page_title: Hugh Mason
section_title: National
hierarchical_section_title: Hugh Mason / Political career / National
caption_attribution_description: The Reform Club Building on King Street Manchester
context_page_description: Hugh Mason was an English mill owner, social reformer and Liberal politician. He was born in Stalybridge and brought up in Stalybridge and Ashton-under-Lyne until he entered the family cotton business in 1838 after a seven-year period working in a bank. Having originally opposed trade unions, Mason became a paternalistic mill owner, creating a colony for his workers with associated facilities and ensuring that they experienced good conditions. During the Lancashire Cotton Famine of the 1860s he refused to cut workers' wages although it was common practice.
  Mason became the first Liberal to be elected councillor for Ashton-under-Lyne in 1856. He was mayor of the council from 1857 to 1860 and retired from local politics in 1874 due to conflict with his own party. Mason returned to the Liberals in 1878 when he stood for election as Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne. He was voted in and supported progressive policies, which included women's suffrage, making him unpopular within his own party. He was MP from 1880 to 1885. When he died in 1886, aged 69, Hugh Mason had amassed £290,933.
context_section_description: Mason, along with a group of other Advanced Liberals supporting John Morley, the gladstonian, was one of the founding members of the Reform Club in Manchester, a political club founded in 1867 for Liberals and their supporters. Despite retiring from local politics because of conflict with the Liberals, by 1878 he was back in favour and Liberal councillors were encouraging Mason to stand for parliamentary election. Although he was a popular candidate, he was initially reluctant to put himself forward. However, he stood for Parliament in the 1880 General Elections. His campaign in March and April 1880 involved vitriolic attacks on the local Conservative Party and on 3 April 1880 he was elected MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, beating his opponent, John Ross Coulthart, by 2,966 votes to 2,586.
  As an MP he lived at 33 Onslow Square, Kensington, and was a member of the Reform Club.  Mason supported many reformist bills and became a spokesman of the Women's Suffrage Association in 1881.  He proposed motions for women's suffrage in 1881 and again in 1883 but was defeated on both occasions. He led the women's suffrage movement until 1883 when illness forced him to retreat from public life temporarily. His defeat in the 1885 General Elections was ascribed to his support of William Ewart Gladstone over the issue of Irish Home Rule and to his illness.  He lost to the Conservative John Wentworth Addison by 3,152 votes to 3,104.  Mason demanded a recount, but this increased the majority by one vote; he succumbed to illness and died before the result was announced.
caption: The Manchester Reform Club building. Mason was a founder member of the club.
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