1064 Abel Buckley

Constituency : Prestwich  1885-6

Abel  took  the  new  seat  of  Prestwich.

Abel  was  the  son  of  a  cotton  manufacturer  of  Irish  descent. H  was  the  nephew  of  Nathaniel  Buckley  former  MP  for  Stalybridge. He  was  educated  at  Mill's  Hill  School  and  Owen's  College.  In  1885  he  inherited  a  new  home  home  Ryecroft  Hall  in  Audenshaw  which  eventually  passed  into  municipal  hands.  (  I've  been  in  it  a  few  times,  through  work  in  the  early  nineties,  seeing  an  unpleasant  individual  who  was  a  law  unto  himself ) .  Abel  was  also  director  and  chairman  of  the  Manchester  and  Liverpool  District  Banking  Company. He  was  Mayor  of  Ashton.

Abel  never  spoke  in  the  Commons.

Abel  was  narrowly  defeated in  1886.

Abel  collected  fine  art  and  bred  racehorses. He  was  also  a  keen  amateur  photographer.

He  died  in  1908  aged  73. His  obituary  described  him  as  "one  of  the  old  cotton  lords  of  Lancashire".