Hugh Mason
Hugh Mason | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Born | Stalybridge, Cheshire, England | 30 January 1817
Died | 2 February 1886 Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England | (aged 69)
Political party | Liberal |
Spouse(s) | Sarah Buckley (1846–1852); Betsy Buckley (1854–1861); Anne Ashworth(1864–1886) |
Children | Bertha, Edith, Rupert, Sydney |
Residence(s) | Groby Hall, Jowett's Walk |
Occupation | Mill owner |
Hugh Mason (30 January 1817 – 2 February 1886) was an English
Mason became the first Liberal to be elected councillor for Ashton-under-Lyne in 1856. He was mayor of the council from 1857 to 1860 and retired from local politics in 1874 due to conflict with his own party. Mason returned to the Liberals in 1878 when he stood for election as Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne. He was voted in and supported progressive policies, which included women's suffrage, making him unpopular within his own party. He was MP from 1880 to 1885. When he died in 1886, aged 69, Hugh Mason had amassed £290,933 (now about £17 million).
Early life and business career
Hugh Mason was born in
After leaving school at the age of 14, Mason got a job with the district bank while he attended night school in his spare time. He worked there until 1838, when he left at the age of 21 to join the family's cotton business. He became the driving force behind the business.[2] The business thrived: by the early 1850s the Mason family had built two state-of-the-art cotton mills in the Ryecroft area of Ashton-under-Lyne, known as the Oxford Mills. He was able to purchase Groby Hall, in Ashton, the ancestral seat of the former Lord Greys of Groby.[4]
In 1845, to house the workers for the mills, Mason began construction of a "workers' colony". The colony not only provided 150 terrace houses
Under Hugh Mason's leadership, the company prospered. The number of
Having initially opposed trade unions and factory legislation, Mason changed his mind around the 1850s regarding how workers should be treated, believing that the welfare of the employees impacted on the welfare of the employer.[7] He became popular among workers for such things as becoming the first local employer to give his workers Saturday afternoons off.[3][7] During the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861–1865 he refused to cut workers' wages as was common during the period. He stated:
I will keep my work people employed, and if there is no work, lend them money from my own pocket rather than have them apply for relief. The poor rate is only 1s 6d in the pound. I will pay as high a poor rate as the Poor Law Guardians deem necessary.[7]
As well as this, he contributed £500 (about the equivalent of £30,000 today) to the Ashton borough cotton famine relief.
Hugh Mason is one of the first amongst those wealthy manufacturers of Lancashire who devote the hours which are not occupied by business to the service of their fellow men. He has been accustomed to take a leading part in the various public improvements, and he has long been a political chief. At Ashton he is unpopular: the ruggedness which mars his virtues, and the self assertion which stamps his conduct, do not invite the affection of his fellow. Although he has done more than any other millowner on securing the physical and social well-being of his employees, he is not highly esteemed. He has built for his workpeople admirable cottages, swimming baths, gymnasiums and lecture halls, but beneficent acts do not suffice to secure popularity unless there is a suavity of manner and sympathy of nature in the benefactor, and these are qualities which Mr Mason lacks. Mr Mason is a staunch liberal, and is reckoned to be one of the oracles of the local party. His figure is a familiar one at free trade meetings where the citizens of Manchester never fail to receive him with the utmost enthusiasm. The working men hail his appearance with tempestuous applause, and invariable reward his rhetorical efforts with frequent and deafening cheers.[7]
Political career
Local
Hugh Mason was influenced by his father's Liberal politics and strongly opposed to injustice and prejudice. Thomas Mason was a supporter of political representation for Ashton-under-Lyne and supported the repeal of the Corn Laws.[2] In the early 19th century, the area was poorly represented in Parliament. The major urban centres of Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Blackburn, Rochdale, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham and Stockport – with a combined population of almost one million – were represented by either the two county MPs for Lancashire (or the two for Cheshire in the case of Stockport). By comparison, more than half of all MPs were elected by a total of just 154 voters.[15] These inequalities in political representation led to calls for reform and eventually the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. Hugh said of his father that "To his life of honest industry, to his example of commercial probity, to his high Christian character, to his training, of me in my early years, to his wise consuls, I owe under God my position in society."[2]
Although he claimed he was reluctant to enter politics, Hugh Mason became the first
Mason's policies led him to come into constant clashes with the Conservative members of the council. He was not always popular within his own party either and he even financed his own newspaper, the Ashton-under-Lyne News, to convey his views and provide competition for the pro-Liberal Ashton Reporter. Conflict with the Liberals drove Mason into early retirement from local politics in 1874 at the age of 57.[16]
As well as being a councillor, Mason was also elected a local magistrate for Ashton-under-Lyne in 1857. During his time in office he had to deal with the bread riots of 21–22 March 1863 (caused by the cotton famine) and the Murphy Riots in May 1868.
