British industrialist and Radical Member of Parliament
Not to be confused with John Fielder or John Fiedler.
"One of the most experienced, most wealthy, most intelligent, and most humane men in the kingdom"[1] or "The self-acting mule" : John Fielden MP, 1845
John Fielden (17 January 1784 – 29 May 1849) was a British industrialist and Radical Member of Parliament for Oldham (1832–1847).
He entered Parliament to support William Cobbett, whose election as fellow-MP for Oldham he helped to bring about. Like Cobbett, but unlike many other Radicals, he saw Radicalism as having little more in common with Whiggism than with Toryism: in the Commons he sat with the Whigs but frequently did not vote with them. Whigs and the more orthodox Whig-Radicals, therefore, thought the name of one of the machines used in his cotton-spinning business, "the self-acting mule," a highly appropriate soubriquet.[2] Having started work in his father's cotton mill when little more than ten, he was a firm and generous supporter of the factory reform movement. He also urged repeal of the New Poor Law and pressed for action to be taken to alleviate the 'distress of the country' (in particular the plight of hand-loom weavers), but found little support in Parliament on these issues. Despairing that the concerns of the poor would never be given adequate attention by a 'Ten-Pound Parliament' (elected on the 1832 franchise), he became a 'moral force' Chartist. On the failure of the Chartist National Petition he argued for the movement to organise further petitions; when this advice was rejected he ceased to appear at Chartist events: whilst supporting the aims of Chartism, he concentrated on single issues, striving to attract wider support for reform (including those who would be deterred by any linkage to Chartism or its full agenda). In 1847 he introduced and piloted through the Commons the Ten Hours Act, limiting the hours of work of women and children in textile mills. "Prompted solely by humanity and a sense of justice, he spent much valuable time, much earnest labour, and much of his pecuniary means, in procuring an act of parliament for shortening the hours of labour of women and children in factories."[3]
^Cite error: The named reference 1846reading1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^excerpt from The Monthly Magazine reviewed/quoted in "Literature". Coventry Herald. 17 February 1843.
^Letter from J M Cobbett (dated The Temple London 22 August 1849) quoted in "Celebration of the Passing of the Ten Hours Act at Oldham". Manchester Courier. 1 September 1849.
JohnFielden (17 January 1784 – 29 May 1849) was a British industrialist and Radical Member of Parliament for Oldham (1832–1847). He entered Parliament...
MP in the session when the Act was passed), John Doherty and sympathetic mill-owners such as JohnFielden. The fiercest opponents of all ten-hour bills...
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Honest John may refer to: John Battersby, councillor in Glasgow and trade union leader John Bowen (alderman), High Sheriff of Worcestershire JohnFielden, British...
business Fielden Brothers of Todmorden, Yorkshire, father of JohnFielden Joshua Fielden (politician) (1826–1887), grandson of the above and MP for the...
met while stationed at Fort Howe in Saint John. Their children were Anne (1795–1877), William (1798–1878), John (1800–1877), James Paul (1803–1881), Eleanor...
West Yorkshire, England (grid reference SD935239). Built in honour of JohnFielden, a local mill owner and a social reformer, the church was completed in...
science master, Luke Sutcliffe. JohnFielden (1784–1849), land and factory owner in Todmorden and scion of the town's Fielden family, was a Member of Parliament...
various stalwarts of the Ten-Hour Movement ( various Cobbetts and Fieldens (JohnFielden now being dead) and Richard Oastler) offering their support and...
England, some 1.7 miles (3 km) south of Tadcaster. Since being owned by the Fielden family, it has been converted into a number of luxury homes. The house...
née Reid. In 1851, he married Mary Fielden, the daughter of JohnFielden, his father's fellow-member for Oldham. John Morgan Cobbett's political affiliations...
Samuel "Sam" Fielden (February 25, 1847 – February 7, 1922) was an English-born American Methodist pastor, socialist, anarchist and labor activist who...
Ten Hours campaign such as Richard Oastler, Joseph Rayner Stephens and JohnFielden became the leaders of the Anti-Poor Law campaign. The Book of Murder...
House of Commons or the House of Lords before gaining Royal Assent. JohnFielden, an industrialist and owner of textile mills at Todmorden and MP for...
John Duncuft (died 27 July 1852) was a British Peelite politician. Duncuft was first elected Peelite MP for Oldham in 1847, and held the seat at the next...
trained for the Independent ministry, at Homerton College. His tutor there was John Pye Smith, the Congregational theologian. Early in 1810 he took charge of...
including many Quakers, workers, and even some factory owners like JohnFielden also supported it. Many committees were formed in support of the cause...
Preceded by JohnFieldenJohn Frederick Lees Member of Parliament for Oldham 1837 – 1847 With: JohnFielden Succeeded by William Johnson Fox John Duncuft...
Wood : 327 the Leeds Intelligencer ceased to publish his letters : JohnFielden however stood by him . Oastler's health broke down at the end of 1836;...
The conditions made rescue extremely difficult, but six lifeboats the JohnFielden, Robert and Mary Ellis (Whitby), William Riley of Birmingham and Leamington...
first Members of Parliaments (MPs) were the radicals William Cobbett and JohnFielden. Winston Churchill was the MP between 1900 and 1906. Constituency boundaries...
parliamentary representatives were the radicals William Cobbett and JohnFielden. Winston Churchill began his political career in Oldham. Although unsuccessful...
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