Slaney, Robert A. (Robert Aglionby)

Epithet: MP

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000758.0x000296

Robert Aglionby Slaney (1792-1862) was born at Hatton Grange, near Shifnal, in Shropshire, and was the eldest son of Robert Slaney. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (1810), and was later a barrister at Lincoln's Inn (1817), and practised the law until 1826, when he became MP for Shrewsbury. He served as a member of parliament between 1826-1836, 1837-1841, and 1847-1862, affiliated to the Whig party. He devoted his attention to social, economic and rural reform, and spoke on the abuses of the poor law, the condition of unemployed labourers, and on problems of the education and health of the poor in urban areas. He was chairman of committees on education (1838) and the health of town poor (1840). He was also commissioner on health of towns (1843-1846) and high sheriff of Shropshire (1854).

Slaney was interested in the improvement of the condition of the working classes. He was a member of the General Committee of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, founded in 1826, which aimed to disseminate useful information to all sections of the community, especially those without the benefits of a formal education. He married his cousin Elizabeth, only child of W. Hawkins Maccleston, MD, in 1812, and they had 3 children, Elizabeth Frances, Mary, and Frances Catherine. He died from the effects of an accident at the International Exhibition.

References: Concise Dictionary of National Biography ; AIM25 web site http://www.aim25.ac.uk/; University College London's Catalogue of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; Slaney Family Manuscripts, (SL vol VII, pages 77 and 126)

From the guide to the Journals and notebooks of Robert Aglionby Slaney, c1815-c1854, (University of Birmingham Information Services, Special Collections Department)