William Rookes Crompton-Stansfield
DL
Member of Parliament
for Huddersfield
In office
29 July 1837 – 15 March 1853
Preceded byEdward Ellice
Succeeded byGeorge Robinson
Personal details
Born
William Rookes Crompton

(1790-08-03)3 August 1790
Yorkshire
Died5 December 1871(1871-12-05) (aged 81)
Frimley Park, Surrey
NationalityBritish
Political partyWhig
Spouse
Emma Markham
​
(m. 1824)​
RelativesSir Samuel Crompton
Sir James Stansfeld
James Rawdon Stansfeld
Thomas Wolryche Stansfeld
John R. E. Stansfeld
Residence(s)Esholt Hall, Yorkshire
Frimley Park, Surrey
EducationHarrow School
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge

William Rookes Crompton-Stansfield DL (3 August 1790 – 5 December 1871) of Esholt Hall, Yorkshire, and Frimley Park, Surrey, was a British landowner and Whig politician who was MP for Huddersfield, Yorkshire, from 1837 to 1853.[1][2]

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, Bradford, Yorkshire. His father, Joshua, was the son of Samuel Crompton (1714–82), a descendant of the Derby 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.[3]

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 Bradford, Yorkshire, sister of Robert Stansfield (1727–72) who purchased Esholt Hall in 1755, and a descendant of the Stansfeld family of Stansfield and Sowerby, Yorkshire (and also a cousin of the politician Sir James Stansfeld and the soldiers James Rawdon Stansfeld, Thomas Wolryche Stansfeld and John R. E. Stansfeld). In 1832, Crompton assumed the additional surname and arms of Stansfield on inheriting Esholt Hall, near Bradford, Yorkshire, and other estates from his mother.[4]

Career

St Paul's Church, Esholt, built by William Crompton-Stansfield in 1839

Crompton was educated at Harrow School. He matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1808, graduating B.A. in 1813, M.A. in 1816. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1814, and was called to the bar in 1819.[5]

Crompton was elected Whig MP for Huddersfield 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 as it crossed his Esholt estate in 1846 and again in 1860 when it the Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway line was proposed, but the line was eventually built by the Midland Railway Company. Consequently, he later preferred to live at Frimley Park, Surrey.[6]

Crompton-Stansfield's win at the 1852 general election was declared void due to bribery and treating which "prevailed to a great extent". It was found, by a 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".[7][8][9] He was later a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire.

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. She was the niece of Frederica, Countess of Mansfield (1774–1860) and a cousin of William Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield (1806–98).

Crompton-Stansfield died, aged 81, at Frimley Park, 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

See also

References

  1. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 4)
  2. ↑ Driver, Felix (1993). "The politics of territory: the anti-Poor Law movement". Power and pauperism: The workhouse system 1834–1884. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 129. ISBN 0-521-38151-7. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  3. ↑ Stansfeld, J. (1885). History of the Family of Stansfeld of Stansfield in the Parish of Halifax and its numerous branches. Leeds. pp. 256–8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ Stansfeld, J. (1885). History of the Family of Stansfeld of Stansfield in the Parish of Halifax and its numerous branches. Leeds. pp. 183–246, 253–58.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ↑ "Crompton [post Crompton-Stansfield], William Rookes (RMN808WR)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  6. ↑ William Rookes Crompton Stansfield Aireborough Historical Society. Retrieved 4 February 2021
  7. ↑ "House of Commons". The Scotsman. 16 March 1853. p. 2. Retrieved 14 May 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ↑ Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (e-book) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
  9. ↑ Hansard Hansard Report on the Huddersfield Election. Retrieved 4 February 2021
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