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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 



SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART. 



Whatever may be thought of the rank 

 apostacy of the son, the father was entitled 

 to high praise; his ability, his perseve- 

 rance, his integrity, his spirit, his genero- 

 sity, his benevolence, his loyalty, his poli- 

 tical consistency, were all of an elevated 

 order, and most deservedly raised him to a 

 proud and enviable eminence in the estima- 

 tion of his countrymen. Lamentable that 

 the last brief portion of his life should 

 have been embittered by moral and politi- 

 cal abandonment of principle, on the part of 

 his eldest and favourite son ! 



Neither by birth nor by hereditary wealth, 

 was Mr. Peel entitled to look forward to dis- 

 tinction. He was himself the seeker, the 

 finder, the maker of his own fortune the 

 founder of his family ; yet his name, under- 

 stood to be of Gaelic origin, seems to boast 

 antiquity. The word Peel is still used in 

 Scotland, to express a small castle ; and, In 

 the Gaelic, Pele, Peytt, Peil, Pael, or Paile, 

 denotes a place of strength^ or fortification 

 made of earth, to distinguish it from a castle. 

 In this sense, Pela and Pelma are used 

 respectively in charters of Henry IV. and 

 Edward III. ; and in Lancashire, Sir Ro- 

 bert's native country, there is an old fort 

 called the Peel or Poeell, of Fouldery. 



William Peel, of Oswaltwich, in Lan- 

 cashire, was father of the subject of this 

 memoir : his mother was Jane, daughter of 

 Robert Warnesley, Esq., of Darwin, in the 

 same county. Born on the 25th of April, 

 1750, he was the third of seven sons ; and 

 it is said to have been the original intention 

 of his father, a man of acute and powerful 

 understanding, to establish all his boys in 

 different branches of the cotton trade ; so 

 that, by their ingenuity, industry, and en- 

 terprise, they might mutually prove service- 

 able to each other. Robert, when at the 

 age of fourteen, is said to have expressed a 

 determination to raise himself to rank and 

 consequence in society. He devoted him- 

 self very early to explore the powers of me- 

 chanical combination, particularly where 

 they could be converted to the purpose of 

 his leading pursuit. Until the age of 

 twenty-three, he remained under the pater- 

 nal roof, storing his mind with every descrip- 

 tion of practically useful knowledge. 



Somewhat previously to this period, the 

 cotton manufactory had been a compara- 

 tively inconsiderable branch of commerce; 

 but, through inventions of Sir Peter Ark- 

 wright, it was now rising in consequence ; 

 and, availing himself of his information, 

 skill, and a variety of favourable circum- 

 stances, Mr. Peel, in 1773, embarked in an 

 extensive manufactory at Bury, in Lanca- 

 shire, in conjunction with a gentleman of 

 the name of Yates, whose daughter, Ellen, 

 he, fourteen years afterwards the lady being 

 little more than seventeen married. By 

 this union he had, besides his successor (the 

 Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., Secretary 

 of State for the Home Department, &c.) 

 five sons and two daughters, all of whom 

 are well provided for, well married, and 

 extensively known in public and fashion- 

 able life. By his second marriage (in 1805) 

 with Susanna, daughter of Francis Clarke, 

 Esq., and aunt of the present Sir W. H. 

 Clarke, of Hitcham, he had no children. 



So successful had the Bury manufactory 

 proved, that, previously to his marriage 

 with Miss Yates, Mr. Peel had been en- 

 abled to purchase a large estate in Lanca- 

 shire. This was followed, in the course of 

 a very few years more, by extensive acqui- 

 sitions in Staffordshire and Warwickshire. 

 At Tamworth, which had fallen into decay 

 from the loss of the woollen trade, he erected 

 immense cotton works, and the town was 

 soon restored to a flourishing state. Having 

 realized a large landed property, which has 

 since been augmented by several additions, 

 he obtained that state and consideration in 

 his country, which entitled him to a seat in 

 the legislature ; and accordingly, in the year 

 1790, contending with the ancient family 

 of Townshend for the patronage of the 

 borough of Tamworth, he was returned to 

 Parliament as one of its representatives. 

 For the same borough he was re-elected in 

 1796, 1802, 1806, 1807, 1812, and 1818. 



Long before his entrance into Parliament, 

 however, Mr. Peel had distinguished him- 

 self by the publication of a pamphlet enti- 

 tled " The National Debt productive of 

 National Prosperity." This was in 1780. 

 If we mistake not, Mr. Peel was the first to 

 maintain that the national wealth was not 

 diminished by the increase of the national 



