CARTWRIGHT, JOHN English parlia mentary reformer, was born at Marnham in Nottinghamshire on Sept. 17, 1740, the elder brother of Edmund Cartwright, inventor of the power-loom. He was educated at Newark grammar school and Heath academy in Yorkshire, and entering the navy served at the capture of Cherbourg, and in the action between Sir Edward Hawke and Admiral Conflans. Engaged afterwards on the New foundland station, he was appointed to act as chief magistrate of the settlement (1765-1770). Ill-health necessitated his retire ment from active service for a time in 1771. When the disputes with the American colonies began, he was a warm supporter of their cause, and declined to fight against the cause which he felt to be just. In 1774 he published his first plea on behalf of the colonists, entitled American Independence the Glory and Interest of Great Britain. In the following year, when the Nottingham shire Militia was first raised, he was appointed major and in this capacity he served for 17 years. He was at last illegally superseded, because of his political opinions. In 1776 appeared his first work on reform in parliament, entitled, Take your Choice —a second edition appearing in 1777 under the new title of The Legislative Rights of the Commonalty vindicated. The task of his life was thenceforth chiefly the attainment of universal suf frage and annual parliaments. In 1778 he conceived the project of a political association, which took shape in 1780 as the "Society for Constitutional Information." From this society sprang the more famous "Corresponding Society." Major Cartwright was one of the witnesses on the trial of his friends, Horne Tooke, John Thelwall and Thomas Hardy, in 1794 and was himself in dicted for conspiracy in 1819, and condemned to pay a fine of £100. He died in London on Sept. 23, 1824. He had married in 1780, but had no children.
The Life and Correspondence of Major Cartwright, ed. by his niece F. D. Cartwright, was published in 1826.