Francis Hurt (22 October 1803 at

Cromford Cromford is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, in the valley of the River Derwent between Wirksworth and Matlock. It is north of Derby, south of Matlock and south of Matlock Bath. It is first mentioned in the 11th-century Do ...

, Derbyshire – 1 April 1861 at

Alderwasley Alderwasley ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 469. Alderwasley Hall is the home to one of the sites of Alderwasley Hall School which ...

, Derbyshire) was an English

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

politician who represented the constituency of

South Derbyshire South Derbyshire is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. The population of the local authority at the 2011 Census was 94,611. It contains a third of the National Forest, and the council offices are in Swadlincote. The district a ...

Biography

Hurt was born at Rock House

, the son of Francis Edward Hurt and his wife Elizabeth Arkwright, the daughter of

Richard Arkwright Junior Richard Arkwright junior (19 December 1755 – 23 April 1843), the son of Sir Richard Arkwright of Cromford, Derbyshire, was a mills owner, turned banker, investor and financier (creditor) of many successful state and private entreprises of the ...

He played a

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

match for

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC) in 1840, being out for nought in both innings. Hurt became MP for Derbyshire South in 1837 but lost the seat in 1841. He lived at

Alderwasley Hall Alderwasley Hall School is an independent residential special school. The school is for children and young people aged 5 to 20 with High-Functioning ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), Asperger's Syndrome, Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), and ...

which had been in the Hurt family since 1690. He was

High Sheriff of Derbyshire High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

in 1860, Deputy Lieutenant and J. P. In 1851, he rebuilt in stone an Observatory called Crich Stand on a limestone cliff overlooking

Crich Crich is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. The population at the 2001 Census was 2,821, increasing to 2,898 at the 2011 Census (including Fritchley and Whatstandwell). It has the National Tramway Museum inside the Crich Tramway Vil ...

. This had originally been erected by his grandfather in 1788 at a cost of £210. This was rebuilt in 1923 as a Memorial Tower for those of the

Sherwood Foresters The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for just under 90 years, from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment to f ...

regiment who died in battle, particularly in World War I. Hurt also built a wooden house on a height in the Alderwasley woods in 1857 which was used for picnics. This was on or near the site of the "Earl's Chamber", a hunting lodge belonging to Edmund Earl of Lancaster, brother of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

. Hurt married Cecilia Norman, daughter of Richard Norman of Melton Mowbray and niece to the Duke of 'Rutland. Their son Captain Francis R. Hurt was killed in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

in the attack on the Redan on 18 June 1855.Crimean War
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hurt, Francis 1803 births 1861 deaths People from Cromford Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1837–1841 Deputy Lieutenants of Derbyshire Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Derbyshire High Sheriffs of Derbyshire English cricketers English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers