independent for constituency of Newry parliamentary candidate
Which position did William Kirk (MP) hold in Dec 1855?
William Kirk ( MP ) William Kirk ( 179520 December 1870 ) was an Irish linen-mill entrepreneur and Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . He was elected , with the endorsement of the Tenant Right League , as an independent for constituency of Newry in 1852 , and again in 1857 . He stood down as a candidate for re-election in 1859 . In 1865 he entered the arena as a Liberal candidate for Armagh , but he failed to win the seat . His final appearance on the political stage was in 1868 , when , returning to Newry as a Liberal , he successfully contested his old seat . Despite failing health , he continued to attend parliament , and maintained his support for tenant rights and for mixed ( Catholic , Protestant ) education . Linen entrepreneur and progressive employer . William was born to Mr . Hugh Kirk and the former Miss Eliza Miller in Larne , in 1795 , and followed his father into business : the manufacture of linen . In 1820 he married Ann McKean , of Darkley House , whose father , James , was also in the trade . Presiding over the transition from farmhouse to factory production , Kirk introduced water-powered looms . In 1837 he bought the Annvale finishing mill in 1837 in Keady , south Armagh , and expanded it to include weaving as well as bleaching and dyeing . In 1845 , after the death of his brother-in-law Henry McKean , he assumed control of a spinning mill at Darkley . The Darkley works eventually expanded to cover 137 acres , boasting 200 power looms , and 8,000 spindles , manned by 700 persons . The mill was operated by the second largest , if not the largest , water wheel in Europe . Kirk was very interested in the technical side of the industry , and by 1848 had designed and installed the first water turbine in one of his own beetling mills near Keady . It was this innovative approach that ensured success for the Annvale-Darkley operation . His business holdings would eventually expand to include an imposing warehouse in the centre of Belfast , and branches or agencies in London , Manchester , New York and Paris . The workers houses that still shape the profile of Darkley village were constructed with the assistance of a government grant secured by Kirk . He also established a shop , a dairy , and a small farm . In 1857 he added a school , and later a reading room with evening classes for adults . Kirk was deeply involved in the Presbyterian Church : he helped found the Presbyterian Orphan Society , and was a trustee of the General Assembly’s College in Belfast . He was also an important figure in local government , serving as a Justice of the Peace , a member of the County Armagh Grand Jury and Deputy-Lieutenant of the County . Member of Parliament . Encouraged by his friends , in 1852 he stood as a parliamentary candidate in nearby Newry . In his local Armagh constituency Conservative landlords and their Orange Order allies were too strong a force . He refused to align himself with any party , saying he would join no party which will not be a party to serve the people , and declaring himself ready to support the government or the opposition , or an independent member who will propose and strive to carry out measures to benefit this neglected country . It was not until 1865 that he declared his support for the Liberals . In the House of Commons Kirk was declare that as a merchant and a free-trader , he should be ashamed of himself to argue for a compulsory valuation of rents . He argued , however , that the tenant right , or custom , of Ulster should be given the force of law . Where the landlord and tenant could not between themselves agree upon the price of the land , permission should be given to the tenant to resign his holding to the landlord , and get from him the value of the improvements he had made upon it . This , he proposed , would completely destroy all cause of agrarian crime . Together with his pleas for religious toleration , Kirks championing of tenant right gave him credibility with both Catholics and Presbyterians . Together with the fact that much of his business was carried on via the port of Newry , it enabled him carry the seat in 1852 and again in 1857 . In parliament , in addition to tenant right and religious equality , Kirk committed himself to free trade , the secret ballot ( which would give tenants and employees greater political independence from their landlords and masters ) and non-denominational education . Locally , he outlined a scheme to introduce cotton manufacture to Newry , arguing that Ulster was importing a fabric which it had the skills to make , promoted initiatives to create jobs for women and was instrumental in getting the railway system from Newry extended and the harbour improved . In the campaign of 1859 , discouraged by the deep-seated opposition from his conservative co-religionists , he withdrew his candidacy for re-election . There were reports of Conservative landlords serving notice to quit on his tenant supporters . In 1865 he unsuccessfully challenged his conservative opponents in Armagh while his son William Millar Kirk contested , but failed to carry , the Newry seat . Kirk was returned to Parliament as a Liberal from Newry in 1868 due , almost entirely , to the Catholic vote . In his nomination speech Kirk had focussed on his support for the disestablishment of the [ Anglican ] Church of Ireland and reasserted his commitment to religious equality . I am now , as I ever have been , he declared , the advocate of Civil and Religious Liberty . What I claim for myself I concede to others , as I cannot but feel that if my neighbour’s liberty is infringed , my own is in danger . He defeated the Conservative candidate , Francis Needham , Viscount Newry and Mourne , by just seven votes . Death and family . In the January 1871 by-election that followed Kiriks death in December 1870 , Lord Newry was returned unopposed . Later that same year a large memorial to Kirk was erected in the centre of Keady . His son Thomas Sinclair Kirk ( 1869–1940 ) was a prominent Belfast surgeon , President of the Ulster Medical Society 1908–09 , and during the First World War a noted pioneer in the use of urea for sterilising wounds . External links . References