{{Short description|English political reformer, parliamentary historian and antiquary}} {{about||the military officer|Thomas Oldfield (Royal Marines officer)|the British zoologist|Oldfield Thomas}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

'''Thomas Hinton Burley Oldfield''' (1755–1822) was an English political reformer, parliamentary historian and antiquary.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Oldfield, Thomas Hinton Burley}}</ref> His major work, ''The Representative History'', has been called "a domesday book of corruption".<ref name="Gamble2011">{{cite book|author=John Gamble|title=Society and Manners in Early Nineteenth-Century Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XqL9wEiZFMEC&pg=PA457|accessdate=24 February 2013|year=2011|publisher=Field Day Publications|isbn=978-0-946755-43-1|page=457 note 1}}</ref>

==Life== He was born in Derbyshire, and reputedly an attorney.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=20683|title=Oldfield, Thomas Hinton Burley|first=Michael T.|last=Davis}}</ref> During the 1780s he lived in Hoxton Square, east of London.<ref name="Black1963">{{cite book|author=Eugene C. Black|title=Association: British Extraparliamentary Political Organization, 1769-1793|url=https://archive.org/details/associationbriti0000blac|url-access=registration|accessdate=24 February 2013|year=1963|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-05000-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/associationbriti0000blac/page/283 283]–4}}</ref> Oldfield joined the Society for Constitutional Information in 1782, when he was proposed by John Jebb and seconded by Thomas Brand Hollis. He was very active with Richard Brocklesby at the time of The Case of the Dean of St Asaph in 1784. Subsequently he joined the Society of Friends of the People.<ref name="Black1963"/><ref name="Blaas1978">{{cite book|author=P. B. M. Blaas|title=Continuity and Anachronism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egeUK44NTE4C&pg=PA84|accessdate=24 February 2013|year=1978|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-90-247-2063-7|page=84}}</ref> He died at Exeter on 25 July 1822.<ref name="DNB"/>

==Election management== Over a long period, Oldfield operated as an election agent or manager. He was secretary of the Westminster electoral committee in 1780;<ref>{{cite book|author=Marc Baer|title=The Rise and Fall of Radical Westminster, 1780-1890|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZZycB0tiIwC&pg=PA13|accessdate=24 February 2013|date=4 September 2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-34931-5|page=13}}</ref> and again secretary of the Westminster Association in 1783/4.<ref name="Cannon1973"/> In 1785 he introduced Henry Flood at Seaford. Over numerous procedural difficulties, Flood was elected in 1786.<ref>[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/flood-henry-1732-91 historyofparliamentonline.org, ''Flood, Henry (1732-91), of Farmley, co. Kilkenny''.]</ref>

At East Retford in 1812 Oldfield offered himself as election manager to George Osbaldeston. His candidate was elected, but then refused to settle financially with Oldfield. Oldfield then turned informer on the electoral corruption that had been involved.<ref name="Smith1975">{{cite book|author=Ernest Anthony Smith|title=Whig Principles and Party Politics: Earl Fitzwilliam and the Whig Party, 1748-1833|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgYNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA327|accessdate=24 February 2013|year=1975|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-0598-5|page=327}}</ref>

==Views== Oldfield took the view that participation in deliberation and legislation was an inherent ancient right. In this he had something in common with Gilbert Stuart. This attitude was contested by the ''British Review'' in 1818, taking the line that rights had been attained by struggle.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alice Chandler|title=A Dream of Order: The Medieval Ideal in Nineteenth-Century English Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uqg9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA25|accessdate=24 February 2013|year=1971|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|isbn=978-0-7100-7037-1|page=25}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Linda E. Connors|author2=Mary Lu MacDonald|title=National Identity in Great Britain and British North America 1815-1851: The Role of Nineteenth-Century Periodicals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0rnp3XeA_ycC&pg=PA35|accessdate=24 February 2013|date=28 August 2011|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4094-2771-1|page=35}}</ref> Oldfield mixed the concepts of historic right and natural right freely.<ref>Jann, p. 131.</ref>

==Works== Oldfield was a pioneer of parliamentary reform, and the author of:<ref name="DNB"/>

* ''An Entire and Complete History, Political and Personal, of the Boroughs of Great Britain, together with the Cinque Ports; to which is prefixed an original Sketch of constitutional rights from the earliest Period until the present Time'', London, 1792, 3 vols.; 2nd ed. 1794, 2 vols. George Tierney's work ''State of the Representation'' on parliamentary representation was largely based on this work.<ref name="Cannon1973">{{cite book|author=John Ashton Cannon|title=Parliamentary Reform: 1640-1832|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C0M4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA122|accessdate=24 February 2013|year=1973|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-09736-9|page=122 note 3}}</ref> * ''History of the Original Constitution of Parliaments from the Time of the Britons to the present Day; to which is added the present State of the Representation'', London, 1797.

Both works were subsequently reprinted under the title ''A Complete History, Political and Personal, of the Boroughs of Great Britain, together with the Cinque Ports; To which is now first added the History of the Original Constitution of Parliaments'', &c., London (no date), 3 vols. A final edition, revised and amplified, entitled ''The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland; being a History of the House of Commons, and of the Counties, Cities, and Boroughs of the United Kingdom from the earliest Period'', appeared in 1816, London, 6 vols.<ref name="DNB"/>

Oldfield also compiled ''A Key to the House of Commons, being a History of the last General Election in 1818; and a correct State of the virtual Representation of England and Wales'', London, 1820.<ref name="DNB"/>

==References== *Rosemary Jann, ''Democratic Myths in Victorian Medievalism'', Browning Institute Studies Vol. 8, (1980), pp.&nbsp;129–149. Published by: Cambridge University Press.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jann |first=Rosemary |date=1980 |title=Democratic Myths in Victorian Medievalism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25057689 |journal=Browning Institute Studies |volume=8 |pages=129–149 |issn=0092-4725}}</ref>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Oldfield, Thomas Hinton Burley|volume=42}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oldfield, Thomas Hinton Burley}} Category:1755 births Category:1822 deaths Category:English lawyers Category:18th-century English historians Category:18th-century English male writers Category:People from Derbyshire Category:English reformers Category:19th-century English historians Category:19th-century English male writers Category:English male non-fiction writers