George William Wood


George William Wood was an English businessman, Member of Parliament and leading member of civil society in Manchester.

Life

George William Wood was born in Leeds, the son of William Wood, a Unitarian minister who was Joseph Priestley's successor at the Mill Hill Chapel, amateur botanist and campaigner against the Test Acts. His mother was Louisa Ann née Oates, the daughter of a wealthy Leeds family.
Wood moved to Manchester around 1801 and became a prominent businessman there but, as a memorial in the Upper Brook Street Chapel cited, "having early in life engaged in commercial pursuits... he quitted the pursuits of wealth for the nobler objects of public usefulness." He was member of parliament for Lancashire South from 1832 to 1835, and for Kendal from 1837 until his death. He was a prime mover in the establishment of both the Royal Manchester Institution and the Manchester Mechanics' Institute, and was one of the two inaugural vice-presidents of the Manchester Athenaeum.
He died suddenly of a stroke at a meeting of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.

Honours and offices