Christopher Wyvill

Christopher Wyvill (1740-1822) was born in Edinburgh and educated at Queen’s College, Cambridge.  In 1774 he inherited a large estate, Constable Burton, in Yorkshire, and remained a resident there the rest of his life.  Previously he had taken orders in the church, holding the rectory of Black Notley in Essex until 1806.  He entered the Yorkshire political scene in 1779, becoming secretary and then chairman of the Yorkshire Association, a reformist organization whose primary agenda included shorter Parliaments and a more equal representation of members of Parliament. The Assoc­iation dwindled after the end of the war with America, but with the commencement of the war with France in 1793, Wyvill once again entered the political spectrum, voicing opposition to the war and its negative economic consequences upon the economy of Yorkshire. In 1794-95 he published his multi-volume Political Papers, chiefly respecting the attempt of the County of York and other considerable districts, commenced in 1779 ... to effect a reformation of the Parliament of Great Britain.  By the late 1790s he grew despondent of ever seeing Parliamentary reform in his lifetime, and eventually focused his energies on religious toleration, including Catholic Emancipation.  Among his other works are A Defence of Dr. Price and the Reformers of England (1792) and Intolerance, the Disgrace of Christians, not the Fault of their Religion (1808).