THE STORY OF THE ENGLISH TOWNS

l l L E E D S

s FLETCH E R J . . OCI E T Y ME MB E R OF T H E YOR KSH l R E A RCH E OLOG I CAL S

W1 72! J LL US M A w ow s A N D MA PS

LON DON S O C I E T Y F O R P R O M O T I N G C H R I S T I A N K N O W L E D G E

N EW YORK : TH E MACMI LLAN COMPAN Y

PREFA CE

HAVE endeavoured in the following pages t o give as full an account of Leeds in its progress from a small pre -Conquest settlement to its present position as one of the greater cities of hi England, as can be presented wit n the limited

Space placed at my disposal . The material for such auth o an account is to be found , mainly, in the rities referred to on another page . Those readers who wish to know more details will find them in of the massive folios Thoresby and Whitaker , in the of various publications the Thoresby Society , and s as of in such work those the late Mr . D . H . ul to Atkinson . My partic ar thanks are due Mr . “ A . C . Price , whose book , Leeds and its Neighbour hood : An Illustration of English History (in which he is kind enough to make many references to my ow n topographical work relating to York a of shire) , contains mass valuable information , and

F . . . A . . S to Mr W T Lancaster , for placing in my hands various works from the library of the York a shire Arch eological Society . E J . S . FLETCH R .

H E C OSSW YS T R A , H AMB OOK C H I ESTE R R , CH . 1 18 9 .

CON TEN TS

CH APTE R PAGE 1 E EG I I S . TH B NN N G

I I KIR KST . ALL

I I I TH E IEV O . E M D AL T WN

V 0- 66 1 I . 153 1

T w o G REAT TOWNSMEN

V E TAP E TR A E I . TH S L D

V E E I G TEE T CEN T Y I I . TH H N H UR

VIII . TH E N EW FORCES

I X .

E E I OF C RC LI FE X . TH R V VA L HU H

E OVEME T TOW R S E C TIO X I . TH M N A D DU A N

E G EAT E XI I . TH R M N

I NDEX LI ST O F I LLUSTRATI O N S

F ACI N G PA G E

‘ THE TOWN H ALL Fr on/zspzece

K IR K STALL A B BEY

T ’ S . JOHN S C HUR C H

O H I SO I N I I R O I J HN ARR N , P I I LA T P ST

R P O ES BY ISTO I O F LEE S AL H TH R , H R AN D TH E MOOT H ALL

B OAR LAN E

’ I NTER I OR OF MARSHALL S FLAX M ILI .

’ E XTERIO R O F MARSHALL S FLA X MILL

QUE BEC B UILDIN G S

R W F TI OOR D . . .

LEEDS UNI VERSI TY

JOSE PH PRIESTLEY E N D-PA PE RS PLAN OF LEEDS IN I 560 [ w ont PLAN OF LEE DS IN

PLAN O F LEEDS IN 19 17 A UT H O RI TI E S

ORESB Y R . D t s Le odi nsis 1 1 TH , , uca u e , 7 5 .

O ES Y V L o B R . e di nsis 1 TH R , , icaria e , 72 4 .

A TKI SO D . H . R h Tho es his To w n and T m es 1 N N , , alp r by i , 88 7. T I SO D l 8 A K N N , . H . , O d Leeds , 186 .

D L id lm t 18 IT ER T . a 1 K . o is nd E e e 6 WH A , , ,

O R V B o ra hi i — Y . . i a Leodiens s 186 6 TA L R , , g p , 5 7. W L STE . T and B I O P. o h AN CA R , W A LD N , . , C uc e r B ook Of Kirk stall

Th s b oc . V . 1 0 . Abb ey ( ore y S , 9 4

f th e P s f OORE W . H sto o h Ch h o L e R . e s 18 M , , i ry ari urc d , 77.

L D . Tes m ent Leodiensia Tho es So c . v MB G . t . 1 1 . U , , a a ( r by 9 3

L D . and S. G E ISO P ish Ch h R MB G . e iste s 1 U , , MAR R N , ar urc g r , 5 71 Tho es Soc 6 18 1— 1 . . 757 ( r by , 9 94 / I SO G mm S ho o A m ss n B o s 182 — E . a o o 0 1 00 W L N , , r ar c l d i i k , 9 (Thoresby

v 1 06 . Soc . , . 9

I E Lee s and its N e h o hoo 1 0 C A . C . PR , d ig b ur d , 9 9

T E E S R W . L fe and Lette s o f t H W . S P . e F h H N , , i r Wal r arqu ar ook ,

18 . D . D . , 79

E t R n of Yo sh I The es e 1 1 . MORRIS , J . . , W idi g rk ir , 9

L EEDS

I TH E B EGI N N I N GS .

H N of 62 E , in the summer the year 5 , St . Z th elburh of Paulinus brought E , sister adbald of to E , King Kent , northward to York , of be married to Eadwine , King Northumbria , the bride must needs have been struck , if not f il of a frighted , at the w dness the land through which sh e and her guardian passed in the last F r stages of their j ourney . o they would come into what is now Yorkshire by the old Roman hi way w ch led from Doncaster to Castleford , and see thence by Tadcaster to York , and they would small evidence Of human life beyond the cots of or of some obscure settlement , the hovels the

swineherd and the woodmen , set deep in the forest On glades . their right would lie the marsh and waste which then spread over much of the county between the lower stretches of the Aire and the on of levels around York their left , the edges the deep woods t ch covered most of the great tract of land which we now know as the West i Rid ng . Upon the dark recesses in thos e woods E thelburh doubtless looked with awe as she and

St . Paulinus made their way to York : from York the King who awaited her coming looked out on s of them , too , but with the feeling a conqueror . 9 I O LEEDS For that vast tract had until his time been an independent kingdom , and he had recently gone out from York to subdue it , and had successfully

St . wrought his work , and about the time that Z th elburh w as Paulinus brought E to him , he able to boast that by this conquest his Northumbrian sovereignty had been extended from the eastern e to the western s a . And it may have been that th elburh the great missionary , as he conducted E of forward in the last stages their j ourney , pointed

to the dark woods which lay westward , and told of of of her the Old kingdom Elmet , which they

formed the boundary , and Of its wild fastnesses and pagan folk— and he may have told her also that in the midst of his newly acquired territory s et or Eadwine had up a royal lodge , or fort , camp i i o d s . at a place then called L In that name , of evidently of Keltic origin , we have the source

the modern name Leeds .

Ralph Thoresby , the topographer , perhaps the most notable Of the many eminent men whom n Leeds has produced , co sidered that his native town was one of the twenty -eight cities of ancient i N ennius Britain which are Spec fied by , the more or less fabulous chronicler , who is supposed to have been Abbot of Bangor early in the seventh

century , and that its original name was Caer Loid Coit or Caer Loyd yn y Leod— the camp or fortress

in the wood . But we may put that down as f b fanci ul conj ecture , unsupported y any historical evidence we have no dependable mention of any place that we may associate with Leeds before 6 — 0. Bede ( 73 73 5 ) who , in the fourteenth chapter of his Ecclesiastical History , writes that the a ltar of a certain church , erected under Eadwine , THE B EGINNINGS I I

Cam odunum at a place which Bede calls p , and subsequently destroyed by the Pagans after Ead ’ re - wine s fall , was erected , and was in existence “ in th e Thr dulf his day at cell Of y , Abbot , in ” s regione quae voc atur Loidi . As to the exact of Cam odunum location p , much Speculation has : existed the antiquary , Gale , noting that in ’ lfred s of Cam odunum E paraphrase Bede , p is Donafelda rendered , considered it to have signified Tanfield a , near Ripon ; other writers h ve fixed it as being on or near the site Of the present Don nf caster ; again , there may have been co usion between the names Camp odunum and Cambo on dunum , a station the Second Roman Iter , now H u dders definitely identified with Slack , near of o field . When Bede wrote the region r wood of oidis to L , he probably referred generally the forest that overspread the whole of the ancient of kingdom Elmet , which extended from the borders of the present Derbyshire on the south on t to the valley Of the Nidd the nor h , and from the Pennine Range on the west to a line n drawn from Aldborough to Doncaster o the east . ” of Green , in his Making England , inclines to the Opinion that Elmet was also known by the i o i o dis . r o dis name Of L In Elmet , L , Eadwine , of of after his expulsion Cerdic , last king Elmet , set up some sort of a royal dwelling— whether on of it was somewhere the site modern Leeds , or -in- e at the village Of Barwick Elmet , a few mil s -in - away , we do not know . But at Barwick Elmet there are certain ancient remains— locally known as Hall Tower and Wendel Hill— which are with out doubt those Oi the earthworks Of an Old

British camp . 12 LEEDS

of At Aldborough , close to the banks the Aire , ' I sew I sm'z um the of the Old Brigantine folk , the of in the Roman occupation , those Kelts who habited this part of Yorkshire in the pre -Roman

days , had their principal stronghold , from whence they sallied forth hunting and ravaging over the of neighbouring valleys . But their existence in or about Leeds there are few evidences . They gave names to the river Aire and to the long hill in lower Wharfedale so well known as Otley Chevin (arw ==violent ; cefn ==ridge) there are traces of them— and possibly of some still earlier peoples — ou the moors between Wharfedale and Airedale the earthworks at Barwick -in-Elmet probably origi nated with them , to be enlarged and improved of at later periods . But there are no remains the rude tracks which they trod between settle nor ment and settlement , has much been found in this district of arms or pottery of their manu or facture . There are scarcely more evidences remains of the Roman occupation . One great

Roman road , from south to north , lay on the a e stern boundaries Of Elmet ; another , from

Tadcaster , by Slack , led to Manchester , and Of passed nearer Leeds . But there are traces Roman vicinal ways in the immediate neighbour Oi — at hood Leeds Alwoodley , and at Adel , and between Bramhope and the approaches to upper

Wharfedale . On the site of towns in the vicinity , such as Tadcaster Castleford (Legio ' lz um Oliccm a ) , and Ilkley ( ) the Romans established of some their most important stations in the North .

At Adel , close to Leeds , famous for its almost unique church , many Roman remains have been found ; between Adel and Eccup are the distinct THE B EGINNINGS 13

traces of a camp probably made by the Romans on the foundations of an ancient British earth

work . Perhaps the most ancient thing ever laid bare in Leeds was the paved for d in the river B ri ate Aire , near the Old bridge at the foot Of gg — of distinct Roman remains the local arc h aeolo di gists have scovered little , though there were l R doubt ess oman ironworks at Farnley , a few of o miles from the centre the present city . N r is there much to tell— from material memorials — oi the days which followed the coming of the e to Saxon and th Dane . If we wish go back to the first beginnings of the English in this part of our f the land , we shall find best evidences o old antiquity in the Shire Oak at Headingley , and in the presence of many places in the out skirts Of Leeds which have the termination of le — their names in y Bramley , Armley , Wortley Parsley— deriving it from the Anglo-Saxon leak an open place 111 the wood . There is no dependable historical record of Leeds until we reach the time of the Domesday f 1 o 08 . Survey 5 Therein , certain places which of are now part Leeds itself, and have , indeed , so s been for many a long year , are described a being separate from the little town which doubt a less stood , mere collection Of rude cots , between e the present Kirkgat and the river . Hunslet now of is i in the centre workaday Leeds , so descr bed ; so : is Headingley Kirkstall , Holbeck , Burley o were all far out of the town . Thanks t the sur ’ veyors custom of setting down what a place had been in the days of Edward the Confessor we know what Leeds w as before the Norman Conquest as well as what it was when Domesday Book w as 1 4 LEEDS

1068 compiled . About Leeds was evidently a a of one d p urely agricultur l domain , about thousan r w as o ac es in extent , it divided into seven man rs, held by as many thanes ; they possessed Six as ploughs ; there w a priest , and a church , and si a mill :mI ts taxable value was x pounds . When the Do esday records were made , it had slightly increased in value the seven thanes had been - V replaced by twenty seven illains , four Sokemen , and four bordars— the villains were what we should now call day -labourers the soke or soc men were persons Of various degrees , from small owners : under a greater lord , to mere husbandmen the bordars are considered by most Specialists in

Domesday terminology to have been mere drudges , of hewers of wood, drawers water . The mill , when 108 this survey of 5 was made , was worth four of shillings . There were ten acres meadow . And the great lord of the place was that Ilbert de Lacy to whom William the Conqueror had given vast possessions stretching widely across country from i W Lincolnsh re into Lancashire , and hose chief stronghold was then building at Pontefract , a few

- miles to the south east . There is a significant fact attaching to what we know of the history of Leeds at this particular 1 08 period . In 5 , when the Domesday Survey of was made , the greater part what had only recently begun to be called Yorkshire (and York ” shire , says Stubbs Constitutional History , i . 1 09— was the only one of the existing sub divisions Of the old North umbrian Kingdom styled as a shire before the Conquest) lay waste— the result of the terrible revenge which the Conqueror had wreaked on Yorkshire folk after the York rising TH E B EGINNINGS 1 5

not of 1070. But Leeds was evidently waste .

Nor were the various lands around Pontefract , of nor, as far as we can gather , were any the various manors which belonged to the de Lacy fee . The of probability , then , is that the lands the de Lacy ownership were all specially protected when the harrying of the North took place . Leeds accord ingly profited by the fact that William had given n it to o e of his chief favourites . While the greater part of the county was absolutely destitute of human life , and all the land northward lay blackened as the effect of the fire which had burned thorpe 108 and toft , homestead and cot , Leeds in 5 had a of population at least two hundred people . But of any close connection between Leeds and the de Lacies there is little record their chief history in Yorkshire centres in and around the great castle of which they built at Pontefract . Many their

f sub - : manors were let Leeds , at some period very sub - t soon after the Norman Conquest , was let o ne one Ralph Paga l. Pa anels Of these g we know much more , in a of connection with Leeds , th n we know the de P nel r ] . a a o Lacy overlords Ralph g , Payne , figures H e largely in the Domesday entries . was one of the principal tenants -in-chief in Yorkshire he had land in all these Ridings ; he had properties in many other English counties ; he held estates which had formerly belonged to the Canons of York Minster : the entries relating to him in H Domesday Book are many . e is returned as holding a great deal of land of Ilbert de Lacy ; he held Headingley and Sturton (in the parish of

as . Aberford) as well Leeds He must, indeed , have been one of the chief mesne -tenants in Yorkshire LEEDS

and he was High Sheriff of the county in the 1 1 10 year . He founded , and liberally endowed , of the Priory Holy Trinity at York , delivering it ,

and all the wealth he gave with it, to Blessed Martin of Marmoutier and to his monks to be in their possession for ever for the soul of my Lord King William and of his wife Matilda and for the of son redemption and good estate his William ,

who has also willingly authorized this gift , with of l the assent my wife Mati da , and my sons William , s o Jordan , Elias and Alexander that we may have in time to come a share of the Blessed P ne Resurrection . The William aga l here men tioned by his father imitated his pious example , and founded the Priory of Drax : other Paganels of ir gave largely to the Abbey K kstall . of Pa anels It was from a descendant the g , a of described as Maurice de Gaunt , th t the folk

Leeds received their first charter . This w as in

1 2 0 . Tw o November , 7 years earlier , when Maurice u de Gaunt was still a minor , a suit was bro ght ns of in his behalf agai t the Prior Holy Trinity , of of York , in respect the advowson the parish f of o . church St Peter in Leeds , all the rights which ’ benefice had been included in Ralph Paganel s original grant to the Priory . By the time the of Leeds charter was given , he had come age , and , of ha d for the purposes the charter , for the nonce assumed the name of his maternal ancestors— the of so preamble the charter , at any rate , is worded I Maurice Paynall have given and granted and by this charter confirmed to my burgesses of Le eds and their heirs franchise and free burgage and their tofts and with each toft half an acre of land for tillage to hold these of me and my heirs

18

im R of h to anulf , Earl Chester , and through him reverted to the original owners when the de Lacy estates became merged bv marriage I n the Duchy of to a m an Lancaster they passed the roy l fa ily , d , f o n o I V. the accession Henry , were absorbed of into the possessions the Crown . I I KI RK TALL . S

H ILE Leeds was yet without its first charter, and only slowly growing out of its hamlet

stage , there was already rising close by , in the of one of valley the Aire , those great Cistercian abbeys of which Yorkshire by the middle of the

twelfth century possessed no fewer than eight . That century witnessed the firm establishment of 1 12 8 the Cistercian order in England . In a few Aum one di of monks from , in the ocese Chartres , I n ro settled at Waverley , Surrey , under the p t ection of ff of he William Gi ard , Bishop Winc ster —from Waverley sprang the daughter houses of r Fo d and Garendon , Combe and Thame ; by the end of the century at least one hundred similar houses had been set up in different parts of the so u n country . Of these none became famo s , no e were on such a scale as those w hich were founded in certain wild and solitary places amongst the e R Yorkshire dal s . ievaulx , directly colonized of from Clairvaux itself , under the supervision n 1 1 1 n the great St . Ber ard , came first in 3 Fou tains followed in 1 13 2 ; Byland w as established in 1 143 and J ervaulx in 1 145 ; Salley w as set up 1 1 6 1 1 ux in 4 and Roche and Kirkstall in 47 ; Mea , , one u a R di its e the ho se in the E st i ng , had b gin nings in All these houses were of great I 9 2 0 LEEDS size and importance ; there are still considerable of of remains all but Meaux ; those Kirkstall , of of now the property the townsfolk Leeds , show that it only ranked second to its magnificent f neighbour o Fountains . Kirkstall had its origin in a vow made in sick l ness by Henry de Lacy , whose fami y , since the its time of Ilbert , had been distinguished for benefactions to the church . Robert de Lacy was the virtual founder of the great Augustinian Priory at N ostell and of the Cluniac house at Pontefract in Pontefract Edmund de Lacy established the of Dominicans . Many the notable parish churches between Leeds and the B arnsdale district owed their twelfth-century restoration to this family ; ’ most probably to Henry de Lacy , Ilbert s grand

son : . of the foundation Kirkstall , at any rate , is definitely associated with his name . Being stricken with a sore sickness about the year 1 146— 7 ’ he made a vow that if God would grant him I e newed health he would found a house of Cistercian In monks honour of the Blessed Virgin . His prayer of being granted , he took counsel with the Abbot of Fountains , and arranged the establishment a

Cistercian house at Barnoldswick , a bleak and solitary spot amidst the wilds of Craven . Thither t of of — one hirteen the monks Fountains , Alex — r ander , being chosen abbot and ten lay breth en 1 1 duly repaired , and settled in May , 47. But the — at so experiment was not fortunate least , far as th e first site is concerned . The community appears to have got into trouble with the parish priest of Barnoldswick ; its members complained of the of bitterness the Craven climate , and before long there was an appeal to Rome in the matter of KIR KSTALL 2 1

removal . That , however , came about in another

. Al on fashion Abbot exander , being his travels , and passing through the lower stretches of Aire of dale , lighted upon a small body hermits already established at Kirkstall , near Leeds . They of one Seleth were under the rule , with whom : Alexander quickly came to terms to Kirkstall , all things being arranged , he would transplant his dissatisfied community at Barnoldswick . Forth with he repaired to Henry de Lacy , the new i proposal in his mind . But K rkstall belonged probably w as let— to one William Peytvin ; Henry de Lacy acted as intermediary in securing his consent . Then came the removal from Craven ; the absorption of the hermits into the brother hood ; somewhere about 1 1 5 0— 5 2 the great abbey of began building . At the time the resettlement at Kirkstall the community appears to have been housed in temporary wooden cells— the first church may even have been of wood . But there are vast - e 1 1 60 stone quarri s in that neighbourhood , and by

Kirkstall Abbey , as we know it from its considerable n remains , was in process of erection , and accordi g i to arch tectural experts , few English monastic houses have been so little altered from the original plan and execution during the succeeding centuries .

