IS CAPITALISM WORKING?
The economist Kate Raworth has said:
“For me capitalism is an economic system that prioritises, above all, delivering profit for the owners of wealth.”
The owners of wealth – big shareholders, landowners and financiers - ensure this takes place by "capturing" the legal and political system “so that it can secure and reproduce privilege."
Corporations, on behalf of their shareholders, use lobbyists, public relations firms and thinktanks to influence the political- economic agenda. They use the press and other media outlets to craft the message they want the government of the day to hear.
But the problem is worse than that. It was recently revealed that
“One in five new Tory MPs have worked in lobbying or PR for corporate interests, new openDemocracy research reveals today. Opposition politicians have called our findings “deeply worrying”. (OpenDemocracy: 21/12/19)
Having Tory MP’s, "deeply connected to privileged corporate interests" is not that surprising, but this problem is not restricted to the Conservative Party. In 1997, Tony Blair exempted Formula One from a ban on tobacco advertising, after the Labour Party received a £1 million donation from the head of the sports governing body.
This was not a one-off. The “cash for honours” political scandal shocked the nation when it was revealed that the Labour Party was accepting large donations from individuals in exchange for seats in the House of Lords. Rich people were quite literally buying a place in government.
Luckily, the land owning aristocratic class do not need to buy their way into Parliament - they have a hereditary" "right" to help shape the laws the rest of us have to live under. Even though the number of hereditary peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords was reduced under the House of Lords Act of 1999, there are still 91 hereditary peers.
“As of November 2022, there are 4 dukes, 25 earls, 15 viscounts, 45 barons and 2 Lords of Parliament among the 91 hereditary peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords.” (Wikipedia)
On top of this, we have 25 “Lords Spiritual” who also have an unelected “right" to sit in the House of Lords and shape the laws we have to abide by. The Church of England is the 13th largest landowner in Britain, holding commercial property, ranging from shopping centres to car parks, as well as the land churches occupy. In 2006 the Church of England’s portfolio was estimated to be worth £4.3bn. It is hard to believe this does not influence the way they help frame and vote for new legislation in Parliament.
Cash for questions - MP's being paid large sums of money to raise an issue in Parliament - is another way the wealthy influence politics, and scandals involving both Conservative and Labour peers have been exposed at heart of government.
“The new cash-for-access allegations against two former Foreign Secretaries, Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, suggest little has changed inside parliament’s culture since the scandals that led to Liam Fox’s resignation as Defence Secretary in 2011, and the damage to the Labour Party that followed the former Transport Secretary, Stephen Byers, being caught on camera in 2010 saying he was a “cab for hire” who would work for £5,000 a day.” (Guardian: 23/02/15)
As this was not enough, we have the corrupt practice of the revolving door between government and big business: politicians and civil servants moving freely from politics to business and vice versa. Here is one description of how this works:
“Elected and appointed officials working in government may use their time in office to generate connections with legislators they can call on as contacts after they enter the private sector. Business can send members of its companies to alter policy and regulations to its benefit. But one large group is left unprotected and out in the cold by the Revolving Door -- the everyday members of the general public. If democracies are established to serve the public interest, how is the Revolving Door legal?” (howstuffworks: What Is the Revolving Door)
We can see from the above that our economic-political system allows undue influence by the already wealthy, a rich elite who have disproportionate power over all of our lives, and who shape laws to protect their privileges.
From the former non-dom, non-tax paying wife of our Prime Minister, to the tax avoiding Tory Chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, we see the system working to the advantage of the wealthy. From the energy companies making obscene profits in a rigged market, to the water companies given permission to continue pumping raw sewage into our rivers and onto our beaches until 2050. From the continued deregulated of the finance sector in the pursue profit at any cost, to public school charity status, saving the wealthy millions in additional school fees for their already privileged children.
On their educational website “Bitesize”, the BBC proudly inform our children that:
“Democracy is one of the key principles of the UK’s constitution. It ensures that everyone’s voice counts when the government makes a decision.”
If only that were true.
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Beginning with a boom: Becoming U.S. citizens in New York
I excerpted this from the original post on the WordPress version of this blog, where this, and the previous post are in one document.
When Robert Jacob Bibby, the man who married a woman named Rachel Ann Mills, born in Hew Park, Ireland on July 25, 1802, died at age 102 in 1904, a local paper in Ontario, Canada described him. It said he was “born in Tipperary County Ireland, in July 1804. In 1837 he came to America and settled in New York State” before coming to Canada in 1864. Other family stories seem to indicate the spread of Bibbys across New York in counties including Wayne, Oswego, Orleans, and many more.
