Blackburn by-election, 1869

The Blackburn by-election of 1869 was a parliamentary by-election held in England in March 1869. It returned two members of parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons for the borough of Blackburn in Lancashire.

It was a rare double-by-election, caused when the 1868 general election of the borough's two Conservative MPs was nullified. Their sons won the by-election, but the result led to fighting in the town of Blackburn and was denounced by the Liberal Party candidates as a "farce".

On 16 March 1869, the result of the 1868 general election in borough of Blackburn was declared null and void, after an election petition had been lodged. The two Conservatives who had been elected, Joseph Feilden and William Henry Hornby, were unseated when Mr Justice Willes found that there had been widespread intimidation of voters. The candidates themselves were absolved of direct involvement in the intimidation, but their agents were held responsible for a document known as the "screw circular". The circular called on mill-owners, tradesmen, and other employers to secure the election of Conservatives at both the municipal and parliamentary elections, and led to the dismissal of many long-serving employees on the spurious grounds of trivial misconduct, long after the alleged misconduct had occurred.

The nominations were made on 29 March 1869, before a gathering of 15,000 people in Blakey Moor, Blackburn.

The Liberal Party nominated John Gerald Potter, who had contested Blackburn in 1865 and 1868, and John Morley, a barrister who had taken up journalism and become the editor of the Fortnightly Review.

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