FEILDEN, William (1772-1850), of Feniscowles, Blackburn, Lancs. and 18 Hanover Square, London

Locally prominent, but making little impression at Westminster, the most noteworthy aspect of Feilden’s political career was his shift of allegiance from the Whigs to the Conservatives. Feilden’s grandfather, Henry (1693-1742), had jointly purchased half of the manor of Blackburn in 1721, subsequently acquiring full control of this share, which Feilden’s father Joseph (1736-1792) inherited on the death of his older brother in 1771.1R.D.S. Wilson, The Feildens of Witton Park [1982?], 1; R. Assheton, Pedigree of the family of Feilden, of the county of Lancaster (1879), 5-7, 16-17; W. Abram, A history of Blackburn (1877), 757-8. As a younger son, Feilden went to Oxford in 1790 with the expectation that he would enter the church, and arrangements were in hand for him to become rector of Standish, near Wigan.2Blackburn Standard, 22 May 1850. However, he changed course ‘on finding out how profitable it was to make hand-loom cloth on a large scale’,3Preston Chronicle, 29 Dec. 1877. setting up in the Blackburn cotton industry with his older brothers Henry and John.4Blackburn Standard, 22 May 1850. Initially a chapman and putter-out to handloom weavers, as members of his family had been since the 17th century, Feilden became a merchant, cotton spinner and manufacturer. Among the local pioneers of the factory system, he was ‘on close terms’ with the inventor Richard Arkwright.5Wilson, Feildens of Witton Park, 14. Although he began with ‘a handsome capital’, this was ‘nearly wrecked in the first few years’, but Feilden recovered and ‘made his own fortune’, working with different partners over the years.6Blackburn Standard, 22 May 1850. Until 1835, when William Throp left the partnership, the firm operated as Feilden, Throp and Townley: London Gazette, 19 May 1835. William Thornley left the partnership in 1844, and the firm latterly operated as Feilden & Sons: London Gazette, 30 Jan. 1844, 9 May 1848. In 1831 his firm was described as ‘one of very great respectability – none more is in this County’, and it employed 1,400 hands in 1848.7A. Le Pichon, China trade and empire: Jardine, Matheson & Co. and the origins of British rule in Hong Kong 1827-1843 (2006), 136; Blackburn Standard, 19 Jan. 1848. In 1798 Feilden purchased an estate at Feniscowles, constructing a hall there in 1808.8Abram, Blackburn, 622. Feilden also acquired adjoining land at Livesey, which became his deer park. He built up a ‘splendid’ art collection, and devoted considerable attention to estate improvements, winning prizes at local agricultural shows.9Blackburn Standard, 22 May 1850; Wilson, Feildens of Witton Park, 72. Feilden later acquired Stanworth House, in the parish of Leyland, in 1833: Burke’s commoners (1836), ii. 446.

Possessing ‘a kindly urbanity of address’ and ‘an excellent memory’, Feilden played a leading role in Blackburn’s public life.10Blackburn Standard, 22 May 1850. Appointed in 1794 as a governor of Blackburn grammar school, in the same decade he became captain-commandant of the Blackburn volunteer cavalry.11Abram, History of Blackburn, 344; B. Lewis, The middlemost and the milltowns: bourgeois culture and politics in early industrial England (2001), 21. Feilden subscribed £200 towards a fund for national defence against France in 1798: Ibid., 20. He was a trustee under Blackburn’s Improvement Act from 1803, and a benefactor to bodies such as Blackburn dispensary.12Lewis, The middlemost and the milltowns, 314; Abram, History of Blackburn, 382n. In 1826 he joined a deputation to ministers regarding commercial distress13The Times, 28 Feb. 1826., and moved at a local meeting that the corn laws should be ‘speedily amended’.14Lancaster Gazette, 2 Dec. 1826. Prominent in Blackburn’s reform agitation, he reportedly walked arm-in-arm to a mass meeting on Blakey Moor with the local radical, George Dewhurst, and he chaired the committee which secured the return of Benjamin Heywood, a pro-reform Whig, for Lancashire in 1831.15Preston Guardian, 5 Aug. 1865; Lancaster Gazette, 7 May 1831.

