Rowland Detrosier
Encyclopedia
Rowland Detrosier, also Rowley Barnes, (c. 1800 - 23 November 1834) was an English
autodidact, radical politician
, preacher
and educator, particularly associated with Manchester
.
Robert Norris and a French
woman named Detrosier. He was born in London
but was abandoned. He was then adopted
by Charles Barnes, a Swedenborgian
tailor
who raised him in Hulme
, Manchester. Barnes treated him as his own son and named him Rowley.
Before he started work aged nine, Detrosier had received only informal education, including that from the Manchester Benevolent Vegetarian Institute. He worked in a variety of menial jobs and married aged nineteen but managed to teach himself something of French, Latin, mathematics
, astronomy
, physics
, chemistry
, botany
, and geology
. Unfortunately, his appetite for learning reduced Detrosier to dire financial straights by 1821 and he was only rescued by the patron
age of John Shuttleworth
, who found him a more secure and responsible job as a clerk and salesman. At this time, he also discovered his birth parentage.
at Swedenborgian Sunday School
s since he was sixteen and he now travelled widely advocating adult education
for working class
people. Detrosier was a religious follower of Joseph Brotherton
and Brotherton recruited him to preach at the Brinksway Chapel, Stockport
where he gained a huge following. In 1827, he was inspired to publish A Form of Public Worship on the Principles of Pure Deism but his deism
was too radical for Brotherton who expelled him from his sect.
sought his help in establishing trade union
s but Detrosier was no socialist, believing that democracy
posed real dangers unless individual moral development preceded political freedom.
Detrosier attracted the further patronage of Francis Place
who established him as a full-time lecturer. Shuttleworth arranged for the 1831 publication of On the Necessity of an Extension of Moral and Political Instruction among the Working Classes and his work attracted the attention of Jeremy Bentham
and Anne Isabella Byron, Baroness Byron
. In 1831, Detrosier became secretary of the National Political Union whereby he became friends with John Stuart Mill
and met Thomas Carlyle
, Gustave d'Eichtal, George Birkbeck
, and John Arthur Roebuck
. Detrosier's new position in the liberal political establishment led him to work with health campaigner Thomas Southwood Smith
.
Detrosier lectured on meteorology
and pneumatics
at the London Mechanics' Institute
but was dismissed when he acted as interpreter for Gregorio Fontana
and Gioacchino Prati
's campaign in England in 1833. However, he found a new sponsor in Robert Mordan and Detrosier made a living lecturing and writing. In 1834, he contracted a common cold
and died at his home in London. He left his body to science.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
autodidact, radical politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, preacher
Preacher
Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...
and educator, particularly associated with Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
.
Early life
Detrosier's parents were Manchester merchantMerchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
Robert Norris and a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
woman named Detrosier. He was born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
but was abandoned. He was then adopted
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
by Charles Barnes, a Swedenborgian
Swedenborgian
A Swedenborgian is the doctrines, beliefs, and practices of the Church of the New Jerusalem, and is an adjective describing a person or an organization that understands the Bible through the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg....
tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
who raised him in Hulme
Hulme
Hulme is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. Located immediately south of Manchester city centre, it is an area with significant industrial heritage....
, Manchester. Barnes treated him as his own son and named him Rowley.
Before he started work aged nine, Detrosier had received only informal education, including that from the Manchester Benevolent Vegetarian Institute. He worked in a variety of menial jobs and married aged nineteen but managed to teach himself something of French, Latin, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, and geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
. Unfortunately, his appetite for learning reduced Detrosier to dire financial straights by 1821 and he was only rescued by the patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
age of John Shuttleworth
John Shuttleworth (industrialist)
John Shuttleworth was an English political activist and campaigner for parliamentary reform in nineteenth century Manchester.-External links:...
, who found him a more secure and responsible job as a clerk and salesman. At this time, he also discovered his birth parentage.
