Richard Arkwright
(1835-1918)
25 March 1861

Volume 3, page 5, sitting number 2710.

Born in 1835, Richard Arkwright was the second son of John Arkwright of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, and the great-grandson of the cotton-spinning industrialist Richard Arkwright. His mother was Sarah, eldest daughter of Sir Hungerford Hoskyns, Bart.

Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1857; MA, 1860), he was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1859. 

On 2 August 1862 the Hereford Journal reported that: 'The marriage of the Lady Mary Caroline Charlotte Byng, second daughter of the Right Honourable the Earl of Stafford, to Richard Arkwright, Esq., son of the late John Arkwright, Esq., of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, was solemnized at St James's Church, Piccadilly, on Tuesday, the 22nd instant. [sic]'

The couple appear on the 1871 census living at Wingfield Cottage, Winkfield, Berkshire. Also present on the night of the census were seven servants, including a butler, a footman and a coachman. By 1881 the Arkwrights had moved to Hampton Court, Herefordshire. 

Arkwright was elected as MP (Conservative) for Leominster at an unopposed by-election in February 1866, stating that his position was not to oppose every change, but that he was against any 'great organic changes being made in matters connected with Church or State.' He held the seat until he resigned from the House of Commons on 8 February 1876. At the resulting by-election, the Leominster seat was won by the Liberal candidate.

In 1886, under the pseudonym Evelyn Owen, Arkwright published Driven Home: A Tale of Destiny, a mystery story with supernatural elements. In 1889, he published a second novel, The Queen Anne’s Gate Mystery, a detective story with an aristocratic female detective Lady Geraldine accompanied by her husband, who is also the narrator.

Richard Arkwright died, aged 83, on 14 November 1918 at his residence, Herne House, Osborne Road, Windsor. He left an estate valued at £9884.