Edmund Buckley

Summary

Three-quarter length right side portrait of Manchester industrialist, Edmund Buckley. The subject is a middle aged man seated in an armchair. He wears a black coat, trousers and cravat, and neutral waistcoat, and sits against a dark indistinct background. The frame tablet announces his status: ' EDMUND BUCKLEY ESQE. / PAINTED FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE / SCRAMBLE CLUB / CHAIRMAN OF DIRECTORS / THE MANCHESTER ROYAL EXCHANGE / 1857-1861' The directorship of the Royal Exchange was perhaps the peak of attainment for 19th-century Manchester businessmen. Edmund Buckley built his success on his diverse business interests, including colliery ownership and the manufacture of copperas, an iron sulphate used amongst other things to produce inks and dyes. He was a Justice of the Peace, the Borough Reeve of Manchester in 1834-35, the Surveyor of Highways, the MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme 1841-47, the High Sheriff for Merionethshire in 1858. He was born at Lydgate, Saddleworth to John and Mary Buckley on 25 December 1780 and died on 21 January 1867 at Higher Ardwick, Manchester, aged 86. Biographical information source: F.S. Stancliffe, 'John Shaw's 1738-1938', 1938, p. 394.