National
Mason, along with a group of other Advanced Liberals supporting John Morley, the gladstonian, was one of the founding members of the
As an MP he lived at 33 Onslow Square, Kensington, and was a member of the Reform Club.
Personal life
In 1846 Hugh Mason married Sarah Buckley, the daughter of Abel Buckley, Esq, who was also the father of Abel Buckley Businessman and MP, another cotton mill owner who went on to be a millionaire businessman and landowner. They had one child, Arnold, who was born in 1851. Sarah died in 1852 at the age of 29. Mason next married Sarah's sister, Betsy, though it was illegal to marry one's sister-in-law in England at the time. To overcome this problem they married in Denmark on 7 June 1854. Their marriage was approved by special licence from the King of Denmark and was held at the Evangellic Reform Church, Altona in the Duchy of Holstein. They had four children: Bertha, born in 1855, Edith in 1857, Rupert in 1859 and Sydney in 1861. Betsy died after the birth of Sydney and Mason then married for a third time Annie, daughter of George Ashworth, Esq, of Rochdale in 1864.[24] Bertha became known as a campaigner for women's suffrage and temperance.[25]
Hugh Mason died three days after his 69th birthday on 2 February 1886[26] at his home, Groby Hall. At his death, he had amassed a fortune worth £290,933 (now worth about £17M).[8][23] He was the first person to have a statue (now protected as a Grade II listed building)[27] erected in his honour in Tameside; it was financed by public subscription immediately after Mason's death.[23]
Notes
- ^ Some of these houses still survive, including Hamilton Street, Gibson Terrace and "The Twelve Apostles" in Trafalgar Square.
References
- ^ Nevell (1994), p. 42.
- ^ a b c d e f g Nevell (1994), p. 43.
- ^ a b c d e "Township Information - Ashton". Tameside.gov.uk. Retrieved on 12 September 2008.
- ^ British Parliamentary Members, vol.2 of 4, p.263
- ^ Nevell (1994), pp. 44–45.
- ^ Nevell (1994), p. 44.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Nevell (1994), p. 45.
- ^ a b "Currency converter". The National Archives. Retrieved on 12 September 2008.
- ^ "No. 20909". The London Gazette. 27 October 1848. p. 3856. Retrieved on 2 October 2008.
- ^ "No. 21461". The London Gazette. 26 July 1853. p. 2067. Retrieved on 2 October 2008.
- ^ "No. 22376". The London Gazette. 13 April 1860. p. 1456. Retrieved on 2 October 2008.
- ^ "No. 22896". The London Gazette. 23 September 1864. p. 4587. Retrieved on 2 October 2008.
- ^ "No. 23339". The London Gazette. 3 January 1868. p. 10. Retrieved on 2 October 2008.
- ^ Logan (1958), p. 472.
- ^ The Peterloo Massacre, Robert Reid (1989), p. 28.
- ^ a b c d e Nevell (1994), p. 46.
- ^ Kidd (2008), p. 174.
- ^ "No. 22535". The London Gazette. 15 July 1862. p. 3534. Retrieved on 2 October 2008.
- John Rylands Library, University of Manchester). Access to Archives. The National Archives. Retrieved on 16 October 2008.
- ^ Nevell (1994), pp. 46–47.
- ^ "No. 24830". The London Gazette. 6 April 1880. p. 2390. Retrieved on 2 October 2008.
- ^ Who's Who of British Parliamentary Members, 4 vols, London, vol.2, p.263.
- ^ a b c d Nevell (1994), p. 47.
- ^ Manchester Times, 15 June 1854
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- ^ "No. 25610". The London Gazette. 23 July 1886. p. 3589. Retrieved on 2 October 2008.
- ^ Historic England. "Hugh Mason memorial statue (1356457)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
Bibliography
- Kidd, Alan (2008) [1993]. Manchester. Keele: Keele University Press. ISBN 978-1-85936-128-3.
- Logan, Frenise (November 1958). "India-Britain's Substitute for American Cotton, 1861–1865". The Journal of Southern History. 24 (12). Southern Historical Association: 472–489. JSTOR 2954674.
- Nevell, Mike (1994). The People Who Made Tameside. Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. ISBN 1-871324-12-2.
- Reid, Robert (1989). The Peterloo Massacre. William Heinemann Ltd. ISBN 0-434-62901-4.
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Hugh Mason
- D. A. Farnie, 'Mason, Hugh (1817–1886)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, October 2005