Gilpin, Charles, 1815-1874

Publisher and member of the House of Commons, of London, England.

Charles Gilpin (1815-1874), British publisher and reform member of Parliament, belonged to a Quaker family. His father was a Bristol tradesman, and his mother was the sister of Joseph Sturge, the noted Quaker philanthropist. Gilpin was a publisher and bookseller in London until 1853. He became a common councilman for London in 1848. After unsuccessfully contesting the parliamentary seat for Perth in 1852, he won election for Northampton in 1857 and represented it for the rest of his life. He served as secretary of the Poor Law Board, 1859-1865. He was a member of the Anti-Slavery Society, the Hungarian Relief Committee, the Peace Congress Committee, and the National Freehold Land Society. A few letters indicate his involvement in railway management. Richard Cobden and Lajos Kossuth were among his friends. Gilpin married Anna Crouch of Falmouth. Biographical information appears in his obituary in The Times, Sept. 9, 1874, p. 7, and in Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography, I, 1152.