Of present monastic remains in England , none exceed Kirkstall in extent and magnificence , with of the sole exception Fountains , and almost every thing that the visitor now looks upon is the work of - the twelfth century builders . It is difficult for us of this generation to form any accurate idea of what the lower stretches of Airedale were like when Alexander and his monks m to t n l ca e i from Bar o dswick . Nowadays there 2 2 LEEDS

is an almost continuous line of town or suburb of i from Leeds to Shipley , and the evidences n dustrialism in the shape of factory or forge are of many on both sides the river . But in those

days anything outside Leeds , going northward , of must have been in the nature a solitude , and the Aire itself a clear and uncontaminated stream , as fresh at Kirkstall as when it poured out of its

first sources in the Craven Hills . On the level sward by its eastern bank these founders built their church and cloister in the severe style peculiar to their order . There were similarities between Kirkstall and the earlier foundation at ountains— F the aisled nave , the north and south transepts with their eastern chapels , the short , aisleless chancel , the central tower at the crossing . Gradually all the distinctive features of a Cistercian — house arose the Galilee , the Cloister , the Chapter ’ : b House , the Abbot s Lodging much of it may e seen to this day . What may not be seen and can only be revived in imagination I s the daily life spent here for four hundred years— the per etual of fi p round of ces , the daily obligation , the of daily task , the supervision the trades and crafts t o which the Cistercians in all their houses gave themselves up when they were not engaged in in . w as prayer Here , as at Founta s , much trade too done in wool and farm produce ; here , , was a forge whereat iron w as worked— forerunner of the great modern forge , close by , whose products are Sent broadcast over the world . Of various matters connected with Kirkstall we may gain some ideas and information from hi s ancient documents , charters , and legal arc ve . Two of its Abbots were presumably Leeds men KIRKSTALL 2 3

— the h r e t m w ho 12 6 t i te n h , Willia , succeeded in 9 , - first R w h o w as 1 . and the twenty , oger, elected 3 49 In his Notes on the Religious and Secular Houses of Yorkshire extracted from the Public Records ’ (Yorkshir e Archaeological Society s Record Series i xvii) Mr . W . P . Ba ldon gives numerous examples of how the Abbey came before public tribunals

now and again in relation to its possessions , its — not — in diff h rights , and seldom its erences wit 1 2 6 Ank etin its neighbours . In 9 Malure brings R B erdese a suit against Abbot Simon , anulf de y and others for cutting down trees in his wood at Clifford to the value of 1 00 shillings in 1 2 84 the le Abbot sues Luke de Ryther, Henry Forester of and others , Ulleskelf, for cutting his trees at of 1 1 8 Cumpton to the value J£ 0. In 2 5 Isabella Fortibus of Albemarl e de , Countess , go s to law of with the Abbot Kirkstall , Brother Hugh de Gr m eston W Foleford y , Brother illiam de , and

others for seizing her cattle , to wit eight cows and ul she the four b locks they were driven , pleads , to ’ Abbot s pound at B erdesey and there illegally sh e detained , and claims five pounds as damages . out Four years later , the Abbot takes process against Thomas de Eltoft and two others for one R s on of R forcibly rescuing obert , ichard ’ W his of igan , the Abbot s native , in manor Ber dese of in y , whom the Abbot , for a certain act di subor nation , had put in the stocks previous to hi m 1 6 w pping hi . In 3 9 the Abbot charges John edec ombe of de L , parson the church at Castleford, Proctour of and John the Same place , with mowing ’ and carrying away the Abbot s corn and grass in 13 78 and again in 13 85 he summons various n and a m n d de perso s , mongst the a chaplai , A am 2 4 LEEDS

Sh e ele w p y , for entering his fee arrens at Horsforth , Cook rid e and g , and Headingley , and there helping ' e thems lves to his pheasants , partridges , rabbits ,

and hares . It would appear , indeed , that suc c essive Abbots had much ado to look after the property of the house in various ways— one de of Sn tall fendant , Richard Bayldon , y , is charged ’ in 13 99 in digging the Abbot s sea-coal at that of place to the value twenty pounds , a very con i er le s m s d ab u at that period . Though never as rich nor as influential as on Fountains , Kirkstall , as time went , came to

possess many lands and much wealth . Like of Fountains , it had its time poverty . but that ne time was a brief o . Before the monks had ” hs been many mont at Kirkstall , says Mr . W . T . ’ o R Lancaster (Thoresby S ciety s ecords , v , ix) ; they had acquired valuable properties in Round

hay , Chapeltown , and Bramley , as well as in Head n l i g ey . Before they had been there a dozen years the foundation of their great estate in Horsforth of had been laid , the valuable grange Micklethwaite

had been established , and they had obtained considerable properties in the neighbourhood of 1 1 Keighley and Cantley near Doncaster . By 72 Cook rid e they had received their first grant in g ,

and some time afterwards Baldwin Fitz Ralph , of Lord Bramhope , was called to witness the cession of the whole of Cook ridge to the monks by its

owner , Roger Mustel . The various charters and documents appertaining to Kirkstall show that its possessions were spread over a considerable part of the West Riding— it had lands at Aber n ford , Adel , Armley , Arthi gton , Bardsey , Burley , l P P s an Calverley , Co lingham , Garforth , ool , ud ey , d

KI RKSTALL 2 5

a Pontefract , and a considerable tract in Wharfed le . When it was surrendered by Abbot J ohn Ripley in 1 5 40 its annual value was returned at a little 00 over £ 5 . In the various State Papers relating to the Dissolution of the Monasteries there is not s o much about Kirkstall as about certain other of the Cistercian houses in Yorkshire . It was duly ’ visited by Thomas Cromwell s agents , Dr . Richard 1 6 Layton and Dr . Thomas Legh , in 5 3 . Sent dow n to Yorkshire as commissioners under the new and extraordinary powers granted by Henry

- VIII . to Cromwell as Vicar General , Legh and Layton arrived at York in the first weeks of that year , and immediately became active in inventing charges against the religious orders and in bribing some and terrorizing other superiors of monastic houses into submission . They made a remarkably Speedy tour round the p rI nc ip al abbeys and priories - o s speedy , indeed , that their visits to some could not have exceeded an hour in duration and forwarded a report to Cromwell in which little more than bare mention of any place is re sa of corded . All they have to y Kirkstall in this account of their itinerary is in a few words Item to Chrystall Abbey of the Cystercyenes off the

fundac on off . Pattf lld Pictaviensis furat y St y , Com endium m Knyght . In the unprintable p Co ertorium sa the ;b they y that founder was the king . In the correspondence between Cromwell and the various Yorkshire gentlemen who acted as com missioners at the actual Dissolution a few years

later there is scarcely any reference to Kirkstall .

But when it had been dismantled , it was granted

b V I . m w h o y Henry I I to Archbishop Cran er , also LEEDS got th e possessions of the neighbouring Priory of Arthington— both these grants were confi rmed anew under Edward VI . According to a note in ’ ns of Atki on s Life Thoresby , Queen Mary took ’ of on Cra nm er s possession Kirkstall attainder , and ’ in Todd s Life of Cranmer there is an urgent ’ s memorial from Cranmer son to Queen Elizabeth , h praying t at it may be restored to the family . \7entuall s of aviles E y it came into po session the S , and from them to the Earls of Cardigan , in whose holding it remained until recent times , when , by of of the generosity a native Leeds , the late

Colonel North , it was acquired for the townsfolk of Leeds and converted into a popular resort foi! the people . of Once a house prayer and labour, now a play of r ground , Kirkstall had at one period its histo y a fairly constant visitor who took vast interest ’ Th ores s a d in its ruined walls . Ralph by diary n letters show that the great antiquary was fond of spending a few hours at the ancient abbey which ’ was but an hour s j ourney from his house in Leeds . He had no sentimental love of the memory of the -

Cistercians , for he was a somewhat narrow minded and bigoted Protestant , but he had the born ’ of antiquary s true love the ancient, and was , more f an o . over , inveterate collector rarities About 1 714 he hears that a stone coffin h as been found of by the wall the garden at Kirkstall , and hastens of ffi to see it . The head part the co n is covered of by a slab stone , the rest with small tiles , ’ of though larger than the Romans , various forms

and colours . He is inclined to think that these tiles once formed part of a Roman tessellated pavement having viewed the coffin he concludes KI R KSTALL 2 7

- rather rashly— that it is that of What he calls n f the Master Po tificer o the building . He of l : contrives to secure some the ti es they go ,

of his of . course , into museum curiosities On the “ 2 nd 1 2 0 out April , 7 , he walks to Kirkstall , and

by the help of my friend Mr . Lucas got up some of the tiles lately discovered , wherewith the Abbey ,

at least that part nigh the High Altar , was paved there were some rows of blue and yellow ones set - ds chequer wise under the last wall , as afterwar fleur- -l s others , more in view , with de y painted

on . them Of these latter we found none , but brought of the others home with me . He is there i so aga n a fortnight later , and does much unearth ‘‘ ing of more tiles and stones that we were late ” and in the dark . He makes fresh discoveries now and then in wandering about . Found a door open which I had never seen before , clambered up seventy -seven steps t o a pinnacle ; there are on h hi seven pillars ” eac side from there upon w ch the steeple stands to the west end ; at the east three chapels for the several altars on either Side of the high altar ; in viewing the ruins was pleased to find some of the British or Roman ’ of bricks . It was a favourite theory Th oresby s that much Roman brick had been used at Kirkstall by the original builders— h e collected many for “ his : museum they were notes , eight inches broad and almost double the length . He also of 1 1 X 2 found another sort bricks there , 5 X , which he thinks were laid down w hen the abbey w as

l . in the his bui t These , too , figured l collection in u — a c ertaml m seum better receptacle , \ y , than the pig -stye or c ow -house s o often built out of ec clesi c l asti a ruin . Leeds folk h ad a. portion of the 2 8 LEEDS

u of for r ins Kirkstall in their midst a long time , for of , according to the Boke Accompts kept by m 1 8 the Church Wardens fro 5 3 , the stairs built o n the west Side of Leeds Bridge were of stone h risstall brought from C Abbey . I I I TH E ME DIE AL TOWN . V

EFORE we endeavour to realize some notion of Leeds as it appeared during the Middle V of Age , it will be well to take a short iew York shire as the county existed in the full tide of iffi ar it feudalism . It is d cult to imagine the sp c y of its population— especially when one bears in mind that there are now well over four millions i of people living within the three R dings . But in the thirteenth , fourteenth , and fifteenth centuries i Yorkshire was as scant ly populated , everywhere , as the most solitary stretches of the various Dales or the North ' York moors are to -day— as in their case , there was a small town here and there , a tiny — hamlet , an isolated farm steading , and though now they were then in their full pride , and not , as , ns — of in rui the castle the nobleman , and the of abbey or priory the monk . At the time of the Domesday Survey the total population of the 000 8000 : 1 county was between 7 and in 3 79 , the of year a notable Poll Tax , it probably did not exceed There w as then no town which we of this day would call large- in the reign of I I I . Edward , York , the largest , could boast no more than inhabitants ; Pontefract , the M ortant next most p place , came a considerable — distance behind . Of the present great cities Leeds , 2 9 3 0 LEEDS

Sh effield— w e Bradford , know little more than that they were small and insignificant places of the places importance were towns like Tickhill , n s Hedo , Boroughbridge , Knare borough , and the

like , long since sunk to unimportance . Yet there were then features of the county which must have assumed a rare significance and importance in the i f o s w f eyes o those w h a them . By the end o the fifteenth century York Minster stood finished as ee - m en we s it to day . In the East Riding mar y elled at the beauties of Beverley ; in the lower of erfec stretches Wensleydale , at the plainer p

tions of Ripon . Everyw here rose glorious parish — R churches Hedon and Patrington , otherham and H e min borou h h g g , Halifax and Tick ill ; there was scarce a village in which the devotion of the people and the munific ence of the private benefactor h ad no of t erected a temple worthy Christianity . And in addition to the white walls of these newly built houses of peace there had risen all over the county th e equally fresh walls of other buildings , raised for vastly different purposes— the great castles and square keeps of the Norman barons : Pontefract n and Richmond , Knaresborough and Pickeri g ,

Scarborough and Sandal . Two powers were every — of where in evidence the power the Church , the

power of the armed man . York became principal town and centre of Yorkshir e for tw o reasons— it w as admirable as its r a military position , and relation to the ivers and the North Sea rendered it a useful commercial or O of c entre . One ther these reasons gave a Spur to the progress of the other tow ns which became — of importance in th e Middle Age . But for a - i w as . k ng time , at any rate Leeds slow in growth

3 2 LEEDS

h The church at that time , as all t rough the

Middle English period , would be the true centre f ’ o . the town s life Between town and parish , in iff terms , there was no d erence , and as the church was centre of the parish; s o it was centre -point of of the town . It was , moreover , a centre self ” government the parish , says Bishop Hob house was the community of the township i organ zed for Church purposes , and subj ect to u n Ch rch discipline , with a co stitution which recog niz ed b od ~ as the rights of the whole y an aggregate , of and the right every adult member , whether

- man or woman , to a voice in self government .

Naturally , therefore , the folk took a vast pride of neces in their parish church . Much the work sary for its up -keep was done by themselves :

masonry , woodwork , ironwork by the men ; the — m ak in n of mending very often the g vestments , f the care and cleaning o the interior by the women . of th e The church was the scene vestry meetings , head office of the guilds it was not a place to be l sought perfunctori y on Sunday , but one to be ’ used at all days and all hours . The Labourers Mass was said in it every working - day morning : its door stood open from Mattins to Compline :

in a true sense of the word it was Home . Here in Leeds the parish church had all the advantages

of ancient foundation . We know from the Domes day record that it and its priest were in existence in the days of Edward the Confessor ; there had probably been a church at the foot of Kirkgate f u . o from the days of St . Paulin s By the end the ’ r fourteenth centu y St . Peter s of Leeds had become a b enefi ce of no little value ; at the time of the P011 Tax of 1 3 79 it was reckoned as being worth THE MEDIEVAL TOWN 3 3

£ 80 a year— a large sum in our money— and the Prior of Holy Trinity at York was then receiving from the Vicar of Leeds one annual pension of ten pounds . About this time , too , several chantries had been established in connection with the parish th e church , though not within the fabric , after usual fashion . There was a chantry , dedicated to Our Lady , at the North Bar ; a third , at the of B ri ate on or foot gg , either near the bridge probably founded and endowed for the use of Clarell travellers . Later , Thomas , vicar , founded the Chantry of St . Catherine in the parish church : or itself his successor , William Evers , Evre , f o . Eure , vicar , founded the Chantry St Mary - of B ri e Magdalene at the north east corner ggat .

