Life and Career

Thorold Rogers was born on 23 March 1823 in the village of West Meon in Hampshire, England. He was the eleventh son of the surgeon, George Vining Rogers, and his wife, Mary Blyth Rogers.^[61] Rogers proudly claimed a Northumbrian heritage, although his schooling took place in Southampton on the south coast of England, followed by King's College, London, and matriculation at the age of nineteen at Magdalen Hall (now Hertford College) at the University of Oxford in March 1843.

Rogers' brother John had married Emma Cobden. She was the sister of the Liberal statesman and campaigner for free trade, Richard Cobden, who became one of Rogers' great heroes, possibly his only one. Although Cobden was nearly twenty years older than Rogers, the two quickly struck up a close friendship, regularly visiting each other's homes. As a result, Rogers adopted many of Cobden's economic and political views, perhaps most notably the latter's espousal of a free market and free trade, especially in land as a means of breaking the power of the aristocracy but to also increase capital investment in the agricultural sector and to address growing demographic pressures on Britain's cities and towns. Cobden encouraged Rogers' research, with Rogers becoming a devoted member of the Manchester School and a regular attendee at the Cobden Club, founded the year after Cobden's death.^[63] Rogers also delivered the sermon at Cobden's funeral at West Lavington Church, West Sussex, in 1865. It was through Cobden that Rogers got to know Liberal politician, John Bright, working with him on Cobden's Speeches on Questions of Public Policy (Bright and Rogers 1870).^[64]

Another great influence on Rogers was Frederic Bastiat, a member of the French Liberal School, who supported free trade but who had become less popular by the time of Rogers' death.

Rogers' youth was marked by a number of important events which would go on to shape his political views. These included the Bristol Riots of 1831, the Reform Bill of 1832, the Factory Acts, the series of 90 theological publica­tions written by the English Oxford Movement (the Tractarians) between 1833 and 1841 under the title “Tracts for the Times” (Rogers became a fol­lower of the Tractarians as an undergraduate,^[65] although he later distanced himself from them), and Cobden's great triumph, the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. Taking holy orders, Rogers was the curate of St Paul's, Oxford, from 1848 to 1851 and then assistant curate at Headington Quarry from 1856, his annual remuneration for the latter role being four shillings and, in the same year, he became an ordained priest. In December 1850, Rogers married Anna Peskett, the only daughter of surgeon William Peskett; this marriage ended on Anna's death in January 1853. Rogers' second marriage was to Anne Reynolds in December 1854. Reynolds was the daughter of the British government's Treasury Solicitor, Henry Reynolds. Together they had five sons and a daughter.^[66]

With Rogers putting down roots in Oxford, he decided to become a private tutor in classics^[67] and philosophy whilst also being an examiner at the University in the final classical school in 1857 and 1858 and classical moderations in 1861 and 1862 and holding various unpaid administrative offices, before being elected in June 1859 as the Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics at King's College in the University of London. Rogers was the first holder of the Tooke, seeing off a number of other candidates and despite not having published anything of note in the sphere of economics at the time of his appointment.

In 1862, Rogers succeeded Charles Neate to the Drummond Professorship at Oxford. He dedicated himself to the duties required of the office and was keen to serve another five years when the Chair came up for election again in early 1868.^[68] Given the extensive research that he had already carried out as part of his investigations into the history of prices in Britain, Rogers' re­election might have been regarded as something of a formality. However, this proved to be far from the case. The circumstances around the election have been extensively discussed by De Marchi (1976) who argues that the main reason for Rogers' defeat was his political views. There is certainly some sup­port for this view. For example, the leader of the group opposing Rogers', the Reverend Henry Wall, who was the first holder of the Wykeham Professorship in Logic, stated that he objected to Rogers' apparent use of his university posi­tion to advance his political opinions (see Kadish 1989: 32). In addition, there was Rogers' support for changes in the Oxford curriculum (see De Marchi 1976: 373), including a greater role for political economy, and his criticism of the Oxford system of educating its students (see Section 4.2). Responding to De Marchi, Rashid (1978) posits that Rogers' failure to be re­elected to the Drummond was as much down to his attendance at a particular Baptist missionary meeting, this being regarded by some of those voting in the election as disloyalty to the Church of England. In reality, all of these fac­tors, plus some others, probably played a part in Rogers not being re-elected.

