Francis Arkwright (17 March 1846 - 1 March 1915) belonged to the British gentry. His first wife died after giving birth to a daughter, and he remarried. Arkwright represented East Derbyshire in the British House of Commons from 1874 to 1880.

In 1882, the Arkwright family emigrated to New Zealand, where he commissioned a large country house on the Rangitikei River.