DUNCUFT, John (1796-1852), of Westwood House, Oldham, Lancs.

Duncuft was ‘a thorough local man’, whose great-grandfather Isaiah, a farmer, had arrived in Oldham from Cheshire in the early eighteenth century, changing the family name from Duncalf in the process. Duncuft’s grandfather John was, variously, a carter, a farmer and an innkeeper, while his father Isaiah was a glazier, who was ‘casually killed by the fall of his horse’ only two months after Duncuft’s baptism in 1796.1B. Grime, Memory sketches (1887), 98; E. Eastwood, ‘John Duncuft’, Duncalf Dossier, 1:2 (1987), 11-13; C. McInnes, ‘Duncuft of Oldham’, Duncalf Dossier, 4:9 (2006), 161-7. Duncuft, a self-made man, started his cotton spinning business using a pair of second-hand spinning mules, whilst still a minor.2Grime, Memory sketches, 99; Duncalf Dossier, 2:9 (1996), 87. In 1824, he became a sharebroker (also dealing in insurance3Preston Guardian, 30 Mar. 1833.) and profited from ‘fortunate speculations in railway shares’4Gent. Mag. (Sept. 1852), ii, 316; Grime, Memory sketches, 99.; in 1846, when he presided over the annual dinner of the Manchester Stock Exchange, he held £22,230 in railway shares.5Manchester Times and Gazette, 26 Dec. 1846; PP 1846 (473) xxxviii. 90. He served as chairman of the Oldham District Railway Company and was a shareholder in the Manchester and District Bank.6Manchester Times and Gazette, 11 Sept. 1846; Manchester Magazine, July & Aug. 1838, 19. Having formerly resided in the same Oldham street as a baker and a joiner, by the time of his election he had purchased a large mansion, Westwood House, at a cost of £2,550.7Grime, Memory sketches, 98-100; The Times, 19 Feb. 1851. He also owned a country residence at Frodsham, Cheshire, and assembled a sizeable collection of paintings and drawings, which were sold at Christie’s some years after his death.8Gent. Mag. (Sept. 1852), ii, 316; The Times, 23 May 1864. As Oldham’s MP, Duncuft contributed to local causes, pledging £100 towards a proposed public park, and donating £50 to a fund for ‘distressed operatives’ in 1847.9B. Law, Oldham, Brave Oldham (1999), 76; Manchester Times, 13 Nov. 1847. The public park proposals did not come to fruition at this date. He also gave £21 to Oldham’s testimonial fund for the late Sir Robert Peel in 1850.10Morning Chronicle, 7 Aug. 1850.

Duncuft’s selection as sole Conservative candidate for Oldham in 1847 was allegedly due to ‘a dearth of local individual capability on the part of the Tories’.11Grime, Memory sketches, 56. His election address demonstrated his Peelite sympathies, declaring his support for further ‘bold and vigorous legislation’ to promote trade and commerce. He also emphasised his commitment to the established Church and to education on religious lines, and while he supported the Poor Law, he wished to see it implemented ‘with gentleness and kindness’, and with discretionary power vested in local Boards.12Grime, Memory sketches, 55. Divisions among Oldham’s radicals enabled Duncuft to be returned in second place behind the radical William Johnson Fox. At the declaration, he was forced to deny allegations by one of the defeated candidates, John Morgan Cobbett, that he had been a trooper at Peterloo.13Manchester Times and Gazette, 3 Aug. 1847.

Duncuft is not known to have contributed to parliamentary debate, and on seeking re-election in 1852, was lampooned in an election squib, which under the heading ‘Duncuft’s speeches’ left two blank columns.14Oldham Local Studies Library. ‘To the Electors and Non-Electors of the Borough of Oldham. Duncuft’s speeches’ [Election squib, June 1852]. However, as Duncuft told the 1849 annual dinner of Oldham’s Operative Conservative Association (an occasion on which he characteristically left most of the speaking to his eldest son, John), ‘it appeared to him that, although they read no speeches of his in the papers, they took notice of his votes’.15Daily News, 2 Jan. 1850. He was indeed among the most assiduous of Lancashire’s MPs when it came to voting, being more conscientious than his more vocal Oldham colleague, Fox. In the 1849 session, he voted in 120 out of 219 divisions, making him the fifth most active Lancashire MP in this respect; in 1850, he voted in 186 out of 329 divisions, putting him in fourth place (Fox in contrast came 11th, voting 148 times).16Preston Guardian, 11 Aug. 1849, 31 Aug. 1850. His diligent approach to Commons business was demonstrated by his vote against the adjournment of the House for the Derby, 23 May 1848.

