Edward Miall (8 May 1809 – 30 April 1881) was an English journalist, apostle ofdisestablishment, founder of theLiberation Society (Society for the Liberation of the Church from State Patronage and Control), andLiberal Party politician. He founded and edited the weekly newspaperThe Nonconformist.

Miall was born at Portsmouth to Moses Miall and his wife Sarah, daughter of George Rolph. He was educated at St. Saviour's grammar school for a while and then assisted his father in running a school. He then worked as an usher at a school in Bocking near Braintree and then in Nayland, Suffolk. He joined Wymondley Theological Institution in 1829 after which he becameCongregational minister atWare, Hertfordshire (1831) andLeicester (1834), and in, 1841 foundedThe Nonconformist, a weekly newspaper in which he advocated the cause ofdisestablishment. Miall saw that if the programme of Nonconformity was to be carried through it must have more effective representation in Parliament. One of the first fruits of his work was the entrance ofJohn Bright into parliamentary life; and by 1852 fortyDissenters were members of theHouse of Commons. This was due largely to the efforts of the British Anti-State-Church Association, which Miall was instrumental in founding in 1844; it was renamed in 1853 the Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control, known for short as the Liberation Society.^[1]

It was never able to secure a Parliamentary majority for disestablishment of the Church of England but the long fight for the abolition of compulsory church-rates was finally successful in 1868, and then in 1870 Miall was prominent in the discussions aroused by the Education Bill. He was at this timeMember of Parliament forBradford (1860–1874), having previously sat forRochdale from 1852 to 1857.^[2] In 1874 he retired from public life, and received from his admirers a present of ten thousand guineas. He died atSevenoaks.^[1]

Miall married Louisa, daughter of Edward Holmes of Clayhill, Enfield, in 1832 and they had two sons and three daughters.^[3]

Attribution

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911)."Miall, Edward" .Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Obituary of Edward Miall, fromThe Bradford Observer

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Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900Dictionary of National Biography's article aboutMiall, Edward.

• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Edward Miall
• Portraits of Edward Miall at theNational Portrait Gallery, London
• Wood, James, ed. (1907)."Miall, Edward" .The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

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