1078 Briggs Priestley

Constituency : Pudsey  1885-1900

Briggs  won  the  new  seat  of  Pudsey.

Briggs  was  a  cloth  manufacturer who  had  worked  his  way  up  from  a  millhand.His  company  led  in  the  manufacture  of  waterproof  fabrics. He  served  on  Bradford  Town  Council  and  gave  the  town  a  park, art  gallery  and  museum  and  a  school  for  orphans. In  1877  he  became  Mayor  and  started  the  ball  rolling  for  Bradford  College. He  was  a  Baptist.

Briggs  was known  as  an  advanced  Liberal  and  was  chair  of  the  East  Bradford  Liberal  Association.

Briggs  hardly  spoke  in  Parliament  but  he  did  manage  to  sabotage  a  Factory Bill.

Briggs  stood  down  in  1900.

He  died  in  1907  aged  76. Two  of  his  sons  became  MPs  themselves.