R. A. Cross, 1st Viscount Cross

(Redirected from Richard Assheton Cross, 1st Viscount Cross) British statesman and Conservative politician

The Right HonourableThe Viscount CrossGCB GCSI PC FRS DL


Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office 29 June 1895 – 12 November 1900
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by	The Lord Tweedmouth
Succeeded by	The Marquess of Salisbury
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 29 June 1895 – 4 July 1895
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by	The Lord Tweedmouth
Succeeded by	The Lord James of Hereford
Secretary of State for India
In office 3 August 1886 – 11 August 1892
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by	The Earl of Kimberley
Succeeded by	The Earl of Kimberley
Secretary of State for the Home Department
In office 24 June 1885 – 1 February 1886
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by	Sir William Harcourt
Succeeded by	Hugh Childers
In office 21 February 1874 – 23 April 1880
Prime Minister	Benjamin Disraeli
Preceded by	Robert Lowe
Succeeded by	Sir William Harcourt
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 19 August 1886 – 8 January 1914 Hereditary peerage
Preceded by	Peerage created
Succeeded by	The 2nd Viscount Cross
Member of Parliament for Newton
In office 18 December 1885 – 19 August 1886
Preceded by	Constituency created
Succeeded by	Thomas Legh
Member of Parliament for South West Lancashire
In office 7 December 1868 – 18 December 1885 Serving with Charles Turner and John Ireland Blackburne
Preceded by	Constituency created
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Member of Parliament for Preston
In office 24 April 1857 – 4 April 1862 Serving with Charles Grenfell
Preceded by	Sir George Strickland, 7th Baronet
Succeeded by	Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh

Personal details
Born	(1823-05-30)30 May 1823 Red Scar, Lancashire
Died	8 January 1914(1914-01-08) (aged 90)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Georgiana Lyon (d. 1907)
Alma mater	University of Cambridge

Richard Assheton Cross, 1st Viscount Cross, GCB, GCSI, PC, FRS, DL (30 May 1823 – 8 January 1914), known before his elevation to the peerage as R. A. Cross, was a British Conservative politician. He was Home Secretary from 1874 to 1880, and from 1885 to 1886.

Background and education

Cross was born in Red Scar, near Preston, Lancashire, the fifth child and third son of William Cross JP (1771–1827), Deputy Prothonotary for the Court of Common Pleas at Lancaster and landed proprietor, and his wife Ellen, daughter of Edward Chaffers. He was educated at Rugby School, matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1842 where he graduated B.A. in 1846, and was the President of the Cambridge Union in 1845. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1844, and was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1849, attaching himself to the Northern Circuit.

Political career

Cross entered Parliament as one of two representatives for Preston in 1857, a seat he held until 1862.

In 1868 Cross was elected for South West Lancashire, topping the poll and defeating Gladstone, and continued to represent this constituency until 1885. He then briefly represented Newton, until his elevation to the peerage in 1886.

Cross was Home Secretary in Disraeli's second government (1874–1880), to which post he had been appointed without first holding junior office. He was again Home Secretary in Lord Salisbury's first government (1885–1886).

In 1886 Cross was raised to the peerage, as Viscount Cross of Broughton-in-Furness in the County Palatine of Lancaster, He was moved over to the India Office (1886–1892), where he oversaw the passage of the Indian Councils Act 1892. He was very briefly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Salisbury's third government (1895–1902) before being elevated to the sinecure post Lord Privy Seal. In 1898 he chaired the Joint Select Committee on Electrical Energy (Generating Stations and Supply), which recommended granting compulsory purchase powers for the building of power stations. He retired in 1900.

Business interests

After the death of his father-in-law Thomas Lyon (the younger) in 1859, Cross was involved in the affairs of Parr's Bank, of which Thomas Lyon the elder, uncle of the younger Thomas Lyon, was a founder. He became a partner, and dropped out of Parliament for six years. He was one of the group who changed the bank into a joint stock company in 1865, of which he acted as deputy chairman. He became its chairman in 1870.

In 1884, Cross was elected to the Board of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, and he remained a Director of that company, and of its successor the Great Central Railway (GCR), until his death. During Board meetings, he would occasionally murmur "Where is the money to come from?" In June 1909, when he was senior Director of the GCR, that railway named one of its class 8D express passenger locomotives The Rt. Hon. Viscount Cross G.C.B., G.C.S.I. in his honour.

Family

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Cross married Georgiana, daughter of Thomas Lyon of Appleton Hall, in 1852; they had three daughters and four sons. The eldest son, the Hon. William Cross, represented Liverpool West Derby in Parliament. The second son, Thomas Richard Cross, died young in 1873; Charles Francis Cross, the third son, was a cleric; and John Edward Cross, the fourth son, was a land agent.

Lady Cross died in January 1907. Lord Cross survived her by seven years and died in January 1914, aged 90. He was succeeded in the viscountcy by his grandson, Richard Assheton Cross, the only son of the Honourable William Cross.

