Thomas Barnes (1812 - 24 April 1897) was a Liberal British Member of Parliament (MP) for

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

who had substantial business interests, including cotton manufacturing in

Farnworth Farnworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southeast of Bolton, 4 miles south-west of Bury (7 km), and northwest of Manchester. Within the historic county of Lancashire, Farnworth lies on ...

, as Thomas Barnes & Co. Ltd., and as chairman of the

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company before the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It was Incorporation (business)#Incorporation in the United Kingdom, incorpo ...

. He was elected an MP on three occasions.

Early life

Thomas Barnes was born in 1812. He was one of three sons of James Rothwell Barnes who, along with Thomas Bonsor Crompton, was a significant figure in the development of Farnworth. Barnes senior established the first steam-powered weaving mill in Farnworth and later, in 1832, brought cotton spinning to the town.

Business

Barnes junior had many business interests aside from his cotton-manufacturing business, Thomas Barnes & Co. Ltd., in Farnworth. These included significant involvement in the Assam Railways and Trading Company, the Bank of Bolton, the Farnworth and Kearsley Gas Company, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the Provincial Insurance Company, the Royal Sardinian Railways, a Welsh slate quarry, and the

Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway The Buckley Railway was opened from Buckley to a connection with the Chester to Holyhead main line on 7 June 1862, to convey coal and finished brickworks products from the Buckley area. Numerous short tramroads had existed in the area from the ...

Politics

Barnes resigned his chairmanship of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway but remained a director and major shareholder after becoming a Liberal MP for Bolton in the election of 1852. He held the seat until

1857 Events January–March * January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, '' Postimees'', is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. * January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating. * Ja ...

, then tried unsuccessfully to win the Bury constituency in the 1859 election. Having regained unopposed the Bolton seat made vacant by the resignation of Joseph Crook in 1861, he retained it in

1865 Events January * January 4 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street, in New York City. * January 13 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Fort Fisher – Unio ...

but lost again in the 1868 general election, when the two available seats were won by

John Hick John Harwood Hick (20 January 1922 – 9 February 2012) was an English philosopher of religion and theologian, who taught in the United States for the larger part of his career. In philosophical theology, he made contributions in the areas o ...

and William Gray. He chose not to stand in the 1874 general election but was invited to do so, once again for Bolton, in that of

1880 Events January *January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." gr ...

. By this time he was once again chairman of the railway company. He refused the offer due to ill-health. He also served as a Justice of the Peace and as a Deputy Lieutenant of the

Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is an estate of the British sovereign. The estate has its origins in the lands held by the medieval Dukes of Lancaster, which came under the direct control of the monarch when Henry Bolingbroke, the then duke of Lancast ...

Other interests

Barnes was a non-conformist and regularly preached and taught in

Sunday school ] A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes. Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...

s. He was also a director of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

, a supporter of the Anti-Corn Law League and a member of the

Liberation Society The Liberation Society was an organisation in Victorian England that campaigned for disestablishment of the Church of England. It was founded in 1844 by Edward Miall as the British Anti-State Church Association and was renamed in 1853 as the Soc ...

. He favoured widening the

electoral franchise Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

and voted in favour of the Permissive Bill, variations of which were introduced on several occasions in an attempt to legitimise local vetoes over the grant of licenses for the sale of alcohol. In December 1862, he bought a

cotton plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacco ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

with the intention of showing that it was possible to produce the raw material without using slave labour. Around 1858, Barnes purchased an estate near to

Chirk Chirk () is a town and Community (Wales), community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, south of Wrexham, between it and Oswestry. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 4,468. Historically in the historic counties of Wales, traditional coun ...

and built a house called The Quinta, in Shropshire. At the same time he was the benefactor of a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

Congregationalist chapel at

Weston Rhyn Weston Rhyn is a large village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies between the towns of Chirk, in Wales, and Oswestry, in England. The civil parish, which also includes Bronygarth, Pentre-Newydd and a number of small hamlets, had ...

, near to his estate, and he preached there when no other preacher was available. He also donated around of land on his Birch Hall estate, as well as money, for development of Farnworth Park, which was opened amid great festivities in October 1864 by

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...

. This latter gift was to commemorate his father and celebrate the coming of age of his only child, James Richardson Barnes, and was inspired by seeing children playing in the dirty, busy streets of the town. Some sources say that around 50,000 people attended the opening, while others indicate 100,000. Barnes died at The Quinta on 24 April 1897. His wife, Ann, predeceased him in 1880, aged 76.

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