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George William Wood (21 July 1781 – 3 October 1843)[1][2] was an English businessman, Member of Parliament and leading member of civil society in Manchester.
George William Wood was born in Leeds, the son of William Wood, a Unitarian minister who was Joseph Priestley's successor at the Mill Hill Chapel, amateur botanist and campaigner against the Test Acts. His mother was Louisa Ann née Oates, the daughter of a wealthy Leeds family.[3]
Wood moved to Manchester around 1801 and became a prominent businessman there but, as a memorial in the Upper Brook Street Chapel cited, "having early in life engaged in commercial pursuits ... he quitted [sic] the pursuits of wealth for the nobler objects of public usefulness."[4] He was member of parliament for Lancashire South from 1832 to 1835,[1] and for Kendal from 1837 until his death.[2] He was a prime mover in the establishment of both the Royal Manchester Institution and the Manchester Mechanics' Institute,[4] and was one of the two inaugural vice-presidents of the Manchester Athenaeum.[5]
He died suddenly of a stroke at a meeting of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and was buried at the Upper Brook Street Chapel.[6]
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- Fellow of the Linnaean Society;[4]
- Fellow of the Geological Society;[4]
- Vice-president of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.[4]
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