John Temple Leader

John Temple Leader (7 May 1810 – 1 March 1903) was an English politician and connoisseur.

Born at his father's house, Putney Hill Villa, on 7 May 1810, he was the younger son of Mary and William Leader, a London merchant, and Whig Member of Parliament for Camelford and then Winchelsea. He entered Charterhouse School in 1823, but left shortly to study with a private tutor, the Rev. Patrick Smyth, and visited Ireland, Norway, and France. The accidental death at Oxford of his older brother William in February 1826 made him heir to most of his father's large fortune, which he inherited on his father's death on 13 January 1828.

On 12 February 1828 Leader matriculated as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church, Oxford, meeting there James Robert Hope Scott, W. E. Gladstone, and Sir Stephen Glynne with whom he made archæological excursions. In his Oxford vacations he continued his travels, and was in Paris during the July Revolution of 1830; and there, through his father's friend Henry Brougham, he came to know leading liberal politicians. He took no degree, and after leaving Oxford went into politics.

Leader attached himself to the advanced wing of the Radicals, and was elected Member of Parliament for Bridgwater in January 1835. In the House he generally acted with George Grote and William Molesworth of the Philosophical Radicals, and supported the People's Charter of 1838. In his first session he seconded Grote's resolution in favour of the secret ballot. John Arthur Roebuck found him a useful politician, if also frivolous. Other party friends complained that his political speeches were too bitter.

In May 1837 Leader applied for the Chiltern hundreds, in order to contest Westminster at a bye-election against Sir Francis Burdett. Having abandoned radical principles, Burdett had resigned the seat, and was asking his constituents to return him anew as a conservative. Leader was defeated, polling 3052 votes against 3567, but he renewed his candidature at the general election in August, when his opponent was Sir George Murray, and he was elected by 3793 against 2620. He was re-elected in July 1841, and remained the representative of Westminster till the dissolution in 1847. He continued to advocate Chartism and radicalism. On 2 May 1842 he seconded Thomas Duncombe's motion "that the petitioners for the national charter be heard at the bar of the house". In the same session (18 February) he supported Charles Pelham Villiers's motion for the repeal of the corn laws. On 13 February 1844 he spoke in behalf of the liberties of Canada, which he joined Roebuck in championing. He was not heard in the house again.

While in the House Leader was prominent in London society, and extended his acquaintance on tours in Italy and France. In 1836 he joined the Reform Club, of which he was a lifelong member. In February 1837, as a disciple of Brougham and Grote, he was admitted to the first council of the new London University, and in the same month he presided at a dinner for Thomas Wakley, which was attended by Daniel O'Connell, Joseph Hume and other radicals.

His friendship with Brougham grew, and he was his only companion, on 21 October 1839, in the carriage accident near Brougham Hall, Cumberland, which led to the incorrect report of Brougham's death. He entertained at his residence at Putney and at a house which he rented in Stratton Street; his friend Edward John Trelawny long lived with him at Putney. Other guests there included Richard Monckton Milnes, Charles Austin, and overseas visitors; he saw much in London of Louis Napoleon, and knew Gabriele Rossetti.

In 1844 Leader moved abroad, without explanation, and returned only briefly during the rest of his life. At first he spent time at Cannes with his friend Brougham, and there Richard Cobden met them both in 1846; like Brougham, Leader acquired property there. He then moved on to Florence.