3-065-732 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Parliamentary portraits: Mr. Burt, M.P. for Morpeth, 1874. Engraving from a photograph by Messrs W. and D. Downey, of one of the first working-class Members of Parliament in Britain. 'Mr. Thomas Burt, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, who has been returned as "The Working-Man Candidate" for the borough of Morpeth, in the room of Sir George Grey, retired from public life, was born, in 1837, at Percy Main, near North Shields. He is a son of Mr. Peter Burt, a man of the working classes, and began life himself as a working miner at Seaton Delaval. He removed, in 1860, to Choppington, and married, about the same time, Mary, eldest daughter of Mr. Thomas Weatherburn, of Blyth, and became secretary to the local school committee. In 1865 he was appointed agent for the Cramlington miners. He is also secretary to the "Northumberland Miners' Mutual Confident Association." Mr. Burt is the second member of his class who has found his way into the House of Commons...It is stated that his friends and supporters in the north have taxed themselves to the extent of £500 a year in order to supply Mr. Burt with the means of supporting the honour of a seat in Parliament'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.