Hugh Mason

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Hugh Mason (30 January 1817 – 2 February 1886) was an English mill owner, social reformer and politician.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Political activity
- 1.2 Family details
2 References

[edit] Biography

Hugh Mason was born in Stalybridge and christened there on May 11, 1817. He was the third son of Thomas Mason and Mary Mason, whose family had originally moved from Derbyshire to Stalybridge in 1776. By the year 1815, Hugh's father had set up in a business partnership with James Booth and Edward Hulton at Currier Slacks Mill in Ashton under Lyne. Rapid growth in their enterprise saw them expand into the Bank Mill and Royal George Mills in the 1820s.

After leaving school Hugh worked in a commercial Bank before leaving at the age of twenty-one to join the family's cotton business. The business thrived: by the early 1850s the Mason family had built two state-of-the-art cotton mills at Ryecroft Ashton under Lyne known as the Oxford Mills. By the early 1860's both mills were run by Hugh Mason alone: his father and brothers having retired, he became Chairman of the Manchester Cotton Company. He served as President of the Manchester Chamber of commerce, and came to hold interests in The Bridgwater Canal Navigation Company (see Bridgewater Canal), the Midland Railway Company, the Mersey Dock Board, and various other coal and iron companies.

Mr. Mason built up what he saw as a model industrial community in the area, with modern terrace housing for his workers. Some of these houses still survive, including "The Twelve Apostles" in Trafalgar Square, Hamilton Street, Gibson Terrace (Oxford Street). Recreation was not neglected: he built a sports ground, children's playground, and supervised the construction of swimming and washing baths funded by public donation. He also built an Institute on Ann Street which housed a library, smoking and chess rooms, at a cost to Mason of £4,500 in 1871. In the same year he became a founder member of the Manchester Reform Club. Census records show that in 1851 he employed 297 people, in 1861 that had increased to 500 and by 1871 it was 1118.

He became the first local employer to give his workers Saturday afternoons off. Workers at the Oxford Mills certainly enjoyed better conditions than others in the town. During the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861-1865 he refused to cut workers' wages but he expected them to follow his own strict moral codes - there were no public houses in Mason's community and all Ashtonians knew what was meant by an 'Oxford Education'. (Years later a statue to Mason was erected in Chester Square in the west end of the town: he had his back to the Anglican Church of St Peter and was looking at the entrance to a public house, which to the locals was denotative of Hugh Mason.)

[edit] Political activity

Mason was mayor of Ashton under Lyne from 1857 to 1860. Despite being the foremost local Liberal, he resisted all attempts to nominate him as a candidate for parliament until 1880 when he was elected MP for Ashton-under-Lyne. Mr. Mason was a nonconformist who attended the Albion Church. He had little time for those who opposed his views, particularly Tories and Anglicans, such as the local Tory leader Isaac Watt Boulton. Ashton's political life was bitter in these years with Mr Mason taking the flak from the Tories.

[edit] Family details

In 1846 Hugh married Sarah Buckley, the daughter of Abel Buckley, another cotton mill owner who went on to be a millionaire businessman and landowner. They had one child: Arnold in 1851. Sarah died in 1852 at 29 years of age. Hugh next married Sarah's sister: Betsy, though it was illegal to marry your sister in law in England at the time. To overcome this problem they married in Denmark on the 7th June 1854, Betsy and Hugh had 4 children: Bertha in 1855, Edith in 1857, Rupert in 1859 and Sydney in 1861. Betsy died after the birth of Sydney and Mr Mason then married: Anne Ashworth in 1864.

He lived in Groby Lodge, Jowetts Walk, which is at the rear of the Police Station on Manchester Road.

He died three days after his 69th birthday on the 2nd of February 1886

Note; Marriage of Hugh Mason to Betsy Buckley by special licence from the King of Denmark held at the Evangellic Reform Church, Altona in the Duchy of Holstein, 7th June 1854. Source: Manchester Times 15 June 1854, The Morning Chronicle 16 June 1854