Sir Robert Peel, First Baronet 1750 – 1830
The Industrialist Robert Peel was born at Peelfold, Lancashire on 25th April 1750. His father owned a calico-printing firm in Blackburn, Haworth, Peel & Yates. When Robert completed his education in London he entered his father’s business.
At the early age of twenty-three Robert Peel was made a partner in the business and rapidly took charge of the company. Peel exploited the new inventions in the textile industry. However, he was worried how the textile workers would respond to the changes and due to unrest within the workforce, he decided to establish a new factory in Tamworth, Staffordshire. He solved the problems of finding workers for his new factory by importing workhouse children from London. Peel’s new cotton factory was a great success and the business expanded rapidly. By the 1790s Peel was one of the country’s leading industrialists and employed over 15,000 workers.
At the age of thirty-three, Peel married Ellen Yates, the daughter of one of his partners. The couple had eleven children, including Robert Peel, who later became Prime Minister. In 1790 he was elected as MP for Tamworth.
In the House of Commons, Peel supported William Pitt and his Tory government. Peel was aware that some factory owner’s treated their young workers very badly. He therefore argued that Parliament needed to find a way of protecting the most vulnerable workers. In 1802 Parliament passed Health and Morals of Apprentices Act. This legislation limited the hours of pauper children, apprenticed in cotton mills, to twelve hours a day.
The 1802 Factory Act was largely ineffective and so Peel continued to argue for further reform. With the support of other factory owners, such as Robert Owen, the 1819 Factory Act was passed. This legislation forbade the employment in cotton mills of any children under nine, and limited the hours of those between nine and sixteen to twelve hours per day.
Sir Robert Peel died at Drayton Manor on 3rd March, 1830.
Sir Robert Peel, Second Baronet & Statesman 1788 – 1850
Robert Peel was born in Bury, Lancashire, on 5th February, 1788. Robert was trained as a child to become a future politician. Every Sunday evening he had to repeat the two church sermons that he had heard that day.
Robert Peel was educated at Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he won a double first in classics and mathematics. In 1809 Sir Robert Peel rewarded his son academic success by buying him the parliamentary seat of Cashel in Tipperary (exchanged for Chippenham in 1812). Robert Peel entered the House of Commons in April 1809, at the age of twenty-one. Like his father, Robert Peel supported the Duke of Portland’s Tory government. He made an immediate impact and Charles Abbott, the Speaker of the House of Commons, described Peel’s first contribution to a debate as the “the best first speech since that of William Pitt.”
After only a year in the House of Commons the Duke of Portland offered him the post of under-secretary of war and the colonies. Working under Lord Liverpool, Peel helped to direct the military operations against the French...
...Robert Peel continued to attend the House of Commons and gave considerable support to Lord John Russell and his administration in 1846-47. On 28th June 1850 he gave an important speech on Greece and the foreign policy of Lord Palmerston. The following day, while riding up Constitution Hill, he was thrown from his horse. Peel was badly hurt and on 2nd July, 1850, he died from his injuries. His family were offered a state burial in Westminster Abbey, but Sir Robert had left a request to be buried in DraytonVillage.