Even though Leeds had , when Leland visited it 1 6 one aroch e in 5 3 , but p church , reasonably ” well builded , it was never without church influence . One great purpose the Church in those days carried into constant effect— it stood between - the poor folk and their over lords , who , if they not were oppressors by nature and choice , possessed of powers a most arbitrary description . Municipal f life , outside the Church a fairs , there was none — of the lord the manor was , in all intents and purposes , a supreme autocrat . He obliged the people to bake at his oven and grind at his mill . He could suddenly interrupt their business by on calling them to follow him to war . He had the

first call on their labour . He imposed what taxes on he pleased . He seized their goods at his will , and threw them into prison if they made resistance to the seizing . No widow might take a new husband without his consent ; no man become a e burgess unless b approved . No inhabitant could C 3 4 LEEDS leave the township without h is leave ; all m ar i r ages of young people must be submitted to him . He made the laws of the markets and collected its tolls ; in many places he had the power of life and one of death , and that Leeds was such places seems to be proved from mention of a place called

Gallows Field in the Manor Rolls of 1 65 0 . A part of the present B riggate— from time immemorial the principal thoroughfare of Leeds inasmuch as it leads straight from the bridge over th e Aire through the heart of the town— seems from a very early period to have been the site of hl the Market , always a hig y important place in on a medieval town . Here , any market day , the ’ m a lord s collectors would be seen , oving from st ll on to stall , insisting their dues , which , when they ul - were collected , wo d be paid in to the toll booth , or f sat where the head collector , chief baili f in supervision . There was much supervision in those days— offic ials were as numerous as they seem likely to become in these . There was an Assize of Bread— bakers whose loaves were not up to the or n standard , who offended by givi g short weight , met with summary punishment by being dragged r on th ough the streets a hurdle , their loaves tied A f round their necks . There was an ssize o Ale — if the liquor brewed by the ale-wives failed to of - satisfy the palates the ale tasters , the vendors quickly found themselves in the pillory or sub ssiz c of j ec ted to a fine . There was an A Measures - and somewhere in the township , usually against of w as the wall the church , there a standard of of length , against which the seller fabrics must t est his . g yard measure In such a town as Leeds , “ n c o to be so whe l th began ld in quantity , we may THE MEDIEVAL TOWN 3 5 be sure that short length was j ealously looked after . While the people looked to the Church for n protection against undue Oppressio , they also for so looked to it something which , far as we s ee ot it can , they would never have g without of rest . Our medieval forefathers the dominant class had no niceties about labour— in their opinion the man whose lot was work must discharge his i of sun obligations from the r sing the to its setting . There was no talk in those times of eight-hour

- of . days , nor even half holidays But here the Church was powerful— no man might labour on — her holy days . The holy days were many far f too o . many , in the opinion some folk But they for were a welcome relief to the working folk , their

one . lot , in general , was a hard The glamour o f distance is so thickly thrown around the Middle Age that we are apt to think of it as nothing but Y e a romantic and picturesque period . t what would be the condition of a Le eds man of the s a common multitude in , y , the fourteenth and fifteenth ce nturies ! His home would be little set better than a hovel , in a miserable alley . His u dress would be hose and t nic . gay enough in no a colour , doubt , but poor and coarse in m terial ; for his wife would be clothed j ust enough decency , not his children would run about in rags , if in semi H is nudity . food would be as coarse as his dress on he would throw the bones his mud floor , just as unconcernedly as he would throw any and all household refuse and slops on the manure heap H h is at his door . e fetched w ater from the riVe r — fortunately , the Aire in those days was still uncontaminated by the products of mills and 3 6 LEEDS

f . n o factories He knew othing hygiene , nothing of sanitation . Hence the frightful epidemics which were always breaking out : hence the lazar-houses which existed in nearly every town . The Fran c isc ans , bringing into England some simple know

‘ of m uch nee d ledge the healing art , found as to mend the body as to spur up the spirit when they fixed themselves in the poorer quarters of the cities . Looked at from a certain standpoint , the Middle Age was picturesque— but it was essentially of of of an age dirt and disease squalor , and hard , dull , cheerless existence . It seems a curious , even sa a paradoxical thing to y , but it is wonderfully ’ true that the medieval working man s chief recrea tion lay in practising his religion . of But always , out the dirt and the disease , of and the ceaseless toil , and the oppressions the great , things moved forward , even in those days . to Little by little , the people got some power ot c on govern themselves . Sometimes they g cessions by favour ; more usually they bought it

- with their hard earned money . A new charter of rights ; an enlarged market-charter ; the ex changing of a fixed yearly payment for the vexa tious collection of tolls and dues ; the buying -out of f the lord in some matter that a fected him little , and themselves a great deal the doing away with i of ow n his bailiff , and the substitut on their head ma n o f of finally the winning the best thing all , a charter of i ncorporation and the setting up of a — common council , presided over by a mayor these were the various steps by which the communities advanced to freedom and liberty . But great assistance also came from the setting up of th e — l . far as Gi ds They began far back as . Saxon THE MEDIEVAL TOWN 37

times— and at first they were entirely associated with the parish church they corresponded to the modern associa tions which are nowadays found

- in most well regulated parishes . They buried the

dead , they rang the bells , they nursed the sick , i they sought out the poor . Th s successful banding together of men for a common obj ect led to the establishment of secular gilds of craftsmen and u tradesmen . In Yorkshire they were flo rishing exceedingly by the beginning of the fifteenth century— there were then thirty-eight at Beverley

and sixty at York . Their rules were strict ; in some cases they seem harsh . But they made for of the general welfare the community , and they were a great protection against outside interference . They laid down regulations which protected men a gainst master , and master against man ; they encouraged that theory of economics which we ” now associate with the term most favoured . es As time progr sed they became rich and powerful ,

” associations to be held in respect by the auth ori

- or . ties , whether municipal land owning Men left money to them the wills of that period show that it was quite a common thing for a man who was making his last testamentary disposition to re member the gild to which he had belonged . Some of the amounts so left seem to us ridiculously l of sma l , but they are typical and significant the of of Spirit the times . Thomas Moor Leeds leaves one shilling to the Jesu Gild in 1 5 2 4 ; William Atkins on benefits it to the extent of three shillings and fourpence three years later ; Gilbert Casson bequeathed to its priest twelvepence a little later still Similar benefactions are recorded in connection w d ith the gil s in all the Yorkshire tow ns . When 38 LEEDS

the gilds were swept out of existence in the six teenth century a vast wrong was committed ;

they , perhaps more than any other had helped to free the many from the arbitrary

rule of the individual .

40 LEEDS

o Monasteries amounted to £ 48 . And that the p pu lation was steadily increasing is proved by the fact 1 1 2 that in 5 74 there were 3 3 baptisms , 3 marriages , and 78 burials recorded in the newly started registers of of the parish church . Nevertheless , much the old life and conditions still existed . The Crown - so was now over lord , and had been ever since the f o . accession Henry IV , and the folk still ground their corn at the King ’ s mills and baked their bread ’ as o at the King s oven . There was yet n charter of u incorporation , and tho gh the people were rapidly approaching to conditions of liberty their lot was still not very appreciably different to that of of their forefathers . Up to the end the sixteenth century Leeds may be looked upon as existing in - semi feudalism . The Dissolution of the Religious Orders in 1 6— 0 to 5 3 4 , while it made a vast difference York ff d shire generally , probably a ected Lee s very little — unless it was to force an increasing amount of poor into its narrow streets . Within Leeds itself there had never been any monastic establishment . of of one or Houses religion sort another , from great abbeys to small cells , had existed in some one hundred and fifty separate places in Yorkshire — ne nor Leeds never knew o . Neither Dominicans Franciscans ever settled in her— she could not show t a single religious hospital . Consequen ly there was no pulling down and rooting out in her midst . Her only connection with monastic institutions was with Kirkstall , which , . close as it was , was yet outside her boundaries , and , through her parish of of church St . Peter, with the Benedictine House

Holy Trinity at York . We know from the Calendar of f State Papers (Henry VIII . ) w hat became o the — 1 5 3 0 1661 41 Leeds lands and possessions which had belonged th e to the York priory . Thomas Culpeper got advowson of the parish church of Leeds to hold ’ by the hundredth part of a knight s fee (Calendar ’ x 11 son iii , , It was , later , sold by Culpeper s , of Alexander , to Rowland Cowick , London , who in h is turn sold it to another London man , Thomas

Preston , citizen and draper , who subsequently sold

to . it Edmund Darnley , citizen and haberdasher Sir Arthur Darcy (son of the Lord Darcy who was beheaded for his share in the Pilgrimage of Grace)

got the lands in Leeds , Holbeck , Kirkstall , Wortley ,

and in many other adjacent places . Henceforth the folk who had lived under the easy rule of the Churchm en were to pay their rents and dues to ’

S r . Henry VI I I . new landed gent y There are no records of any provision for educa o R tion in Leeds prior t the eformation . But the lack of them by no means proves that there were c no educational facilities . No greater mistake an be made than to suppose that there was no educa tion in England for the common folk in the Middle

Age . Absolutely unlettered ignorance ought not to be alleged against the lower and middle classes

of . these ages , says Stubbs In every village reading and writing must have been not unknown accomplishments schools were by no means uncommon things towards the close of the ” Middle Ages there was much vitality in the schools . ” y Constitutional Histor , iii , Mr . A . F . ” Leach , in his English Schools at the Reformation, and in the tw o volumes of his Early Yorkshire

Schools , has abundantly proved that education was by no means in neglect in England in general and in Yorkshire in particular previous to the 42 LEEDS

- . no Sixteenth century upheaval Still , we get of 1 mention education in Leeds until 5 5 2 , when one l h eafield to Wi liam S , who seems have been t Sh eaffield identical wi h William , chantry priest of St . Catherine in Leeds , left property in the town for the establishment of a learned school master who should teach freely for ever such scholars , youths , and children as should resort to him— with th e wise proviso that the Leeds folk themselves should find a suitable building and ’ n make up the master s salary to ten pou ds a year . of Here is the origin Leeds Grammar School which ,

first housed in the Calls , and subsequently in Lady of u an Lane , had by the end that cent ry become institution of vast importance and was to develop to even far greater things .

As the sixteenth century drew to a close , and while the seventeenth was still young , the towns folk of Leeds secured— in the first instance at their ow n a cost , in the second by a strictly limited Roy l favour— tw o important privileges— the right of elect1ng their ow n vicar and of governing them f 1 8 selves in municipal a fairs . In 5 3 the town bought the advowson of the parish church from t for 1 0 its hen possessor , Oliver Darnley , £ 3 , and henceforth the successive vicars were chosen by — a body of trustees the most . notably successful experiment in popular election which has ever

. 162 6 been known in the National Church In , Leeds received its first charter of incorpora tion

I . from Charles , whose father had made himself unpopular in the town by selling the -Royal Mills to Edward Ferrers and Francis Philips a few years ds e . arlier The charter , premising that Lee in the

County of York is an ancient and populous town , 15 3 0- 1661 43 whose inhabitants are well acquainted with the

Art and Mystery of making Woollen Cloths , sets ni of one ni ur up a gover ng body Alderman , ne B gesses , and twenty Assistants , the first Alderman

of . B ut being Sir John Savile Howley , Knight the privilege for some years was a limited one : the Crown reserved to itself the rights of appoint ment to any of the thirty vacancies which might occur by death : popular election did not come fo h r some time . Eig teen years after the granting of this charter Le eds j oined with other towns in the neighbourhood in a Memorial to the King wherein he was besought to settle his differences with the rebellious Parliament . Of this no notice of was taken , and in the earlier stages the Civil War the town was garrisoned for the Royal cause under Sir William Savile . We know something of what Leeds was like f at this stage o its history . It was really a town of. one B ri ate long and wide street , gg , from which o narrow lanes ran off n either side . At the foot of B ri ate on old gg , the bridge over the river Aire , the cloth market was held on Tuesdays and Satur of B ri ate days . On the left side gg , going up the Sw ine ate— on street , was g the flats between it and the river bank the cloth made in the town was on stretched frames called tenters . On the right was a narrow path known as The Calls— it led ’ ’ through the burgesses gardens to St . Peter s w i e Church . On the same side as S n gate was Boar Lane— here several gentlemen of the county had their town houses . Opposite was Kirkgate — l ’ here , too , there were gent emen s houses :

Edward Fairfax , the poet and translator , lived in one R , John Thoresby , father of alph , in another ; 44 LEEDS the great topographer himself was born in Kirk : at of V gate the end this street was the icarage ,

and close by it the parish church , which had a ne tower nearly o hundred feet in height . In the centre of B riggate stoo d the Moot Hall at the top of B ri ate gg was Upper Head Row , wherein was a notable house called Red Hall . Across the street was Nether Head Row , wherein was another fine house called Rockley Hall . There were narrow lanes and alleys in and about all these streets with gardens and open Spaces here and there — and all a outside w s country . The places which are now swallowed up in modern Leeds were the villages di and hamlets , quite a stance away from its centre . But already there were signs that Leeds was ex for on of tending , the very edge the town , j ust above Upper Head Row , John Harrison , a native , had , ten years before Marston Moor , built , at his

o w n . . cost , a new church dedicated to St John But it was a very small Leeds which Sir William‘ v 16 Sa ile occupied for the King in January , 43 , 1 having under him 5 00 horse and 5 00 foot . He made somewhat elaborate preparations for the - defence of the place , digging a Six foot trench ’ R ow from St . John s Church by Upper Head , Sw ine ate of Boar Lane , and g to the banks the river : erecting breastworks at the north end of

- the bridge , and placing demi culverins in a position B ri te on a . to Sweep gg Against him Monday , Jan 2 uary 3 , advanced the redoubtable Sir Thomas of Fairfax , at the head a Parliamentary force which appears to have numbered at least 3 000 horse and foot . Finding the bridge at Kirkstall broken down , Fairfax crossed the Aire at Apperley on l Bridge , and came to Woodhouse Moor , a mi e

46 LEEDS

w at Kelham , near Ne ark , he was led northward to on his Newcastle ; return from that city , later , in charge of the Parliamentary Commissioners who one i conducted him to Holmby , he Spent n ght in R ow the house called Red Hall , in Upper Head , a somewhat fine mansion of red brick with pointed gables which had been erected earlier in the one of century by Thomas Metcalf , who was the ’ original Burgesses named in the King s charter of

just twenty years previously . Of the unhappy monarch ’ s short stay in Leeds two stories are told which may or may not be strictly true— they are

none the less interesting . One is that a woman v servant so pitied the Royal capti e that , finding sh e an Opportunity to Speak with him in private , offered to array him in her own clothes and convey

out of . him safely the town Years later , when

. ow n n Charles II had come to his , this woma ,

being in London , contrived to acquaint him with to l the offer she had made his father . Char es ’ asked her of her husband s circumstances : sh e replied that he w as then bailiff of Leeds (what official position this m ay have been the chr oniclers

do not tell) , whereupon the King graciously said that henceforth he should be High-Bailiff of

Yorkshire . The other story seems to be much k — hn more li ely to be true Jo Harrison , the wealthy man of Leeds , whom we shall presently hear more , n called upon Charles I . at Red Hall o the evening of his arrival and craved permission to present his Maj esty with a cup of ale which he had brought in h av1n lid a fine silver tankard , g a to it . The King ’ f accepted Harrison s pro fered hospitality , and lifting th e of n lid the ta kard , found it filled , not with liquor , ' w e w one of th but ith golden g uin as , hich , says e 1 5 3 0—1661 47 .

of i his retailers th s story , Maj esty did , with much

celerity , hasten to secrete about his royal person . It seems cu rious that up to the middle of the seventeenth century Leeds had never been directly in represented in Parliament . Many now quite significant places in Yorkshire had sent members to the House of Commons from a very early period — r Malton , Beverley , Northalle ton had returned members as far back as 1 2 98 : Otley had had two

members for centuries , and had once petitioned of of Henry VI . to be relieved them , because the “

. 16 expense . But it was not until 5 4 that Adam of Baynes , an army agent some influence at White sit hall , was returned to at Westminster ; he was returned again two years later with Francis Allans on as a second member . This representation came to 1 660 an end at the Restoration in , and Leeds had no more members of Parliament until the great 1661 Reform Act of 1 83 2 . But in it received some concession from the Crown which was perhaps of 1m ortance it— a more p to new Municipal Charter . There had been some readjustment of the old one I I ’ 16 2 . s of . in 4 , but Charles Charter was a far

reaching nature . It set up a Mayor , twelve Alder - or men , twenty four Assistants Councillors , a Town " for Clerk , and a Recorder ; it also provided local f election to vacancies . From the Charter o Charles I n ' . a d that of his son are derived the well known of arms the town. The owls thereon are the Savile — owls famous throughout the county , where the Saviles have been legion : the mullets figured on the s of - arm Thomas Danby , first Mayor . The

dependent sheep typifies the wool trade . Locally ‘‘ -of- i s as this Lee s coat arms vulgarly known . three d’ ’ ” ullets an a tup i trouble . V T O G E . W R AT TOWNSME N

N the seventeenth and eighteenth century records of Leeds and its folk occur regularly the names of two men who did great things for — their native town John Harrison , Ralph Thoresby . One lived through the troublous times of the Civil War and died while Cromwell was still in full power the other w as born two years before the R estora tion of the Monarchy and lived to see a statue of set B ri ate Queen Anne up before the Moot Hall in gg . Each had certain tastes in common : the second was a warm admirer of the first : both left their

mark on Leeds and its corporate life . 1 John Harrison was born in Leeds in 579 . He came of a stock which had acquired considerable — or on of property in the town , rather , an edge

it which was soon to be absorbed . He was the owner of a large tract of land lying at the top of B ri ate gg , beyond the streets now known as Upper one f head and Low erh ead Rows . He was o the of of first the great Leeds merchants cloth , and doubtless added largely to his inherited fortune by his ventures in the first considerable days of the staple trade . But in addition to his wealth in lands and money , he had other wealth in his f gifts o character and talent . He appears to have s of his been the fir t townsman time , universally e to respect d , looked up , and much depended upon 48 TWO GREAT TOWNSMEN 49 in all practical matters relating to the government n 162 6 of the place . Whe . in , the first charter

I . was obtained from C h arles , and Sir John Savile of was appointed Alderman , the real duties the . i offi ce were performed by Harr son , as his deputy . six A few years later , he and other wealthy towns men combined to buy the manorial rights of Leeds from the Crown about that time he built a Market of Cross at his own cost . During the whole his life he appears to have been always to the fore in all matters relative to the improvement of the municipal life of Leeds : he is named in the first his Charter , and name constantly occurs in all records between 162 6 and his death thirty years later . It is somewhat difficult to find out which side Harrison really favour ed when it came to a question o f choosing sides between King and Parliament : of not if he was something a wobbler , he was the only Yorkshireman of note to be in such a pre i m n d ca e t . He himself , charged by the Parlia m entarians with favouring the Royal cause , pointed to the fact that he had used a strong hand in of checking certain movements in favour the King . There is little doubt that he made a money present h to Charles I . w en the King was in Leeds , but that may have been no more than a mark of generous

sympathy towards a man in Sore need and trouble . It is more certain t hat Harrison lent money to th e m Parliamentarians . A ongst the British Museum

. m MSS is the following curious Memorandu , which throws some interesting light on certain features of that period WHEREAS by Ordinance of Parliament bearing th 2 of 16 2 date the 4 day November , 4 , The right le d h onb Ferdinando L Fairfax (or whom h e should 0 5 I4 EEDS appoint Treasurer for that purpose) was enabled to engage the public faith of the Kingdom for all , such Plate , Money , Armes and Horse as should be voluntarily lent or raysed for the service of th e . a h e t of St te in t Northern Coun ies . In pursuance th e of s said ordinance John Harrison Leeds E q , did in the yeare of our Lord 1 642 furnish and lende th e Sume of fower score and Ten p oundes in money on P and also [ an] Horse and Armes , being valued

Poundes - at Twenty , in all amounting to the sume o f H Poundes u One undred and Ten , the P blique Faith of the Nation is to bee engaged unto the H e said John arrison . In Testimony whereof I h aV hereunto put my hand and seale .