Duncuft and Fox ‘almost invariably voted in opposite directions during the whole Parliament’.17Grime, Memory sketches, 67. This was particularly the case on electoral reform, where Duncuft opposed franchise extension and the ballot, voting against Hume’s motion, 6 July 1848, and also on religious questions. Duncuft, an Anglican, opposed the abolition of church rates and the removal of Jewish disabilities.18J. Foster, Class struggle and the industrial revolution (1974), 198; Grime, Memory sketches, 67-8; The Times, 15 Mar. 1849. Fox and Duncuft’s repeated presence in opposite lobbies led to complaints in Oldham that they were ‘nullifying each other’s vote’.19Grime, Memory sketches, 68. However, when it came to questions relating to free trade, Duncuft’s Peelite leanings meant that he and Fox acted in harmony, which ‘gained him the admiration of many of the Reformers of Oldham and the vicinity’.20Grime, Memory sketches, 86. Thus in 1848, he voted against Pakington’s Protectionist amendment on the sugar duties, 29 June; in 1849 he backed the repeal of the Navigation Acts, 12 Mar.; and in both 1850 and 1851 he voted against Disraeli’s proposals for the relief of the agricultural interest.21Grime, Memory sketches, 85-6. Duncuft also voted in the minority with Fox on the 1850 factories bill in support of Ashley’s amendment curtailing children’s working hours, 6 June; earlier that year he had presented a petition signed by Oldham’s mayor and 3,000 inhabitants urging that a declaratory bill be passed to enforce the Ten Hours Act, rather than allowing women and children to work in relays.22The Times, 15 Mar. 1850. Again promoting local concerns he was in the minority of 50 to appoint a select committee on the question of warehousing foreign goods in bond in Manchester, 24 June 1851, which would have been advantageous for Oldham.

Duncuft was considered by Bradshaw’s Railway Almanack as a railway member, but a court case which he pursued against the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company suggested that he was not necessarily the most ardent defender of the railway interest.23Bradshaw’s Railway Almanack (3rd edn., 1848), 26. In 1847 Duncuft secured a return relating to railways under construction under acts containing penalty clauses for non-completion within a specific period (PP 1847-8 (248) lxiii. 49-52). In 1851 he successfully sued the company ‘on public grounds’ in order to expose its negligence, recouping the 11s. of costs he had incurred due to the late arrival – by 15 minutes – of a train from Oldham to Manchester, which had caused him to miss his connecting train.24Manchester Times, 26 Nov. 1851. He also displayed sympathy for the drink trade, attending annual dinners of the Oldham Licensed Victuallers’ Association, and presenting petitions on their behalf.25Foster, Class struggle, 218; PP 1850 (398) xviii. 525; The Times, 20 Feb. 1852.

Duncuft successfully sought re-election in 1852, when his supporters forged a coalition with the radical John Morgan Cobbett, although a local commentator did not believe that Duncuft himself was privy to this arrangement.26Grime, Memory sketches, 102. His address reiterated his support for free trade and for education on religious lines, and declared his opposition to the endowment of Maynooth.27Grime, Memory sketches, 101. He did not, however, return to Westminster, as less than three weeks after the contest he died suddenly at Frodsham of summer cholera.28Gent. Mag. (Sept. 1852), ii. 316. He was buried at Oldham parish church following a public funeral, and is commemorated on a family memorial in Chadderton cemetery.29Manchester Times, 4 Aug. 1852; A. Cole, ‘Monuments at Oldham’, Duncalf Dossier, 3:3 (May 1998), 33-4. His three surviving sons, John, James and Isaiah, succeeded him in his business interests.30London Gazette, 2 June 1857.