Bowood circle

The Bowood circle was a loose, international group of intellectual figures and writers of the later 18th century drawn together around Lord Shelburne, Prime Minister of Great Britain in the 1780s, and named after his residence Bowood House. They had in common an interest in political reform.[1] They met informally at Bowood House, or in London, and have been compared to a think tank.[2]

Proposals from the circle were aired in the Repository, edited by Benjamin Vaughan, during 1788.[3]

Terminology

Shelburne's patronage was broadly based, and not limited to this intellectual set, also called the Bowood Group.[4] The "Shelburne circle" may have a broader reference than the inner Bowood circle.[5] "Shelburne group" may refer to a faction of Whig Members of Parliament.[6] Lansdowne circle, referencing Shelburne's step up in the peerage from Earl of Shelburne to Marquess of Lansdowne, may be used as a synonym of "Bowood circle".[7]

A later "Bowood circle" was that around the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne and Nassau Senior.[8]

Membership

Those associated with the circle included:

The group had some members in common with the Lunar Society and the Liverpool Roscoe circle.[13]

Notes
  1. Whatmore, Richard. "Clavière, Étienne". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/98253. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Thomas, D. O. "Price, Richard". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22761. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Goodwin, Albert (2016). The Friends of Liberty: The English Democratic Movement in the Age of the French Revolution. Routledge. p. 591. ISBN 9781317189879.
  4. Hamilton, Douglas J. (2015). Jacobitism, Enlightenment and Empire, 1680–1820. Routledge. p. 166. ISBN 9781317318194.
  5. Hamilton, Andrew (2008). Trade and Empire in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 51. ISBN 9781443802826.
  6. The Burke Newsletter. University of Detroit Press. 1769. p. 614.
  7. Schultz, Bart; Varouxakis, Georgios (2005). Utilitarianism and Empire. Lexington Books. pp. 40–1. ISBN 9780739110874.
  8. Boyd Hilton, Whiggery, Religion and Social Reform: The Case of Lord Morpeth', The Historical Journal Vol. 37, No. 4 (Dec., 1994), pp. 829–859, at p. 834. Published by: Cambridge University Press. JSTOR 2639842
  9. Whatmore, Richard. "D'Ivernois, Sir Francis". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/98254. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  10. Cannon, John. "Petty [formerly Fitzmaurice], William, second earl of Shelburne and first marquess of Lansdowne". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22070. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  11. John Seed, Gentlemen Dissenters: The Social and Political Meanings of Rational Dissent in the 1770s and 1780s, The Historical Journal Vol. 28, No. 2 (Jun., 1985), pp. 299–325, at p. 320. Published by: Cambridge University Press. JSTOR 2639100
  12. Whatmore, Richard. "Duroveray, Jacques-Antoine". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/98252. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  13. Sutton, Ian. "Roscoe circle". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/101301. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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