William Thackeray Marriott

Who was William Thackeray Marriott?

Sir William Thackeray Marriott PC QC, was a British barrister and Liberal and later Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1893.

Marriott was the third son of Christopher Marriott, of Crumpsall, and his wife Jane Dorothea, daughter of John Poole, and was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained deacon in 1858 and became curate of St George's, Hulme, where he was a supporter of the rights of the working classes. However, he declined to take priest's orders for conscientious reasons the following year. Marriott instead entered Lincoln's Inn in 1861 and was called to the Bar in 1864. He established a successful legal practice and was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1877 and elected a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1879. In 1880 he entered Parliament for Brighton as a Liberal. However, he soon became disillusioned with the Liberal leadership and his 1884 pamphlet "The Liberal Party and Mr Chamberlain" led to a bitter personal controversy with Joseph Chamberlain. He also attacked William Ewart Gladstone's policies in Egypt. In 1884 he resigned his seat in the House of Commons and offered himself for re-election as a Conservative, and was re-elected in March 1884.