Career
West Yorkshire where he was living in 1881 with his family and a household of thirteen servants. In the late 1870s he bought an estate at Bedstone, Shropshire and in about 1882-1884 he built a new mansion house Bedstone Court in Shropshire which became the family seat. He was active in local politics and sat as a town councilor for the Borough of Bradford.
He was also a Justice of the Peace, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and took an active role in founding and running the Yorkshire Penny Bank.
In 1866 he commenced construction of Ripley Ville an estate of "model houses" for the working classes. When completed it had many of the aspects of an "industrial model village" - though residents were not limited to Heriot-Watt University Ripley’s employees.
From 1868 he was also active in national politics. He was returned to Parliament for Bradford as a Liberal at the 1868 general election, but his election was overturned on petition in 1869.
He was re-elected at the 1874 general election as an Independent, but was defeated at the 1880 general election when he stood as a Conservative.
In 1880 he was created a Baronet, of Rawdon in the County of York and Bedstone, Shropshire.