Nathaniel, son of James & Elizabeth, bap 14 Jan 1816. Residence Millgate, father a manufacturer.
1841 census living with parents in Millgate.
1843 Elected as a councillor for Queen Street ward, and served until 1884.
14 March 1849: burial of his wife Mary.
1851 census living in Shelley House, Pemberton with 2 daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. He was described as a Justice of the Peace for the County of Lancaster; Council man of the borough of Wigan; cotton spinner and manufacturer.
24 October 1851 Wigan Times: We understand that there is no longer any doubt that Nathaniel Eckersley, Esq., will accept the office of Mayor for the ensuing year; and we are sure that the council could not have made a better selection. Mr Eckersley’s position and long experience in the council have entitled him to fill this most important office, and his acceptance of it will give the highest satisfaction to the town at large.
1851 (Wigan Observer [WO] 17.02.1892): There was a riot in Scholes. As chief magistrate Eckersley placed himself at the head of a number of constables and cried, ‘ “Come on my lads” and rushed upon the disturbers of the peace, the results being that quietude was restored.’ He translated the words into French ‘En avant, mes amis’ and adopted it as his motto.
1852 Elected as mayor for a second term.
1856 On the death of his brother James (their father having died in 1850) Nathaniel became sole proprietor of James Eckersley & Sons, cotton manufacturers. James and his brother William had founded the firm in 1823 in Wallgate.
20 March 1859 (WO 17.02.1892) Formation of a volunteer corps for Wigan and district. NE undertook to pay for the arms and equipment for about 60 men. He was elected Captain and raised to the rank of Major when the Wigan detachment joined the 4th Lancashire Administrative battalion.
1861 census living in Otley, Yorkshire with his wife Elizabeth, his two daughters Mary and Elizabeth, his sons James and Nathaniel, and 7 servants. It seems his cotton manufacturing extended to spending periods overseeing businesses in Yorkshire, whilst still fully involved in his interests in Wigan.
The description against his name is difficult to read, but he is described as Captain of Rifle volunteers; Justice of the Peace for the County of Lancashire; a cotton spinner and manufacturer employing 120 people and an employer of 500 agricultural labourers.
28 April 1863 London Gazette 1 May 1863: Queen Victoria in Council.
Three new parishes had been created - Pemberton, Saint George and Saint Thomas. On 27 October 1862, by an indenture between Nathaniel Eckersley of Standish Hall and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the former had released to the Commissioners ‘certain lands, tenements, and hereditaments situate in or near Wallgate-street’ in the newly-created parish of St Thomas [Caroline Street], which produced a rental of £63 16s 111/2. This was for the endowment of a minister.
4 April 1866 The Edinburgh Gazette: 10 April 1866: Eckersley returned as MP for the Borough of Wigan. He opposed the Reform Bill. He also urged that children should remain at school until the age of 13, although he was opposed to compulsory education.
1886 A second election was held; NE was so sure of his re-election that he campaigned on behalf of his friend Pearson, but neither was elected.
1870 Elected as mayor again and served until 1873.
17 June 1870 WO. A very long article about the presentation to Mrs Eckersley of a portrait of her husband. Presented at Standish Hall by Thomas Heald, former mayor. Painted by Captain Charles Mercier (1834-1901).
‘Mr Eckersley said he had never before appeared under circumstances of such a character. It was with the highest feelings of satisfaction, and he hoped they would allow him to express an honourable pride, that he had seen his wife receive from the inhabitants of the town of Wigan and the neighbourhood the testimonial of respect and esteem to himself which had that day been presented to her.’
1871 census Eckersley was again in Yeadon, Yorkshire: He was described as Deputy Lieutenant & magistrate; Mayor of Wigan, banker, farmer of 630 acres employing 13 men, 4 women and 4 children; cotton spinner and manufacturer. He was living in Carlton Cottage with his wife and five children, and a household of 8 servants.
1871 NE purchased 30 acres of land for £2,000 at the Mesnes, adjacent to Gidlow Mill. He gifted this to the Corporation to be used as a public park with provision for croquet, archery, cricket, bowling, lawn tennis and sailing. Provision was also made for a grammar school. Mesnes Park was opened on 6 August 1878 by Nathaniel Eckersley, then High Sheriff of Lancashire. The school opened the following year. Springfield Hall - Wigan Building Preservation Trust
7 November 1873 WO. Deputation by 8 members of the Town Council met NE and his wife at Standish Hall to petition him to stand for a third year as mayor. He was reluctant, but was persuaded by their written address, and by the fact that it was the unanimous wish of the whole council. He wished to conclude some projects on which he had been engaged. ‘This morning we have had a very important meeting of the Trustees of the Grammar School, and it is probable that a site will be fixed upon without more delay for the Free Library [now the Museum of Wigan Life] in the Grammar School Croft, and Mr Thomas Taylor’s munificence coupled with a gentleman’s, [Joseph Taylor Winnard] lately deceased will provide an institution which cannot be equalled by any town in the kingdom.’
