William Coare Brocklehurst (9 February 1818 – 3 June 1900) was an English Liberal Party politician and head of a family of silk producers in

Macclesfield Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...

in the 19th century. He sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1880 and from 1885 to 1886. William Brocklehurst 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 (MPs) for the borough of Macclesfield, where he was re-elected in

1874 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx. * January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time. * January 3 – Third Carlist War &ndas ...

and

1880 Events January–March * January 22 – Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia. * January – The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy. * February � ...

. 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. 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 1886 general election. The Brocklehurst family of Brocklehurst-Whiston mill acquired

Butley Hall Butley Hall is a former large house, now converted into flats, in the village of Prestbury, Cheshire. It was rebuilt in 1777 for Peter Downes. The house was extended by an addition to the north in the 19th century, and converted into flats ...

in 1861, and the Bollingtonfield Estate in 1884, naming it Butley Cottage. It is currently a hotel known as White House Manor. Brocklehurst was a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, and in 1870 he was president of the Macclesfield

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...

. In 1895 the Macclesfield High School for Girls was established in a building bought from Brocklehurst. He died in June 1900, the 18 August 1900 edition of 'The Nursing Record & Hospital World' records that he left £1000 to the endowment fund of Macclesfield Infirmary. He also left £1500 to the High School for Girls. His elder son, William Brocklehurst (1851-1933), served as mayor of Macclesfield from 1883–85, and the town's MP from 1906-18.

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White House Manor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brocklehurst, William Coare William British textile industry businesspeople 1818 births 1900 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1880–1885 UK MPs 1885–1886 People from Macclesfield Mayors of places in Cheshire 19th-century English businesspeople