Hugh Mason
Hugh Mason (30 January 1817 – 2 February 1886) was an English mill owner, social reformer and Liberal politician.Having originally opposed trade unions, Mason became a paternalistic mill owner, creating a colony for his workers with associated facilities and ensuring that they experienced good conditions.He was the youngest of four children of Thomas Mason, a former textile manager, and Mary, the daughter of John Holden, Esq.The Manchester Guardian noted: 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 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.The working men hail his appearance with tempestuous applause, and invariable reward his rhetorical efforts with frequent and deafening cheers.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 Liberal elected councillor for Ashton-under-Lyne in November 1856.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.His defeat in the 1885 General Elections was ascribed to his support of William Ewart Gladstone over the issue of Irish Home Rule and to his illness.Mason demanded a recount, but this increased the majority by one vote; he succumbed to illness and died before the result was announced.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.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.[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.
Hugh Mason (rower)StalybridgeAshton-under-LyneLiberalBerthasocial reformercotton businessLancashire Cotton Faminewomen's suffrageDerbyshireMethodistSunday schoolsRyecroftpublic housesmule spindlesAmerican Civil WarManchesterChamber of CommerceBridgewater CanalMidland Railway CompanyMersey Dock BoardManchester GuardianCorn LawsSalfordBoltonBlackburnRochdaleOldhamStockportCheshirePeterloo MassacreConservativeFenianismriot actDeputy LieutenantCounty Palatine of LancasterReform Clubparliamentary1880 General Elections1885 General ElectionsWilliam Ewart GladstoneIrish Home RuleJohn Wentworth AddisonAbel BuckleyDenmarkAltonaDuchy of Holsteintemperancelisted buildingTamesideThe National ArchivesThe London GazetteJohn Rylands LibraryUniversity of ManchesterManchester TimesThe Morning ChronicleHistoric EnglandNational Heritage List for EnglandHansardParliament of the United KingdomThomas Walton MellorJohn AddisonLancashirecottonDavid BellhouseBradshaw Gass & HopeF.W. Dixon & SonEdward PottsStott and SonsSidney Stott (later Sir Philip)Daniel AdamsonBoulton & WattBrowett, Lindley & CoBuckley & TaylorCarels FrèresClayton, Goodfellow & CoFairbairnW & J Galloway & SonsB. Hick and Sons / Hick, Hargreaves & CoJohn Musgrave & SonsJ & W McNaughtPetrie of RochdaleWilliam Roberts & Co of NelsonGeorge SaxonScott & HodgsonUrmson & ThompsonYates & Thom / Yates of BlackburnWillans & RobinsonJ & E WoodWoolstenhulmes & RyeBrooks & DoxeyButterworth & DickinsonCurtis, Parr & WaltonDobson & BarlowJohn Hetherington & SonsJoseph HibbertJohn Pilling and SonsHoward & BulloughGeo. HattersleyAsa LeesMather & PlattParr, Curtis & MadelyBritish Northrop Loom CoPlatt BrothersTaylor, Lang & CoTextile Machinery MakersTweedales & SmalleyT. Wildman & SonsElkanah ArmitageHenry AshworthHugh BirleyHugh Hornby BirleyJoseph BrothertonJames BurtonPeter DrinkwaterNathaniel EckersleyJohn FieldenWilliam GrayHannah GregSamuel GregRichard HowarthWilliam HouldsworthJohn KennedyGeorge Augustus LeeCharles MacintoshSamuel Oldknow