Seeking election for his newly-enfranchised native borough in 1832, Feilden emphasised his local connections and expounded his ‘liberal’ political sentiments, declaring himself an enemy to ‘unnecessary expenditure’ and the corn laws. He attacked the East India Company’s monopoly, and favoured abolition of slavery with compensation for proprietors.16Blackburn Gazette, 12 Dec. 1832, cited in Preston Chronicle, 15 Dec. 1832. (This caveat was unsurprising given that Feilden owned the Southfield estate, Trelawny, Jamaica, inherited from his late father-in-law, and he was subsequently among those who claimed compensation.17A. Howe, The cotton masters, 1830-1860 (1984), 41n.; Preston Guardian, 5 Jan. 1878; N. Draper, The price of emancipation. Slave-ownership, compensation and British society at the end of slavery (2010), Appendix 1, 282. His father-in-law, Edmund Jackson, had been a member of the Jamaican House of Assembly.) He felt the time was not ripe for household suffrage, opposed shorter parliaments, and would not pledge on the ballot, despite being favourable to it. An Anglican, whose son-in-law, Rev. John William Whittaker, was vicar of Blackburn18The Feildens had initially been opposed to this marriage, which took place in 1825, feeling that Whittaker was not wealthy enough or of sufficient social standing: Lewis, The middlemost and the milltowns, 113-14., he declined to pledge on disestablishment, although he supported a modification of tithes.19Blackburn Gazette, 12 Dec. 1832, cited in Preston Chronicle, 15 Dec. 1832. Feilden topped the poll, with his fellow Whig William Turner narrowly securing second place ahead of the Radical John Bowring after the Conservative withdrew. Bowring’s defeat provoked an attack on the Bull Hotel, from which Feilden escaped through the attic skylight and over the roofs to take refuge in the Legs of Man public house. When one of the rioters was sentenced to death, Feilden’s daughter was said to have persuaded her father to intercede on his behalf.20Preston Guardian, 5 Jan. 1878.

Bowring complained that Feilden ‘never took any active part in any parliamentary measures, or did anything to distinguish himself from the mass of mediocrities, who, from local influence, or the possession of money, make their way into parliament’.21Preston Guardian, 12 Aug. 1865. He did, however, serve on the committees on the Londonderry and Dungarvan election petitions, and the 1833 inquiry on public walks, when he testified that Blackburn’s inhabitants were unlikely to subscribe towards a public park.22CJ, lxxxviii. 194; CJ, lxxxix. 206; PP 1833 (448), 390-1. He divided against shorter parliaments, but supported repeal of the malt tax, abolition of naval and military sinecures and revision of the pension list.23Parliamentary test book 1835 (1835), 59. He was in the minorities supporting a fixed duty on corn, 17 May 1833, 7 Mar. 1834. He divided against Whig ministers in opposition to the admission of Dissenters to universities, 17 Apr. 1834, but supported Althorp’s plans to replace church rates with funds from the land tax, 21 Apr. 1834. He missed the last six weeks of the 1834 session due to family illness.24Blackburn Standard, 11 Feb. 1835.

These votes on religious questions were symptomatic of Feilden’s drift towards the Conservative party,25Stewart lists him among those who entered Parliament as reformers in 1832 but subsequently joined the Conservative ranks: R. Stewart, The foundation of the Conservative party 1830-1867 (1978), 374. and he offered as a Conservative in 1835, when Bowring charged that his liberalism had been merely a passing phase: ‘he was originally a tory, he became a reformer in order to become a member – he had since returned “like a dog to his vomit”’.26Parliamentary test book 1835, 59; Blackburn Standard, 28 Jan. 1835. Lameness from a recent accident prevented him canvassing,27Preston Chronicle, 20 Dec. 1834. and he attempted to make his hustings speech from his carriage, but was denied a hearing.28Morning Post, 10 Jan. 1835. His votes against Dissenting interests and his lax parliamentary attendance reportedly lost him support,29The Times, 13 Dec. 1834. and his ‘gruff’ responses to communications from working men also found disfavour. His failure to oppose the sugar duties was condemned as self-interested, given his Jamaican property, and he was mocked as ‘Old Sourpie’.30Preston Guardian, 5 Jan. 1878. He narrowly secured second place behind Turner, only 13 votes ahead of Bowring (who was returned at Kilmarnock). ‘The master of seven languages’ but ‘shockingly deficient as a public speaker’,31Ibid. Feilden made a rare contribution to debate to deny Bowring’s allegations regarding riotous and drunken behaviour by his and Turner’s supporters during the election, 27 Mar. 1835.