W . Harrison , Treasurer , "d d d app by the s L ” Fairfax .

, ” Whether the Publique Faith of the Nation ever made good his money to Harrison we do not b ut know , he probably cared little whether his of or not loan cash , horse , and arms was repaid . - of He was in the life long habit giving , and he gave in many directions . Leeds in his time was a it ' growing place had many poor folk in it , and it was not much provided with h OSpitals for the sick 16 one k and infirm amongst them . In 43 Jen inson founded a hospital at Mill Hill : Harrison supple mented for this , ten years later , with a home of indigent poor . But this was one his last public benefactions ; he had begun them— or made his r — in 162 fi st notable addition to them 4 , when he built a new home for the Grammar School first fiel th e founded by William Sh ea d . At that date

5 2 LEEDS that it has all the gloom and all the obstructions Of an ancient church without one vestige of its di gnity and grace . Such , however , is not the — M one of r . . Opinion modern experts J . E Morris , of of the best and most dependable them ,~ in his “ ’ of West Riding Yorkshire , declares Harrison s church to be a singularly interesting example though far less pure , of course , in its architecture — of than Wadham College Chapel the last , faint

flickering of the Gothic Spirit ; it is interesting , f also , as a fording us , in its sumptuous fittings , a f ” ’ good example o the Laudian revival . St . John s is , indeed , the finest and most notable church in

Leeds , far exceeding the parish church in interest ffi u and architecture , and it is di c lt to believe that , u some few years ago , the town authorities act ally l had it in mind to pu l it down . The Philistine to spirit , however , sad though it is to have confess

i t . , is mightily strong amongst Yorkshiremen Ralph Thoresby was born two years after JOh n

Harrison died . His father was a well known towns of its man . He came an ancient family , which in time had included a great prelate amongst its m — of embers John Thoresby , successively Bishop ’ of of St . David s , Bishop Worcester , Archbishop of York , Keeper the Great Seal in the time

Of Edward III . Ralph Thoresby printed the gene alogy of his family in his Ducatus he lets us see f tha t he was not a little proud o it . As to Ralph hi mself he was born an antiquary , lived an anti

uar . for q y , died an antiquary Possessed the of f ns greater part Of his life su ficient mea , able all f to his li e devote himself to his favourite pursuits , u he was perpet ally investigating , searching , and collecting for his monumental works and his TWO GREAT TOWNSMEN 5 3

cherished museum . He travelled much : he was Often in London he covered a great deal of paper he stored up things in his museum until it assumed considerable proportions : he was as devoted to Monk rns the past as ba himself . But he was some thing more than antiquary , topographer , and his — h e - torian was a shrewd , observant , critical minded man of the world , a sound and devoted Churchman —of Tillotsonian a somewhat sort , to be sure , and with a sneaking affection for a certain type of Nonconformist theology in which he had been trained before j oining the Church— and a very good citizen . Leeds owes much to him beyond her debt for his big books about her history and her vicars , for he not only left diaries in which he tells much of his ow n times and of the town as he b ut knew it , did practical things towards municipal of improvement . It may be that few the minor folk of Leeds in his time knew Mr . Thoresby as of R famous savant and Fellow the oyal Society , but one supposes that most Of them were well m an acquainted with him , first as a business , then as a retired gentleman living pleasantly in a com fortable Kirk ate mansion in g , and , for a time at least , as a Town Councillor of the recently incor orate p d borough . Thoresby was something of a Pepys in the keeping of his diaries— not above putting down to small things . Therefore we are indebted him for certain Odd glimpses in the Leeds life of his

time . He tells us of the Sylvan surroundings of of Kirk ate his the lower end g in day , and that Alderman Cookson has erected a very pleasant seat with terraced walks in the Calls ; he records on one u s that Febr ary day , after perusing everal 54 LEEDS authors concerning the British affairs under the e to . . Roman Conqu sts , he repaired Madame ’ Daw krey s dancing school to occupy himself in ni a ' um lear ng new steps he gives long , circ stantial of e account Edward Preston , a L eds butcher , ’ - l famous as a runner , who cou d go twice round

Chapel Town Moor (four miles) in fourteen minutes , and upon whose head as much as £ 3 000 had been w on one 168 in race ; he tells how , in January , 4 , w s o the Aire a s thickly frozen that he and Mr . l T . B . walked , with others , from the mil s below old the ( parish) church , all up the main river , on under the bridge , as far as the upper dam , the — f ice the like having scarce or never been heard o . u of He tells how a Ho se Correction was built , which the lazy poor would look upon as a Domus su licioum val w pp i , and that later part Of it was converted into a Charity School for boys and girls who were taught to know and practise the as Christian Religion , well as to read , write , spin: sew , and knit , and who had a seat in the north side of the parish church where they all . sat lo t ed decently c a h in blue . He duly records the erection in Kirkgate of the new Hall for White Clothes at near a Thousand Pounds charge by certain Merchants and Tradesmen in Town ” he himself had not a little to do with the building - 1 1 Of this eminently useful meeting place . In 7 3 he tells how they celebrated the Peace of Utrecht at Leeds with a grand procession— the constables ’ of the town ; the Mayor s son carrying a silk streamer the scholars on horseback the Common Council men in black gowns ; the Aldermen in n theirs ; the Town Clerk ; . the Sergea ts , bearing Ma or in their maces ; the y . , scarlet ; finally , the R A L PH T H O R E SB Y

‘ H I H I O R I A N O F L E E D S

16 5 8 - 1 72 5

TWO GREAT TOWNSMEN 5 5

a . w as clergy , gentlemen , and merch nts That he a true descendant of Pepys may be guessed from Mr Thomas B ernard of Leedes the following . 0 old 18 i was 5 years when he married , had ch ldren , and was so brisk that he rid a Hunting when he was above an Hundr ed years of age he could t ” hen read without Spectacles .

Thoresby was a great traveller , had many

learned correspondents , and in his time knew many

great and notable men . He visited Holland

in his youth , but his subsequent wanderings were

confined to Great Britain , generally in search of n rarities and i scriptions . He visited Durham ,

Northumberland , Scotland , Lancashire , Cheshire ,

Windsor , Oxford , Cambridge ; he was familiar h with many places in the Midlands , and e rode to all of parts his native county . But the favourite o f his travel resorts was London— h e was con ' stantl y there dining and breakfasting with bishops , scient1sts ! deans , , literary men , scholars , and alumni of all sorts . When in London he was a great hand at hearing sermons : his records of sermons and f nf services from his , youth ul Nonco ormist days to those in which he was a confirmed Churchman t are multitudinous . A good Chr is ian he was somewhat of a bigot— h e mentions w 1th horror h P t at being in ontefract , he looked into a mass ” house there , and heard a priest preach a very goo d sermon on the dangers of keeping bad com

pany , which , he says , he took as being very

seasonable to himself , he having never been in e such bad company befor . However, he had very good company amongst his various correspondents — Pr me men like Gibson , Gale , Walker , de la y , e List r , Evelyn, exchan ed re ular letters with ! g g 5 6 LEEDS

him ; his own in reply are full of much rare in

formation . ’ I t is a profound pity that Th oresby s collection of curiosities and rarities was not bought by the of of authorities Leeds at the time his death .

Thoresby himself left it , entire , to his eldest son ,

Dr . Thoresby , rector of Stoke Newington , upon whose

death , some years later , it was sold by auction

at the Exhibition Room in Spring Gardens , Charing

Cross . The sale catalogue filled twenty pages . There were certainly a good many Obj ects which — were merely curious such as , for instance , the of of reputed hand and arm the Marquis Montrose , and a Hairy Ball taken from the stomach of a - e Calf, and a Sea Tortoise brought from the Isl Of Ascension— but there was a fine gathering of gold

and silver coins and medals , Roman , British , and Saxon ; a quantity of lead and pewter medals ; a large collection of tracts (twelve volumes of these related to Leeds itself) and of autograph letters

from men like Hans Sloane , Boyle , Flamstead ,

Halley , Wren , Steele , Strype , Hearne ; a number of of manuscripts , and a Special collection obj ects relating to the Romish Superstition including i a Bull of Pope Innocent VI . for the nduction of of William Donke into the Vicarage Rotherham , 1 dated from Avignon in 1 3 6 . Thoresby also pos - of sessed the great stone salt cellar Kirkstall Abbey , with eight triangular salts round the stem and a

hollow at the top for a silver one . There were

also amulets , charms , images , and a large quantity

of . bricks and obj ects in glass , j et , and pottery T here was at least one Roman altar and there were se veral urns . Everyt hing was dispersed ; a good Of t e d ha n deal h collection , indee , d bee thrown

VI TH E TAPL TRA . S E DE

HERE are many trades and manufactures in modern Leeds— a list of them assumes considerable proportions— but from early Tudor times to the end Of the eighteenth century there one of was but real note , the trade which is still paramount in Spite of the development of many — others the trade in woollen cloths . When the sale of cloth first began in Leeds it is somewhat ffi out of di cult to make with any degree certainty , but weaving had doubtless been introduced into the West Riding of Yorkshire during the reign of Edward III to whom is usually attributed the f introduction o woollen manufacture into England . But this is a mistake— Edward ’ s Share was a much o needed revival f an ancient industry . The manu facture of wool into cloth was first practised in this country by the Romans they had one large s in factory at Winche ter , and they had others n Yorkshire . There was much Spinni g and weaving in Anglo-Saxon times— even ladies of high rank of practised these arts . Numbers Flemish weavers

came into the country with William the Conqueror , ‘ w as chiefly settling about Norwich ; it in Norfolk , ff Su olk , and Essex that the weavers brought over

from Flanders by Edward III . made their fixed of habitations . In course time , the making of woollen goods Spread to Gloucestershire and 58 THE STAPLE TRADE 5 9

on Devonshire , and eventually to t he country either side of the Pennine Range which afforded abundant pasture for vast fl ocks of sheep and a plentiful

supply of pure water for cleansing purposes . Before the beginning of the Tudor era the woollen industry di ro Of, the West Ri ng had assumed considerable p

portions , and towns like Halifax , Huddersfield , and

Bradford began to increase greatly . Doubtless the of sh ee w ork the Cistercians , who were great p f ll o farmers (Fountains usua y possessed thousands . f

sheep , which were principally shorn at a regular

sheering place set up at Kilnsey , in Wharfedale;

' and B olton Priory had a flock of between 2 000 and 00 t of th 3 0 at the ime e Dissolution) , helped towards of he the development the wool industry , and t cloth ' woven from the Kirkstall fleeces m ay have been th e

first offered for sale in Leeds . The records are but a scanty , we do know that by the time Lel nd

came to the town , the cloth market was firmly

‘ established on the bridge over the Aire at the foot

” of B ri ate met gg , where vendors and purchasers r at stated times and under ce tain market rules .

. But whence came the cloth there ! N ot from

mills and factories , but from the lonely farmsteads and cottages of the Sparsely populated dales and o mo rlands in the neighbourhood . The fabrics brought to Leeds in those days were essentially of u l home man facture ; the resu t of handicraft . In every house and cottage there was the Spinning

- wheel and the hand loom . All the processes — save , perhaps , dyeing and fulling were done by k m the fol the selves . The Sheep were shorn at home ; the fleece was picked free of rubbish and sorted ; it w as carded or combed— carded if it was n d o c m e - — b l , d . inte de for w o len o b if , for worsted y 60 LEEDS

m primitive , but presumably satisfactory , ethods . Then it was Spun into yarn— the old wheel and f in i dista f came here . Thence t passed to the ha - its weaver , whose nd loom , with shuttle cast one to neces from hand the other , was so narrow , s aril of f on y , that no length cloth O fered Leeds Bridge in the Old days would exceed some twenty

eight inches in width . Then it was fulled they did that at first by walking on the cloth (trampling on our it in shallow troughs) , hence surname Walk er =fuller Walker : there was a , in an obscure hamlet near Pontefract at the time of the P011 of 1 on Tax 3 79 , showing that fulling was carried

in very small places even then . Eventually fulling r began to be done by machine y , and there seems to have been a fulling -mill at Leeds before the year 0 of 14 0 . After that was done came in the use of teazles , which were dragged over the surface o the cloth t raise a nap . Teazles were grown in large quantities for this purpose in the West Riding until elaborate mechanical contrivances superseded their use . And then the lengths of cloth were

for . dyed , and ready sale Nearly all this work was home process . But there is a distinction to be made between woollens and worsteds . Woollens were made from beginning to end by the small producer : worsteds by Spinners and weavers to whom it had been entrusted by an intermediate ,

- the wool stapler , who had previously bought his of raw material from the growers wool , the sheep

or . breeder farmer With worsteds , however , Leeds has never had much to do : Bradford is th e capital of that industry : Leeds of woollen n a goods . And we may accordi gly s y w ith safety that the cloth which w as exposed for sale in the THE STAPLE TRADE 6 1

of old on Leeds market the days , whether Leeds or in s on one Bridge , to begin with , what Thore by Le occasion calls the Broad Street ( . the lower of B ri ate or end gg ) , in the halls which eventually came to be opened , was handicraft work , fashioned old of f with the primitive appliances wheel , dista f , and loom which are so ancient that no man knows when humaningenuity first devised them . It is not difficult to reconstruct the scene which might be viewed on the old bridge at Leeds on o the market mornings . A man who had cloth t ow n - set off sell , woven at his hand loom , would , on ow n or his goods his back , , if they were too heavy ’ for that , on his pony s , from some lonely spot in or l — th e the dales , neighbouring vi lage possibly f r night be ore , certainly in the ve y small hours .

