Robert Leake (1824 – 1 May 1901) was a British Liberal politician.
The United Kingdom, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but more commonly known as the UK or Britain, is a sovereign country lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.
Leake was the eldest son of Robert Leake of Manchester and Mary Lockett of Salford, Lancashire. After a private education he became head of Lockett, Leake and Company, engravers to calico printers. [1] [2]
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 545,500 as of 2017. It lies within the United Kingdom's third-most populous metropolitan area, with a population of 3.2 million. It is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council.
Lancashire is a ceremonial county in North West England. The administrative centre is Preston. The county has a population of 1,449,300 and an area of 1,189 square miles (3,080 km2). People from Lancashire are known as Lancastrians.
Leake became involved in Liberal politics in Manchester in the 1860s, and was over time president of the Manchester Liberal Association, the Manchester Reform Club and the Liberal Association of Salford. [1] However, he declined to be a parliamentary candidate until the 1880 general election. In that year he was elected as member of parliament for the two-seat South East Lancashire Division, along with his cousin William Agnew. [2]
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this category includes specifically members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title. Member of Congress is an equivalent term in other jurisdictions.
South East Lancashire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was represented by two Members of Parliament. The constituency was created by the Reform act of 1867 by the splitting of the South Lancashire constituency into South-West and South-East divisions.
The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 divided the South East Lancashire seat into eight single-member constituencies. Leake was elected as the first MP for the new South East Lancashire, Radcliffe cum Farnworth Division. He was reelected in 1886 and 1892. Prior to the 1895 general election, Leake announced his decision to resign. [3]
The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equally populated constituencies, a concept in the broader global context termed equal apportionment, in an attempt to equalise representation across the UK. It was associated with, but not part of, the Representation of the People Act 1884.
Radcliffe-cum-Farnworth was a parliamentary constituency centred on the towns of Radcliffe and Farnworth in Lancashire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.
Leake made his residence at "The Dales", Whitefield, near Manchester. He was married twice. [4]
Whitefield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It lies on undulating ground above the Irwell Valley, along the south bank of the River Irwell, 3 miles (4.8 km) south-southeast of Bury, and 4.9 miles (7.9 km) to the north-northwest of the city of Manchester. Prestwich and the M60 motorway lie just to the south.
