John Birchenough

John Birchenough JP (1 November 1825 – 7 May 1895) was an English silk manufacturer and local politician in Macclesfield, Cheshire in the nineteenth century. He was the head of the Macclesfield silk manufacturing firm Birchenough and Sons with mills at Park Lane, Prestbury Road and Henderson Street in Macclesfield. He was a Wesleyan Methodist and was a supporter of local charities in Macclesfield. Birchenough was a member of the Macclesfield Town Council for nearly forty years during a time of great transformation for the town when many public works – such as the waterworks, the cemetery, enlargement of the Town Hall, extensions at the gasworks, and the transformation of the muddy streets into cleanly paved, and hard macadamized roads – were carried out.

Birchenough was a Liberal Unionist and served as Mayor of Macclesfield Town in 1875–76. His portrait hangs in Macclesfield old Town Hall.

Silk industry

Birchenough started his career working with his elder brother Thomas Birchenough in the 1840s at Henderson Street Mill. Several years later he joined his father-in-law John Taylor in the business carried on at the Prestbury Road mills which became known as Taylor and Birchenough. When Taylor died, Birchenough retained the business and traded in his own name.

Faithfull was a witness at the wedding of Birchenough's eldest son William Taylor Birchenough to Jane Peacock, daughter of Richard Peacock, and knew both families, dedicating the English edition of the same book to her "Friend Richard Peacock Esq of Gorton Hall" in 1884.

The firm had agencies in Paris and New York as well as London and by 1881 Birchenough employed 1,300 people in his mills.

Birchenough won a gold medal at the London Exhibition in 1862, and at the Paris Exhibition in 1857 he received honours. In 1887 he served on the executive committee attached to the silk section of the Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition.

Family

Birchenough was married to Elizabeth Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor, another Macclesfield silk manufacturer. He lived in what The Drapery World described at the time of his death as "The Elms, a pretty mansion in Byrons' lane, Sutton, Macclesfield". His sons included William Taylor Birchenough of Gawsworth New Hall who married Jane Peacock, daughter of Richard Peacock M.P, a founder of Beyer Peacock, and Sir John Henry Birchenough who married the novelist Mabel Bradley, daughter of George Granville Bradley, the Dean of Westminster, and Major Walter Edwin Birchenough, father of Godwin Birchenough, Dean of Ripon. Birchenough's eldest grandson, Richard Peacock Birchenough, married Dorothy Grace Godsal, daughter of Philip Thomas Godsal, inventor of the Godsal anti-tank rifle. His youngest grandson William Taylor Birchenough played in Fowler's Match in 1910 and was an aviation pioneer.