William Cobbett
William Cobbett
(1766-1835) Political writer, author of “History of the Protestant Reformation,” born Farnham, England ; died Guildford. The son of a Surrey farmer, he derived his education mostly from intensive reading. He joined the army in 1784 , saw service in Canada , and was discharged in 1791 . Passing to the United States, he edited and published in Philadelphia his violently anti-American “Porcupine’s Gazette.” Shortly after his return to England in 1800 , he started publication of the “Parliamentary Debates,” which eventually became the “Hansard” of today. His vigorous language brought him several arraignments for libel, and finally a two-years’ imprisonment. To escape his debts, he fled to the United States in 1817 , and there published his famous English grammar. Returning to England , he successfully contested Oldham for Parliament in 1832 , and again in 1834 . In his greatest work, the “History of the Protestant Reformation” (1824 -1827 ), he defends the rights of the monasteries against the depredations of Henry VIII and Elizabeth.