He would find more vendors , like to himself, at the bridge . At first they spread their wares on the parapet of that ancient and narrow structure ; on a little later trestles set in the gutters . There of so was , course , much crowding in small a Space ; of n e entu complaints began to be heard , leadi g v ally to the leaving of the bridge and the trans of ference the market to the wider street . The ot seller would stand by his cloth till he g a buyer , and there would doubtless be some bargaining and

chattering . When he had sold his goods he would his set out put money in his pocket and homeward , t o make more cloth . But he would need to refresh

himself , and there was good provision made for

him . In those early days , and right into the

eighteenth century , the publicans whose houses adj oined the bridge provided meals which were known far and wide amongst the clothing fraternity of as - sellers and buyers Brig End Shots . What 62 LEEDS

' in they were Ralph Thoresby himself tells us .

his Ducatus About 1710 he was visited . on o ne occasion by Archdeacon (afterwards Bishop)

Nicholson , who brought with him his cousin , Arch d a c ol e con Pearson . Thoresby showed them his

lections and his museum , and then took them to the

cloth market , after which he treated them and himself to the famous refection which was doubtless being well patronized at the time by the humbler - folk from the adjacent dales . The Brig End

Shots , he writes , have made as great a noise

among the vulgar , where the Clothier may , together Pot of of Porra e with his Ale , have a Noggin g , ’ and a Trencher of either B oil d or Roast Beef for

- Tw o . i pence , as the Market itself Accord ngly , Thoresby and his two Archdeacons lunched that

day for Sixpence all told . Of the aspect of the Leeds cloth market at a h ad somewhat later period , when it been removed from the bridge its elf to the wider Spaces Of Brig! u a gate , there is a very interesting and acc rate ccount

given by Daniel Defoe , who , in the early years of r u the eighteenth centu y , Spent m ch time in

travelling about the Yorkshire clothing districts . a e E rly in the morning , he writ s , tressels are tw o placed in two rows in the street , sometimes on rows a side , across which boards are laid , which make a kind Of temporary counter on either side

from one end of the street to the other . The clothiers in r come early the mo ning with their cloth , and as one few bring more than piece , the market days so being frequent , they go into the inns and

’ about six o clock in the summer and about seven t in the w in er , the clothiers being all come by that

64 LEEDS

of w until the accession Queen Elizabeth , hen it was removed— only to be reinforced in 1660 and to

182 . of s remain so until 5 Yet , in spite thi , there 1 2 must have been some such export , for in 74 the Leeds Corporation made a formal protest against convey ing raw wool from Great Britain and Ireland f to foreign countries . One o the most curious attempts to protect and encourage the woollen trade was the passing of an Act of Parliament in 1 666 which ordered that henceforth all dead folk should be interred in shrouds of wool— and between this Act and the Th oresbys Of Leeds there is an for interesting connection , John Thoresby , father of non the famous topographer , was buried in its of 1666 compliance with conditions . The Act , like many other Acts of Parliament , did not con tain any provision for enforcement of its enact 1 6 8 ments . But in 7 a supplementary Act was aflidavit passed , which required an to be made on of i t the occasion every interment , cert fying tha the law of 1666 had been complied with— all such affi davits were to be noted in the parish register hence the entries which one finds bury ed in afli woollen . If eight days elapsed without an davit having been made , the clergyman concerned was bound to notify churchwardens or overseers of u the omission , and they were then to take meas res for the enforcing of a fine of five pounds against the offending parties . When John Thoresby was 1 6 affi interred in 79 at Leeds parish church , no ns davit was recorded , but the register contai the of notice omission , and his executors were doubtless

fined in accordance with the law . Ralph Thoresby himself was actively engaged in the foundation of the first covered cloth-market THE STAPLE TRADE 65

which Leeds possessed . The town had rivals in — Wak efield x the cloth trade , Halifa , Huddersfield , Bradford— and at Wakefield in 1710 there w as built a cloth hall which seemed likely to attract to its greater conveniences the clothiers w h o were in the habit of frequenting the open-air market 1 1 10 r : in Leeds . On August 4 , 7 , Thoresby w ites us M Rode with the Mayor , co in ilner , and others , hi rd u to my Lord Irwin [t s was the 3 Visco nt Irwin , who had inh erited the neighbouring seat of Temple Newsam and the Manor of Leeds from the Ingram family] about the erection of a hall for the white Kirk ate cloths in g , to prevent the damage to this one town by lately erected at Wakefield , with design to engross that affair , which is computed to bring about one hundred tradesmen every market day to this town , which that would utterly prevent f or the future if permitted . His Lordship gave all the encouragement imaginable . With Viscount Irwin ’ s approval a title was obtained to an Old ruinous Hospital of an uncertain tenure and foun Kirk ate on dations in g , and its site the White Cloth — 2 2 Hall was erected in the following year May , 1 1 1 7 . It is described by Thoresby in the -five Ducatus . Sixty years later it was given up , and the merchants in white cloths departed to a more pretentious hall built in the Calls this Served until the railways came in and wanted

Space , and was then abandoned for the modern hall which was built on a part of the grounds of 1 8 o the Old Infirmary . In 75 a mixed r coloured cloth hall was built near Mill Hill— there is an interesting account of it in the account of Leeds ’ which is given in H argrove s well -known History of

Knaresborough . It was a quadrangular building E 66 LEEDS

enclosing an open area . It was 12 8 yards long 66 : t and wide divided into Six compartmen s , each containing tw o rows of stands : every stand w as twenty-two inches in front and bore the name of to the clothier whom it belonged . There , were 1 800 stands in all : and they were originally let at three guineas , but , says Hargrove , they had been let at as much as £ 2 4 . There were strict f regulations as regards the hours o trading . The hall was opened at half-past eight in summer and half an hour later in winter by the ringing of a — a bell few minutes later , merchants and manu facturers of one began their trading . At the end a an hour fterwards , another ringing Of the bell nounced the approaching close of the market ;

fifteen minutes later , another ringing closed busi ness for the day . Each seller then left the hall , on pain of a fine of five shillings for every five minutes that he stayed in it after the ringing of in the last bell . There were similar regulations — the White Cloth Hall they were intended , as is evident , to promote regularity , punctuality , and x e pedition . The White Cloth market Opened when the Coloured market closed : strangers were permitted to enter both and to watch the pro c ee din s u g , but no clothier co ld take a stand unless he had served his apprenticeship to the trade . Many people now living in ~Le eds can remember both these halls— the White Cloth Hall was sold only twenty -three years ago as a site for the Hotel ed w as Metropole ; the Colour Cloth Hall , pulled down in 1889 to make way for the General Post of f . O fice Each was a notable , if ugly , landmark a Leeds that was already fast on its way to dis

appearance . VI I U Y . TH E E IGHTEENTH CE NT R

URING the eighteenth century Leeds was not greatly concerned with such alarums and excursions as it had know n in that January day in 16 w 43 , when Fairfax drove Savile and his fello i o t of loyal sts u the town and across the river . 1 True , in 745 , it saw something of military life and

Of possible battle . General Wade , charged with the duty Of preventing the southward advance of the Young Pretender , encamped his army in the neighbourhood Of Sheepscar and Woodhouse for of some time during the winter that year , and that military Operations were expected is proved by the fact that many Leeds people fled the town , some Of them first burying their valuables in secure - hiding places . But during this hundred years a period of prevalent dullness and drabness all over England— Leeds was chiefly concerned with its o w n y domestic affairs . It was growing . Macaula , reckoning its population from the hearth-money ate 168 returns , estim s that in 5 its population was not less than seven thousand . It had probably doubled by 175 0 ; in 1775 it was about During the last quarter of th e century it i ncreased by leaps and bounds , and when the first census was taken in 1801 it w as Between the end of the Stuart period and the 67 68 LEEDS

middle of the Georgian era nothing was so much improved in England as the means of c ommunic a one of tion between place and another . We this day can scarcely conceive the isolation of the various settlements and communities of the old days one men were born , they lived , they died in place , knowing little Of the outside world save by rumour

which had much of the legendary in it . There

was no penny post , no cheap telegram there were

no roads worthy the name , no canals , no railways . It was as serious a business to go from Leeds to Bradford— nine miles— as it now is to travel from idi . hi o s Leeds to Edinburgh W taker says , in his L lm ete 1 and E , that up to 75 3 the roads in the neighbourhood of Leeds were no more than hollow of of ways , the width a mere ditch , just permitting the passage of a Single vehicle on one Side was an fla - or elevated causeway , covered with g stones

boulders . Along these causeways the merchandise 9 of the district was carried on the backs of horses— - the pack horse , indeed , was as familiar in York shire and Lancashire as railways are now : at many of the wayside inns pack-horses were kept n for hire . Matters certai ly improved as regards transit and communication between the end of ’ ’

I I s I I I . S Charles . reign and the beginning of George - the goods waggon and the stage -coach came into

- being . Of the early stage coaches , Thoresby has c much to tell in his Diary . He mentions a oach which ran between York and Hull in 1 679 ; of ’ another that did the twenty -four miles j ourney between York and Leeds in eight hours . Later , the increasing trade of Leeds brought in a service of goods waggons which became organized into a good and dependable system ; these waggons TH E EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 69 made the j ourney between Leeds and London in hi - t rty six hours , passing through the principal towns l Of the Mid ands , and the service was daily there were also stage -coaches for passenger traffic which n eventually did the same j ourney in twe ty hours . But by that time the roads had been much im — c hiefl proved y , as far as Yorkshire was concerned , of by the extraordinary achievements John Metcalf , of better known as Blind Jack Knaresborough , of - n who , in Spite his life long i firmity , built thousands of miles of fine highway in Yorkshire and Lancashire . One local Specimen of his work is the road between Leeds and Chapeltown ; another that between

Harrogate and Harewood . And before his time the Turnpike trusts had come in and were improving — 1 the roads not without much Opposition . In 75 3 a carter refused to pay toll at Beeston turnpike , was carried before the authorities in Leeds , and rescued from them by the m ob ; thereupon a riot ensued between populace and soldiery which resulted f in the deaths o eight people . But the roads continued to improve ; the existence of the toll bar came to be regarded with equanimity , and there dl - are many folk living , and not much above mid e age , who remember when these old-world institutions f were much in evidence in this part o Yorkshire . With the linking together of the towns by means of much improved roads came , in the last half of the eighteenth century , another scarcely less of — important method communication by water . There had been a certain amount of river trade in : Yorkshire for some time York , far away up the s Ou e , had been regarded as a port ; there was a on s considerable trade the Ure , a far as Borough bridge and Ripon ; there was some trade on the 70 LEEDS

the ~ alf~centur Aire itself . But it was not until h y dl had been passed, and Brin ey had built the famous Bridgewater Canal between Manchester and the ’ - Duke Of Bridgewater s coal pits at Worsley , that the possibilities of water-transit seem to have struck

t . the merchan s and commercial men England , u f indeed , had been c riously indi ferent to the value of a system which had already found much favour in Italy and France , and had been in existence in

Eastern countries for many centuries . But w hen the eccentric Duke and his scarcely less eccentric engineer had shown what could be done— and in of diffi culties— in face great Lancashire , Yorkshire t business men took up the idea , and the first resul was the making of th e great canal between Leeds and of Liverpool , the entire course which was surveyed 1 6 - by Brindley himself about 7 5 6 . The necessary of 1 68— Act Parliament was obtained in 7 9 , and the ff of directors O ered the post engineer to Brindley , but he w as at that time so much occupied in other parts of the country that he w as obliged to decline

t . 1 0 heir offer This highly important waterway , 3 m l df iles in length , inking up Leeds and Bra ord , with Wigan and Liverpool , and passing through many smaller centres of trade in Yorkshire and not 18 16 Lancashire , was fully completed until , but various portions of it were finished and in use forty years previously . While the town w as rendered more easily — — leavable by m eans of . im approachable and p au proved roads and the new canal system , the

‘ th orities im ove were not slow to m it internally. An Act of Parliament for the lighting and paving of 1 1 1 the streets was obtained in 75 5 in 79 , the a s rof e s town was lighted with oil . The n me stre t

TH E EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 71 which are now household words began to emerge at this period : about the same time some of the n B ri ate a cient landmarks begin to disappear . In gg R ow there was then what was known as Middle , of an obstructing block buildings , with narrow on At alleys either side , known as the Shambles . its lower end stood the Moot Hall ; it had a new 1 10 front given to it in 7 . Near it were such time honoured institutions as the Common Bakehouse , the Prison , the Pillory , the Stocks . From purely archaeological reasons one wishes they were still

there , but in course of time they disappear before

the ruthless utilitarian Spirit . Other features gradu

ally arise . Mill Hill is in evidence as far back as

1 6 2 . 7 , when a chapel is erected there Park Place begins to be mentioned before 1 780 Park Square by 1793 Albion Street seems to have been in some f 1 o 2 . sort existence by 79 Boar Lane , which had of been the Park Lane an earlier age , having in it many elegant seats of' gentlemen— town-houses of the Yorkshire country squires— was a narrow street 1 2 of n in 7 7, and remained a mea sort for more than ’ h res . T o b s a century afterwards In y days , it had delightful gardens about and behind it there is a record of a snake having been caught in one of

these gardens in 1 773 . The social improvement of any town may best be estimated by finding out what was done for the

poorer folk by the authorities . As usual , every thing that was done in Leeds in the beginning came from private charity— in the eighteenth century we were still a long way off from that temper of mind which insists that the State or the Corporation of has some duties other than the collection taxes .

’ In Leeds Josiah Jenkinson set an example by 72 LEEDS

founding almshouses for aged and poor folk in

1 643 : his beneficiaries had £ 5 each per annum . John Harrison ’ s Hospital provided a comfortable for asylum between sixty and seventy old women , of each whom received , in addition to lodging ,

. 1 one fifty shillings a quarter In 73 7 Mr . Potter founded almshouses for the widows of deceased Leeds tradesmen : each widow received twelve

guineas a year . Eighteen years previously , another Mr fo s . r Leeds woman , Dixon , founded a charity

the benefit of the widows of Leeds clergymen . But the great and all -important charitable work of the eighteenth century in Leeds w as the founding for Of the Infirmary , which was Opened patients 1 6 in 7 7. It owed its origin to William Hey , a Leeds man who embraced medicine as his profession and

made philanthropy his hobby . Its first provision was one of its twelve beds , and within four years from foundation it had spent just over £ 2 000 in the relief ’ of the sick in the year 1 900 it possessed 440 beds and it laid out Since that first humble I nfirm ar — u 1 16— beginning , Leeds y p to 9 has dealt in- out- t with patients , and pa ients , and has spent on them — all given by

voluntary subscription . But what of the very poor folk— the paupers 1 62 ‘ of In 9 , Richard Sykes , Esquire , alderman the ns borough , founded an i titution which one chronicler for euphemistically calls an Asylum Poverty . The word asylum has various meanings attached to it— one fears that the Leeds paupers were not regarded as being much other than nuisances

until comparatively recent times . Some years

of a . e eds ago , a member L Board of Guardians who e a vidently possessed n antiquarian turn of mind, TH E EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 73 searched the records of the Board which he then t administered , and copied out certain extrac s which showed that between 1 75 0 and 1780 paupers accommodated in the Asylums for Poverty had anything but a pleasant life . They were frequently beaten . The whip was much in use for recalcitrant

old . females , even for women Inmates who had not on Sunday presented themselves at a Protestant place of worship — where else they could have gone in those days it is difli cult to conj ecture— were condemned to forfeiture of their poor dinners .

Obviously , the poor were considered to be little better , if at all better , than criminals . As to criminals and their treatment in Leeds we know of something from John Howard , who says Leeds “ Town Gaol that it consisted of four rooms fronting 1 2 one the street , feet by 9 , and a smaller , and that two deserters lately escaped by filing the - bars . Since [that] the windows are double barred , so that no files can be conveyed to the p risoners of The State Prisons , But in Spite of curious notions— common to everybody , generally Speaking , in those unen lightened days— as to how paupers and prisoners saw should be treated , Leeds many improvements and steps towards progress in the eighteenth cen

. one tury For thing , new churches began to lift — or — not their spires , at any rate , their roofs 1 2 always in architecturally artistic fashion . In 7 7, mainly through the instrumentality of Lady Eliza w h o for beth Hastings , did much higher education in Yorkshire by founding the well-known Hastings ’ Exhibitions at Queen s College , Oxford , Holy 1 Trinity in Boar Lane was Opened ; in 793 St . ’ Pa P r as end ul s in a k Square w built . By the of 74 ‘ LEEDS

n e the ce tury , then , Leeds had four church s . Mean while the various bodies of Dissenters had not been 1 n idle . As far back as 672 the Presbyteria s had opened a meeting-house in Mill Hill ; it was closed 1 6 2 ‘ in 8 and reopened five years later . Of this congregation , which became Unitarian , the famous s i J o eph Priestley , scientist and ph losopher , was 1 of minister from 1767 to 1773 . In 691 a chapel the Independents w as opened ; eight years later - the Quakers built a meeting house in Water Lane . In 1742 John Wesley was preaching in Leeds ; in 1 75 1 his followers built their first chapel ; in 1 797 the seceders of the Methodist New Connexion 1 f w ent apart . In 779 the first chapel o the Baptists was erected ; and in 1 790 the first R oman Catholic 1 church was opened in Lady Lane . In 794 that curiously shaped fabric afterwards known as St . ’ James 3 Church was Opened in York Street : it ’ was then a chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon s “ n Connexion ; later , being purchased by a clergyma ” of old the Established Church , says an chronicler ‘ of it ul the period , was d y consecrated by the Archbishop of this Province — for Leeds was still i n of the archdiocese York . So where the Leeds folk bega n the century with three principal places of worship , they wound it up with quite a number , and of quite a variety in the matters of faith and practice . There were other steps towards progress and

' ei hteenth centur civilization in Leeds during the g y. 1 18 The newspaper made its appearance . In 7 the Leeds Mereury was founded by James Lister of t as a sheet twelve small pages , prin ed in very - a . l rge type , and sold at three half p ence Oddly u a eno gh , it at first cont ined very little local news TH E EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 75 it was largely made up in the paste -and-scissors 1 fashion from the London j ournals . In 75 5 it one came to a stop , only to be revived by Bowling in 1767 in 1 794 he sold it to two partners named — it Binns and Brown , and at that time then being a weekly publication— it had a circulation of 3 000 1801 copies . In it was bought by Edward Baines , and in the hands of the Baines family it remained - 18 for a hundred years , becoming a tri weekly in 5 5 ,

l 1861 . a and a dai y in , and attaining foremost

o . sa p sition amongst provincial newspapers From , y , 1 85 0 it was one of the leading Liberal organs in

England , and of vast weight with North Country

of . 1 men Radical tendencies Meanwhile , in 75 4, ’ Mercnr s the forerunner of the y great rival , the Yorkshire Post of , was started under the title the lli L d I t ncer . f ee s n e ge Its founder was a Mr . Gri fith

Wright , whose successors eventually sold it to H ernam an Messrs . and Perring . It began its daily Yorkshire Post 1866 career as the in , and under the successive editorships Of three great j ournalists , the d a Peb o . . late Ch rles y, the late H J Palmer , and nk Mr . J . S . R . Phillips , has come to ra with the Scotsman Glas ow H erald Manchester , the g , the Guardian B irmin ham Dail Post , and the g y , as di out Of the five lea ng papers published London .

