William Rookes Crompton-Stansfield (3 August 17905 December 1871) of Esholt Hall,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, and

Frimley Park Frimley Park in Frimley, Surrey, England, consists of Frimley Park mansion, a Grade II listed building, and the formal gardens, designed by Edward White in 1920. The house and gardens are all that remain of an estate that once encompassed more ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, was a British landowner and Whig politician who was MP for

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

, Yorkshire, from 1837 to 1853.

Background

Crompton was born on 3 August 1790. He was the second (but eldest surviving) son of Joshua Crompton (1754–1832) and his wife Anna Maria Rookes (1762–1819), daughter of William Rookes (1719–89) of

Royds Hall Royds Hall Manor is one of the surviving manor houses in the Yorkshire Region. It is a Grade II* listed building situated on an elevation over 700 feet above sea level in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England and was once the residence of the Lords ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

. His father, Joshua, was the son of Samuel Crompton (1714–82), a descendant of the

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

banking family of Crompton, and a cousin of the politician Sir Samuel Crompton. William's elder brother, Stansfield Crompton (1788–1801), died at the age of 13 and was buried at Guiseley Parish Church. Crompton's mother, Anna Maria, was the daughter of William Rookes and Annie Stansfield (1729–98). Annie was the daughter of Robert Stansfield (b.1676) of

, Yorkshire, sister of Robert Stansfield (1727–72) who purchased Esholt Hall in 1755, and a descendant of the

Stansfeld Stansfeld is an English surname deriving from the Old English 'stan' (meaning stony) and 'feld' (field). This toponymic surname originates from the ancient township of Stansfield (near Todmorden, West Yorkshire), which was listed in the Domesday B ...

family of

Stansfield Stansfield is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located seven miles south-west of Bury St Edmunds, in 2011 its population was 221. The village has an Anglican church dedicated to All Saints. ...

and Sowerby,

(and also a cousin of the politician Sir James Stansfeld and the soldiers

James Rawdon Stansfeld James Rawdon Stansfeld (; 11 August 1866 – 14 January 1936) was a British army officer who served as an Instructor and Professor at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and as Deputy Director-General of Inspection in the Minister of Muni ...

, Thomas Wolryche Stansfeld and John R. E. Stansfeld). In 1832, Crompton assumed the additional surname and arms of

on inheriting Esholt Hall, near

, Yorkshire, and other estates from his mother.

Career

Crompton was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

. He matriculated at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

in 1808, graduating B.A. in 1813, M.A. in 1816. He was admitted to

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1814, and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1819. Crompton was elected Whig MP for

at the 1837 general election and held the seat until 1853. In 1839, he built St Paul's Church as a private family chapel at the cost of £800 (since 1983 it has been used in the combined parish of Guiseley with Esholt). He opposed the intrusion of the

Leeds and Bradford Railway The Leeds and Bradford Railway Company (L&BR)The abbreviation L&BR is more commonly seen referring to the London and Birmingham Railway. opened a railway line between the townsLeeds obtained city status in 1893; Bradford became a city in 1897. on ...

as it crossed his

Esholt Esholt is a village between Shipley and Guiseley, in the metropolitan district of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated east of Shipley town centre , south-west of Guiseley Main Street , north of Bradford City Cent ...

estate in 1846 and again in 1860 when it the

Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway The Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway was a railway line running between the towns of Otley and Ilkley in West Yorkshire. The line was managed and run jointly by the Midland Railway (MR) and the North Eastern Railway (NER) and was long. Opened to ...

line was proposed, but the line was eventually built by the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

Company. Consequently, he later preferred to live at

, Surrey. Crompton-Stansfield's win at the 1852 general election was declared void due to bribery and

treating :''This is an article about treating in the sense of provision of food, drink, and refreshments for a person or group of people. For treating in the context of social dating, see treating (dating).'' Treating is the act of serving food, drink, and ...

which "prevailed to a great extent". It was found, by a

Commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...

Committee, that he was "by his agents, guilty of bribery and treating at the last Election". The Committee discovered that "treating throughout the said Borough during the last Election was general, systematic, and extravagant in its character": between sixty and seventy public-houses (at least) had been opened by his agents, with refreshments provided apparently without limit and paid for without inquiry (with expenses incurred on that account alone amounting to upwards of £1,000). With one exception, however, the only persons who were furnished with orders to provide refreshments were registered Electors, so it was not proved to the Committee that the bribery or treating were committed with Crompton-Stansfield's knowledge and consent. Nevertheless, the Committee considered that a system of treating (like that which appears to have prevailed for some time in Huddersfield) must have had the effect of exercising an influence over the minds of voters "as corrupting and debasing as direct bribery".Hansard
Hansard Report on the Huddersfield Election. Retrieved 4 February 2021 He was later a Deputy Lieutenant of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

Family

Crompton married, on 17 June 1824, Emma Markham, daughter of William Markham of Becca Hall, Yorkshire, and granddaughter of William Markham (1719–1807),

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

. She was the niece of Frederica, Countess of Mansfield (1774–1860) and a cousin of

William Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield William David Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield, 3rd Earl of Mansfield, KT, DL (21 February 1806 – 1 August 1898) was a British Conservative politician. The son of David William Murray, 3rd Earl of Mansfield, and Frederica Markham, daughter of ...

(1806–98). Crompton-Stansfield died, aged 81, at

, Surrey, on 5 December 1871. There were no children from the marriage and Esholt Hall was inherited by his nephew, General William Henry Crompton-Stansfield (1835–88).

Ancestry

References

External links