John Brocklehurst

Who was John Brocklehurst?

John Brocklehurst, DL, MP, known as John Brocklehurst the younger, was an English silk manufacturer, banker and Liberal Party politician from Macclesfield in Cheshire. He sat in the House of Commons for 36 years, from 1832 to 1868.

Brocklehurst was the second of three sons of John Brocklehurst, of Macclesfield and Lea-hall in Cheshire, and became a partner in one of the most successful banking an silk-manufacturing companies in Macclesfield.

Under the Reform Act 1832, the town gained the right to elect two Members of Parliament, and Brocklehurst was elected at the 1832 general election as one of the first two MPs for the newly enfranchised borough of Macclesfield. He held the seat through nine further elections until he retired from Parliament at the 1868 general election, when his eldest son William Coare Brocklehurst was elected in his place. He attended the House of Commons regularly, and although rarely spoke in the chamber, he was held in great respect by advanced Liberals. He was both a magistrate and a Deputy Lieutenant of the County Palatine of Cheshire.