Thomas Bigge

He was the son of Thomas Bigge (died 1791) of Ludgate Hill, and his wife Elizabeth Rundell, elder sister of Philip Rundell the jeweller and goldsmith; William Bigge (1707–1758) was his uncle. The family owned property at Little Benton, near Longbenton, Northumberland, through his grandfather Thomas Bigge's marriage to the heiress Elizabeth Hindmarsh; and Thomas Bigge the father built the White House there.{{cite book|author=John Burke|title=A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://archive.org/details/b28748773_0004|year=1833|page=[https://archive.org/details/b28748773_0004/page/631 631]}}{{cite book|author=John Britton|author-link=John Britton (antiquarian)|title=Beauties of England and Wales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4lNEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA78|year=1813|publisher=T. Maiden|page=78}}

Bigge was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1787.{{cite book|author=John Ritchie|title=Punishment and Profit: the reports of Commissioner John Bigge on the Colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, 1822–1823; their origins, nature and significance|page=35|year=1970|publisher=Heinemann}}

{{further|The Oeconomist, Or, Englishman's Magazine}}

From a prosperous family in business, with landowning interests, Bigge has been described as a "wealthy associate" of Christopher Wyvill. They both wrote political tracts, from the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars; and shared channels of distribution in Newcastle, through William Charnley (fl. 1755–1803), a bookseller, and Solomon Hodgson, owner of the Newcastle Chronicle which was at this time a leading Whig journal in the region.{{cite book|author=Helen Braithwaite|title=Romanticism, Publishing and Dissent: Joseph Johnson and the Cause of Liberty|url=https://archive.org/details/romanticismpubli00brai|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/romanticismpubli00brai/page/n153 137]|date=22 February 2003|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-333-98394-2}}{{cite ODNB|id=64284|title=Slack, Thomas|first=Peter|last=Isaac}}{{cite ODNB|id=63760|title=Hodgson, Solomon|first=Peter|last=Isaac}}

Bigge was a close friend too of John Tweddell, an outspoken student radical;{{cite book|author1=John Tweddell|author2=Robert Tweddell|title=Remains of the Late John Tweddell|url=https://archive.org/details/remainslatejohn00twedgoog|year=1815|page=[https://archive.org/details/remainslatejohn00twedgoog/page/n159 142] note}} his own views tended to a middle position between the radical and loyalist extremes, as did those of Wyvill and some other prominent reformers.{{cite book|author=Clive Emsley|author-link=Clive Emsley|title=Britain and the French Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AmiuBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA34|date=13 October 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-87851-3|page=34}} He corresponded with Charles Grey in the later 1790s.{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/grey-charles-1764-1845|title=Grey, Charles (1764–1845), of Falloden and Howick, Northumb., History of Parliament Online|access-date=26 June 2015}}

In 1795 Grey advised Bigge on an intended anti-war meeting for the county of Northumberland, with a view to keeping the radicals at arm's length: for prudence, no criticism of ministers, and no reform proposals.{{cite book|author=E. A. Smith|author-link=E. A. Smith (historian)|title=Lord Grey: 1764–1845|page=64|year=1990|publisher=Oxford University Press, Incorporated|isbn=978-0-19-820163-2}} Bigge prepared the ground, with handbills. When the meeting came about, in December, ostensibly to vote a loyal address, the local Whig grandees successfully took it over. A reported near 5,000 voted petitions against recent legislation.{{cite book|author=J. E. Cookson|author-link=J. E. Cookson|title=The Friends of Peace: Anti-war Liberalism in England, 1793–1815|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yzg8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA153|date=January 1982|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-23928-8|page=153}}{{cite book|author=Jenny Graham|year=2000|title=The Nation, the Law, and the King: Reform Politics in England, 1789–1799|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=978-0-7618-1484-9|volume=2|pages=688–9}}

Bigge has also been described as a "wealthy friend" of James Losh.{{cite book|author=Stephen Harbottle|title=The Reverend William Turner: Dissent and Reform in Georgian Newcastle Upon Tyne|page=46|year=1997|publisher=Northern Universities Press for the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne|isbn=978-0-901286-80-2}} Losh visited Newcastle in 1797, and at that time stayed with Bigge at Little Benton. The monthly periodical The Oeconomist, which appeared in 1798–9, was sustained by Bigge.

Bigge joined the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1795, and played a significant role there. He was the main proponent of the New Institution at Newcastle, which began in 1802 as a lectureship for William Turner. Bigge was influenced by the example of the Royal Institution, while Turner followed the lecturing efforts of John Alderson and William Farish.{{cite book|author=Eneas Mackenzie|title=A Descriptive and Historical Account of the Town and County of Newcastle Upon Tyne: Including the Borough of Gateshead|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CPsVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA472|year=1827|publisher=Mackenzie and Dent|page=472}}{{cite book|author1=Ian Inkster|author2=Jack Morrell|title=Metropolis and Province: Science in British Culture, 1780 – 1850|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2zweOsp9nlAC&pg=PA215|date=12 November 2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-67947-7|page=215}}

Bigge became a partner in Rundell, Bridge & Co, the goldsmiths founded by Philip Rundell and John Bridge. From 1830, when a new partnership was drawn up, Bigge owned 25% of the goldsmiths; after Bridge's death, he was in charge of the firm with John Gawler Bridge.Robert W. Lovett, Rundell, Bridge and Rundell – An Early Company History, Bulletin of the Business Historical Society Vol. 23, No. 3 (Sep. 1949), pp. 152–162, at p. 160. Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College.Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3111183{{cite book|author=Gordon Campbell|title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R8BMW6Au7pQC&pg=PA301|date=9 November 2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-518948-3|page=301}}

