ABSTRACT
On 29 December 1809, Mrs Anne Gladstone, of 62 Rodney Street, Liverpool, gave birth to her fourth son. He was christened William Ewart after a business associate of his father, John Gladstone. This was a wealthy household in a town in England that had taken its full share in the commercial expansion of the eighteenth century, in which John Gladstone had also taken an active part. Gladstone won the election, which took place on 13 December 1832, comfortably, topping the poll, and took his seat in the House of Commons on 5 February 1833. By the autumn of 1834, therefore, Gladstone had made a useful start to his political career. While he continued to worry whether he was doing the right thing by entering the House of Commons, it is fairly clear that politics were the most important element in his life – certainly in his public life.
