John Ireland Blackburne (26 May 1783 – 27 January 1874) was a British

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

politician. Born at Hale Hall,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, he was the son of John Blackburne,

lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

of Hale and Member of Parliament for

, and his wife Anne née Robard of Shepton Mallet,

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. He was descended from two old Lancashire families, the Irelands and the Blackburnes. He was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 1807, sitting as MP for Newton until 1818. He subsequently became involved in the politics of the town of

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

, helping to establish the Warrington Operative Conservative Association. Such associations were established in the north west of England in order to enlist the support of

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

men against the emerging Radical and Chartist movements. He returned to Parliament at the 1835 general election when he won the

parliamentary borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

from the

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. He sat as the town's MP until he retired in 1847. He was a strong defender of the established church, and was opposed to the endowment of

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priests and the appropriation of church property for secular purposes. He also supported the improvement of working conditions, in particular the Factories Act 1847. Blackburne married his cousin, Anne Bamford. Their son, also named John Ireland Blackburne, was also a member of parliament from 1875 – 1885.''The Gentleman's Magazine 1833'', p.465

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackburne, John Ireland 1783 births 1874 deaths UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 UK MPs 1841–1847 Tory MPs (pre-1834) Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies