\"1st Baronet of Halifax\" Sir Francis Crossley Hand Written Letter For Sale

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\"1st Baronet of Halifax\" Sir Francis Crossley Hand Written Letter:
$139.99

Up for sale the "1st Baronet of Halifax" Sir Francis Crossley Hand Written Letter. 

ES-1195B

Sir Francis Crossley, 1st Baronet, of

Halifax (Halifax, 26 October 1817 –

5 January 1872), was a British carpet manufacturer, philanthropist and Liberal Party politician.

His father, John Crossley, was a carpet manufacturer at Dean Clough Mills, Halifax and died 17 January 1837, having

had by his wife Martha, daughter of Abram Turner of Scout Farm, Yorkshire, a

numerous family. Mrs. John Crossley died 26 November 1854. Crossley's older

brother, John, was also an MP

for Halifax,

from 1874 to 1877. The fifth and youngest son, Francis, was sent to school at

Halifax; while still a schoolboy his pocket money was made dependent on his own

work. A loom was set up for him in his father's mill, on which he

spent the time not spent at school. The carpet manufactory at Dean Clough was

commenced by John Crossley in a small way, but it became, under the management

of John Crossley, jun., Joseph Crossley, and Francis Crossley, who constituted

the firm of J. Crossley & Sons, the largest concern of its kind in the

world. Its buildings covered an area of 20 acres (81,000 m2),

and the firm gave employment to between five and six thousand persons. Its rapid

growth was by application of steam power and machinery to the production of carpets.

The Crossley firm acquired patents and then devised and patented improvements

which placed them in advance of the rest of the trade. One loom, the patent of

which became their property, was found capable of weaving about six times as

much as could be produced by the old hand loom. Manufacturers of tapestry and Brussels carpets

applied to Messrs. Crossley for licences to work their patents, and large sums

accrued to them from royalties alone. In 1864 the concern was changed into a

limited liability company, and a portion of the shares in the new company were

offered to workers under favourable conditions. Crossley was elected in the

liberal interest as M.P. for Halifax,

8 July 1852; he sat for the borough until 1859, when he became the member for

the West Riding of Yorkshire. On the division of the riding in 1868 he was

returned for the northern division, which he continued to represent to the time

of his death. He was mayor of Halifax in 1849 and 1850, and purchased Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk in 1862 from Morton Peto. He was created a baronet 23 January 1863. After a

long illness he died at Bellevue, Halifax, 5 January 1872, and was buried in

the general cemetery on 12 January. His will was proved 27 May 1872, when the

personalty was sworn under £800,000. He married, 11 December 1845, Martha

Eliza, daughter of Henry Brinton of Kidderminster, by whom he had an only

son, Savile

Crossley, second baronet, M.P. successively for Lowestoft and for

Halifax. He was the author of Canada and the United States, a

lecture, 1856. Savile was to become a prominent Liberal Unionist politician and was created Baron Somerleyton in 1916. 

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