William Busfield

William Busfield (1773 – 1851) was an English politician, Whig^[1] Member of Parliament for Bradford from 1837 to his death.

He was the son of Johnson Atkinson M.D. and Elizabeth Busfield, his father having taken the name Johnson Atkinson Busfeild after marriage, in order to pass an estate down to his heirs. Like his father, he was a justice of the peace in the West Riding of Yorkshire.^[2] He was admitted to Queens' College, Cambridge in 1790, matriculating in 1791.^[3] Two brothers who also went to Cambridge were Johnson Atkinson and Currer Fothergill, who was the father of William Busfeild Ferrand (therefore William Busfield's nephew).^[4][5]

In 1837 he was elected for Bradford and in 1840 he and his fellow Bradford M.P. Ellis Cunliffe Lister attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London.^[6]

Busfield stood and was elected with Perronet Thompson in 1847. This was despite a lack of enthusiasm for his positions from the nonconformist vote.^[7]

He married Caroline Wood, daughter of Charles Lindley Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax.

Notes

1. Richard Bartholomew Mosse (1837). The parliamentary guide, a concise biography of the members of both houses of parliament. p. 142. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
2. "Atkinson, Johnson (BSFT756J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. "Busfield, William (BSFT790W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
4. "Busfield or Busfeild, Johnson Atkinson (BSFT791JA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
5. "Busfield or Busfeild, Currer Fothergill (BSFT793CF)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
6. BFASS Convention 1840, List of delegates, Retrieved 27 August 2015
7. Theodore Koditschek (30 March 1990). Class Formation and Urban Industrial Society: Bradford, 1750-1850. Cambridge University Press. p. 543. ISBN 978-0-521-32771-8. Retrieved 13 March 2013.