Thomas Newbigging (1833-1914) was a Scottish historian and engineer, who made his home in Lancashire – Rossendale and Manchester – hence the subject of this collection’s first essay, ‘Lancashire Factory Doffers’. He was an expert in gas engineering, wrote the The Gas Manager’s Handbook (1870; which ran to at least eight editions), as well as serving as President of the Gas Institute in 1885. Three years after the publication of this title, Newbigging stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal Party’s candidate for Rossenadale. As the title perhaps suggests, this essay collection wanders broadly in terms of subject matter – from the cotton industry to Gull Moss and Thomas Chatterton to Oliver Goldsmith – but mostly with a strong Lancashire flavour.
The better known of the pair, Jacob Bright (1821-1899) was a politician, the first Mayor of Rochdale and Liberal MP for Manchester from 1867. When J. S. Mill lost his Commons seat the following year, Bright became leader of the suffragists in parliament and, with Sir Charles Dilke, introduced the first woman’s suffrage bill in 1870 (ODNB).