Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Bazley, Thomas
BAZLEY, Sir Thomas, Bart., born at Gilnow, near Bolton, in 1797, was educated at the Bolton Grammar School. At an early age he was apprenticed to learn cotton-spinning at the factory of Ainsworth & Co. (once the establishment of Sir Robert Peel & Co.). In 1818 he started in business at Bolton and in 1826 removed to Manchester. He became the head and sole proprietor of the largest fine cotton and lace thread spinning concern in the trade, employing more than one thousand hands, and he established, in connection with his factories, schools and lecture and reading rooms. Mr. Bazley was one of the earliest members of the Manchester Anti-Corn Law Association, and of the Council of the League; and in 1837, with Messrs Richard Cobden and John Brooks, he opened the Free-trade campaign at Liverpool, on which occasion he made his first public speech. In 1845 he was elected president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, which post he held till 1859. Mr. Bazley was one of the Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition of 1851; he served upon the Royal Commission for promoting the amalgamation of the Laws of the United Kingdom; and in 1855 he was a Commissioner of the Paris Imperial Exhibition. In 1858 he was elected M.P. for Manchester, without a contest. His business and parliamentary duties pressing severely upon his time and attention, in 1862 he retired from the former, and disposed of his extensive mills and concerns, determining to devote his time to public life. In 1859 and 1865 he was re-elected for Manchester at the head of the poll; but in 1868 he came in second, polling 14,192 votes against 15,486, recorded in favour of Mr. Birley, the Conservative candidate. At the general election of Feb. 1874, he was third on the poll, the votes given for the three successful candidates being as follows:—Birley, 19,984; Callender, 19,649; Bazley, 19,325. He was created a baronet in Oct. 1869, and retired from parliamentary life in March, 1880.