Charles Hindley (politician)

Charles Hindley (25 June 1796 – 1 December 1857) was an English cotton mill-owner and Radical politician who sat as Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire from 1835 until his death in 1857. He was active in the Factory Reform movement, in the opposition to the New Poor Law, and in opposition to state involvement in religious and educational matters, but was rarely prominent in them, being more sought after as a chairman of meetings than as a speaker at them, and too inclined to moderation and compromise to be accepted as a reliable leader. He was the first member of the Moravian Church to be a British member of parliament. A portrait of Hindley is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London

Hindley was the third son of Ignatius (a considerable calico and muslin manufacturer) and Mary Hindley (maiden name Molly Ambler); like them he was a member of the Moravian Church and remained so throughout his life . In about 1816, he became manager of his eldest brother John's small cotton mill in Dukinfield. In 1821, after the death of his brother he married Hannah, sister of John's widow Mary and daughter of Nathaniel Buckley, a clothier of Saddleworth (formerly of Staley, and described as a cotton spinner of Duckinfield when John and Mary married). Charles and Hannah had six children; one daughter (Hannah) survived to adulthood and married Henry Woods, another daughter died aged twelve, none of the other four children reached their second birthday. Hindley's first wife died in July 1837, and he remarried (Jun 1839) Ann, the sister of John Fort of Read Hall. Both Woods and Fort were Liberal MPs (Fort for Clitheroe, Woods for Wigan); both were active in the cotton industry. Hindley was in poor health in 1838 (from obstruction of the bile duct ); in 1849 his health was so poor that there was talk of his having to retire as an MP, but he recuperated considerably as a result of a tour he made of Egypt, Palestine and Greece in 1849-50. Hindley's second wife died just before Christmas in 1854, his only surviving child died as a result of childbirth in July 1857:

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