High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Hugh Mason (30 January 1817 – 2 February 1886) was an English mill owner, social reformer and Liberal politician. He was born in Stalybridge and raised in Stalybridge and Ashton-under-Lyne until he entered the family cotton business in 1838 after a seven year period working in a bank. 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. During the Lancashire Cotton Famine of the 1860s he refused to cut workers` wages although it was common practice.