John Hick (politician)

John Hick (2 July 1815 – 2 February 1894) was an esteemed English industrialist, art collector and Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1880, he is associated with the improvement of steam-engines for cotton mills and the work of his firm Hick, Hargreaves and Co. universal in countries where fibre was spun or fabrics woven.

Family Hick was the eldest son of Benjamin Hick (1790–1842), a civil and mechanical engineer responsible for improvements to the steam-engine, and his wife Elizabeth Routledge (1783–1826), daughter of William Routledge of Elvington Yorkshire. Elizabeth's brother and Hick's uncle, Joshua Routledge (1773–1829) also an engineer living in Bolton, designed the Engineer's Improved Slide Rule and patented improvements to the Rotary steam engine.

Education and early career Educated at a private school near Alderley, Cheshire and Bolton Grammar School where he received a commercial and classical education, Hick entered Benjamin Hick's Soho Works following school and from a young age, management of the Bolton engineering firm Benjamin Hick & Sons in partnership with his father during 1833. About 1839, 'John Hick Jr' was awarded the silver medal by the Society of Arts for his novel invention of an expanding mandrel for turning lathes, it was an adaptation of a principle developed by Marc Brunel for pulley block manufacture at Portsmouth and received the praise of three eminent engineers; Bryan Donkin, Joshua Field and John Rennie. He was a member of the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church in England and Wales in 1841. During 1842, Hick was awarded a second silver medal by the Society of Arts for his invention of an Ellipsograph; conceived in 1840, the device provided a simple and accurate solution for drawing ellipsoid forms of various proportions. He received further praise from James Nasmyth, William Fairbairn, Joseph Whitworth, and amongst others, Charles Holtzapffel, Chairman of the Committee of Mechanics. Models of both devices were placed in the Society's repository. The ellipsograph and a diagrammatic model in wood of Hick's rotary engine produced in 1843 are held in the Science Museum collection. Following their father's sudden death in September 1842, John and his youngest brother William (1820–1844) continued in the family business, while brother Benjamin (1818–1845) remained with George Forrester and Company. Benjamin also presented to the Society of Arts; in March 1844, with Benjamin Bond Cabbell in the chair, he outlined the ground breaking design published in October 1843, for his improved double-cylinder marine steam engine fitted to the PS Helen MacGregor. John was elected a Town councillor on 1 November 1844, serving three terms of three years until 1853 however, William who supervised the installation of their father's two-cyclinder beam engine at Temple Works, died of Tuberculosis on 23 November at Highfield House, the family home in Great Bolton; tragically Benjamin's death followed at Southport on 20 November 1845. With his eldest sister Mary (1813–1878) in a position to help, Mary's husband was trusted to be a stable partner with the remaining capital to purchase the business from her father's estate and with the endorcement of the trustee bankers, Thomas Lever Rushton (1810–1883) and Robert Sharpe Barlow (–1858), John, who was also an executor, became senior partner in the family business with his brother-in-law John Hargreaves Jr (1800–1874) during 1845, he joined the Institution of Civil Engineers and Society of Arts in the same year. Hargreaves' youngest brother William (1821–1889) entered the partnership two years later. The family business would eventually become Hick, Hargreaves & Co. During this period about 1845, John produced a 1:12 scale model of a high pressure two-cylinder design for a horizontal saw-mill engine, now displayed at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers; he was a founder and member from 1847 until 1852, and contributed a paper to the institute in 1849 on a friction clutch for connecting and disconnecting the driving power with shafts and machinery. A B. Hick & Son, 1:12 scale patent model of disconnecting apparatus, for screw propellers, c. 1855 is held in the Science Museum marine engines collection. Following January 1847 Hick transferred his allegance from Bolton Athenaeum to Bolton Church Institute, later becoming Church Warden for James Slade and a Governor of Bolton Grammar School.

Marriage John Hick married Margaret Bashall (1824–1872), eldest daughter of industrialist William Bashall, partner in Bashall & Boardman of Farington Lodge, near Preston, at Penwortham Parish Church, Lancashire on 24 June 1846, they raised four daughters. Following Margaret Hick's death 18 July 1872, Hick married the sister of his son-in-law, Rebecca Maria Ashworth (1838–1908), eldest daughter of Edmund Ashworth JP (1800–1881) of Egerton Hall on 16 December 1874 at Holy Trinity Church, Clapham; the couple were married by Margaret Hick's cousin and brother-in-law Reverend William Bashall (1830–1902), Vicar of Deane, Lancashire, by special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald Tait. Edmund Ashworth was a cotton manufacturer, proprietor of E. Ashworth & Sons and Egerton Mill, founder member of the Anti-Corn Law League with his brother Henry Ashworth (1794–1880) JP, in association with John Bright and Richard Cobden (Henry Ashworth's brother-in-law), and supporter of reforming, anti-slavery and peace organisations. The Ashworths are both thought to have been Oswald Millbank in Benjamin Disraeli's novel Coningsby. The two families (Hick and Ashworth) were linked by marriage in 1868 when Hick's first child and eldest daughter Margaret (1847–1929) married Edmund Ashworth Jr (1833–1901). The "highly respected" Reverend Bashall retired to the position of curate at St Barnabas church, Addison Road, Kensington from about 1876 remaining in the area until his death, 1902.

The Great Exhibition

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