{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}} {{Use British English|date=December 2016}} {{Infobox politician | name = George Faithfull | image = George Faithfull Martin.jpg | image_size = | caption = George Faithfull, portrait c.1832 | birth_date = 1790 | birth_place = England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1863|3|11|1790|df=y}} | death_place = Brighton, England | occupation = Solicitor, politician, newspaper publisher, nonconformist minister | office = Member of Parliament for Brighton | term_start = 1832 | term_end = 1835 | party = Radical }} '''George Faithfull''' (1790 – 11 March 1863) was an English solicitor and Radical politician.<ref name=deaths>{{cite news|title=Deaths|date=14 March 1863|work=The Times|page=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Deaths|date=16 March 1863|work=Morning Post|page=8}}</ref><ref>{{Rayment-hc|b|5|date=March 2012}}</ref>

==Life== Faithfull was a solicitor and partner in G & H Faithfull & Co., one of the three largest law firms in Brighton.<ref name=dale /><ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=179-how&cid=-1#-1 National Archives]</ref> He became involved in the public life of the rapidly expanding town as solicitor to Thomas Read Kemp, developer of the Kemp Town Estate.<ref name=dale /> He was subsequently a member of the Brighton Improvement Commissioners.<ref name=dale>{{cite book |last=Dale |first=Anthony |year=1967 |title=Fashionable Brighton, 1820-1860 |edition=2nd |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=110 |isbn=978-0-85362-028-0}}</ref> Kemp had established his own non-conformist sect, and Faithfull was a regular preacher in the chapel in Ship Street, Brighton.<ref>{{cite book |title=The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register |location=London |year=1820 |volume=13 |page=94 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTkaAQAAIAAJ&q=george+faithfull+sermon&pg=PA94}}</ref> When Kemp returned to the Church of England in 1823, Faithfull became minister of the Ship Street Chapel (later called Holy Trinity Church, in 1827 replacing it with a new building in Church Street.<ref name=dale /><ref>{{cite book |title=Brighton As It Is 1831; Describing Everything Worthy of Description to the Visitor or Townsman |publisher=E Wallis |location=London |year=1831 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9bIHAAAAQAAJ&q=george+faithfull+brighton&pg=PA81 |page=81}}</ref>

Following the Reform Act 1832, Brighton was enfranchised as a parliamentary borough, returning two members of parliament to the House of Commons. At the 1832 general election Faithfull was elected as one of the town's first MPs alongside Isaac Wigney.<ref name="craig1832-1885">{{cite book

| title = British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 | edition = 2nd | last = Craig | first = F. W. S. | year = 1989 | author-link = F. W. S. Craig | orig-year = First published 1977 | publisher = Parliamentary Research Services | location = Chichester | page = 65 | isbn = 0-900178-26-4 }}</ref> His extreme Radical views were not popular with his constituents, however. The diarist Charles Greville, a resident of Brighton, described him as a "bad character".<ref name=dale /> He was defeated at the next general election in 1835.<ref name="craig1832-1885" />

Faithfull put his defeat down to lack of support from the press, and accordingly began publication of the weekly ''Brighton Patriot and Lewes Free Press '' in February 1835 to propagate his views.<ref name="patriot">{{cite news |title=Brighton Patriot |work=British Newspapers 1800-1900 |publisher=British Library |url=http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/BrightonPatriot.htm |access-date=12 July 2011}}</ref> He was once again defeated in an ill-tempered general election in 1837.<ref name="craig1832-1885" /><ref name=patriot /> The middle class readership abandoned Faithfull's newspaper and he found himself aligned with the local Chartists. When a series of Chartist riots and strikes took place in 1839, Faithfull closed the ''Patriot''.<ref name=patriot />

He continued his legal practice until his death, acting as solicitors to a number of railway companies.<ref>''Railway Times'', Volume 2 (1839), p.88.</ref> He died at his Brighton residence in March 1863.<ref name=deaths />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{hansard-contribs | mr-george-faithful | George Faithfull}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-new | constituency}} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Brighton | years = 1832–1835 | with = Isaac Wigney }} {{s-aft | after = George Pechell<br />Isaac Wigney }} {{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Faithfull, George}} Category:1790 births Category:1863 deaths Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1832–1835 Category:Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies

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