Sir William Coddington, 1st Baronet

Sir William Coddington, 1st Baronet

Sir William Coddington, 1st Baronet (1830 – 15 February 1918) was an English cotton manufacturer and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1906.

Coddington was born at Salford, Greater Manchester, the eldest son of William Dudley Coddington, a Manchester merchant, and his wife Elizabeth Hopwood. In 1842 his father settled in Blackburn as a cotton spinner and manufacturer. Coddington was a business man, and when his father died in 1867, he was left the management of the mills. Under his supervision the firm flourished, and he was able to take full advantage of the trade boom which followed the cotton famine. He erected two mills, Ordnance and Wellington New Mills.[1]

In 1875, he was Mayor of Blackburn and in that year, he presented an organ to the Parish Church at a cost of £3,000. He was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn at the 1880 general election. He held the seat until his retirement in 1906. In Parliament Sir William was remembered for his work as chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for widening the streets of London. He became a baronet in 1896. In 1912 his services to the town of Blackburn were recognised by presenting him with the Freedom of the Borough.

In 1864 he married Sarah Catherine, daughter of William Thomas Hall, of Wakefield, and they had one daughter. They lived firstly at Spring Mount and later at Wycollar, which had been built by his father. Sir William married again in his 83rd year, his second wife being Aimee Josephine Barber-Starkie. He died at Wycollar in his 87th year.

References

  1. ^ Cottontown Blackburn with Darwen
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography J. Geoffrey Timmins, Coddington, Sir William, baronet (1830–1918), first published Sept 2004

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Daniel Thwaites
William Edward Briggs		 Member of Parliament for Blackburn
1880–1906
With: William Edward Briggs1880-1885
Sir Robert Peel 1885-1886
William Henry Hornby 1886-1906		 Succeeded by
Philip Snowden
William Henry Hornby
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Wycollar)
1896–1918		 Extinct


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