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Thomas Crosland

politician, died 1868

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ26718795
Source-derived summary

Thomas Pearson Crosland (29 December 1815 – 8 March 1868) was a British Liberal Party politician and woollen manufacturer.

Family and early life

Crosland was the son of George Crosland and Mary Anne Pearson, the latter of whom died just four months after his birth. In early life, he worked, alongside his brothers, working for the family business George Crosland & Sons.

Crosland married three times, first to Ann Kilner, daughter of William Kilner in 1841. After she died in 1845, he remarried to Matilda Roche Cousins in 1849 who bore him a son, George William Crosland (c1852–1902); and then, after her death in 1853, Julia Cousins, with whom he had another eight children:

Ada Pearson Crosland (1855–1919)

Thomas Pearson Crosland (1856–1932)

Julia Pearson Crosland (1857– )

John Pearson Crosland (1860–1946)

Stanley Pearson Crosland (1861–1929)

Arthur Pearson Crosland (1862– )

Marion Pearson Crosland (1865–1938)

Alfred Pearson Crosland (1866–1867)

Political career

He was elected MP, as a staunch Whig Liberal and supporter of free trade, for Huddersfield in 1865 but did not serve a full term before his death in 1868.

Crosland's brother, Joseph Crosland, became the seat's first Conservative MP in 1893.

Activities

Crosland was a member of the Mechanics' Institute, and a patron of the Yorkshire Penny Bank. He was also a proprietor of Huddersfield College, and patron of the Naturalist Society. He also held the role of master freemason.

Other appointments

Crosland was appointed an Improvement Commissioner from 1848 to 1852, and later a waterworks commissioner.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Thomas Crosland” is politician, died 1868. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Thomas, Crosland and politician, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1815, 1868, 1841, 1845—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1815. For this dossier, Thomas, Crosland and politician is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “politician, died 1868” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q26718795. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1815, 1868, 1841 and 1845.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Thomas Crosland”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Thomas Crosland primary sources, Thomas Crosland archive and Thomas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thomas Crosland”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Thomas Crosland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.