 The Mayor called for a show of hands, which he found to be in favour of Eckersley, but a poll was demanded and Eckersley won 411 votes to the 349 cast for his Liberal opponent John Lancaster.He was defeated at by John Lancaster (MP) at the 1868 general election, when Liberal candidates took both seats in Wigan, and he did not stand for Parliament again for another 15 years.He was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1878,
and in that capacity helped to organise a fund for the dependants of the victims of the explosion on 7 June 1878 at the Wood Pit Colliery in Haydock, where more than 200 miners were killed.