which Oastler pleaded the cause of the factory workers, denounced the new poor law and defended the corn laws, he exercised great influence on public opinion. ‘Oastler Committees’ were formed at Manchester and other places in order to assist him, and ‘Oastler Festivals,’ the proceeds of which were forwarded to him, were arranged by working men. In 1842 an ‘Oastler Liberation Fund’ was started. At the end of 1843 the fund amounted to 2,500l. Some of Oastler's friends guaranteed the remaining sum necessary to effect his release, and in February 1844 he was set at liberty. He made a public entry into Huddersfield on 20 Feb. From that time until 1847 he continued to agitate for a ten-hours day; but with the passing of Lord Ashley's Act his public career practically terminated. He edited a weekly newspaper called ‘The Home,’ which he commenced on 3 May 1851, and discontinued in June 1855. He died at Harrogate on 22 Aug. 1861, and was buried in Kirkstall churchyard.
Oastler was a churchman, a tory, and a protectionist. One of his objections to the new poor law was that it would prove fatal to the interests of the church and the landed proprietors, and that the repeal of the corn laws would inevitably follow its enactment. He defined his toryism to the Duke of Wellington as ‘a place for everything, and everything in its place.’ He hated ‘Liberal philosophy,’ and was bitterly opposed to the whig manufacturers. Violent in his denunciations, and unfair to his opponents, he has been called the Danton of the factory movement. He was a powerfully built man, over six feet in height, and had a commanding presence. His voice was ‘stentorian in its power and yet flexible, with a flow of language rapid and abundant’ (Trollope). There is a portrait of him by J. H. Illidge, engraved by William Barnard, published at Leeds, 1832; another portrait by W. P. Frith, engraved by Edward Morton (‘Life and Opinions,’ &c.); an engraving, ‘Richard Oastler in his Cell’ (‘Fleet Papers,’ vol. i. No. 12); an engraving in [Spence's] ‘Eminent Men of Leeds;’ a steel engraving by J. Passel White, after B. Garside, given with the ‘Northern Star’ about 1838; and a bronze statue by J. Bernie Philip at Bradford, unveiled by Lord Shaftesbury on 15 May 1869. A stained-glass window was erected to his memory in 1864 in St. Stephen's Church, Kirkstall.
Oastler married Mary, daughter of Thomas and Mary Tatham of Nottingham, on 16 Oct. 1816. Born on 24 May 1793, she was a woman of great natural ability and religious feeling. She died at Headingley, near Leeds, on 12 June 1845, and was buried at Kirkstall. Oastler's two children by her, Sarah and Robert, both died in infancy. After his wife's death Oastler lived at South Hill Cottage, Guildford, Surrey. Oastler was a constant contributor to newspapers and other periodicals, and he published many pamphlets concerning the factory agitation. A volume of his ‘Speeches’ was published in 1850. He also, in conjunction with the Rev. J. R. Stephens, edited the ‘Ashton Chronicle,’ a weekly journal. His last tract, on Convocation, appeared shortly before his death.
[Sketch of the Life and Opinions of Richard Oastler (Hobson: Leeds, 1838); Taylor's Biographia Leodiensis, pp. 499–503 (mainly founded on the obituary notice of Oastler in the Leeds Mercury), Supplement, p. 671; Yorkshire Anecdotes, p. 69; [Spence's] Eminent Men of Leeds, pp. 53–9; Life of Edward Baines, p. 86; Beaumont's Memoir of Mary Tatham, pp. 187, 189, 205; Hodder's Life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, i. 214–16, 304, ii. 189, 211, iii. 249; Trollope's What I remember, ii. 11, 12, 13; Bull's Lecture on the Career and Character of Richard Oastler, Esq. (Leeds Intelligencer, 7 Feb. 1863); Ashton's Fleet Prison; Chambers's Book of Days, ii. 244; Von Plener's English Factory Legislation, passim; Alfred's (i.e. Samuel Kydd's) History of the Factory Movement, passim; Report from the Committee on the Bill to Regulate the Labour of Children in the Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom, 1832, pp. 454–63; Times, 11 July 1840; Fleet Papers, passim; The Home, passim; Leeds Intelligencer, 24 and 31 Aug., 7 Dec. 1861; Gent. Mag. 1861, ii. 449, 454, 689; Ann. Reg. 1861, p. 476; Leeds Mercury, Weekly Supplement, 8 Sept. 1894; and information kindly supplied by Mrs. Earle, daughter of the late Rev. J. R. Stephens, Highampton, Devonshire; the Rev. John Pickford, rector of Newbourne, Suffolk; Charles W. Sutton, esq., Manchester, and others.]
OATES, FRANCIS (1840–1875), traveller and naturalist, second son of Edward Oates of Meanwoodside, Yorkshire, by Susan, daughter of Edward Grace of Burley, in the same county, was born at Meanwoodside on 6 April 1840. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 9 Feb. 1861, but took no degree, owing to bad health. For some years from 1864 he was an invalid. In 1871 he travelled in Central America, where he made a collection of birds and insects. On his return in 1872 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. On 5 March 1873, accompanied by his brother, W. E. Oates, he sailed from Southampton for Natal with the intention of making a journey to the Zambesi, and, if possible, to some of the unexplored country to the northward, for the
