Joshua Fielden (politician)

Joshua Fielden (8 March 1827 - 9 March 1887) was a British cotton manufacturer and Conservative politician.

Fielden was the son of the Radical politician John Fielden of Todmorden, and his first wife, Anne Grindrod of Rochdale.^[1][2] He was born in Todmorden, and after education at a Unitarian school in Switzerland, returned to England to work in the family textile firm, Fielden Brothers. He became a partner in the firm in 1852.^[1] The business was very successful and profitable, and the Fielden family dominated public life in Todmorden, controlling the town's local board and paying for the building of the town hall.^[1]

Joshua differed from his father politically, becoming a Conservative, although he defended John Fielden's Ten Hours Act and sought improvements in working conditions in the cotton mills. He was an opponent of the New Poor Law, and attempted to prevent the erection of a workhouse in Todmorden.^[1][2] Together with his older brother Samuel, Joshua was a strong Unitarian, and they helped to sustain the denomination in northern England by the paying of salaries to ministers. In 1865 Joshua provided funds for the building of Todmorden Unitarian Church.^[1] He was a justice of the peace for Lancashire and Yorkshire (Todmorden being divided between the two counties).^[2]

In 1851 he married Ellen Brocklehurst of Macclesfield, in the same year purchasing Stansfield Hall outside Todmorden as his residence.^[1][2]

By the 1860s Fielden was becoming involved in national politics, notably by his campaign against the Malt Tax. He also continued to argue for shorter working hours for labourers, while seeking cuts in government expenditure and was opposed to the disestablishment of the Church of England. In August 1868 he was selected along with Christopher Denison, to contest the two-seat Eastern Division of the West Riding of Yorkshire in the Conservative interest in the general election of that year.^[3] Both Conservatives were elected to serve in the Commons, and Fielden was to remain as a member of parliament for 12 years, retiring from politics at the 1880 general election.^[1][4] He subsequently spent much of his time sailing in his yacht Zingara.^[1]

In 1869 Fielden received a large inheritance from his uncle, and retired from the family business. In the following year he purchased the 300-acre (1.2 km²) Nutfield Priory Estate, near Redhill, Surrey.^[1] He rebuilt Nutfield Priory as a Gothic mansion, employing John Gibson as his architect. Gibson had already worked for Fielden in Todmorden: he was responsible for the Town Hall, the Unitarian chapel and for extending Stansfield Hall.^[1][5] He moved from Stansfield Hall to Nutfield in 1872, hiring a special train to move his possessions.^[1] He led an increasingly extravagant lifestyle, having withdrawn his capital from the family firm in 1879.

Joshua Fielden died in March 1887 at the Hotel Monte Carlo, Cannes, France.^[4][6] In spite of his lavish spending, he left an estate in excess of half a million pounds. He left Nutfield Priory and an annual income to his wife. The remainder of his property was divided between his 4 sons and 8 daughters. This included Stansfield Hall, estates at Hollins, Middletown Towers, Walsden and Rochdale, and Smithyholme and Rochdale Mills.^[6] He was buried in the churchyard of the chapel he had built in Todmorden on 15 March.^[1]

Two of Joshua Fielden's sons were to have parliamentary careers: his eldest son, Thomas Fielden (1854–1897) was MP for Middleton, which included the Lancashire portion of Todmorden, from 1886–1892, and 1895 and 1897. A younger son, Edward Brocklehurst Fielden was MP for Middleton from 1900–1906, and for Manchester Exchange from 1924 - 1935.^[1]

References

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Joshua Fielden