John Frederick Lees


John Frederick Lees sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as a Member of Parliament for Oldham from 1835 to 1837.

Biography

The grandson of a cotton manufacturer, he was a local mill-owner, mine-owner, and landowner: the Lord of the manor and an Oxford graduate, but dismissed as "a gentleman... qualified neither by age nor ability to fulfill the duties of a member of the imperial parliament" by the Manchester Times: Hansard reports him to have made no speeches in Parliament.

Politics

Thanks to internal squabbles amongst the Radicals of Oldham, he was elected as a 'Liberal Conservative' at a by-election caused by the death of William Cobbett, narrowly defeating John Morgan Cobbett after another Radical candidate withdrew on the first morning of the poll. Lees attributed his victory to the absence of the organised 'intimidation system' he claimed had been practiced in the previous contested election. By the general election of 1837 the Radicals had regrouped, and Lees came bottom of the poll: this he attributed to the return of intimidation and 'exclusive dealing'.