In Adelaide William Wolryche Whitmore’s name is perpetuated in one of the six city squares, along with Queen Victoria, Colonel William Light, Governor John Hindmarsh, James Hurtle Fisher and the Duke of Wellington, to whom he was known both personally and professionally.
William Wolryche Whitmore MP was honoured principally because it was he who brought the South Australia Act before the House of Commons on behalf of the South Australian Association during July and August 1834. Robert Gouger was the most likely one to have nominated him for inclusion.
Just how Wolryche Whitmore, as he was usually known, first became involved with the project is speculative, but it was probably because of his association with Colonel Robert Torrens, both in the parliament and in the Political Economy Club.
Whitmore was a committed member of this body for the rest of his life. On at least two occasions he led the debate in the Club on a repeal of the Corn Laws and the adoption of entire free trade, and the prospects of agriculture under free trade.
Despite a determined call to lower tariffs and a push towards free trade, Whitmore was a dedicated humanitarian and deeply concerned about slavery and the massive increases in poverty and unemployment in Britain at the time.
His parliamentary career began in 1820 when he joined his cousin, Thomas Whitmore, as one of the two members of parliament for the ‘pocket borough’ seat of Bridgnorth. Whitmore was nominally a Whig, but when all the causes for which he stood are aggregated he could equally, and perhaps more rightly, be called a Philosophical Radical, although he may never have thought of himself as one.
Like most parliamentarians of the day he was opposed to the vote by ballot and shorter parliaments, they being very radical ideas for the time, although the Adelaide streets are punctuated with the names of those who thought them good reforms.
As an experienced politician for twelve years, Whitmore was pursued by Gouger on behalf of the South Australian Association at a time when the organisation needed a figurehead and personal influence in the parliament. The National Colonization Society first met in mid-1830, with R. J. Wilmot Horton in the chair. As early as July 1829 Edward Gibbon Wakefield sent a draft discussion paper to both the Colonial Office and to Jeremy Bentham, essentially seeding the idea of a colony based on his principles of systematic colonisation.
As a published author, Whitmore’s book A letter on the present state and future prospects of agriculture, published in 1822, had captured the imagination of many forward thinkers of the day.
With his brother-in-law, Charles Babbage – the father of the modern day computer – together with Richard Jones and Thomas Malthus, they formed the Statistical Society of London, in February 1834. It ensured all his emotional appeals and cogent arguments for reform, both on paper and in the Commons, were always well supported with statistical evidence, providing Whitmore with a degree of gravitas and intellectual weight among his peers.
Happily, Whitmore agreed to be Chairman of a new company called the South Australian Land Company. He became the figurehead of the lobbyists for the South Australia project. When the Colonial Office under Lord Goderich rejected the proposal for a second time, Gouger remained undeterred and set about formally recruiting Whitmore to head up the South Australian Association.
He ran for the industrial seat of Wolverhampton, a notoriously anti-Corn Law stronghold near Birmingham, where Matthew Davenport Hill, the older brother of Rowland Hill, even stood aside for him, despite having strong local support.
In June 1834 Whitmore mounted the podium in Exeter Hall in London before a crowd of more than 2,400 where he introduced the colonisation project to the public, investors and intending colonists alike. The event was acclaimed in the press as a great success. All that remained was for the Colonial Office to accede to the idea and for it to be put before the parliament. With so much new liberal support in the House the Bill passed easily and was enshrined within weeks. Many excited families began preparations to depart from the motherland.
William Wolryche Whitmore was born in Shropshire at the family seat of Dudmaston Hall in 1787. He was the seventh child of ten and the first male son and heir of William and Frances Barbara Whitmore (nee Lister, sometimes Lyster). With his arrival there was much rejoicing, and in a petticoat setting of lace and lavender he was raised heir apparent with special and sensitive care. As a young man he was admitted to the Roll of the Freemen in 1818.
As heir apparent William Wolryche grew to understand his responsibilities to the family and to the family name. He met them head on with confidence and assurance. His leadership potential in the county of Shropshire was duly noted and in later life, in 1837, he became the High Sheriff.
In 1799 Whitmore attended Shrewsbury School (where Charles Darwin later attended), where he received a traditional and rigorous education.
In 1804, aged 17, he bought a commission as an ensign in the Earl of Bradford’s 1st Regiment at Foot. He saw active service in Sicily before securing a further commission as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 3rd Shropshire Militia between 1805 and 1815. He was stationed successively in Dover, Plymouth and Ireland.
His commission in the 1st at Foot put him in touch with the Hon Lucy Elizabeth Georgiana Bridgeman, the eldest and only daughter of the Earl of Bradford. The young couple became romantically linked and married on 29 January 1810. It was a blissful union and through his wife, William Wolryche became quite close to Lord John Russell, her cousin who later became Prime Minister of England. This goes some way to explain Whitmore’s defection from his Tory background towards the more radical causes espoused by liberal Whigs.
William and Lady Lucy had no children. They did, however, enjoy the luxury of foreign travel. When William Whitmore Snr died in August 1816 Dudmaston passed to William Wolryche.
Whitmore was a tall and imposing man who had a certain air about his person, commanding respect. He also had admirers from many different, and sometimes competing groups and factions. At the time of lobbying for the South Australian Association he wrote to the Duke of Wellington seeking an interview where he might explain the proposed Bill. He was considered to be one of the influential city magnates in London at the time.
Whitmore’s stance on free trade, most notably in one of the parliamentary sessions of 1823, was precisely the time he was being considered for membership of the Political Economy Club. There had been numerous petitions to the parliament at this time for the repeal of the foreign import duties on wool. The vexed question on free trade was, as a result, open for discussion and Whitmore immediately called for an inquiry into the duties on sugar in both the East and West Indies.
Whitmore’s publications also demonstrate that he too was not afraid to use statistics to explain the entrails of political economy as a science and as a corollary.
In 1835 he chose not to seek re-election for Wolverhampton. Some suggest he had tired of politics, but it is more likely that he decided to retreat to Dudmaston, where it is believed his wife was in decline. Nevertheless, his passion for the repeal of the Corn Laws continued and despite his retirement he never really let go until they were repealed.
He also maintained a strong interest in colonial matters, joining the New Zealand Association in 1837 as a patron rather than a director. South Australia also continued to hold a special place in his heart. He never lost interest in the experiment.
His abiding interest in the educational improvement of the young people in his community in Shropshire saw Whitmore accept the position of Chairman of the Bridgnorth Board of Guardians.
In a building owned by the Whitmores from sometime in the early-seventeenth century, and on his retirement from parliament, William Wolryche established the well-known Whitmore’s Union School for the training of boys and girls.
The mark of a person is often reflected in the activities and ideas they hold most dear throughout their life. Many newspapers reported his sudden passing at age 70 in 1858, noting he was an ‘ardent supporter of the repeal of the Corn Laws and the extension of Free Trade’.
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