The Mills family was not like that at all. They mainly stayed in one place. Thomas M. Mills, who was reportedly born in Cashel Ireland on May 12, 1805, married a woman named Margaret Gray, also for in Cashel, with both dying in Glens Falls, within Warren County. Another man, Isaac Mills II, undoubtedly also born in Ireland on February 2, 1818, died in Chestertown, within Warren County before the end of the 19th century. Both Isaac and Thomas as worth a brief mention because they both were buried in the same cemetery as Margaret Bibby and her husband John Mills.
In the years that followed, Mills and Bibby family members would continue to work to become US citizens. Edward Mills, in 1842 and 1844, gave a naturalization declaration in Chester, while George Bibby did the same in 1844 when he renounced British/Irish loyalty to be a US citizen. According to land records, Beebes (John, Eli, Polly, Hannah) were living in Warren County from 1830 to 1838. It is unknown if they were related to the Bibbys or are another family. The same goes for another transaction. On February 27, 1838, Calvin Mills gave a lot of land, called no. 15, to a man named John Mills, living in Chester. It is likely this is our John Mills, but cannot be completely confirmed. Additionally, varying Millses were living in the county from 1841 to 1844, with some later records in 1854 and 1857. They included Aaron Mills, Don Alphanso Mills, Thomas Mills, Margaret Mills (wife of Thomas), another man named John Mills, and Edward Mills. Mostly these individuals lived in Chester and were likely either cousins or brothers of John Mills.
In September 1838, Thomas Mills bought land from a man named Calvin Mead, of Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut. The following year, in July 1839, Calvin Mead and his wife Deborah bought land from Thomas Mills, 100 acres of land in Chester “bounded in the South by John Mills.” The latter man would be one of the witnesses of this agreement. This man was undoubtedly the same as the John Mills who arrived in the United States from Ireland in 1835 and married Margaret Bibby as a comparison of his signatures across documents attests (figure 1.6).
On December 15, 1845, John and Margaret Mills, of Chester, sold land to Isaac Mills, also of Chester, who paid them $400 for a lot measuring 100 acres of land approximately. This John Mills was undoubtedly the same one living in Chester in 1838 as noted in the previous paragraph. As such, this deed (figure 1.7) is important because it shows that John Mills married Margaret Bibby sometime before December 15, 1845 as it says later “John Mills and Margaret his wife” as she also agreed to sell the land. This also means that Isaac Mills may be John Mills’s brother or cousin.
Figure 1.6. Comparison of the signatures of John Mills across documents in 1838, 1839, and 1852. The 1845 deed has a similar signature by John Mills as the one noted above.
Figure 1.7. Above is the land deed showing John Mills and Margaret married by 1845.
© 2018-2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
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Benjamin Murdoch's life after the war [Part 6]
Continued from part 5
Reprinted from my History Hermann WordPress blog.
© 2016-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Notes
[1] Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1779-1780, Archives of Maryland Online, Vol. 43, 234; Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784, Archives of Maryland Online, Vol. 48, 144, 385, 387, 388, 494; Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, April 1, 1778 through October 26, 1779, Archives of Maryland Online, Vol. 21, 321; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, January 1-March 20, 1777, Archives of Maryland Online, Vol. 16, 308.
[2] Genealogies of Virginia Families: From Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 1 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007 reprint), 596, 599; Roberta Julia (Magruder) Bukey, "The Magruder Family In Its Religious Affiliations" within Yearbook of the American Clan Society (ed. Egbert Watson Magruder, Richmond, VA: Appeals Press, Inc., 1916), 50-51; George Brick Smith, "Some Descendants of George Fraser Magruder" within Year Book of the American Clan Society (ed. John Bowie Ferneyhough, Richmond, VA, 1937), 60, 65. Mary may have been another daughter.
[3] One 89-acre tract patented by Thomas Beall in 1796 (Patent Record IC G, p. 707; Patent Record IC O, p. 85), a 119 acre tract patented by John Bradford in 1724 (Patent Record PL 5, p. 632; Patent Record IL A, p. 324), a 100 acre tract patented by James Halmeard, Jr. in 1748 (Patent Record PT 2, p. 293; Patent Record LG E, p. 564), a 100 acre tract patented by John Eason in 1752 (Patent Record Y and S 6, p. 244; Patent Record GS 1, p. 99), a 173 1/4 acre tract patented by Elizabeth Lashley in 1836 and similar by Arnold Lashley (Patent Record GGB 1, p. 616; Patent Record GGB 2, p. 630). There's also a tract called "A Discovery" (36 1/4 acres which was patented by David Mitchell in 1784 (Patent Record IC A, p. 364; Patent Record IC B, p. 303) and this of which I'm not sure of the relevance to the land. There's also a tract called Addition to Discovery but clearly Murdoch is not related to it.
