CRESSWELL, Addison John Baker (1788-1879), of 6 Sackville, Conduit Street, London and Cresswell, Northumberland

Elected in 1841 in a local protest against the free trader Viscount Howick, the eldest son of the former prime minister Earl Grey, Cresswell sat as a silent Conservative member for Northumberland North until the 1847 dissolution. Prior to entering the Commons, he had, through inheritance and marriage, established himself as a prominent member of the Northumbrian landed gentry. He was the eldest son of Francis Easterby, a sailor and merchant, and Frances Cresswell, daughter and co-heir of John Cresswell, whose family had been seated in Northumberland since the reign of Richard I.1J. Burke, A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain (1835), ii. 290-1. In 1818 he married Elizabeth Reed, and two years later adopted the additional surname Baker after she inherited the Gloucestershire estates of her cousin, John Baker.2In 1840, however, he resumed the surname Cresswell by royal licence: W.W. Bean, The parliamentary representation of the six northern counties of England (1890), 488. Reflecting his desire to establish himself in Northumbrian landed society, in 1821 he hired the renowned Victorian architect John Shaw to build Cresswell Hall on his mother’s estates, located near Morpeth. The same year he was appointed high sheriff of the county, and became a magistrate in 1822.3Newcastle Courant, 9 May 1879. Following his mother’s death in 1832, he inherited a substantial family fortune.

Five days before the nomination for Northumberland North at the 1841 general election, Cresswell accepted a requisition from 38 notable electors to offer in the Conservative interest.4The poll book of the contested election for the northern division of the county of Northumberland, 1841 (1841), 6-7. The 38 electors were motivated solely by the desire to unseat Viscount Howick, who had served as secretary at war under Melbourne, and whose opposition to the existing corn laws had alienated a significant portion of the Northumbrian gentry who were committed to agricultural protection. Cresswell, who opposed a fixed duty and in his address warned against the ‘delusive schemes of the free trader’, backed a sliding scale of corn duties, arguing that low prices would be ruinous, especially to the small farmer, who would be driven to the workhouse. He also attacked the operation of the poor law, specifically the denial of outdoor relief, and championed religious education.5Ibid. After a short campaign and a bruising nomination at which an indignant Howick accused him of acting ‘incautiously and in ignorance’, Cresswell was elected in second place, narrowly beating Howick by 62 votes.6Ibid.

If the sole purpose of Cresswell’s entry into the Commons was to oppose corn law repeal in the division lobbies, he duly achieved this. After backing Peel’s sliding scale on corn duties, 9 Mar. 1842, he voted against repeal, 15 May 1843, 26 June 1844, and following a period abroad owing to ill health, returned to the Commons to vote against Peel on the corn importation bill’s critical third reading, 15 May 1846. Beyond these votes, however, he was inconspicuous during the key debates on agricultural protection. Indeed, he is not known to have ever spoken in debate, and he did not sit on any select committees.

Generally an infrequent attender in the Commons, Cresswell’s voting record reflected both his staunch support of the established Church and his opposition to the operation of the poor law. He was in the minority that backed John Walter’s motion for the reconstruction of the poor laws on ‘Christian grounds’, 23 Feb. 1843, and he voted against non-denominational education, 18 May 1843, the abolition of Anglican oaths at universities, 25 May 1843, and the Dissenters’ Chapels bill, 6 June 1844.

Dogged by poor health, Cresswell retired at the 1847 dissolution. His parliamentary career, which had begun in such memorable circumstances, had ultimately been forgettable. After further time abroad to repair his health, he returned to Cresswell Hall, and resumed his duties as a magistrate.7Newcastle Courant, 9 May 1879.

Cresswell died at the family seat at Cresswell in May 1879. Aged ninety at his death, he had been the oldest magistrate in Northumberland.8Ibid. His four sons having predeceased him, he was succeeded by his grandson, Oswin Cumming Baker Cresswell, the son of his eldest son, Oswin Addison Baker Cresswell, who had died in 1856.9Ibid.