Thomas Allsop

Thomas Allsop (10 April 1795 – 12 April 1880) was an English stockbroker and writer. Allsop is commonly described as the favourite disciple of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He also took part in violent radical politics.

Early life He was born 10 April 1795 at Stainsborough Hall, near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, a property which belonged to his grandfather. Allsop was educated at Wirksworth grammar school. At 17 he went to London, and entered the large silk mercery establishment of his uncle, Mr. Harding, at Waterloo House, Pall Mall, where he remained some years. He then left for the Stock Exchange, prospering during the early years of railway construction.

Social and political circle Allsop's home was a favourite resort of Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, Barry Cornwall, and others such as Thomas Noon Talfourd. Besides men like Lamb or Robert Owen, who would stay for weeks at a time, he shared the personal friendship of men as dissimilar as Cobbett, Joseph Mazzini, and the Emperor of Brazil, who, after a pilgrimage to the grave of Coleridge, sent to Allsop a silver urn inscribed with words of personal regard. Orsini bomb, 1858, engraving published in the Illustrated London News, from a photograph of a police exhibit. The bomb was made by Joseph Taylor of Birmingham, with whom Allsop dealt. Orsini was travelling on an old British passport issued by the Foreign Office to Allsop, at the request of a business, as Lord Palmerston explained in Parliament. Allsop managed to escape after the event to America; and stayed in New Mexico for some months, writing home to George Jacob Holyoake from Santa Fe.

Simon Francis Bernard stood trial for his own involvement. It came out that the bombs employed in the attack were ordered by Allsop in Birmingham; but that he gave his name and address.

Allsop died at Exmouth in 1880, and his body was moved to Woking, so that his friend Holyoake, could speak at his grave, which could only be done on unconsecrated ground.

Works Allsop was attracted to lectures by Coleridge, and he heard those in 1818. He asked to meet the writer, and they developed a lasting friendship. On the poet's death Allsop published in two volumes his major work, Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1836). He left autobiographical papers to Holyoake.

His Budget of Two Taxes only, was addressed to the then chancellor of the exchequer in 1848. His final work was California and its Gold Mines in 1852–3: he had spent two years exploring the mines. The book consists of letters addressed to his son Robert, in the style of his friend William Cobbett's letters to his son James.