page_title: Dudmaston Hall
section_title: William Wolryche-Whitmore
hierarchical_section_title: Dudmaston Hall / Notable residents / William Wolryche-Whitmore
caption_attribution_description: English: Memorial to William Wolryche-Whitmore (1787-1858), radical Whig politician, anti-Corn Law campaigner, M.P. for Bridgnorth and Wolverhampton, owner of Dudmaston Hall. St. Andrew's church, Quatt.
context_page_description: Dudmaston Hall is a 17th-century country house in the care of the National Trust in the Severn Valley, Shropshire, England.
  Dudmaston Hall is located near the village of Quatt, a few miles south of the market town of Bridgnorth, just off the A442 road.
context_section_description: William Wolryche-Whitmore (1787–1858) was an important reforming politician. He was the son of William Whitmore, who inherited Dudmaston from a distant cousin, the last of the Wolryche Baronets, and Frances Lister. In 1810 he married Lady Lucy Bridgeman, daughter of the Earl of Bradford. The young couple set out on a Grand Tour, which included a visit to Napoleon Bonaparte, exiled on Elba. On the death of his father in 1815, William inherited Dudmaston and five years later he took up the family's parliamentary seat of Bridgnorth.
  William quickly became a major spokesman for the liberal causes of Parliamentary Reform and Catholic Emancipation. He spoke against the power of the West Indian sugar planters and looked forward to the ending of Caribbean slavery. He warned of the disastrous consequences for the Indian economy of British colonialism. After the Reform Act of 1832, he won the new parliamentary seat of Wolverhampton for the Whigs after a bitterly contested campaign. One of his major concerns was providing new opportunities for working-class people through emigration, and he strongly opposed the use of convict and slave labour everywhere. His last contribution in parliament was on the subject of emigration to South Australia.
  Despite the fact that it could be considered against the interest of himself and his class, he campaigned long and hard for repeal of the Corn Laws. The great majority of his contributions in parliament were on this subject. He continued to campaign even after he left parliament. His successor in the Wolverhampton seat was Charles Pelham Villiers, another radical Whig who continued his anti-Corn Law work. The repeal was not achieved until 1846, when the Tory leader, Robert Peel, split his party to force the measure through with Whig support.
  While continuing his political campaigns, William remodelled the house and the estate on more modern lines, diversifying the economic activities and improving conditions for his workers and tenants. This was at great cost, however, and he left mortgages totalling £60,000 to his nephew, Francis Laing, who inherited the estate on his death.
caption: William Wolryche-Whitmore's epitaph in St. Andrew's church, Quatt
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