ABSTRACT
Born in 1809, William Busfeild took the name Ferrand in 1839 on his mother inheriting the St Ives estate, near Bradford, from her uncle. After standing unsuccessfully for Bradford in 1837, Ferrand was elected Conservative MP for Knares-borough in 1841. He opposed the Anti-Corn Law League, supported the Ten Hours Factory Act, vigorously exposed the harshness of the Poor Law, and was a fierce denouncer of corruption among public men. He did not contest the 1847 election, but was elected MP for Devonport in 1863, a notable success given that Devonport had returned either Whigs or Liberals since 1832 and that the influence of the government in the constituency, through employment in the dockyard, was very strong. Unseated in 1865, Ferrand stood unsuccessfully in by-elections for Coventry in 1867 and again for Devonport in 1868.
Known for his commitment to working men, Ferrand was President of the Bradford Working Men’s Conservative Association at its Inaugural Banquet, St George’s Hall, in November 1866. Ferrand’s speech, on that occasion, was a forceful appeal to the educated working men of Bradford to recognise that their true interests were aligned with the Conservative party and to resist the inflammatory rhetoric of John Bright, W. E. Forster (MP for Bradford), and Gladstone. The interests of employers and employees, Ferrand declared, were entwined in mutual support. Ferrand praised the vigorous Commons statements of Robert Lowe attacking the Liberal Reform bill of 1866. The intellectual leader of the ‘Adullamites’, those Whigs and moderate Liberals opposed to extensive Reform, Lowe rejected moral arguments for extending the vote to those uneducated lower classes who would be subject to bribery, influence, and the blandishments of demagogues. A utilitarian meritocrat, Lowe declared property and intelligence as the essential practical requirements for possession of the vote, supporting intelligent and disinterested government free from class monopoly. In contrast, Gladstone, echoed by Bright, portrayed working class enfranchisement as a moral entitlement irresistibly carried forward by great social forces. For Ferrand, such language was an incitement to social revolution, class warfare, and the overthrow of the nation’s institutions.
