Francis Place

Francis Place (3 November 1771, London – 1 January 1854, London) was an English social reformer.

Early career and influence

Born in the debtors' prison which his father oversaw near Drury Lane, Place was schooled for ten years before being apprenticed to a leather-breeches maker. At eighteen he was an independent journeyman, and in 1790 was married and moved to a house near the Strand. In 1793 he became involved in and eventually the leader of a strike of leather-breeches makers, and was refused work for several years by London's master tailors; he exploited this time by reading avidly and widely. In 1794, Place joined the London Corresponding Society, a reform club, and for three years was prominent in its work, before resigning his post as chairman of the general committee in 1797 in protest at the violent tactics and rhetoric of some group members. In 1799 he became the partner in a tailor's shop, and a year later set up his own highly successful business at 16 Charing Cross.

Francis Place (artist)

Francis Place (1647 – 21 September 1728) was an English gentleman draughtsman, potter, engraver and printmaker, active mainly in York.

He was the fifth son of Rowland Place (1616–1680) of Dinsdale, county Durham, and his wife, Catherine (died 1670), daughter and coheiress of Charles Wise of Copgrove, Yorkshire.

Place entered law as his father had done, and was articled to an attorney at Gray's Inn until the outbreak of the plague forced him to leave both the profession and London in 1665. By this time, Place had already discovered a gift for drawing and engraving through his close friend Wenceslaus Hollar.

About 1680 Place's interests and activities widened further as he became involved with the antiquarian group the York virtuosi, where he eventually settled. Place became a friend of many artists and antiquarians in and around York, including Ralph Thoresby and William Lodge, with whom Place went on many drawing and angling excursions.

As a result of the Popish Plot, during one trip to Wales, Place and Lodge found themselves imprisoned as suspected Jesuit spies.