26 February 1878 London Gazette: 22 February 1878 Duchy of Lancaster. NE appointed to be Sheriff of the County Palatine of Lancaster. (WO 17.02.1892) To celebrate his appointment a sumptuous feast was held in Standish Hall, and a procession led from there to the railway station. An address was presented to him in which it was pointed out that, ‘Mr E had benefitted the town not only by his direct and laborious exertion in some of its chief manufacturing industries by the erection and management of large cotton manufactories and the opening and development of extensive collieries, but that he had also promoted the interests of the town by consolidating and enlarging one of its chief banking establishments.
1881 census Living in Standish Hall with wife Elizabeth, daughter Mary, sons Nathaniel and Henry, and 9 servants.
12 December 1883 WO – Meeting of Conservatives. NE was reluctant to accept the nomination. ‘I am afraid I cannot discharge…the duties of a Parliamentary representative to my own satisfaction. I am now getting pretty well advanced in years, and I shall not be able to take that active part in the deliberations of Parliament which I could desire to do, but I shall at all times, as your representative, do my best to promote your interests.’.
12 December 1883 WO – letter from NE: The ensilage experiments at Standish Hall home farm. He wrote a detailed account of the experiment, and concluded, ‘It is evident from the results already ascertained that the produce of an acre of clover and rye grass converted into ensilage will considerably exceed in value that which the same produce would if converted into hay. The system deserves the attention of the agriculturalists of the United Kingdom.’ A sample of the produce could be seen at the shop of Mr Thomas Bell, seedsman, Market-street, Wigan.
21 December 1883 NE returned unopposed as MP for Wigan, as the Liberals decided not to nominate a candidate.
22 December 1883 WO account of the election of NE.
‘I feel deeply grateful for the honour conferred upon me by my unanimous election. I am afraid that I cannot discharge the duties attaching to the position with satisfaction to myself, nor yet with satisfaction to you, but you may rest assured that I shall attempt to perform them to the best of my ability.’
22 April 1885 WO: NE accepts invitation to stand again as MP, but for Ince – address 84 Gloucester Place, Portman Square.
19 September 1885 WO: Retirement as MP.
16 April 1887 WO: Free library and recreation ground for Hindley
The Hindley Local Board received a letter from NE, as legatee of John Leyland. In it he said that now that the library which he had provided was nearing completion he wished to hand over the building to the Board. ‘The reading room will be furnished and provided with a fair collection of books to commence with, and two tables will also be provided for the billiard room.’ He was to give an annual sum towards the purchase of books.
‘At the same time I desire to hand over to your board the recreation grounds which I have lately completed on the Grange estate in Hindley. The grounds are well drained, and are provided with gymnastic apparatus, football posts, bowling green, and suitable ground for cricket or lawn tennis, with spacious walks, ornamental water, plantations, gate house and store room. In handing over responsibility for the ground, NE said he intended to give an annual sum towards maintenance.
‘I can only hope the proposed library and museum, and recreation grounds, will be appreciated and prove a lasting benefit to the inhabitants of Hindley’.
1891 census
NE, described as a banker, is living with his wife Elizabeth, their son James Carlton, a Justice of the Peace, their daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and 9 servants. Also listed are the occupants of the coachman’s house and the keeper’s house, with a coachman and gamekeeper (respectively) and their families.
22 April 1891 WO: A letter from NE resigning the chairmanship of the Grammar School. The resolution of thanks that the committee passed noted that he had been a governor for 47 years.
22 December 1891 London Gazette: the decision by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners that several parts of surrounding parishes should be formed into one chapelry named ‘The Consolidated Chapelry of Saint Mark, Newtown Pemberton’. The merged parishes included St James, of which NE was the patron.
17 February 1892 WO: Announcing the death of NE. ‘The late Mr E was 76 years of age, and it is almost like writing a history of the town for more than half a century to tell how he spent his days in works of usefulness and benevolence’
The obituary lists some of the improvements to the town for which he was deemed responsible, including the siting of the 1877 market, ‘one of the finest in England’ and the donation of land for Mesnes park and for a grammar school.
The article also lists some of his public offices: county magistrate; deputy-lieutenant of the county; president of the Mechanics’ Institute; vice-president of the Infirmary. (Nathaniel Eckersley had previously expressed his opposition to the Infirmary being built, but after the fact became a liberal contributor to its funding.) He was chairman of the Wigan Junction Railway, and a partner in Messrs Thomas Woodcock, Sons, and Eckersley Bank. During the Cotton Famine he was a generous contributor to relief funds. He was a director of the Garswood Coal and Iron Company and of others in the area, as well as Black Park Colliery Company in North Wales.
2 April 1892 WO: The terms of his will left his estate to his wife. On her death, part of his estate was to be left to his son James Carlton Eckersley: this included the Carlton Estate which encompassed property in Carlton Yeadon and Guiseley in Yorkshire; the advowson and patronage of St James Poolstock; and all his lands, houses and schools lying between the Douglas and Poolstock Lane. His son Nathaniel ffarington Eckersley was to inherit all his estates in Ashton, Abram, Lowton and Pemberton, as well as his interest in Worsley Mesnes colliery.
Nathaniel Eckersley’s son, Nathaniel ffarington, became mayor in 1893. Three generations had served in this capacity – James Eckersley, mayor in 1833, was the father of Nathaniel senior.