CARTWRIGHT, GEORGE (fl. 1661), dramatist, was the author of a solitary tragedy entitled ‘The Heroick Lover, or the Infanta of Spain,’ London, 1661, 8vo, dedicated to Charles II. It was presumably unacted. The scene is Poland, and the author speaks of it as ‘a poem consisting more of fatal truth than flying fancy.’ It is in rhymed verse, and is in all respects a poor production. Cartwright is unmentioned by Langbaine, Winstanley, and Phillips. The first reference to him occurs in Gildon's addition to Langbaine, 1699, where it is said that the author ‘has writ a play called “Heroick Love,”’ a mistake copied by succeeding writers, and that he ‘lived at Fulham.’
[Baker, Reed, and Jones's Biographia Dramatica; Genest's Account of the Stage; The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatic Poets, first begun by Mr. Langbaine, improved and continued down to this time by a careful hand, 1699.]
CARTWRIGHT, JOHN (fl. 1763–1808), painter, was a member of the Free Society of Artists, and in 1763 signed the deed of enrolment of that society. He went to Rome to prosecute his artistic studies, and there became acquainted with Henry Fuseli. On his return to England he resided for several years at 100 St. Martin's Lane, and when Fuseli returned to England from Rome in 1779 he for some time shared part of Cartwright's house. Cartwright became a great personal friend of Fuseli, who gave him many hints, and occasionally assistance in his work. His historical pictures show much of Fuseli's influence, which was, however, unsuited to an artist of Cartwright's calibre. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1784 to 1808; his pictures were not confined to any one class of subject, but represented landscapes, historical and domestic subjects, and principally portraits.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School; Redgraves' Century of Painters, vol. i.; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Pye's Patronage of British Art; Catalogues of the Exhibitions of the Royal Academy and the Free Society of Artists; Knowles's Life of Fuseli.]
CARTWRIGHT, JOHN (1740–1824), political reformer, was descended from an old Nottinghamshire family, and was the third son of William Cartwright of Marnham, and Anne, daughter of George Cartwright of Ossington. He was born 17 Sept. 1740, and educated at a grammar school at Newark, and a private academy at Heath in Yorkshire. At about the age of eighteen he entered the navy, and saw some active service under the command of Lord Howe. He devised certain improvements in gun exercise, afterwards incorporated in Falconer's ‘Marine Dictionary.’ Cartwright rapidly rose in the service, and in 1766 was appointed first lieutenant of the Guernsey on the Newfoundland station, and the following year was made deputy commissary to the vice-admiralty court in that island. Here he took the lead in a short exploring expedition. He returned from Newfoundland in 1770, in impaired health. His mind dwelt constantly on the improvement of naval efficiency, and during several years he endeavoured to draw the attention of the government to plans for a perpetual supply of timber for the navy.
About 1775 Cartwright began publicly to assert his opinions on political matters in ‘A Letter to Edmund Burke, controverting the Principles of American Government laid down in his lately published speech on American Taxation,’ and in a tract on American independence. Two years later his sympathies hindered him from joining Lord Howe's command in North America, and a stop was thus put to his professional advancement. In 1775 Cartwright had been appointed major to the Nottinghamshire militia. He now began a series of writings on reform in parliament. From the first he advocated annual parliaments, universal suffrage, and the ballot. His extreme notions hindered his acceptance by the whigs, but his position as a country gentleman insured him respect. He was frequently in correspondence with Mr. Burke and other leaders of opinion. In 1780 Cartwright began the agitation which earned for him the title of the Father of Reform. A county meeting in Nottingham was succeeded in March of that year by the historic meeting at Westminster, on which occasion the leaders of the whig opposition met Cartwright and his friends, and passed resolutions on the inadequate representation of the people of England. Shortly after he founded the Society for Constitutional Information. He stood for parliament more than once, but his candidature was vain. He unsuccessfully contested Nottinghamshire in 1780 and Boston in 1806 and 1807, and was nominated for Westminster in 1818 and 1819.
Meanwhile he was actively engaged in agricultural pursuits and laying down practical hints for the encouragement of the farming interest. He was likewise in active co-operation with Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and the other anti-slavery leaders. During the alarmist period Cartwright ran personal risk. Having attended a public meeting to celebrate the taking of the Bastille, his promotion in the militia was withheld, and his commission at length cancelled.