In addition to libraries , books began to be in evidence— the now famous Leeds Library was Kirk ate 1 68 started at a bookshop in g in 7 , Dr . a Priestley being its first secret ry . Print and paper doubtless helped to improve the manners and morals of - — at i eighteenth century Leeds any rate , Will am ia ‘ Wilberforce , making a note in his d ry a s regards 1 6 r Public Morality in 79 , w ites , Dr . Percival k of thin s the manners Leeds remarkably frugal , 76 LEEDS

of c sober , and commercial . None the mer hants

Spend money , and it would be discreditable to attend public places . There is a certain note of priggishness about this , and it might have been well if the merchants had attended public places and had Spent money amongst their poorer fellow

townsfolk . For at that time the working classes

- in Leeds were very badly housed , and ill paid , and - ill fed , and the eighteenth century wound up there s with serious Bread Riot .

75 LEEDS

t — men mul iplied , the factory came into existence no longer worked in their own houses but in herds

in the grim , ugly buildings which Sprang up in all the Yorkshire valleys where motive power was to be found in the watercourses which poured down of the rugged hillsides . New features industrial

life showed themselves . N ot only men poured but ’ w om en into the factories , as well , and in time

even young children . Hence arose the Factory System which for many years of the eighteenth and for nearly one -h alf of the nineteenth centuries o was a disgrace t English civilization . But the new machines and the new system would never have made the Speedy headway which was s o quickly on both had it not been for th e introduc of tion steam as a motive power . Man had been for experimenting with steam ages , but never with any success worth considering until James

Watt invented his first engine , and his successors , m e m who were many , i prov d upon his notions . Stea was first applied to the pumping engines in coal t o - of mines , then the paddle wheels boats before the end of the eighteenth century it was in con s ider le in ab use the factories . Certain factory of Worm alds owners Leeds , the Gotts , , and Marshalls in r ul h pa tic ar , appear to ave seen its possibilities r to at a ve y early period , and have introduced it into their works . Arthur Young , the famous agricultural expert , who travelled widely over the ’

I I I . S country in George reign , says that , when he 1 6 was at Leeds in 79 , there were at least eight - steam engines working in the woollen mills . At ’ ’ Marshall s flax mill at Holbeck one of Savery s steam-engines was at work in 1791 in 1 792 one Of ’ Watt and Boulton s 2 8 -horse-power engines w as

TH E N EW FORCES 79

introduced , and in the following year nearly a thou - sand flax Spindles were being run by steam . at this

r . t o facto y alone Leeds , indeed , was very much

the front in the use of steam . It was the first place in England in which a steam locomotive w as f ffi . o used for railway tra c In the time George II . r there was , at the Middleton Collie y , a little way out of on the town , a tramway laid down , which ran waggons dr awn by horses ; in 18 12 a steam-engine was introduced which could draw 140 tons weight o f coal at the rate of three and a half miles an hour . In the following year a steamboat was in use on the river Aire but another twenty years had gone saw before Leeds its first steam railway engine . With the increas e in machinery and the intro of of duction steam as motive power , a number

new industries Sprang up in Leeds . Until the middle of the eighteenth century the woollen cloth industry may be said to have monopolized the ’ 1 800 u townsfolk s energies , but by vario s new manu

factures and trades were in being . Pottery began to be manufactured in considerable quantity in 1 60 - of 7 . The well known family Marshall , after beginning the spinning of flax by machinery at out of set Scotland Mill , a few miles the town , up

flax and linen mills at Holbeck , whereat in time vast numbers of hands were employed— a fine memorial of this family exists in the beautiful church at Holbeck erected by one of its members

at a later period . But the great feature of Leeds industrial life in the early years of the nineteenth of century , outside its staple trade woollen cloth — not ‘ manufacture , was its machinery merely as

use . regards , but in making Nowadays Leeds is one of the chief machine-manufacturing cities in 80 LEEDS

i m le the world . It sends out machinery and p of s ments all sort , from gigantic locomotives down

es to . to the smallest articl , all quarters Of the globe This development may be said to have begun when one Peter Fairbairn , a man of great skill , energy , 182 8 and foresight , came to Leeds in and began

a singularly successful career . But he developed

what was already in existence . Thirty years

before his coming , a mechanic , Matthew Murray , one came into Leeds night , on foot and penniless , to lay the foundations of a trade which has since

assumed gigantic proportions . Murray at once ’ i r Obtained employment at Marshall s m lls ; late , he went into partnership with two men named Fenton and Wood as engineers ; he introduced machinery widely in Leeds ; he was responsible for the steam-locomotive (an improvement on ’ Trevithick s well -known engine) at Middleton

. as Colliery He w a remarkable man , and did great things for Leeds but Peter Fairbairn was th e - B e true pioneer of machine making in the town . ginning in very humble fashion in a small room in

Lady Lane , with only two assistants , Fairbairn before many years were over had started the famous r of Wellington Found y , whereat in course time

thousands of hands came to be employed . This was only the first of a number of other foundries - and machine making shops . Iron began to be worked in the immediate district , at Kirkstall nl and at Far ey , close by ; at Low Moor and at

Bowling , not very far away . Iron was therefore out of i plentiful , and the opening the great Yorksh re c oalfield , extending from Leeds to Barnsley , made fuel abundant . Other folks followed in Peter Fair ’ f n bairn s w ake . The history o industrial Leeds duri g

82 LEEDS

figures— a Le icester share touched £ 15 5 ; a Grand 0 11 0 1 1 Trunk , £ 3 5 a Birmingham , £ 5 . Between 79 1 8 1 and 794, Canal Acts were obtained , involving of 1 1 6 an outlay between 794 and 79 , 45 more Acts were passed— all these in addition 0 1 0 18 8 to the 3 Obtained previous to 79 . Up to 3 , to according a calculation made by Rennie , the i 2 of famous eng neer , 477 miles canals had been constructed in Great Britain at an expenditure of High dividends were paid : in 1 8 18 Grand Trunk shares were yielding a dividend of 6 of to of £ 5 . Benefits , course , accrued users canals as well as t o shareholders : Leeds merchants and manufacturers benefited greatly by the Leeds and

Liverpool canal , by the Aire navigation , and by the smaller canals which connected the growing

town with other parts Of the country . But at of the very height canal business and prosperity , r the railways came in , and as soon as Geo ge Stephenson had demonstrated the possibilities of traflic the steam locomotive , the canal was surely — for of doomed the rest the nineteenth century ,

at any rate . Nowadays we are making valiant efforts to revive it ; no better example of our national want of foresight can be had than that afforded by the fact that for seventy years we our allowed waterways to lie comparatively idle . George Stephenson made the railway line b e tween Darlington and Stockton in 18 2 5 the line between Manchester and Liverpool followed five 1 of years later . 83 4 witnessed the introduction railway life to Leeds in the form Of ‘ a line made

’ between Leeds and Selby . There is an account

' of tits birth in the Leeds Mercnry Of a few days ”

. s the ater Thi stupendous public work , says TH E N EW FORCES 83 ,

on . writer , was Opened Monday morning last 2 2 [The date Of the Opening was September , 1 0 The passengers numbered about 5 . Upwards of two hours were Spent in travelling the

first four and a half miles . About two hours having been allowed for festivity and mutual con on gratulation , the train started its return from and Selby about a quarter past eleven , reached Leeds at half-past twelve amidst the applause of For ac c omm o the spectators . the greater dation of passengers the railway train will for the present start from Leeds precisely at half-past six in the morning and again at half-past one in the ” afternoon . The first Leeds station was at Marsh Lane the present Wellington Station was Opened in 1848 ; the Central in 1854 ; the New Station 1 86 u in 9 . Little by little the town was linked p ffi with Hull , York , She eld , Bradford , Dewsbury ; with the Durham and Northumberland towns with Manchester and Liverpool ; with the Midlands and Of London . Within fifty years the first humble ’ at train s appearance , Leeds folk were looking gorgeous Pullman cars wherein Leeds merchants could 1011 at their ease while the Swift Midland engines hurried them from Leeds to London . While much was done to develop c ommunica tion between Leeds and other centres , near and far , little had been accomplished in the way of 1 1 interior transit up to 87 . The town by that out time had thrown itself in all directions . It was no longer the hamlet clustering around the

ancient bridge , nor the borough which in Ralph ’ Thoresby s day was bounded by Timble Bridge in one direction , Mill Hill in another ; the Aire i n to B ri ate a third , the p of gg in a fourth . It had 84 LEEDS spread from Hunslet to Kirkstall ; from Farnley O u to Roundhay 3 it took in a vast area , with a p p of lation of quite a quarter a million . As in other n towns , the omnibus was in evidence , but om i buses were already becoming as obsolete as stage - 18 1 coaches and post chaises . In 7 certain private ul Spec ators , knowing that the tramway system was proving successful in various big centres (it had h first been introduced into England at Birken ead , 1860 in , by Francis Train , and subsequently at Liverpool on a scale of some magnitude in and taking advantage of the Tramways Act of 1 8 0 7 , formed themselves into a private company and began a service of horse -drawn tramcars which was at first much welcomed and appreciated . But the usual difliculties attendant upon private enterprise soon aros e ; the Leeds folk began to be dissatisfied with the service , and there were frequent disputes between the tramway directors and th e of municipal authorities as to the repair the roads . In 1894 the differences were settled and the diffi culties Solved by the Corporation acquiring the rights of the private company at a cost of over

and since then , first by the introduction of - us e of steam driven , and afterwards by the - electricity propelled cars , Leeds folk have been able to j ourney from one confi ne of the city to another

. if at their ease They can , indeed , they choose so to waste their time in doing , take a j ourney by tramcar from Leeds to Manchester— an adventure which has been accomplished more than once by the inquisitive . This Spirit of acquisition of aids to comfort and convenience has been much to the fore in

Leeds during modern times . It seems an odd thing

86 LEEDS nobody ever thought of sanitation until cholera came as it did to Leeds in 185 0. Now the muni c ip al authorities are always sorely exercised about drains and sewers and insanitary areas and Slum dwellings and Open Spaces , with the result that Leeds is well drained and carefully supervised and its inhabitants are well supplied with large and handsomely appointed public parks . 1 E F M x. R OR

HE population of the United Kingdom at the general Census of 183 1 was The twenty-four millions were governed by a Parlia s o of ment which , far as the House Commons was

n . concer ed , was supposed to be representative In sober truth , in real fact , popular representation was a delusion . Out of close upon seven hundred members of the House of Commons nearly one half was returned to Westminster by private patronage . Statistics , often appealed to in the - pre Reform warfare , proved that no less than three hundred and seven members of Parliament were returned by one hundred and fifty-four per in sons . There had been little change the methods of of t election since the days Henry VII . wha ever change had taken place had been to the advantage of the privileged rather than to that of the people . Parliament , writes the late ”

. f . . o s Mr S J Reid in his Life Lord John Ru sell , was little more than an assembly of delegates sent by large landowners . Ninety members were returned by forty -six places in which were less than fifty electors and seventy members were returned by thirty-five places containing scarcely any electors P — at all . laces such as Old Sarum consisting of a mound and a few ruins— returned tw o members s m whilst Manche ter, Leeds , and Birmingha , in 87 88 LEEDS

of ei t too spite th r great populations , and in Spi e , , of keen political intelligence and far-reaching com m ercial of activity , were not yet j udged worthy the least voice in affairs . At Gatton the right of election lay in the hands of freeholders and house holders paying scot and lot ; but the only elector ” was Lord Monson , who returned two members . of or a roxi Similar instances to that Gatton , pp in mating very closely to it , might be recorded

definitely they occurred all over the country .

The injustice to Leeds was particularly glaring . It had returned two members for a limited period during the Commonwealth : since then it had had

no direct representation . Such electors as lived it— a — within limited number were county electors , on who , whenever an election came , had to travel to 1 1 O u York to record their votes . But in 83 the p p lation of Leeds had risen to and amongst this vast body were men of acute intelligence who were keenly desirous Of having some share in th e government of the country through the power to

vote . Yorkshiremen have always been keen poli ticians of m , and the Spirits of unrest and refor were very much abroad in the years which s aw

’

on . George IV . the throne The anomalies were as

wicked as they were ludicrous . Here was a town with the largest population in the county and no representative in the House of Commons : a few - u miles away Knaresborough , a pocket boro gh t o of belonging the Dukes Devonshire , sent two members w h o were elected by a small parcel of

a of . burg ge holders , nominees the reigning Duke Places of no commercial importance like H edon and Boroughbridge returned tw o members each ; at Thirsk forty -nine of the fifty burgage tenements

90 LEEDS Macaulay was at that time a Commissioner in not Bankruptcy , and he was unknown as a barrister at some of the West Riding court-houses already he was of some note in political circles as a promising ” man . I hear , writes Disraeli in The Young ” “ u D ke , that Mr . Babington Macaulay is to be

. I returned f he Speak half as well as he writes , the House will be in fashion again . Macaulay received his invitation from the Leeds Whigs in 1 8 1 October, 3 , and at once accepted it . The

Leeds Tories brought out Mr . Michael Sadler , who ‘ had recently been prominently before the ’ public in connection with the Duke of Newcastle s - of pocket borough Newark , and had been the subject o f w a smart attack i n the Edinburgh Revie . Owing ’ to Macaulay 5 connection with the famous quarterly a good deal of personal bitterness was infused ow n into the contest . In regard to his relations to his possible constituents Macaulay adopted a s of ul iv ingular amount independence . He wo d g e ld . o no pledges Under the system , he writes in a letter sent to the Leeds electors , I have never fi e been the atter r of the great . Under the new system I will not be the flatterer of the people . s s nl He had various passage at arm , not o y with his ow n on Opponent , but with his party but December 1 2 1 8 2 , 3 , he was able to write from Leeds to his sister : The election here is going on as well To- as possible . day the poll stands thus Marshall 1 80 4 ; Macaulay 1792 ; Sadler 13 53 . The proba il b ity is that Sadler will give up the contest . If he persists he will be completely beaten . In the end Marshall and Macaulay were returned , and the future historian took his seat for Lee ds when

R 18 . the first eformed Parliament met in January , 33

92 LEEDS

Gladstone without his consent, and returned him at the top of the poll by an unprecedented vote of 2 62 2 4 , ; the nearest Conservative candidate ,

. rw rt Mr W . L . Jackson (afte ards Lord Alle on) , only recervm g votes . Mr . Gladstone , however , was duly elected for Midlothian , and chose to sit for that constituency : the Leeds vacancy was fil son e then led by his Herbert , who was el cted without opposition and remained member for for Leeds many years . of R Soon after the passing the first eform Act , Leeds had a Share in reform which was just as r — so necessa y far more , indeed , in certain practical — matters as parliamentary readjustment . From its very beginning the Factory System of England had been a curse and an abomination . Men , women , and children were forced into the factories to work under conditions which were far worse than those under which the negro slaves of America laboured . ' of r . Persons all ages and both sexes , w ites Dr

Tickner , in his Social and Industrial History of ” England , were collected together in the new factories with a totally ins uffi cient regard for their s of health and their morals . The rapid exten ions commerce led to long hours of labour by night as well as by day . The transference of work to women and children brought about a lowering of the standard of comfort in the homes of the people . The conditions of employment were in very many cases horrible ; the hours of labour were long the strength and intelligence demanded were quite beyond those of the children employed whippings and worse punishments were used to keep them t o their tasks after they were quite tired out ; mind w or and body alike ere neglected , worse still , were REFORM 93

of of fatally injured . Worst all was the condition e the pauper apprentic s , who were taken in batches - by the masters of the water mills , whose position in out-of-the-way places made it difficult for them ffi to Obtain su cient labour . The position of these one of poor apprentices was literally slavery , Often of of of a very brutal type . Some the stories their life seem hardly believable unfortunately they are proved true by the evidence of Royal Commissions of Inquiry . Before the recommendations Of the various R d f oyal Commissions could be carrie into e fect , however , and while most people in England were utterly ignorant of the horrors and cruelties which were being perpetrated in the manufacturing dis tricts set , a cry for j ustice and redress had been up in Leeds . Three Yorkshiremen had been pro foundly stirred by the vile practices which obtained — in the mills and workshops John Fielden , a Tod dl morden manufacturer ; Michael Thomas Sa er , of a Parliamentarian whom we have already heard , R - w as and ichard Oastler , a land agent , who a — of . 2 18 o a native Leeds On September 9, 3 day always to be remembered in the annals of factory reform— a letter appeared in the Leeds Mercury of R over the signature ichard Oastler , in which attention was drawn to the slavery that was going on in the worsted and woollen districts— a state ” of r Slavery more ho rid, said the writer, than

that hellish system , colonial slavery . He poured scorn on the members of Parliament (of whom William Wilberforce was a type) w h o shed sentimental tears over the African slaves while they had not one word of pity for the slave-children

at home . The very streets , he wrote , which 94 LEEDS

receive the droppings of the Anti-Slavery Society are every morning wet by the tears of innocent victims at the accursed shrine of avarice who are - of compelled , not by the cast whip the negro Slave of l driver, but by the dread the equally appa ling or of thong strap the overlooker to hasten , half not of dressed , but half fed , to those magazines n British i fantile slavery , the worsted mills . of Thousands little children , both male and female ,

but principally female , from seven to fourteen of years age , are daily compelled to labour from ’ six o clock in the morning to seven in the e vening with only thirty minutes allowed for eating

and recreation . This letter rang like a clarion

. of through the land To it, and to the labours

Fielden , Sadler , and Oastler, may be primarily attributed the various reforms which within the next twenty years completely changed the life of

the factory and workshop . Other men , and notably

y Lord Shaftesbur , j oined in the movement , but

to these three (who are commemorated , Sadler by

a statue in Leeds parish church , Oastler by another ielden at Bradford , F by various memorials at Tod morden) was chiefly due the inception of the f agitation which swept slavery out o the mills . While reform was in the air as regards factory adminis life , it also came to the front as regards the 1 8 tration of the Poor Laws . In 3 3 a Commission of sat of Inquiry by order Parliament , and after collecting a large mass of evidence issued a report as to how poor relief was being given and as to the

economy of the workhouses . The commissioners declared that the workhouse of that day was no more than a large almshouse in which the ltrained young are in idleness , ignorance , and vice

