneumatics at the London Mechanics' Institute but was dismissed when he acted asinterpreter for Gregorio Fontana andGioacchino Prati 's campaign in England in 1833. ["The Times", Wednesday 30 October 1833, "p."3 col.F] However, he found a new sponsor in Robert Mordan and Detrosier made a living lecturing and writing. In 1834, he contracted acommon cold and died at his home in London. He left his body to science.Notes
Bibliography
* cite book | author=Kargon, R. H. | title=Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and Expertise | location=Baltimore | publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press | year=1977 | id=ISBN 0-8018-1969-5 | pages=22-23
*Lee, M. (2004) " [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7559 Detrosier, Rowland (1800?–1834)] ", "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ", Oxford University Press, accessed 10 August 2007 ODNBsub
* cite journal | author=Styler, W. E. | title=Rowland Detrosier | journal=Adult Education | volume=21 | year=1949 | pages=133–8
* cite book | author=Williams, G. A. | title=Rowland Detrosier: A Working Class Infidel, 1800-34 | year=1965 | publisher=St. Anthony's P | id=ISBN 0900701331External links
*worldcat id|lccn-n88-88685
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