[4] Deed between William Murdoch and Moses Orme, Montgomery County Court, Land Records,July 13, 1778, Liber A, p. 195, 196 [MSA CE 148-1]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net. Not sure how pages of Liber D, 166 and 167 [MSA CE 148-4] relate to this topic as one source suggests.
[5] Deed between Benjamin Murdoch, Henry Baggerty and Charles Philips, Oct. 19, 1786, Montgomery County Court, Land Records, Liber C, p. 407, 408, 409 [MSA CE 148-3]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[6] This has been double checked, but NO person with the name of Benjamin Murdoch/Murdock, of any kind, is listed on the page with William Murdock and the same is the case for George Murdock, Esq. A look through the 61 pages of the census still turned up no results, even with the listing of two Magruders on one page (Samuel and William). The same was done for the 1800.
[7] Folger McKinsey, History of Frederick County, Maryland: From the Earliest Settlements to the Beginning of the War Between the States, Vol. 2 (L.R. Titsworth & Co., 1910), 1278; Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1758-1761, Archives of Maryland Online, Vol. 56, 74; Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1757-1758, Archives of Maryland Online, Vol. 55, 219; Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1764-1765, Archives of Maryland Online, Vol. 59, 180.
[8] Thomas Settles, John Bankhead Magruder: A Military Reappraisal (Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2009), 450; George Brick Smith, "Some Descendants of George Fraser Magruder," 65.
[9] Agreement between Benjamin Murdoch, Thomas Taylor of Pennsylvania, and Benjamin Huff Canby, July 4, 1800, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber WR 20, p. 52, 53, 54 [MSA CE 108-40]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[10] Benjamin Murdoch purchases land from Abraham Plummer, Aug. 31, 1803, , Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber WR 24, p. 702, 703, 704 [MSA CE 108-44]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[11] Deed between Benjamin Murdock, Allen and Sarah Farguhar, June 11, 1811, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber WR 40, p. 77, 78, 79 [MSA CE 108-60]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[12] Journal of A Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Held in St. Paul's Baltimore (Baltimore: J. Robinson, 1821), 103, 112, 114.
[13] Benjamin Murdoch purchases land from Levi Phillips, Nov. 2, 1825, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber JS 23, p. 401, 402, 403, 404 [MSA CE 108-91]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[14] Agreement between William Pott, William Ballinger, Joseph Sweauinger, James Murphy, and Jesse Hughes concerning "The Hope" land tract and more, Nov. 27, 1797, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber WR 16, p. 40, 41, 42, 43, 43a, 43b, [MSA CE 108-36]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net. Considering it was originally in Prince George's County, this (and this) is NOT the same land. There is a land in Prince George's County named Hope, but no details can be provided.
[15] Benjamin Murdoch purchases land from Charles Fenton Mercer, Nov. 11, 1825, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber JS 23, p. 447, 448, 449, 450, 451 [MSA CE 108-91]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[16] Benjamin Murdoch purchases land from Robert Darnell, Nov. 28, 1825, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber JS 23, p. 555, 556, 557, 558 [MSA CE 108-91]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[17] Fifth Census of the United States, District 1, Frederick, Maryland, 1830, National Archives, NARA M19, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 57, Page 15. Courtesy of Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest. He is called "Benjamin Murdock" in this census.
[18] Pension of Benjamin Murdoch, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, S.9046. Courtesy of Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest.
[19] Agreement between Benjamin Murdock, Charles Johnson (executor), John H. Simmons, John Montgomery, Sebastian Sraff, Congo Doddoner, Elisha Beall, Plummer Simmes, and Charles Johnson, May 15, 1832, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber JS 40, p. 114, 115 [MSA CE 108-108]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[20] Agreement between Benjamin Murdock, et al, Dec. 1, 1832, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber JS 41, p. 3, 4 [MSA CE 108-109]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[21] Agreement between Benjamin Murdoch, et al, and Lloyd Keith, Dec. 1, 1832, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber JS 42, p. 263, 264, 265 [MSA CE 108-110]. Courtesy of mdlandrec.net.
[22] Sixth Census of the United States, Buckeye, Frederick, Maryland, 1840, National Archives, NARA M704, . Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll 166, Page 159. Courtesy of Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest.
[23] Sixth Census of the United States, Buckeystown, Frederick, Maryland, USA, 1850, National Archives, NARA M432, . Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, Roll M432_293, Page 461-462. Courtesy of Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest.
[24] See here, here, and here for others who have tried to explore his story.
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