Listed by The Examiner as of ‘doubtful’ party allegiance in 1835, Feilden soon confirmed his Conservatism by dividing for Manners Sutton as speaker, 19 Feb., and with Peel on the address, 26 Feb. 1835.32The Examiner, 8 Feb. 1835. In contrast with The Examiner, the Parliamentary test book classified Feilden as a Conservative: Parliamentary test book 1835, 59. Turner was also listed as a ‘doubtful’ by The Examiner, but his flirtation with the Conservatives was short-lived. At a dinner celebrating his re-election, Feilden endorsed Peel’s Tamworth manifesto and suggested that Conservative ministers would produce useful reforms if given a fair trial. He emphasised his support for modification of the corn laws and repeal of cotton duty, but reiterated his opposition to electoral reform.33Blackburn Standard, 11 Feb. 1835. Feilden was among a deputation of Lancashire MPs to Melbourne on the subject of repeal of the cotton duty in 1837: The Times, 11 Mar. 1837. In 1836 Feilden subscribed £5 towards a flag for the Blackburn Operative Conservative Association, and at their annual dinner, he read approvingly from a speech by Peel, and declared that appropriation would bring the Irish church ‘to poverty and degradation’.34Blackburn Standard, 12 Oct. 1836; The Times, 14 Nov. 1836. He divided against Liberal ministers on the address, 4 Feb. 1836, the Irish church, 3 June 1836, and abolition of church rates, 15 Mar. and 23 May 1837. He consistently opposed the ballot, and voted to retain the property qualification for members, 14 Feb. 1837. Seeking re-election in 1837, Feilden stated his desire ‘to uphold all our venerable National Institutions in their original vigour, and at the same time to promote every useful reform or improvement’.35Blackburn Standard, 19 July 1837. Lord Stanley supported him on the hustings, where he and Turner were re-elected after a second Liberal withdrew.36The Times, 29 July 1837. A petition against Feilden on grounds of bribery and treating, 4 Dec. 1837, was dropped, 8 May 1838.37W.W. Bean, The parliamentary representation of the six northern counties of England (1890), 227.

As well as defending the Anglican church through his parliamentary votes, Feilden was a generous benefactor to it, giving the site and stone for Immanuel Church, Feniscowles, which he endowed with £1,000 in 1838.38VCH Lancs., vi. 284-9; Blackburn Standard, 4 Apr. 1838. Three of his grandchildren were christened there during the consecration ceremony in 1836: Blackburn Standard, 12 Oct. 1836. Numerous other local causes benefitted from his largesse. He waived the ground rent for a new Primitive Methodist Chapel in 1837, and also patronised the Blackburn branch of the London Hibernian Society (which promoted Irish education), the Blackburn Strangers’ Friend Society (which assisted the poor), and the local girls’ school, agricultural society, Mechanics’ Institute and cricket club.39Blackburn Standard, 1 Mar. 1837, 20 Dec. 1837, 16 May 1838, 2 Sept. 1840, 12 Feb. 1845, 27 Feb. 1847; Lewis, The middlemost and the milltowns, 275. Among the charities Feilden supported outside Blackburn were a charity for clergy widows and orphans, the Northern Church of England school for the sons of clergy at Rossall, and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital: Report of the Governors of the Charity for the Relief of Poor Widows and Children of Clergymen… for the year 1845 (1845), 12; Lancaster Gazette, 25 May 1844; The Times, 26 Apr. 1847. He chaired the first general meeting of the Blackburn Gas Light Company in 1838, and was a director of the Blackburn Waterworks Company.40Blackburn Standard, 25 July 1838, 17 Feb. 1847.

