DOUBLEDAY, Thomas, an English author in political and general literature. He early adopted the views of his friend William Cobbett, and was active in promoting the agitation which resulted in the passing of the Reform Act of 1832. As secretary of the Northern Political Union of Whigs and Radicals, he took a prominent part in forwarding the interests of Lord Grey and the reforming party. In 1858-59 he was a member of the council of the Northern Reform Union; and to the last he was a keen observer of political events. He succeeded his father as partner in an eminent firm of soap manufacturers at Newcastle, but devoted his attention rather to literature than to mercantile affairs. On the failure of the firm he obtained the registrarship of St Andrew’s parish, Newcastle, a post which he held until appointed secretary to the coal trade. He died at Burham, near Newcastle, December 18, 1870.

Besides poems, dramas, numerous pamphlets, contributions to Blackwood? s Magazine, the Eclectic Review, and other periodicals, and leading articles in the Manchester Guardian and the Newcastle Chronicle, Doubleday wrote A Financial, Monetary, and Statistical History of England, 1847; A Treatise on Mundane Moral Government, 1852; The True Law of Population, 1853; a romance, The Eve of St Mark, 1857; The Political Life of Sir Robert Peel, 1859; and Matter for Materialists, 1870.