Arms

Coat of arms of R. A. Cross, 1st Viscount Cross
	Crest A Griffin's Head erased Argent gorged with a Double Chain Or therefrom pendant a Mullet pierced Sable in the beak a Passion Nail of the last Escutcheon Gules a Cross flory Argent charged with five Passion Nails Sable a Bordure of the second Supporters On either side a Pegasus Argent holding in the mouth a Passion Nail Sable the dexter gorged with a Chain Or therefrom pendant a Cross flory Gules the sinister gorged with a Double Chain Or therefrom pendant a Mullet pierced Sable Motto Crede Cruci (Trust in the Cross)

References

"Cross, Richard Assheton (CRS842RA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ Smith, Paul. "Cross, Richard Assheton, first Viscount Cross (1823–1914)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32644. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Debrett's House of Commons. London: Dean. 1886.
Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Cross, Richard Assheton, Viscount Cross" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
"No. 25618". The London Gazette. 20 August 1886. p. 4080.
Burke, Bernard (1863). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. Harrison. p. 919.
^ Hewitt, Michael (5 June 2014). A Most Remarkable Family. Author House. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-4969-7786-1.
Dow, George (1962). Great Central, Volume Two: Dominion of Watkin, 1864–1899. Shepperton: Ian Allan. pp. 195, 351. ISBN 0-7110-1469-8.
Dow, George (1965). Great Central, Volume Three: Fay Sets the Pace, 1900–1922. Shepperton: Ian Allan. pp. 229, 356. ISBN 0-7110-0263-0.
Dow 1965, p. 28
Dow 1965, p. 133
Boddy, M. G.; Brown, W. A.; Fry, E. V.; Hennigan, W.; Hoole, Ken; Manners, F.; Neve, E.; Platt, E. N. T.; Russell, O.; Yeadon, W. B. (November 1979). Fry, E. V. (ed.). Locomotives of the L.N.E.R., Part 3A: Tender Engines—Classes C1 to C11. Kenilworth: RCTS. p. 87. ISBN 0-901115-45-2.
"Cross, Thomas Richard (CRS872TR)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
"Cross, Charles Francis (CRS879CF)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
"Cross, John Edward (CRS877JE)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
"Cross, Viscount (UK, 1886 - 2004)".

Sources

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Cross

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byRobert Townley Parker Sir George Strickland, Bt	Member of Parliament for Preston 1857–1862 With: Charles Grenfell	Succeeded byCharles Grenfell Thomas Fermor-Hesketh
New constituency	Member of Parliament for South West Lancashire 1868–1885 With: Charles Turner 1868 –1875 John Ireland Blackburne 1875–1885	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Newton 1885–1886	Succeeded byThomas Legh
Political offices
Preceded byRobert Lowe	Home Secretary 1874–1880	Succeeded bySir William Harcourt
Preceded bySir William Harcourt	Home Secretary 1885–1886	Succeeded byHugh Childers
Preceded byThe Earl of Kimberley	Secretary of State for India 1886–1892	Succeeded byThe Earl of Kimberley
Preceded byThe Lord Tweedmouth	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1895	Succeeded bySir Henry James
Preceded byThe Lord Tweedmouth	Lord Privy Seal 1895–1900	Succeeded byThe Marquess of Salisbury
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Cross 1886–1914	Succeeded byRichard Assheton Cross

v t e Home secretaries of the United Kingdom
Shelburne Townshend North Temple Sydney Grenville Dundas Portland Pelham Yorke Hawkesbury Spencer Liverpool Ryder Sidmouth Peel Sturges Bourne Lansdowne Peel Melbourne Duncannon Wellington Goulburn Russell Normanby Graham Grey Walpole Palmerston Grey Walpole Sotheron-Estcourt Lewis Grey Walpole Hardy Bruce Lowe Cross Harcourt Cross Childers Matthews Asquith Ridley Ritchie Akers-Douglas Gladstone Churchill McKenna Simon Samuel Cave Shortt Bridgeman Henderson Joynson-Hicks Clynes Samuel Gilmour Simon Hoare Anderson Morrison Somervell Chuter Ede Maxwell-Fyfe Lloyd George Butler Brooke Soskice Jenkins Callaghan Maudling Carr Jenkins Rees Whitelaw Brittan Hurd Waddington Baker K. Clarke Howard Straw Blunkett C. Clarke Reid Smith Johnson May Rudd Javid Patel Braverman Shapps Braverman Cleverly Cooper

v t e Cabinet of Prime Minister The Marquess of Salisbury (July 1885 – February 1886)
Prime Minister Foreign Secretary Leader of the House of Lords	The Marquess of Salisbury (1885–1886)
First Lord of the Treasury	The Earl of Iddesleigh (1885–1886)
Lord Chancellor	The Lord Halsbury (1885–1886)
Lord President of the Council	The Viscount Cranbrook (1885–1886)
Lord Privy Seal	The Earl of Harrowby (1885–1886)
Home Secretary	Sir Richard Cross (1885–1886)
Secretary of State for the Colonies	Sir Frederick Stanley (1885–1886)
Secretary of State for War	William Henry Smith (1885–1886) The Viscount Cranbrook (1886)
Secretary of State for India	Lord Randolph Churchill (1885–1886)
First Lord of the Admiralty	Lord George Hamilton (1885–1886)
Chancellor of the Exchequer Leader of the House of Commons	Sir Michael Hicks Beach (1885–1886)
President of the Board of Trade	The Duke of Richmond (1885) Edward Stanhope (1885–1886)
Chief Secretary for Ireland	William Henry Smith (1886)
Postmaster General	Lord John Manners (1885–1886)
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland	The Earl of Carnarvon (1885–1886)
Lord Chancellor of Ireland	The Lord Ashbourne (1885–1886)
Secretary for Scotland	The Duke of Richmond (1885–1886)
Vice President of the Council	Edward Stanhope (1885)

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