Although attentive to his constituency, Feilden was criticised for his lax parliamentary attendance, and the Blackburn Standard’s defence of him as ‘one of the most honourable, assiduous, and useful Members’ was not borne out by the division lists.41Blackburn Standard, 16 May 1838. In 1838 he voted in 56 out of 293 divisions (19%) and in only 13% in 1839.42Liverpool Mercury, 21 Sept. 1838; Preston Chronicle, 7 Sept. 1839. While his attendance improved in 1840 (26%) and 1841 (30%), he remained among the least attentive Lancashire MPs.43Preston Chronicle, 22 Aug. 1840, 26 June 1841. When present, he opposed further electoral reform, and generally voted with the Conservatives. He was in minorities for abolishing the Maynooth grant, 23 June 1840, and for limiting the poor law commissioners’ appointments to the end of 1843, 22 Feb. 1841, having opposed the second reading of the poor law amendment bill two weeks earlier. His position on the corn laws differed from the bulk of his party, consistently dividing for Villiers’ annual motion to consider the corn laws. However, he joined Peel against reduction of the sugar duties, 18 May 1841, and in his vote of no confidence in ministers, 4 June 1841.44Feilden’s obituary stated in error that he divided against Peel on the sugar duties in 1841: Blackburn Standard, 22 May 1850.

At the 1841 election Feilden pledged to vote for Russell’s 8s. fixed duty on corn.45Preston Chronicle, 5 June 1841. However, he defended his vote on the sugar duties, arguing that ‘I will not be guilty of the gross inconsistency and inhumanity of encouraging the introduction of slave-grown sugar’, and opposed ministerial plans to repeal the timber duties. He attacked the poor law and Whig financial mismanagement.46Blackburn Standard, 19 Sept. 1891. John Hornby, whose brother Robert was married to one of Feilden’s daughters, stood alongside him as a second Conservative.47Burke’s landed gentry (1850), iii. 171. Their victory over Turner prompted an attack on their headquarters at the Bull Hotel, from which Feilden on this occasion fled ‘in the disguise of a female, was got over a wall, and escaped further violence by going through the Legs of Man Inn’.48Preston Guardian, 12 Aug. 1865.

No more diligent in this Parliament than before, Feilden spoke briefly to support calls for an inquiry into the truck system and frauds by manufacturers, 19 Apr. 1842.49He voted in 54 out of 237 divisions in 1842, 29 out of 167 in 1844, 28 out of 170 in 1845, and 33 out of 101 in 1846: Preston Chronicle, 17 Sept. 1842; Liverpool Mercury, 27 Sept. 1844; Preston Guardian, 20 Sept. 1845, 14 Nov. 1846. Having previously supported Villiers’s annual corn law motions, he now opposed them, in keeping with his preference for modification rather than repeal, and backed Peel’s sliding scale, 9 Mar. 1842. That July, emphasising his ‘steady, and zealous’ support for the ministry, as well as his willingness to provide land for the erection of barracks in Blackburn, he solicited a baronetcy from Peel, which the premier politely rebuffed, while declaring his personal regard for Feilden.50W. Feilden to Sir Robert Peel, 30 July 1842, BL Add MSS. 40512, ff. 317-18; Sir Robert Peel to W. Feilden, 7 Aug. 1842, BL Add MSS. 40512, f. 319. The proposed barracks project had not come to fruition, despite Feilden’s offer of land: Preston Chronicle, 5 Mar. 1842. (He was later remembered as one of Peel’s ‘most intimate private friends’.51Blackburn Standard, 19 Sept. 1891. Peel visited him at Feniscowles in April 1847: Preston Guardian, 17 Apr. 1847.) He maintained his hostility to the poor law, dividing in minorities against the poor law amendment bill, 17 June 1842, and for allowing guardians to grant outdoor relief, 20 July 1843. He was also in minorities opposing the 1844 Dissenters chapels bill and the Maynooth grant, 18 Apr. 1845. However, he rallied to Peel to back repeal of the corn laws in 1846, and was rewarded with the desired baronetcy that June.52Freeman’s Journal, 3 July 1846.

