Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Picton, James Allanson
PICTON, JAMES ALLANSON (1832–1910), politician and author, born at Liverpool on 8 Aug. 1832, was eldest son of Sir James Allanson Picton [q. v.] by his wife Sarah Pooley. After early education at the High School, then held at the Mechanics' Institute, he entered the office of his father, who was an architect, in his sixteenth year. In his nineteenth year he resolved to study for the ministry, and joined both the Lancashire Independent College and Owens College, Manchester. At Owens College he was first in classics in his final examination, and in 1855 he proceeded M.A. at London University. A first attempt in 1856 to enter the ministry failed owing to a suspicion of heterodoxy. Study of German philosophy dissatisfied him with conventional doctrine. Later in the year, however, he was appointed to Cheetham Hill congregational church, Manchester. There with the Rev. Arthur Mursell he undertook a course of popular lectures to the working classes. A sermon on the 'Christian law of progress' in 1862 led to a revival of the allegation of heresy. Removing to Leicester, he accepted the pastorate of Gallowtree Gate chapel, and there made a high reputation. In 1869 he became pastor of St Thomas's Square chapel, Hackney, remaining there till 1879. At Hackney, to the dismay of strict orthodoxy, he delivered to the working classes, on Sunday afternoons, popular lectures on secular themes such as English history and the principles of radical and conservative politics. He thus prepared the way for the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon movement. His growing tendency to rationalism inclined him to pantheism in later years.
Picton soon took an active part in public life as an uncompromising radical of an advanced type. A champion of secularism in education, he represented Hackney on the London school board from 1870 to 1879. For three years he was chairman of the school management committee. In 1883 he was accepted as a radical candidate for parliament for the Tower Hamlets, but withdrew in 1884, when in June he entered parliament as member for Leicester, succeeding Peter Alfred Taylor [q. v.], most of whose opinions he shared. He was re-elected for Leicester in 1885, 1886, and 1892, retiring from the House of Commons and from public life in 1894. Picton, who was very small in stature, possessed much oratorical power, but, never losing the manner of the pulpit, failed to win the ear of the House of Commons, where he was only known as a sincere advocate of extreme views.
Picton wrote much in the press and published many sermons, pamphlets, and volumes on religion and politics. From 1879 to 1884 he was a frequent leader writer in the 'Weekly Dispatch,' then an advanced radical organ, and contributed to the 'Christian World,' the 'Theological Review,' the 'Fortnightly Review,' the 'Contemporary Review,' 'Macmillan's Magazine,' the 'Examiner,' and other periodicals.
His books included:
- 'A Catechism of the Gospels,' 1866.
- 'New Theories and the Old Faith,' 1870.
- 'The Mystery of Matter,' 1873.
- 'The Religion of Jesus,' 1876.
- 'Pulpit Discourses,' 1879.
- 'Oliver Cromwell: the Man and his Mission,' 1882 (a popular eulogy).
- 'Lessons from the English Commonwealth,' 1884.
- 'The Conflict of Oligarchy and Democracy,' 1885.
- 'Sir James A. Picton: a Biography,' 1891.
- 'The Bible in School,' 1901.
- 'The Religion of the Universe,' 1904.
- 'Pantheism,' 1905.
- 'Spinoza: a Handbook to the Ethics,' 1907.
- 'Man and the Bible,' 1909.
He died at Caerlyr, Penmaenmawr, North Wales, where he had lived since his withdrawal from parliament, on 4 Feb. 1910, and his remains were cremated at Liverpool.
He married (1) Margaret, daughter of John Beaumont of Manchester; and (2) Jessie Carr, daughter of Sydney Williams, publisher, of Hamburg and London. Of four sons one survived
[Morrison Davidson, Eminent Radicals, 1880; Frederick Rogers, Biographical sketch, 1883; H. W. Lucy's Diary of the Salisbury Parliament, 1886-92; House of Commons Guides, 1884-94; Who's Who, 1910; Christian World, Literary Guide, and Leicester Daily Post and Liverpool Daily Post, Feb., March 1910.]