96 LEEDS

in respect to the poor, the imbecile , and the t of criminal . Kindness exists in the breas the of en guardian , even in that the modern repres tative s of of Mr . Bumble in tead the idiot being chained nd a whipped , he is carefully housed in such palatial buildings as those at Menston and Wadsley , and if of old- Armley Gaol is something the fashioned , as ff modern prisons go , it is a vastly di erent prison to that old Yorkshire one of which Howard tells in which the unfortunate captives were sore put to it to avoid being eaten alive by rats . X . TH E REVIVAL OF CHURCH LIFE

BOUT the time of reform in matters parlia mentary there was much similar reform in matters religious . For three hundred years a great many Englishmen had suffered under serious re li i of ous . g disabilities Nonconformists all sorts ,

Roman Catholic and Protestant , had been obliged to practise their religion in more or less of a hole and-corner fashion even in the eighteenth century the Romanist priest was saying his Mass in fear and trembling in some obscure stable -loft or back of room an inn , while the itinerant Methodist ’ preacher s sermon by the wayside was , as often as not , terminated by his being thrown into the - w nearest horse pond . Where toleration as per mitte d by law , it was often ignored in particular places ; the Yorkshire Nonconformist , Oliver

Heywood , in Spite of a licence signed by Charles

II . and Mr . Secretary Arlington , was constantly harassed by local magistrates and more than once thrown into York Castle . But during the first of quarter the nineteenth century , matters began 1 8 8 to mend . In 2 the Test and Corporation Acts were repealed ; 1 82 9 witnessed Catholic Emanei ation 1 8 6 p ; in 3 , marriage in dissenting chapels was made legally valid in 1 85 8 Jews were allowed to enter Parliament ; i n 1 871 religious tests were 97 G 98 LEEDS

new abolished at the Universities . Under the of onc onformit order things N y, in all its various s hades and complexions , flourished exceedingly in

Leeds . The principal Protestant dissenting bodies had already got a strong footing in the town during the eighteenth century : in the first half of the nineteenth they increased mightily in power— the

Independents especially , who became a great t poli ical as well as a religious force : when Dr .

Hook first went to Leeds , Nonconformists ruled th e r f roost in eve ything ; even in Church af airs . N or was Roman Catholicism slow of growt h in th e town , once the Old , savage penal laws were n o removed . Largely owi g to a great influx f Irish

labour into the town , new churches supplemented t of 1 86 hat first erected in honour St . Anne in 7 , a nd various convents arose in various districts . I X When Pope Pius . restored the English Hierarchy 18 0 one i n in 5 , Leeds was Of the towns the new diocese of Beverley in 1 878 that diocese was Split tw o o — one into new di ceses Middlesborough being , one Leeds the other . Where there was Roman 18 0 Catholic church in Leeds in 3 , there are now a c s n cathedral and fifteen other chur hes , a emi ary , of a theological college , and the houses several or religious orders . Within the modern city , close o n - its boundaries , there are several well known theological colleges or schools belonging to other one - religious bodies . In what may call brick and m ortar provision for religion , indeed , Leeds has been well served during the last hundred years : no Off city in the kingdom is better , relatively , in th e of matter churches , chapels , and religious s t in ti utions . B ut the great revival of religion in Leeds during

100 LEEDS

places being filled with seats , and galleries being

fitted in the nave , the parish church was yet found too small for so numerous and u nanimous

a congregation . He also records that in 172 3 they had a very grand (and evidently extremely inartistic and ugly) altar-piece in Leeds parish

church , with gilt , velvet , and cherubs , but , n he adds , the greatest or ament is a choir well ” filled with devout communicants .

Nevertheless , when Dr . Hook first came to Leeds in 1 83 7 (the year following that which saw of of R the foundation the new Bishopric ipon , to which Leeds was allocated) Church matters and life

to . were at a very low ebb . He had much face He had already made a great reputation as parish

priest and impressive preacher at Coventry . The trustees of Leeds parish church knew his power : six Of them , Wall , Becket , Gott , Banks , Tennant on and Atkinson , repaired to Coventry Sunday ,

1 2 18 . March , 3 7, to hear him preach The result was that most of the trustees of the advowson

favoured him but a certain minority did not . Neither did the ultra -Prot estant Ch urc hfolk of ff — h e Leeds . He su ered the usual charges was a Papist in disguise ; he held the doctrine of Tran substantiation ; he was an avowed follower Of

Pusey and Newman ; he was a Jesuit . A strongly worded memorial against his election was signed by 400 persons ; it produced a counter-petition 2 0 signed by 3 00. On March the trustees were assembled in the parish church vestry ; in the church itself a great crowd of parishioners awaited

the result . At last the chairman , Mr . Henry Hall appeared in the choir and declared the trustees — 16 out decision Dr . Hook was elected by votes W D R . H . F. OOK

V I CA R O F L E E D S 1 8 - , 3 7 5 9

102 LEEDS

' churched twice a day ; funerals were of daily

u od 3 w as occ rrence , the school accomm ation , wretched ; th e churchwardens were nearly all s valid , Dis enters ; the services had been rendered in a slovenly and neglectful manner ; as to Churc h of w Spirit , the whole number communicants hen

. 0 s Dr Hook arrived was little more than 5 , and mo t o f these were women ; a clergyman w h o had been ’ of f vicar St . John s for thirty years a firmed that ’ he had never seen a young man at the Lord s Table .

Much disgrace attached to confirmations . Instead Of being regarded in their true light and significanc e they were looked upon as occasions for merry ” making they were frequently, writes Dean s Stephens , the occasions of scandalou festivities

. of and improprieties , and many the candidates returned to their homes initiated in vice instead ” o f being confirmed in goodness . One may j udge from these facts what sort of Churchmanship it s d 1 8 w a that Dr . Hook found at Lee s in 3 7. The

. d real fact is , he wrote to his friend W . P Woo [Lord Hatherley] within a week or two of his arrival , that the established religion in Leeds is Methodism , and it is Methodism that all the mos t pious among the Churchmen unconsciously ” talk . ’ of f w as One Dr . Hook s first great di ficulties his with churchwardens . The first vestry meeting held after his appointment as Vicar of Leeds re sulted of of in the election churchwardens , most them Dissenters or men otherwise unfavourable ” or indifferent to the interests Of the Church . Then began the troubles which many— the new — vicar included h ad foreseen . The parish d e n n d churchwar en, writes D a Stephe s , prove THE REVIVAL OF CHURCH LIFE 1 03

true to the spirit in w hich they had been elected . The vicar found the surplices in rags and the ‘

service books in tatters , but the churchwardens doggedly refused to expend a farthing upon such

things . When they assembled at the church for - a vestry meeting , they, and others like minded ; piled their hats and coats upon the holy table , and sometimes even sat upon it ; but the new vicar, with stern resolution , quickly put a stop to such profane outrages . He told them that he should take the keys Of the church , and that no n ! meeti gs would be held there in future . Eh one l ou ! said , but how wi l y prevent it We ’ Y ou shall get in if we like . will pass over my ” dead body , then , replied the vicar . This was precisely the sp 1r1t in which to deal with these n — highly obj ectio able persons your Yorkshireman , determined enough himself , is always Sharp enough , too , to recognize a still more determined man and to see reason in him . Later that year , Dr . Hook found himself confronting a mob of 3 000 parishioners assembled as a parish meeting in the ' Old Cloth Hall Yard and full of malignant hostility to the church and the vicar . A statement was of made the probable expenses for the coming year . 3 d 1 1 6 . They amounted t o £ 3 5 5 . A halfpenny rate was proposed and seconded . A Baptist preacher named Giles then rose and delivered a furious di harangue , rected partly against Church rates and ” partly against the vicar . Dr . Hook heard this out ou t , rose , and after pointing that the question of of his Church rates was no concern , but lay

between the parishioners and the churchwardens , ’ il s to . es turned Mr G attack upon himself . With ’ regard to the second part of my friend s Speech , 104 LEEDS

of he said , that which consisted personal abuse , I would remind you that the most brilliant elo quence without charity may be but as sounding brass of of (the tone his voice , and the twinkle his eye as he uttered these words are described - of th e by an eye witness scene as irresistibly comic) , “ and , he proceeded , I am glad to have this early opportunity of publicly acting upon a Church principle— a High Church principle— a very High — a Church principle indeed ( pause , and breath less silence amongst the expectant throng) I forgive him and s o saying he stepped up to the astonished Mr . Giles and shook him heartily by the of of hand , amidst roars laughter and thunders applause . The day was gained . The rate was of passed , and a vote thanks to the chairman was carried with loud acclamation . None could appreciate better than a crowd of Yorkshiremen the mixture of shrewdness , good humour , and real Christian feeling by which he had extricated h im self from the diffi culties Of his position and turned on the tables his opponents . But this was only the beginning and there ’ a was much to f ce . Still , Dr . Hook s whole career 1 8 18 in Leeds between 3 7 and 5 9 may be said , in Spite of diffi culties and occasional drawbacks and one temporary defeats , to have been long and

brilliant victory . The congregations at the parish c hurch soon became SO large that there was not e t o th e ven standing room . A proposal improve to church led to its being pulled down , and the of i building the present parish church , wh ch was

completed and opened in 1841 . The outside esti mate of cost w as originally £ 9000 ; it rose to finally to a new peal of bells

106 LEEDS of m York . Dr . Hook hi self wound up his career o o o as Dean f Chiches ter . The man w h f all English Churchmen of his time was most worthy of the of chair St . Augustine spent his last days in writing ” of the Lives Of the Archbishops Canterbury , whose long roll would have been honoured by the of addition his name . Even in those last quiet years at Chichester he knew the troubles of money raising which he had grappled with so ably at sa o Leeds . He w the ancient Spire f the cathedral fall as he watched from his Deanery windows ; he was largely responsible for the great sums its necessary to rebuilding . There are worthy monuments to him in Chichester cathedral and in ' ’ in Leeds parish church , and the All Souls (Hook i of i son Memor al) church at Leeds , wh ch his , Cecil , until recently Bishop of Kingston , was for some u ~ years vicar . He himself lies in the little ch rch of - yard Mid Lavant , in an unpretentious tomb , near which this slight account of his great work has been written . x H MOVE ME NT TOWARDS 1. T E E DUCATION

N Sp ite of his admitted love of money and his no less admitted belief in utilitaria nism -derived i n large from the i nfluence which Jeremy Bentham exerte d ' up on his forefathers some ninety years ago— the Yorkshireman possess es a soul for higher matters than brass , and there is no other c ounty in England (not even the j ealously eyed

i n . rival , Lancashire) which the impulse towards l earning has been more shown or developed than m ax rns i n Y orkshire . Certain trite i are as firmly ) believed in by Yorkshiremen as ‘ Old women used of to believe in the magic virtues a key and a Bible , brought into conjunction for purposes S , little hort of witchcraft . When land is gone , and money ” “ Spent , Then learning is most excellent . Learn ing i s better than house or land — these copy m axirns not nl book are secretly , if Ope y , trusted for in no small degree , your average Yorkshire n a e k ma is mig hty shrewd person , and h nows that this world is r un by the men in whos e headpieces h as knowledge been safely stored , and that the to the ignorant are bound to go very close wall . he Old r And in t days , befo e education was provided s o in such generou measure , thousands f Yorkshire operatives might be found painfully endeavouring 107 108 LEEDS t o get such book-learning as was available at night schools or from the poorly equipped libraries ’ Of the first mechanics institutes ; the desire for knowledge was keenly alive amongst the working classes of the North long before much Opportunity ff for its acquisition was a orded them . Know ledge , they knew , meant power . Popular education in England may j ustly be said to have begun with the foundation of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 6 s 1 98 . Within fifty years this ociety had some 1 5 00 free schools at work in vari ous parts of the ff of R of country . Later the e orts obert Raikes Gloucester brought into existence the first Sunday ul schools , wherein some sec ar education was given in addition to religious instruction . At the be ginning of the nineteenth century t w o highly important enterprises came into existence— those 180 Of the British and Foreign School Society in 5 , ‘ and of the National Society for Promoting tlie Education of the Poor in the Principles of the 8 1 1 of 1 . Church England in The British Schools , s a they came to be called , originated in the work of one Joseph Lancaster ; the National schools

of . in that Dr Bell , a retired Indian chaplain . A a British school was est blished in Leeds , near Boar 1 8 1 1 Lane , in ; a National school in connection with the parish church , two years later . Some of the diss enting communities Opened schools in the town by 1 83 0 there was a good deal Of provision ’ not for poor folks children . But it was until 1 83 3 that Government was brought to see that the

State had some duties in this matter . The first Government grant of money in aid of education was made in 1 83 3 — a miserable and contemptible

110 LEEDS previous to the upheaval of th e sixteenth century there had been Archbishops and Chancellors w h o ’ had risen to their eminence from the labourer s cottage and the craftsman ’ s workshop by means o f the free schools attached to cathedrals and chantries . In the days when Adam Smith was the Englishman ’ s patron saint ' and the principles of the laisser -faire school of economists were para u of i mo nt , the education the poor was a h ghly dangerous thing— their j ob was to work at grey or shirtings cotton fabrics , and not at printed of books . But nowadays , any Leeds boy ability , no to matter what his origin , can make his way a University without let or hindrance— the achieve For i ment lies with himself . in add tion to the elementary schools , the last fifty years has seen the of a development the second ry school , the all important step between the first and last grades of w s in education . The Grammar School Leeds a rebuilt in 182 3 ; thirty-six years later it Was re moved from its old site near B riggate to a fine position on Woodhouse Moor ; it was once more rebuilt fourteen years ago : its boys have the advantages of many exhibitions and scholarships . ’ Attached to its foundation nowadays i s the Girls ff High School , first established by voluntary e ort , ' as were also the Modern ~Sch Ool and the Middle ' Class School— the latter founded by the Parish Church authorities in 1 876— both now the property of r n n the Corporation . Still mo e adva ced teachi g l e s on is avai able in L ed , certain definite th e Leeds Clergy School Roman Catholic Semiifary the Roman Catholic College and th e Wesleyan College at Headingley l There is also a Central Technica School , MOVEMENT TOWARDS EDUCATION 1 1 1 and there is a valuable aid to self-improvement in education in the various classes and facilities of e the L eds Institute , which , originally founded 182 of in 4, has developed into an establishment note and capability . There is no need for Leeds boys to cast longing on eyes the Older Universities , though , as long as i of England is England , no young Engl shman a certain temperament will be kept from Oxford and perhaps not from Cambridge by the fact that

ow n . 1 0 he has a University at his door Since 9 4 , of o n Leeds has had a University her w . It was the first University founded in Yorkshire— a curious h ad fact , considering that the School Of York a European reputation as far back as the eighth t o t century . An attempt found a Universi y at York for the benefit of the northern counties was 1 6 2 t made in 5 , when Parliament was pe itioned

without result . This proj ect was again mentioned early in the nineteenth centur v about the same time there was a Similar proposal made as regards of Leeds . In some sort , the present University Leeds may be said to have had its origin in 183 1 w l hen the Leeds Medica School was founded . - e th e of Forty thr e years later , Yorkshire College Science came into existence in temporary buildings in Cook ridge Street ; in 1884 the Yorkshire College i n and the Medical School were amalgamated , and the following year the new college buildings in ' College R oad w ere Opened by the Prince of Wales (King Edward In 1 83 7 the Yorkshire College united with similar institutions at Manch ester and Liverpool in forming the Victoria University : s of i to an n after even years l fe , this came end , a d 1 0 of in 9 4 the University Leeds received its charter . LEEDS It receives a handsome annual grant from the Leeds of Corporation , and it has always owed much its success to th e generous benefactions Of certain great Companies and to the donations of wealthy t Yorkshiremen , hough it bears , and rightly , the n of to ame Leeds , it is all intents and purposes a I t - county university . provides some twenty five i m professorsh ps in Arts , Law , Co merce , Science , in and Technology , and twelve Medicine , and it of has proved vast benefit to Yorkshire students . Any real education the poor created for ”

ms . the elves , writes Mrs Green in her Epilogue ’ ” “ to her husband s famous Short History , in ’ ’ working men s clubs , mechanics institutes , debating or societies , industrial classes , Sunday schools , little libraries where the student paid a shilling

a month for books and conferences . Many insti tutions of this humble nature Sprang up in Leeds before the Government gave its beggarly to education in 1 83 3 (not much credit to the first d Reforme Parliament) , and they have been largely increased and augmented and in some cases h ave ’ developed out of all knowledge . The mechanics institutes in their day did invaluable w ork— that of day , course , was before we got free libraries

