William Coare Brocklehurst

Who was William Coare Brocklehurst?

William Coare Brocklehurst was an English Liberal Party politician and head of a family of silk producers in Macclesfield in the 19th century. He sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1880 and from 1885 to 1886.

William was the son of John Brocklehurst and Mary Coare. He was elected at the 1868 general election as one of the two Members of Parliament for the borough of Macclesfield, where he was re-elected in 1874 and 1880. However, the result of the 1880 general election in Macclesfield was declared void on 22 June 1880, after an election petition. Brocklehurst and his fellow MP David Chadwick were both unseated, and a Royal Commission was appointed which found that there had been extensive bribery in the borough. The writ was suspended, and the borough lost its right to representation in Parliament.

Out of Parliament, Brocklehurst served as Mayor of Macclesfield from 1883 to 1885.

The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 abolished the parliamentary borough of Macclesfield, but created a new single-seat county division of Cheshire, which bore the same name but covered a wider area. Brocklehurst was elected at the 1885 general election as the first MP for the new division, but did not stand again at the 1885 general election.