File:Ströhl-Regentenkronen-Fig. 11.png

The business was involved with prominent artists. In particular, the "Shield of Achilles" project began with William Theed the elder, who died in 1817; and then passed to John Flaxman. The chasing itself was carried out by William Pitts II. Bigge presented a "Shield" to the Royal Society of Literature in 1849, with a portrait of Flaxman.{{cite web|url=http://217.204.55.158/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=2673|title=Theed, William I, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660–1851|access-date=25 June 2015}}{{cite book|author=Gordon Campbell|title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R8BMW6Au7pQC&pg=PA300|date=9 November 2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-518948-3|page=300}}{{cite ODNB|id=22346|title=Pitts family|first=Anita|last=McConnell}}{{cite book|author=Royal Society of Literature (Great Britain)|title=Proceedings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1SBFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA279|year=1833|page=279}} The firm made a new crown for Queen Victoria, less than half the weight of the one made for George IV.{{cite book|author=John McGilchrist|title=The Public Life of Queen Victoria|publisher=Cassell, Petter, and Galpin|url=https://archive.org/details/publiclifequeen00mcgigoog|year=1868|page=[https://archive.org/details/publiclifequeen00mcgigoog/page/n98 82]}}

Philip Rundell withdrew capital from the firm in 1823. He died in 1827, leaving a fortune that went off the probate scale, which stopped at £1,000,000. Over half the estate went to Joseph Neeld.{{cite book|author1=John Britton|author2=T. E. Jones|title=Personal and literary memoir of the author.-pt. 2. Descriptive account of his literary works, by T. E. Jones.-pt. 3. (Appendix) Biographical, topographical, critical and miscellaneous essays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQM2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA314|year=1850|page=314}} Money left to the Bigge family exceeded £100,000; according to James Losh, writing in his diary after news of the death, the bequests were some compensation for having had to put up with a "tyrannical miser".{{cite book|author=James Losh|title=The Diaries and Correspondence of James Losh|volume=2|pages=47–8|year=1963|publisher=Published for the Surtees Society by Andrews & Co.}} The Gentleman's Magazine reported that Rundell, unmarried and without a home, liked to spend his time with his Brompton niece (i.e. Maria Bigge) or Elizabeth Bannister, another niece.{{cite book|title=Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hpg3AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA563|year=1827|page=563}}

The important plate business was largely outsourced to William Bateman II, in 1834.{{cite book|author1=Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute|author2=Beth Carver Wees|title=English, Irish, & Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kIdMik92xOMC&pg=PA590|year=1997|publisher=Hudson Hills|isbn=978-1-55595-117-7|page=590}} Rundell, Bridge & Co. stopped trading in 1843. The partnership was dissolved in 1845.

Bigge is described as of "Brompton Row" (1817){{cite book|author=John Nichols|title=The Gentleman's Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MrbPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA466|year=1817|publisher=E. Cave|page=466}} and later "of Bryanston Square";{{cite book|title=The Gentleman's Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fxY2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA215|year=1853|publisher=A. Dodd and A. Smith|page=215}} also of Beddington, Surrey c.1835.{{cite book|title=The Spectator|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=62I_AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA569|year=1835|publisher=F.C. Westley|page=569}}

Bigge married Maria Rundell, a first cousin and niece of Philip Rundell, and the daughter of Thomas Rundell of Bath, a surgeon, and his wife Maria Eliza Rundell, the writer on cookery. They had a large family of 13 children;{{cite book|title=The Annual Biography and Obituary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftkxAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA318|year=1828|page=318}}{{cite ODNB|id=24278|first=Anita|last=McConnell|title=Rundell, Maria Eliza}}{{cite book|author=John Southerden Burn|title=The Fleet Registers. Comprising the history of Fleet marriages, and some account of the parsons and marriage-house keepers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9lUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA111|year=1834|publisher=Rivingtons|page=111 note 1}} Maria died in Bryanston Square in 1846.{{cite news|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000243/18460404/060/0003|title=Deaths|date=4 April 1846|via=British Newspaper Archive|work=Newcastle Journal|access-date=25 June 2015}}

Their eldest daughter Elizabeth married Lieutenant-colonel Alexander Anderson.{{cite book|author1=Thomas Campbell|author2=Samuel Carter Hall|author3=Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton |author4=Theodore Edward Hook |author5=Thomas Hood |author6=William Harrison Ainsworth|title=New Monthly Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6EM3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA360|year=1817|publisher=E. W. Allen|page=360}} Daughter Augusta married Edward Pope, Archdeacon of Jamaica. Georgiana married George Scovell and was mother of Sir Augustus Scovell the London politician.{{cite book|author=Edward Walford|author-link=Edward Walford|title=Walford's County Families of the United Kingdom|page=1039|year=1912|publisher=Spottiswoode & Company, Limited}}

Thomas Hanway Bigge was a relation, and the two have sometimes been confused, in published works.

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Category:1766 births

Category:1851 deaths

Category:18th-century English male writers

Category:English businesspeople

Category:People from Longbenton

Category:Writers from Tyne and Wear