Lecturer and preacher
Now, Detrosier had even more scope for education. He had lectured on scienceScience
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
at Swedenborgian Sunday School
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
s since he was sixteen and he now travelled widely advocating adult education
Adult education
Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...
for working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
people. Detrosier was a religious follower of Joseph Brotherton
Joseph Brotherton
Joseph Brotherton was a reforming British politician, non-conformist minister and pioneering vegetarian.He was born in Whittington, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and was the son of John Brotherton, an excise collector, and his wife Mary...
and Brotherton recruited him to preach at the Brinksway Chapel, Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
where he gained a huge following. In 1827, he was inspired to publish A Form of Public Worship on the Principles of Pure Deism but his deism
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
was too radical for Brotherton who expelled him from his sect.
Radical
In March 1829, Detrosier led a break-away from the Manchester Mechanics' Institute, which he considered to be undemocratic, and established the New Mechanics' Institution. John DohertyJohn Doherty (trade unionist)
John Doherty trade unionist, radical and factory reformer who devoted his life to political and social reform. Born in Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland.He married his wife, Laura, in 1821 and they had four children....
sought his help in establishing trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s but Detrosier was no socialist, believing that democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
posed real dangers unless individual moral development preceded political freedom.
Detrosier attracted the further patronage of Francis Place
Francis Place
Francis Place was an English social reformer.-Early career and influence:Born in the debtor's prison which his father oversaw near Drury Lane, Place was schooled for ten years before being apprenticed to a leather-breeches maker. At eighteen he was an independent journeyman, and in 1790 was...
who established him as a full-time lecturer. Shuttleworth arranged for the 1831 publication of On the Necessity of an Extension of Moral and Political Instruction among the Working Classes and his work attracted the attention of Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
and Anne Isabella Byron, Baroness Byron
Anne Isabella Byron, Baroness Byron
Anne Isabella Noel Byron, 11th Baroness Wentworth and Baroness Byron was the wife of the poet Lord Byron, and mother of Ada Lovelace, the patron and co-worker of mathematician Charles Babbage.-Name:Her names were unusually complex...
. In 1831, Detrosier became secretary of the National Political Union whereby he became friends with John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
and met Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
, Gustave d'Eichtal, George Birkbeck
George Birkbeck
George Birkbeck was a British doctor, academic, philanthropist, pioneer in adult education and founder of Birkbeck College.-Biography:...
, and John Arthur Roebuck
John Arthur Roebuck
John Arthur Roebuck , British politician, was born at Madras, in India.After the death of his father, a civil servant, his mother's second marriage transferred him to Canada, where he was chiefly brought-up. He came to England in 1824, was called to the bar John Arthur Roebuck (28 December 1802...
. Detrosier's new position in the liberal political establishment led him to work with health campaigner Thomas Southwood Smith
Thomas Southwood Smith
Thomas Southwood Smith , English physician and sanitary reformer, was born at Martock, Somersetshire.While a medical student in Edinburgh he took charge of a Unitarian congregation. In 1816 he took his M.D...
.
Detrosier lectured on meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
and pneumatics
Pneumatics
Pneumatics is a branch of technology, which deals with the study and application of use of pressurized gas to effect mechanical motion.Pneumatic systems are extensively used in industry, where factories are commonly plumbed with compressed air or compressed inert gases...
at the London Mechanics' Institute
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
but was dismissed when he acted as interpreter for Gregorio Fontana
Gregorio Fontana (radical)
Gregorio Fontana-Rava was an Italian expatriate supporter of the Risorgimento.Little is known of his life but he ran a bookshop in Antwerp as a meeting place for Italian patriots. His visit to England in 1833, during which he lectured, in association with Gioacchino Prati, caused some public alarm...
and Gioacchino Prati
Gioacchino Prati
Gioacchino Prati was an Italian revolutionary and patriot, a supporter of the Risorgimento who was exiled for his activities in 1821. He was later a Saint-Simonian.-Life:...
's campaign in England in 1833. However, he found a new sponsor in Robert Mordan and Detrosier made a living lecturing and writing. In 1834, he contracted a common cold
Common cold
The common cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, caused primarily by rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Common symptoms include a cough, sore throat, runny nose, and fever...
and died at his home in London. He left his body to science.