The person who beat Rogers in 1868 was Bonamy Price, a schoolmaster at Rugby School, who lacked distinction as an economist. Notwithstanding this, Price would go on to be Drummond Professor for twenty years, being three times re-elected.^[69] Losing the Drummond and searching for a new career, Rogers turned to politics. In fact, his involvement in the political realm had started a few years previously, founded on his enlightened views on certain issues. One example was his support for the Reform League, which cam­paigned for one man, one vote in Britain. The League had been established in February 1865, receiving financial backing from a number of luminaries, including John Stuart Mill, Henry Fawcett, Titus Salt and Rogers himself (who also founded the League's Oxford branch in 1866), its activities helping to bring about the vote for all male heads of household in 1867.^[70] Meanwhile, Rogers favoured the Clerical Disabilities Relief Act 1870, becoming the first person to benefit from the legislation, withdrawing from his clerical vows on 10 August 1870, the day after the Act had become law.

Standing as a Liberal, Rogers unsuccessfully fought the seat for Scarborough in the February 1874 general election, before being elected for the borough of Southwark in London in 1880. In 1885, a redistribution of seats took place, after which he became the MP for Bermondsey in south-east London, albeit with a majority of just 83 votes over the Conservative candidate, Alfred Lafone. Rogers did not hold the seat for very long, losing to Lafone at the election of July 1886 when he was voted out seemingly for his support for the policy of Irish Home Rule adopted by the Gladstone government.

By all accounts, Rogers was a devoted constituency member of parliament. However, he seems to have found the experience of representing a London constituency disagreeable, arguing that the capital should be run by a central­ised body rather than a group of MPs. He was in regular attendance at the House of Commons, although rarely spoke, perhaps aware that his style of debating may cause offence to others.

One of Rogers' most notable parliamentary victories took place in March 1886 when he pushed through a motion which separated the payment of local rates between owners and occupiers. Rogers' other political positions and activities included being a vocal critic of the House of Lords, favouring the extension of employer liability, strengthening protections for friendly societies, backing the North in the American Civil War, supporting the co­operative movement (he served as the presiding officer on the first day of the seventh annual meeting of the Co-operative Congress in 1875), and criticising the brutal suppression by Governor Edward John Eyre of the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica in October 1865. Overall, however, Rogers' parliamen­tary career did not live up to the expectations of those who knew him.

Maintaining his connections with Oxford whilst he pursued a political career, Rogers had been appointed as a Lecturer in Political Economy at Worcester College in 1883. This bridge to the University seems to have paid off as Rogers was re-elected to the Drummond in March 1888 following Price's death. However, even this was a close-run thing. The Board of Electors was made up of the Chancellor of Oxford, Lord Salisbury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Goschen, the Regius Professor of Modern History, Edward Augustus Freeman, the Whyte Professor of Moral Philosophy, William Wallace, and a member of All Souls, John Andrew Doyle. Goschen was late to the Board's meeting which had already voted but was tied between Rogers and L.R. Phelps of Oriel College who had taken on Price's teaching duties when he fell ill in 1887. Rogers' victory was secured when immediately upon arriving at the meeting Goschen declared that he was the only man in England who could be the next Drummond Professor (see Kadish 1989: 67).^[71]

This later period as Drummond Professor was not a particularly positive one as far as Rogers' relationship with his colleagues and students was con­cerned. For instance, he refused to teach even the basics of economic theory, this leading to resentment amongst college lecturers who had to fill in the gaps. One perhaps inevitable consequence was that undergraduates were advised by their colleges to not attend Rogers' lectures, this sometimes leading to as few as half a dozen students being in attendance (see ibid.: 68).

Rogers died at Oxford on 14 October 1890, aged 67. Having left little wealth at his death, his wife was granted a civil list pension in 1893.

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