Talfourd, Sir Thomas Noon (1795-1854), writer, judge, and politician.
Fill the seats of Justice
With good men, not so absolute in goodness
As to forget what human frailty is.
Ion. Act v
The son of a wealthy Reading brewer he was born in Reading and was educated at Reading school under the famous Dr Valpy. He became a barrister in 1821 and gradually climbed through the legal profession, becoming a judge in 1848. He also wrote plays, poetry and journalism. His early farce Freemasonry, or More secrets was performed at the Old Theatre in Friar Street in 1815. His political tragedy Ion (1836), which championed democracy and republicanism, was very popular in both Britain and America. His political career began in 1819 with a speech in Reading Town Hall proclaiming the right of public assembly in defiance of the recent Peterloo massacre.
Reading MP from 1836-41 and in 1847-8, he was a radical liberal, campaigning for universal suffrage and black emancipation in the West Indies. He also introduced and championed an International Copyright Bill, which is the basis of our current laws, giving authors secure rights to their works. Another act he was responsible for was the Infant Custody Act (1839), which for the first time allowed the possibility of granting custody of children to the mother rather than the father as had traditionally been the case. He was famous for his literary dinners and knew all the writers of his day such as Charles Lamb, Mary Mitford and William Makepeace Thackeray. Talfourd was in particular a great friend of Charles Dickens, who dedicated Pickwick Papers to him because of his work on copyright, and the character Tommy Traddles in David Copperfield is based on him. Talfourd Avenue in Reading is named after him.
Other External Links to more information:
Biography from 1911
Pictures from the National Portrait Gallery
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