Christopher Wyvill (reformer)

Christopher Wyvill (1740–1822) was an English cleric and landowner, a political reformer who inspired the formation of the Yorkshire Association movement in 1779.

William Pitt the Younger raised a number of issues surrounding parliamentary reform in opposition to the Fox-North Coalition in 1783, but his proposal failed to gain the necessary support.

[2] In 1774 he came in for the large landed estates of the family in Yorkshire and elsewhere, and the mansion at Constable Burton, the building of which he completed from his cousin, Sir Marmaduke's, designs.

He had some years previously taken orders and been presented through his cousin's influence to the rectory of Black Notley in Essex, which he continued to hold and administer by means of a curate, down to 22 September 1806.

[1] Wyvill drew up a circular letter enunciating its political sentiments, and took a leading part in drawing up the Yorkshire petition presented to parliament on 8 February 1780.

Sir Cecil Wray wrote in a similar vein, and Rockingham wanted to know if the Association had ever considered the practicability of the annual parliaments which they recommended.

[1] Wyvill strongly disapproved of the subsequent war with France, to which he attributed industrial distress in Yorkshire, and this completed his alienation from Pitt.

Three volumes appeared in 1794–5 as Political Papers, chiefly respecting the Attempt of the County of York and other considerable Districts, commenced in 1779 … to effect a Reformation of the Parliament of Great Britain.

The correspondence includes letters between the chairman of the association and, among others, the Duke of Grafton, Lord Holland, Lansdowne, Lord Stanhope, Charles James Fox, Major John Cartwright, Capel Lofft, William Mason, William Strickland, Joseph Priestley, Richard Price, Bishop Richard Watson, Tom Paine, Granville Sharp, John Jebb, Sir George Savile, and Benjamin Franklin.

for York city from March 1820 to July 1830; Christopher Wyvill,[8] a naval officer; and Edward, rector of Fingal, Yorkshire, who died on 15 September 1869.