| Thomas Bigge | |
| Birth Date: | 1766 |
| Death Date: | 1851 |
| Relatives: | William Bigge (uncle) |
| Occupation: | Political writer and activist |
| Alma Mater: | Corpus Christi College, Oxford |
Thomas Bigge (1766–1851) was an English political writer and activist. In his later life, he was a partner in the goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge & Co.
He was the son of Thomas Bigge (died 1791) of Ludgate Hill, and his wife Elizabeth Rundell, elder sister of Philip Rundell the jeweller and goldsmith; William Bigge (1707–1758) was his uncle. The family owned property at Little Benton, near Longbenton, Northumberland, through his grandfather Thomas Bigge's marriage to the heiress Elizabeth Hindmarsh; and Thomas Bigge the father built the White House there.[1] [2]
Bigge was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1787.[3]
From a prosperous family in business, with landowning interests, Bigge has been described as a "wealthy associate" of Christopher Wyvill. They both wrote political tracts, from the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars; and shared channels of distribution in Newcastle, through William Charnley (fl. 1755–1803), a bookseller, and Solomon Hodgson, owner of the Newcastle Chronicle which was at this time a leading Whig journal in the region.[4] [5] [6]
Bigge was a close friend too of John Tweddell, an outspoken student radical;[7] his own views tended to a middle position between the radical and loyalist extremes, as did those of Wyvill and some other prominent reformers.[8] He corresponded with Charles Grey in the later 1790s.[3] [9]
In 1795 Grey advised Bigge on an intended anti-war meeting for the county of Northumberland, with a view to keeping the radicals at arm's length: for prudence, no criticism of ministers, and no reform proposals.[10] Bigge prepared the ground, with handbills. When the meeting came about, in December, ostensibly to vote a loyal address, the local Whig grandees successfully took it over. A reported near 5,000 voted petitions against recent legislation.[11] [12]
Bigge has also been described as a "wealthy friend" of James Losh.[13] Losh visited Newcastle in 1797, and at that time stayed with Bigge at Little Benton.[13] The monthly periodical The Oeconomist, which appeared in 1798–9, was sustained by Bigge.[13]
Bigge joined the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1795, and played a significant role there.[4] He was the main proponent of the New Institution at Newcastle, which began in 1802 as a lectureship for William Turner. Bigge was influenced by the example of the Royal Institution, while Turner followed the lecturing efforts of John Alderson and William Farish.[14] [15]
Bigge became a partner in Rundell, Bridge & Co, the goldsmiths founded by Philip Rundell and John Bridge. From 1830, when a new partnership was drawn up, Bigge owned 25% of the goldsmiths; after Bridge's death, he was in charge of the firm with John Gawler Bridge.[16] [17]
The business was involved with prominent artists. In particular, the "Shield of Achilles" project began with William Theed the elder, who died in 1817; and then passed to John Flaxman. The chasing itself was carried out by William Pitts II. Bigge presented a "Shield" to the Royal Society of Literature in 1849, with a portrait of Flaxman.[18] [19] [20] [21] The firm made a new crown for Queen Victoria, less than half the weight of the one made for George IV.[22]
Philip Rundell withdrew capital from the firm in 1823.[17] He died in 1827, leaving a fortune that went off the probate scale, which stopped at £1,000,000. Over half the estate went to Joseph Neeld.[23] Money left to the Bigge family exceeded £100,000; according to James Losh, writing in his diary after news of the death, the bequests were some compensation for having had to put up with a "tyrannical miser".[24] The Gentleman's Magazine reported that Rundell, unmarried and without a home, liked to spend his time with his Brompton niece (i.e. Maria Bigge) or Elizabeth Bannister, another niece.[25]
The important plate business was largely outsourced to William Bateman II, in 1834.[26] Rundell, Bridge & Co. stopped trading in 1843. The partnership was dissolved in 1845.[17]
Bigge is described as of "Brompton Row" (1817)[27] and later "of Bryanston Square";[28] also of Beddington, Surrey c.1835.[29]
Bigge married Maria Rundell, a first cousin and niece of Philip Rundell, and the daughter of Thomas Rundell of Bath, a surgeon, and his wife Maria Eliza Rundell, the writer on cookery. They had a large family of 13 children;[1] [30] [31] [32] Maria died in Bryanston Square in 1846.[33]
Their eldest daughter Elizabeth married Lieutenant-colonel Alexander Anderson.[34] Daughter Augusta married Edward Pope, Archdeacon of Jamaica.[29] Georgiana married George Scovell and was mother of Sir Augustus Scovell the London politician.[35]
Thomas Hanway Bigge was a relation, and the two have sometimes been confused, in published works.