William Hulton (23 October 1787 – 30 March 1864) was an English landowner, magistrate and collier who lived at Hulton Park, in the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, England. The Hultons owned the estate since the late-12th century.

Biography

William Hulton was the son of William Hulton and Jane (née Brooke). He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1808 he married his

cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...

Maria Ford with whom he had 13 children, 10 of whom survived to maturity. In 1811 he was appointed

High Sheriff of Lancashire The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient officer, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales. The High Sheriff of Lanc ...

. In this capacity he ordered the arrest of 12 men,

Luddites The Luddites were a secret oath-based organisation of English textile workers in the 19th century who formed a radical faction which destroyed textile machinery. The group is believed to have taken its name from Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver ...

, for arson at Westhoughton Mill in

Westhoughton Westhoughton ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southwest of Bolton, east of Wigan and northwest of Manchester.Lancaster Castle Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle and former prison in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but it may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of ...

, including a boy aged 12. Hulton gained a reputation as being tough on

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

and

political dissent Political dissent is a dissatisfaction with or opposition to the policies of a governing body. Expressions of dissent may take forms from vocal disagreement to civil disobedience to the use of violence.chairman of the Lancashire and Cheshire

Magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

s, a body set up for dealing with the

civil unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...

endemic in the area. He was also

Constable of Lancaster Castle Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle and former prison in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but it may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of ...

. In 1819 he summoned the local

Yeomanry Yeomanry is a designation used by a number of units or sub-units of the British Army Reserve, descended from volunteer cavalry regiments. Today, Yeomanry units serve in a variety of different military roles. History Origins In the 1790s, f ...

to deal with a large crowd in St Peter's Square in Manchester which had gathered to hear the political

agitator Agitator may refer to: Politics *A person who carries out political agitation; see agitation *A member of the Agitators, political movement and elected representatives of soldiers during the English Civil War * Levellers, also called Agitators ...

Henry Hunt. The Yeomanry, on horseback with

sabre A sabre ( French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...

s drawn, forced its way through the crowd to break up the

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sport ...

and allow Hunt to be arrested. From his vantage point William Hulton perceived the unfolding events as an assault on the yeomanry, and on L'Estrange's arrival at 1:50 pm, at the head of his

hussars A hussar ( , ; hu, huszár, pl, husarz, sh, husar / ) was a member of a class of light cavalry, originating in Central Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely a ...

, he ordered them into the field to disperse the crowd with the words: "Good God, Sir, don't you see they are attacking the Yeomanry; disperse the meeting!" Fifteen people died from sabre and musket wounds or trampling, with 400 to 500 injured and the event became known as the

Peterloo Massacre The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliament ...

. Hulton was vilified by the local population and was obliged to decline a safe parliamentary seat offered to him in 1820. He died at Leamington Priors, Warwickshire on 30 March 1864, and was buried in St Mary the Virgin's Churchyard, Deane, Lancashire on 5 April 1864.

Coal

As the owner of Hulton Park he derived income from the seven

collieries Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use c ...

working the coal measures under the park and nearby, and in 1824 became chairman of the

Bolton and Leigh Railway The Bolton and Leigh Railway (B&LR) was the first public railway in Lancashire, it opened for goods on 1 August 1828 preceding the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) by two years. Passengers were carried from 1831. The railway operated inde ...

Company, which planned and built the first public railway in Lancashire. The line ran to the west of his estate from

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

to the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

, enabling him to deliver his

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

to market more cheaply. The line was connected to the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...

in 1830 giving him and other local businessmen access to the

Port of Liverpool The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of t ...

. Until 1831 Hulton paid his workers with tokens or vouchers that could only be redeemed in his company shop, a practice outlawed by the passing of the Truck Act 1831. In 1843 Hulton paid his colliers the poorest wages in Lancashire. He remained opposed to permitting the right to free assembly and was vehemently opposed to miners congregating with the object of forming a

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. He established the Hulton Colliery Company in 1858.

Family

William and Maria had at least 8 sons and 4 daughters who survived infancy: #William Ford Hulton, b. 19 September 1811 – d. 18 May 1879 #Amelia Marie Hulton, b. 1815 – d. 5 February 1871, who married Henry Montagu Villiers, later

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler has been the Bishop of Durham ...

#Arthur Hyde Hulton, b. 31 July 1816 #Sophia Frances Anne Hulton, b. 27 October 1817 #Randle Harrington Hulton, b. 23 December 1818 #Frederick Bleythin Hulton, b. 26 January 1820 – d. 18 September 1839 #Mary Gertrude Hulton, b. 21 July 1821 #Charles Norleigh Hulton, b. 10 January 1823 #Hugh Thurstain Hulton, b. 10 March 1824 #Alfred Lacy Hulton, b. 1 August 1825 #Emma Louisa Hulton, b. 12 March 1827 #Edward Lister Hulton, b. 1828

References

Bibliography * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hulton, William 1787 births 1864 deaths People from Westhoughton High Sheriffs of Lancashire English landowners Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford 19th-century British businesspeople