William Feilden MP

Later Sir William Feilden, and MP for Blackburn 1832-1847. Son of Joseph Feilden (q.v.) and husband of Mary Haughton nee Jackson, the daughter of Catherine Haughton Jackson (q.v.) and Edmund Jackson. Set up in the Blackburn cotton industry with his older brothers Henry and John. Became a merchant, cotton spinner and manufacturer and local pioneer of the factory system. His firm employed 1,400 hands in 1848. Locally prominent and played a leading role in Blackburn’s public life. But as an MP made little impression at Westminster: the most noteworthy aspect was his shift of allegiance in the 1830s from the Whigs to the Conservatives. Anglican and his son-in-law, the Rev. John William Whittaker, was vicar of Blackburn. One of Sir William Feilden's sons, Montague Feilden, later also MP for Blackburn, was named after his maternal grandfather, the slave-owner Montague James.

1. Simon Clarke wrote to William Feilden Sept 10 1812, when William Feilden was considering purchase of the Southfield estate; 'I cannot recommend your giving more than £10,000 for Southfield, subject to Mrs Jackson's claims supposing it has from 110 to 120 negroes.' Simon Clarke said that he himself had just bought Berkshire for £21,000.

For a full account see Kathryn Rix, draft entry (March 2011) for the forthcoming History of Parliament, House of Commons, 1832-1868.

1. This letter was displayed on a now obsolete website of Mullock Madeley Auctions (now Mullock's Auctioneers), www.mullockmadeley.co.uk.auctions, and the detail extracted by LBS c. 2010.