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Division and cohesion in thenineteenth-century middle class: the case ofIpswich, 1830–1870

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2009

Philip Hills
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Extract

For a long time historians saw the increased wealth,numbers and power of British manufacturers,merchants and professionals as simply an inevitablepart of the process of industrialization. As aresult the formation of the class seemed to requireno further exploration. More recently interest inthe middle class has increased and much closerattention has been given to specific dimensions. Itseems evident from this work that any analysis ofthe middle class faces a number of problems.Firstly, that of definition. There was a wide rangeof status and income groups within the middle class.What criteria of wealth and occupation should beused, how important is it to fix upper and lowerboundaries for the class, how are questions oflifestyle and attitudes to be gauged? Secondly,there were certain divisions within groups who canreasonably be considered middle class by anycriteria. Above all, we must note that there was nodistinctive middle-class political party anddifferences were as deeply felt in politics as wereantagonisms between Anglicans and Nonconformists inreligion. In view of such diversities is it possibleto speak of the middle class and, if so, what doesclass formation and unity consist of? What levels ofunity allow or inhibit class power? This is thesubject of my overall research, of which only aglimpse can be given here.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History Yearbook , Volume 14 , May 1987 , pp. 42 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

Notes

1 On this approach to the study of class see Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class (1963).Google Scholar

2 Morris, R. J., ‘The middle class and British towns and cities of the Industrial Revolution 1780–1870’, in Fraser, D. and Sutcliffe, A. (eds), The Pursuit of Urban History (1983), 286.Google Scholar

3 For another approach to the history of the Ipswich middle class, see Wilson, Nicholas, ‘The making of Victorian Ipswich: middle class leadership in a nineteenth-century town’, Suffolk Local History Rev., III (1984).Google Scholar A more extended version is to be published as a local history publication.

4 For example, Howe, A., The Cotton Masters 1830–60 (1984);Google Scholar Koditschek, T. S., ‘Class formation and the Bradford bourgeoisie’ (Ph.D. thesis, Princeton University, 1981);Google Scholar Smith, D., Conflict and Compromise: class formation in English society 1830–1914 (1982);Google Scholar Trainor, R. H., ‘Authority and social structure in an industrialized area: a study of three Black Country towns 1840–90’ (D.Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, 1981).Google Scholar

5 Neale in effect uses this division between active and inactive as a division between classes. See Neale, R. S., ‘Class and class consciousness in early nineteenth century England: three classes or five?’ in Neale, R. S. (ed.), History and Class (1983).Google Scholar For a critique of this approach see Morris, R. J., Class and Class Consciousness in the Industrial Revolution 1780–1850 (1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Trainor, Richard, ‘Urban elites in Victorian Britain’, Urban History Yearbook (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Ibid., 4.

8 Suffolk Chronicle, 3 October 1835.Google Scholar

9 On local Chartism see Brown, A. F. J., Chartism in Essex and Suffolk (1982).Google Scholar

10 Suffolk Chronicle, 10 July 1847.Google Scholar

11 In J. Glyde Collection, ‘Materials for a Parliamentary History of Ipswich’ in the Suffolk Record Office (Ipswich).

12 Suffolk Chronicle, 3 September 1836.Google Scholar

13 Seed, J., ‘Unitarianism, political economy and the antimonies of liberal culture in Manchester 1830–50’, Social History, VII (1982);Google Scholar Bradley, I., The Call to Seriousness (1976).Google Scholar

14 Glyde, J., The Moral, Social and Religious Condition of Ipswich (Ipswich 1850, reprinted Wakefield 1971).Google Scholar

15 Morris, R. J., ‘Voluntary societies and the British urban oligarchy 1780–1850’, Historical Journal (1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 A. F. J. Brown in his introduction to Glyde, op. cit.

17 Suffolk Chronicle, 27 June 1835.Google Scholar

18 Ibid., 27 April 1833.

19 Alexander's ledgers are in the possession of Barclays Bank plc.