Feilden possessed extensive railway interests – of his capital of £360,000 in 1847, £200,000 was in mills and land, £30,000 in stocks, and the rest in railways53S. Chapman, The rise of merchant banking (1984), 91. For details of Feilden’s railway investments in 1845 and 1846, see PP 1845 (317), xl. 44; PP 1846 (473), xxxviii. 99. He also had investments in St. Catherine’s dock: Howe, Cotton masters, 34. – and was director of several companies, including the London and Dover Railway, the South Eastern Railway, and the Blackburn and Preston Railway.54The railway directory for 1846 (1846), 4, 36, 85. He stood down as a director of the South Eastern Railway in 1849: The Times, 20 Sept. 1849. He was active in promoting railway bills55See, for example, Daily News, 11 Feb. 1846., and the Liverpool and Preston Railway was said to owe its act ‘very much to [his] exertion and influence’.56Blackburn Standard, 7 Oct. 1846. As a manufacturer, Feilden was naturally interested in the factory question, and his obituary claimed that when the 1844 factory bill was under discussion, he advised Sir James Graham to offer an 11 rather than a 12 hour day.57Blackburn Standard, 22 May 1850. However, he divided for 12 hours in preference to ten, 22 Mar. 1844. In 1847 he was in the minority for a clause to add an extra hour to the factory day to make up for time lost due to mechanical problems, 21 Apr. 1847, and opposed the third reading of the ten hours bill, 3 May 1847.

Feilden had announced in May 1847 that he would retire ‘from so active a life’ at the next election, and duly stepped down at the dissolution that summer, although he appeared on the hustings to support Hornby.58Blackburn Standard, 26 May 1847, 29 July 1847. That year’s economic downturn prompted the temporary closure of his mills, and his firm subscribed £50 for Blackburn’s unemployed.59Preston Guardian, 27 Nov. 1847; The Times, 18 Nov. 1847; The Standard, 17 Jan. 1848. In 1849 it was reported that his workers were striking to secure a ten hour day, but this dispute was resolved, and Feilden was remembered as ‘a considerate master’.60Blackburn Standard, 14 Feb. 1849, 21 Mar. 1849, 22 May 1850. He died in May 1850 at Feniscowles after a brief illness, and was buried in the family vault at Blackburn parish church.61Blackburn Standard, 22 May 1850, 29 May 1850. Feilden was commemorated with a memorial in Immanuel Church, Feniscowles: VCH Lancs., vi. 284-9. His oldest surviving son, William Henry (1812-1879), a former army captain, inherited the bulk of Feilden’s estates and succeeded in the baronetcy.62Morning Post, 22 May 1850; Lewis, The middlemost and the milltowns, 117. Pollution in the river Darwen later made Feniscowles Hall uninhabitable, and despite protracted legal proceedings against Blackburn corporation and the Over Darwen board of health in the 1860s and 1870s, the family was forced to decamp to Scarborough.63Wilson, Feildens of Witton Park, 12; PP 1868-69 [4218], xxxii. 706; The Times, 3 Apr. 1872, 19 Apr. 1872, 3 Feb. 1873. Put up for sale by the Feildens in 1903, Feniscowles Hall failed to find a buyer, fell into disrepair and is now a ruin: Wilson, Feildens of Witton Park, 13. Feilden’s second surviving son, Montague Joseph (1816-1898), took over his business interests, and followed in his footsteps as Blackburn’s MP, 1853-7.64Wilson, Feildens of Witton Park, 14. The firm was later taken over by one of Feilden’s partners, Robert Raynsford Jackson: Blackburn Standard, 29 June 1878. Feilden’s nephew Joseph also represented Blackburn, 1865-9.65Two of Joseph’s sons were also MPs: Henry Master Feilden was MP for Blackburn, 1869-75, and Randle Joseph Feilden was MP for North Lancashire, 1880-5, and for Chorley, 1885-95.