Constituency : Bradford 1859-61
Although Titus's parliamentary career was brief his name was already familiar to me through visits to Saltaire ( see the post on The Settle-Carlisle Way on Clarke Chronicler's Walks ). He is the textbook example of a philanthropic industrialist.
Titus came from a modest background, the son of a Yorkshire farmer and drysalter. He worked in Wakefield as a wool-stapler for two years then joined his father's firm. His fortune was made from the use of alpaca wool to make the cloth of the same name. By the 1840s he was the largest employer in Bradford. In 1848 he was mayor. In 1850 he decided to concentrate his operations in one giant mill away from the polluted and over-crowded city centre and started to create a model village for his workers adjacent to it. The result was Saltaire with its almshouses, hospital, Congregationalist chapel, bathhouses and so on. The streets were named after members of his family. He was not a temperance militant although he did ban beershops in the village.
Titus was a supporter of further parliamentary reform and gave qualified support to the Chartist movement. He supported the ten hour day but was resistant to attempts to end child labour in textile mills and forbade trade unions in his business. However in 1870 he made a large donation to the Beehive trade union newsletter allowing the sale price to be reduced to a penny.
Titus was neither orator nor writer so has to be judged through his actions rather than words.
In 1857 he became President of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce and two years later an MP. He had to resign through ill-health in 1861 . He was created a baronet in 1869 and died in 1876 aged 73. There was a mass turnout in the city for his funeral.
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