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Joseph Corbett 1793 – 1868

Jason Ellis

Jason Ellis

master brummie
Does anybody have any information on Joseph Corbett 1793 – 1868. He was a political agitator, prominent anti-corn law agitator and leader of the temperance movement. He kept a Temperance hotel in Paradise Street, Birmingham. I alrady have his obituary in Birmingham Daily Gazette 24 April 1868, but I would like to know more.
 
He seems an interesting chap. A scan of the newspaper archives shows Corbett making regular appearances in the Birmingham Journal and Aris's Birmingham Gazette from the late 1830's onwards.

He seems to have known my family well, particularly my 5 x great uncle Joseph Allday. Corbett and Allday served together as Poor Law Guardians for many years, were both involved in the vestry of St Martin's church and were leading figures in the Ratepayers Protection Society that dominated Birmingham Council economic policy in the 1850s.

The Tour of Lost Birmingham article also mentions a campaign in which
he was chairman of a committee in 1846 which was attempting to end the imprisonment of debtors, as, even though the Birmingham Court of Requests had been closed two years previously, other courts had jurisdiction in Birmingham; he wished to stop the ‘injustice, oppression and cruelty inflicted upon the Working and Humbler Classes of Society’ by these courts.
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The proceedings of the campaign launch are recorded in the Birmingham Journal of 8th August 1846, showing Corbett again working closely with Joseph Allday, who served as committee secretary. Both Josephs provided their establishments (Corbett's Temperance Hotel, and Allday's wirework shop) as venues at which the public could come to sign the movement's petition to governement.
 
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