Rowland Winn, 1st Baron St Oswald (19 February 1820 – 17 January 1893) was an English industrialist and Conservative Party politician.
The eldest son of Charles Winn of Nostell Priory, near Wakefield, he lived in 1850s in another family property, Appleby Hall near Scunthorpe, and married Harriet Dumaresque. Aware that the area had produced iron in Roman times, he searched for ironstone on his land, and found it in 1859. He marketed it to iron-makers, leased land for mining, mined his own ore and encouraged the building of iron works.
To transport the iron and to bring the coal necessary for the smelting, Winn campaigned for a railway to be built, which required the passage of an Act of Parliament. The Trent, Ancholme and Grimsby Railway opened in 1866, and Winn also built 193 houses in New Frodingham and enlarged the local school. Later, he financed the building of Scunthorpe Church of England School and St John's Church.
He was Member of Parliament for North Lincolnshire from 1868 to 1885, and served as a junior Lord of the Treasury (Government whip) in Disraeli's second government, from 1874 to 1880. He was Conservative Party Chief Whip from 1880 to 1885. Here he had to deal with Lord Randolph Churchill as his Forth Party. He was later ennobled as Baron St Oswald, of Nostell in the County of York in 1885 when the Conservatives were returned to power.
He returned to live at Nostell Priory when he inherited the house from his father in 1874, but his mother and unmarried sisters continued to live at Appleby.
His son Rowland (1857–1919) was MP for Pontefract from 1868 to 1885.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by James Banks Stanhope Sir Montague John Cholmeley |
Member of Parliament for North Lincolnshire 1868–1885 With: Sir Montague John Cholmeley 1868–1874 Sir John Dugdale Astley 1874–1880 Robert Laycock 1880–1881 James Lowther 1881–1885 |
Succeeded by James Lowther Henry John Farmer-Atkinson |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New title | Baron St Oswald 1885–1893 |
Succeeded by Rowland Winn |