Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Crompton, Henry
CROMPTON, HENRY (1836–1904), positivist and advocate of trade unions, born at Liverpool on 27 Aug. 1836, was second of five sons of Sir Charles Crompton [q. v.], judge of the queen's bench, by Caroline Fletcher, his wife. The eldest son, Charles Crompton (1833–1890), Q.C., was M.P. for Staffordshire (Leek division), and the fourth son, Albert, was founder of the positivist church at Liverpool. Of his three sisters, the eldest, Mary, married the Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies, the second, Caroline Anna, married Prof. George Croom Robertson [q. v.], and the third, Emily, married Prof. E. S. Beesly. Educated at University College school, London, in a private school at Bonn, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B. A. as junior optime in 1858, Crompton afterwards studied medicine at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington. In 1858 he was appointed clerk of assize on the Chester and North Wales circuit, a post which he held for forty-three years, rendering the judges during that long period valuable aid in their criminal work by virtue of his experience and judgment. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 6 June 1863. He died on 15 March 1904 at Churt near Farnham, and is buried there. He married on 8 Nov. 1870 Lucy Henrietta, daughter of John Romilly, first Lord Romilly [q. v.], and had two sons.
During a long illness (1858–9), Crompton read Comte's ‘Philosophie Positive’ and became an ardent positivist. He met Professor Beesly in 1864, and thenceforward took an active part in the positivist movement. In his later life he was chief assistant to Dr. Richard Congreve [q. v. Suppl. I] at the Church of Humanity, Chapel Street, becoming leader after Congreve's death in 1899. There he gave many addresses on religion, philosophy, history, and public affairs. Some were published as pamphlets. A paper on Rabelais (Positivist Review, June 1910) is a good example of the range and breadth of his thought.
Crompton sedulously applied his principles to public questions. He was always active to protest against international injustice and the oppression of weaker races. He served on the Jamaica committee, formed to prosecute Governor Eyre in 1867; worked for the admission of women to the lectures at University College; was untiring in efforts for the improvement and just administration of the criminal law; and gave a strenuous and useful support to the trade unions in their struggle to reform the labour laws. When bills affecting trade unions were before parliament, ‘his technical knowledge and skill were invaluable and were ever placed unstintedly and disinterestedly at the service of labour’ (Thomas Burt, Northumberland Miners' Monthly Circular for March 1904). In recognition of his services he was made in 1868 a member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners. In 1876, being at that time referee to the board of arbitration and conciliation for the Nottingham lace trade, he published ‘Industrial Conciliation,’ to which Mr. and Mrs. Webb refer as ‘the classic work’ on the subject (Industrial Democracy, p. 223, note). It was translated into French. Crompton's ‘Letters on Social and Political Subjects,’ reprinted from the ‘Sheffield Independent,’ were published in book form in 1870, and after his death some papers by him were collected under the title ‘Our Criminal Justice,’ with an introduction by Sir Kenelm Digby (1905); the book gives an accurate account of the English system of criminal procedure. A volume of ‘Selections of Prose and Poetry by Henry Crompton’ was issued by his widow in 1910.
[Professor Beesly in Positivist Review, May 1904; private information; personal knowledge.]