James Cropper (politician)

James Cropper (22 February 1823 – 16 October 1900) was an English Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1885.

A portrait of James Cropper
James Cropper paper mill in Burneside
A monument to James Cropper in Kendal

Cropper was the son of James Cropper of Dingle Bank Liverpool. His father was the philanthropist and slavery abolitionist John Cropper, and his grandfather was James Cropper. He was educated at the Liverpool Royal Institution and the University of Edinburgh.[1] He married Ann Wakefield, the daughter of James Wakefield of Kendal. He founded the paper mill company which eventually became James Cropper plc in 1845. He was a J.P. and Deputy Lieutenant for Westmorland and was High Sheriff of Westmorland in 1875.[2]

Cropper was elected Member of Parliament for Kendal at a by-election in December 1880.[3] He held the seat until the 1885 general election, when the parliamentary borough of Kendal was abolished, and the name transferred to a new division of the county of Westmorland. In the enlarged constituency, Cropper was defeated by the Earl of Bective,[4] a Conservative who had previously been one of the two MPs for the undivided Westmorland constituency.

Cropper married Fanny Alison Wakefield in 1845, and they were the parents of ten children. Cropper died at the age of 77.

References
  1. Frederic Boase. Modern English Biography: Containing Many Thousand Concise Memoirs of Persons who Have Died Between the Years 1851-1900, with an Index of the Most Interesting Matter. Vol. 4.
  2. Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1881
  3. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [First published 1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 164. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
  4. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [First published 1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 413. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.


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