Hugh Mason (30 January 1817 – 2 February 1886) was an English mill owner, social reformer and Liberal politician.

Having originally opposed trade unions, Mason became a paternalistic mill owner, creating a colony for his workers with associated facilities and ensuring that they experienced good conditions.

He was voted in and supported progressive policies, which included women's suffrage, making him unpopular within his own party.

He was the youngest of four children of Thomas Mason, a former textile manager, and Mary, the daughter of John Holden, Esq.

The Manchester Guardian noted: Hugh Mason is one of the first amongst those wealthy manufacturers of Lancashire who devote the hours which are not occupied by business to the service of their fellow men.

At Ashton he is unpopular: the ruggedness which mars his virtues, and the self assertion which stamps his conduct, do not invite the affection of his fellow.

He has built for his workpeople admirable cottages, swimming baths, gymnasiums and lecture halls, but beneficent acts do not suffice to secure popularity unless there is a suavity of manner and sympathy of nature in the benefactor, and these are qualities which Mr Mason lacks.

His figure is a familiar one at free trade meetings where the citizens of Manchester never fail to receive him with the utmost enthusiasm.

The working men hail his appearance with tempestuous applause, and invariable reward his rhetorical efforts with frequent and deafening cheers.

[7]Hugh Mason was influenced by his father's Liberal politics and strongly opposed to injustice and prejudice.

Hugh said of his father that "To his life of honest industry, to his example of commercial probity, to his high Christian character, to his training, of me in my early years, to his wise consuls, I owe under God my position in society.

"[2] Although he claimed he was reluctant to enter politics, Hugh Mason became the first Liberal elected councillor for Ashton-under-Lyne in November 1856.

He was not always popular within his own party either and he even financed his own newspaper, the Ashton-under-Lyne News, to convey his views and provide competition for the pro-Liberal Ashton Reporter.

[23] He led the women's suffrage movement until 1883 when illness forced him to retreat from public life temporarily.

His defeat in the 1885 General Elections was ascribed to his support of William Ewart Gladstone over the issue of Irish Home Rule and to his illness.

Mason demanded a recount, but this increased the majority by one vote; he succumbed to illness and died before the result was announced.

Their marriage was approved by special licence from the King of Denmark and was held at the Evangellic Reform Church, Altona in the Duchy of Holstein.

Betsy died after the birth of Sydney and Mason then married for a third time Annie, daughter of George Ashworth, Esq, of Rochdale in 1864.

[8][23] He was the first person to have a statue (now protected as a Grade II listed building)[27] erected in his honour in Tameside; it was financed by public subscription immediately after Mason's death.