. c picture galleries , and museums A mechani s i n B asin h all institute was founded in Leeds g Street , in 182 5 ; by 1 83 0 it had a good library and was

giving instruction in chemistry , mathematics , and n of drawi g . But the great educational institution this sort in Leeds has been the Leeds Philosophical 181 and Literary Society , founded in 9 , and still - for its its pre eminent museum , library , and its

lectures . Many other learned societies have arisen the Yorkshire Archaeological Society; the

MOVEMEN T TOWARDS EDUCATION 1 13

Thoresby Society ; the Parish Register Society all doing most valuable work after their ow n fashion . And since the first free library was 1 868 Opened in Leeds in , Leeds folk have had plenty of books— a Leeds man has literally hundreds of thousands of the very best books at his com : h as to do to mand he , as it were , nothing but put out his fingers and take them down . Any man who cares to spend his Spare time in the most ’ profitable of all pursuits can read to his heart s i no h s . content in Leeds , and at cost to pocket Then there h as been the educative value of newspapers . Some people would have us believe that we should have bee n all the better if the newspaper tax had never been abolished and if the liberty of unlicensed printing had never been given to us : one hears of very superior people w h o never open a newspaper . It is quite true — no one knows it better than an old j our nalist that our newspapers have degenerated that most

‘ of them are of an exceeding vulgarity ; that the importation of American ideas and methods h as made many of them unfit for a gentleman to Spend o a penny upon , that they certainly seem , n wadays , to be written by offi c e-boys for the delectation - of shop boys . But in the nineteenth century the new spapers of the big north-country towns were r blessings , unmitigated , undiluted , to the no th

c r . ount y working man And in Leeds , at any rate , one newspaper has lost nothing of its old dignity nor sacrified to the present god of vulgarity— the Yorkshire Post is still what it w as in the days of Pebod and Pa m s y l er . Leeds ha owed a great deal to re . Th e Leeds Mercur as l its p ss y, ong to a as it belonged the Baines family , was great H ' l ’ ‘ f man et S n and sober in r its , y a e there Leeds which e for ture an at One time or another;f celebrated men in' feoni

' ne i “ c o e Ce t on W t . w at c ith hem Alari Watts , s m h le “ brate d in his t me as o t and w as fxmee i a p e a critic , editor Of the Leeds I ntelligencer T Yorkshire Post R obe rt o w as . Nicol , another p et , on the f Leeds Times ‘ subs sta f of the , which was e e ‘ e m w ar fene quently edit d by Samu l S iles , after ds of the x m ost i widely-read authors of: his day } In th e Leeds Mercur Weekl Su lement a il n old y y pp , n fi — ' the Yorkshire Weekly Post still appealingr to i a large circle Of readerSL—Leeds and Yorkshire ffolk have possessed tw o excellent budgets t of good!and u e w h h c o a e z With so nd r ading , in ic fi ti n has r ng d ' ) “ archae ology and the new s of the w orld w it h p aghs

’ But Leeds ' folk have‘ had still more educ atihnal advantages during the last half-century t han UlioSe ' “ are be v fi m 'sch ools ) l e es which to deri ed o y co l g , b die ‘and v d ation o s , newspapers They ha e had e uc i thr ough eye and ear , in 165 “ music: a n would astonish f " of ilthe Thoresby p eriod t o find in the Municipal ‘ Art Gallery of Leeds a fine c ollection of paintingsii-L ’ e ‘ the o m to ook at piit fr e of cost} for p folk l ,

ffolk began years o tbw fi ag , ' between 1 809 and 1 82 4 by a w orth yu assoc iation

1 16 LEEDS women is sedulously fostered and encouraged under of the aegis Mr . Edgar Haddock ; there is music i n everywhere Leeds , from the superior and high class subscription concerts to the music of the ff — h ow bands in the parks . Vastly di erent and far better l— all this to the state of affairs which existed in Leeds at the end of the eighteenth un century , when all was dull and wretched and

for . lovely , and the working folk were rioting bread I TH E GREAT MEN X I .

HE little hamlet of the Domesday Survey has now become the sixth largest town in Eng I t w as of 1 8 land . elevated to the rank city in 93 since that year its chief magistrate has borne the 108 its proud style and title of Lord Mayor . In 5 — — population was perhaps two hundred souls , all t six n old ; its taxable value , between and seve 1 1 pounds : in 9 7, according to the reference books , the population numbered the rateable value was Two hundred years ago there was scarcely a good road into Leeds ; now it is served by at least five great railway lines , and is connected by canals with the Mersey in one m 1 0 direction and the Hu ber in another . In 75 there was only one trade of importance in the 1 00 in town in 9 , in addition to its two great stries W i du in ool and ron , Leeds was manufacturing t flax and canvas , rope and thread , lea her and i hi l nen , glass and earthenware , tools and mac nery . of t It is , in short , one the biggest , busiest , mos industrious towns in the world ; its goods are to

be found in every continent , perhaps in every

country . All this has been wrought by its ow n of folk , and we can close this brief account th e town itself in no better fashion than by writing down a few words about some— only some— of the

more notable amongst them . 117 1 1 8 LEEDS

The Vicarage of Leeds h as been filled at one or w h o n time another by men , if not as notable or

as . as vigorous in labour Dr Hook , are at least ’ of interesting from the historian s point view . b of R o . obert Cooke ( a native Benton ,

probably educated at Leeds Grammar School , was at the time of his appointment a Fellow of w as Brasenose College , Oxford ; he also a Master

‘ elo of of Arts and a B ach r Divinity . He succeeded Faw c et 1 8 and n Alexander in 5 9 , ere long attai ed Considerable fame as a trenchant disputant and controversialist in th e differences with Rome : a Roman Catholic treatise of the period styles of him Captain Minister the Yorkshire Preachers . In 1 610 he held a public disputation with a well n befoie known priest named Cuthbert Johnso , the ’ King s Council at York . He wrote a big book on the Counterfeited Works of the Fathers it w as 1 61 to published in 4 , with a dedication James , of its Bishop Durham , who rewarded author with a prebendary in Durham Cathedral . Robert

Cooke was succeeded by his brother Alexander , c oncerning whose appointment there was much vexatious litigation before Lord Verulam~ Sir

Francis Bacon . Alexander Cooke was a Fellow ni : o f U versity College , Oxford at Oxford he was k greatly celebrated as a preacher . Li e his brother i 1 61 he was a keen controvers alist , and from 7 to 6 0 1 3 he published a good many curious works ,

ll . R a in quarto , which alph Thoresby possessed . Both these vicars were book -collectors and they possessed a large number of painted books . and manuscripts which . had once belonged to the ' o . i f . Cistercians Kirkstall These , w th their ow n of c ollections , came into the hands their next

12 0 LEEDS

Tw o t s o her Leeds doctors , Samuel Smith and Thoma Prid in i of g Teale (who , l ke Hey , was a Fellow the u Royal Society) , served the Infirmary assiduo sly , one for 45 the other for 3 3 years ; so , too , for a long time— as leading physician— did Sir Thomas f Allbutt - Cli ford , editor of one of the best known on standard works medicine , introducer to English practice of the ophthalmoscope and the reduced w of clinical thermometer , a Fello the Royal Society, and Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge . Of benefactors Leeds Infirmary can show a great list of names— the somewhat eccentric Leeds mil lionaire 1 00 , Robert Arthington , gave it in 9

h . . a year later a Leeds provision merc ant , C S - Weatherill , left it And for twenty eight R years , as either chairman or treasurer, obert Benson Jowitt gave to the work a devotion and a care rarely equalled in the history of town charities . If Leeds has no very long roll of names eminent or sh e of in art letters , has at least some notability 1 and interest . J oseph Milner ( 744 after a successful career at Cambridge in classics and of mathematics , became Headmaster Hull Grammar

School , afternoon lecturer at Holy Trinity in that of town , and eventually , by the influence William

Wilberforce , vicar of Hull . He became celebrated a hundred years ago by his History of the Church ” of of Christ , chiefly valuable , in spite defects , for of its references to the Early Fathers . Much it his was , however , the work of y ounger brother , 1 0 Isaac ( 75 who , at Cambridge , was not only the best man of his year , but had the unique ' honour of the epithet I ncompam bilz s attached to his name at the head of the Mathematical Tripos 1 in 774 , and there it remained in the Cambridge THE GREAT MEN 12 1

Calendar for many years (Overton and R elton : ” 1 1 Hist . Eng . Church , 7 4 Isaac Milner won many distinctions at Cambridge . He was ’ ’ of first Smith s Prizeman . He was Fellow Queen s , 1776 ; first Jacksonian Professor of Natural i y 1 8 of Exper mental Philosoph , 7 3 ; and President ’ 8 1 1 n 1 8 . Queen s , 7 In 79 he was appointed Dea o of f Carlisle . He wrote a life his brother ; his

ow n i l . l fe was written by his niece , Mary Mi ner of r Although Leeds o igin , it will be noted that the work and lives of the two Milners had little to do with Leeds— the same remark applies to two or thr ee other Leeds natives who became of eminent in the world letters . Bryan Waller Proctor (1787 under his pseudonym of one Barry Cornwall , produced or two volumes of poems and a tragedy , Mirandola , which had a run of sixteen nights at Covent Garden in 1 82 1

his daughter , Adelaide Ann , became more cele brated n than her parent , chiefly by her contributio s ' H usehold Words o hzll Ma az ine to o and the C m g . Richard Holt Hutton (1 82 6 the s on of a

Unitarian minister, was educated at University College School with a view to following in his ’ father s footsteps : finding the ministry unsuited to him he became for a time Principal of University l his t in 1861 Ha l , but found true voca ion , when ,

in conjunction with Meredith Townsend , be began t t to edit the Spec a or . Henceforth he became a remarkable force in modern circles and wrote much on on religious and literary matters , and notably

such leaders as Newman, George Eliot , Carlyle , w r Maurice , and Matthe A nold . Alfred Austin 8 f ‘ 1 o 9. s ( 3 5 the son Leed merchant , was born at Headingley and educated at Stonyhurst ”a 1 2 2 LEEDS

and London U niversity . He was called to the

‘

. 1861 . satirical oem Bar in p ublished a p , thenceforward devoted hims elf to n f o lism n f p oetry a d j urna . He was o e o the prin

‘ cipak Writers on the Standard in its palmy das and '

' for some years edited the N ational Rievz ew 1 1111 8 96; " t of 1 s w as four years after the dea h Tenny on , he appointed! Poet-Lau reate— the only Yorkshireman r t d n i m who has eve held hat isti gu shed appoint ent . ' ' ‘ " ’ “ Three“ very farnous m en- have been closely c onl ’ ’ ‘ nécte d w ith e u 1 n c of L eds witho t bei g a tually it .

' ' Richard Bentley (1661—1742 ) “ has often been asso c iat e d e ' with Wak field , because he was educated ’its e at grammar school , but his birthplac , Oulton ,

’ is rso c lose t o Leeds as to entitle Leeds folk to claim th is r reat one ' of : g critic , scholar , and divine as them ” “ ’ "

e e e n . s s lv s . Aft r a academic career at St J ohn ‘ e d to a' Coll ge , Cambri ge , Bentley . became tutor on —* illin fle t ni i s of . St e a h Bishop g , and accomp ed s r ‘ cha ge to . Oxford; where he himself pursued his di te ’ stu es and was . admit d to a Master s degree . ’ In 1 692 he was appointed keep er of ' the King s ' Library : in 1694 Boyle ' Lecturer ; in 1 700 h e entered u pon h is famous Mastership of Trinity

Colle e ‘ Cambrid e 1 1 e R g , g , and in 7 7 was elect d egius o o f Pr fess r o Divinity . His career was distinguished by 1 vast evidences of learning and by constant

‘ quarrelling and though Pope p ut him into the w as s Dunciad , he not far from being the greate t s of is 1 cholar h age . J oseph Priestley ( 73 3 Fieldh ead born at , began his career as a Unitarian minis ter at Needham Market in 175 5 in 1 75 8 h e e 1 6 h e m to a . had a chap l . at N ntwich ; in 7 7 ca e Leeds as minister at Mill Hill Chapel and remained six u r in Leeds for years , d ring which time he exe ted

THE GREAT MEN 12 3

'

great influence on the literary . and philosophic life

of i the r . of . the tow n . He rece ved deg ee LL . D . frdm u si 1 6 a nd w as e t Edinb rgh Univer ty in 7 4, lec ed

' ’ a Fellow , of the Royal Society in 1766; . H e w as one

‘ of fo t e a of his a the remos exp riment l chemists d y , and w as the inventor of the pneumatic trough and m " in the discoverer of oxygen . He w as a inister Birmingham from 1780 to 1791 : it w as during his of rou h s 1e residence in that town that a mob g , his s t R senting ympa hies with the French evolution , n u e i m bur t his ho s , his scient fic instru ents , his f u o ma . library , and his val able collection nuscripts ' r s e lef a Soon after this catastrophe P ie tley , b ing t “ m e a and considerable fortune , e igrated to Am ric ' n h e n settled in Pennsylva ia , where died fourtee ‘ ' o Priestle w as olin years later . Contemp rary with y J Smeaton (172 4 w h o was born at

a t . in ne r Whi kirk , just outside Leeds Originally for e ic l tended th law , he became a mathemat a nt m n his t n i s ru e t maker, but quickly turned at entio to and undoubted genius engineering . He built the on d great lighthouse the E dystone , outside P c o c e n l lymouth , nstru ted the Forth and Clyd Ca a s , u d r o of R n e to k the improvement amsgate Harbour , and built some of th e most important bridges in

England and Scotland . In recent times three Leeds m en have attained

. ff di great fame in three di erent rections . James Theodore Bent (185 2 educated at Repton d m e and at Wa ha College , Oxford , after trav lling and M 18 1 to in Italy , Greece , Asia inor, went in 9 South Africa and made extensive explorations amongst the Great Z imbabwe ruins ; tw o years later he carried out similar i nvestigations in Abys

. ub sinia and Arabia . He p lished three important 12 4 LEEDS

“ 188 travel works , The Cyclades , 5 The Ruined of 18 2 c Cities Mashonaland , 9 and The Sa red ” f 1 e City o the Ethiopians in 893 . Ern st Crofts 18 R di ( 47 educated at ugby , stu ed painting ,

first under Clay in London , and subsequently under H iinter u of at D sseldorf, and, possibly because ’ H iinter s his - influence , began to exhibit well known ’ military pictures in the early seventies , with the result that he was elected Associate of the Royal 6 1 8 8 R 18 . Academy in 7 , and oyal Academician in 9 His pictures are well known by the engravings of them : Morning of the Battle of Waterloo I on ff Charles . his way to the Sca old Napo — one leon and the Old Guard and , at least , has a Yorkshire setting Cromwell at Marston ” t o w as Moor . An ar ist f a totally different sort Philip William May (1864 a Leeds boy of humble parentage , who after various remarkable adventures in Australia , to which he had been taken at an early age , appeared in London about 1890 and rapidly made his name as one of the of i greatest Engl sh caricaturists . A perfect master of n line , gifted with a sure , certai , and curious of u sense humo r , he became a regular contributor Punch of to , published an Annual his own , and earned vast sums of money— which he was by no - means slow to give away to his fellow Bohemians . One of four very greatest masters of black-and i wh te , he stands in a group of which the only other

and . members are Hogarth , Keene , Leech Surely the proudest boast of any grea t town should be that its great men have closely identified themselves with the welfare of their native place . In this respect Yorkshire towns have been singu l rl a y fortunate . No one thinks of Halifax without

'

I N D EX .

AI R E Th e ve 1 Ho be 1 8 1 1 , ri r , 9, 9 , l ck , 3 , 7 , 79 , ft 0 oo D . H . m , 43 , 44 , 5 4 , 5 9 , 7 , k , r Willia 8 2 ff fi 1 18 . 1 1 79 , . 9 9 , , 9 A st n A f e 12 1 H ow o hn 2 6 u i , l r d , ard , J , 7 , 73 , 9 H tton R h H o e u , ic ard l , 12 1 B E D E 10 1 1 , , B ent m es T 12 N FIR ARY T . h e ee s , Ja , 3 I M , L d , 72 , B e t e R h 12 2 1 1 1 1 12 0 n l y , ic ard , 5 , 9 , H 8 B ri ate 1 1 ff. . gg , 3 , ; 43 , 4 , ' I 1 % 1 8 8 E NK INSO N OSIAH 1 2 5 5 9 . 7 . 3 . 5 . J , J , 7 , 7 1 10 KI RKGA TE 1 2 . 3 . 3 . 43 . 5 4 . ’ ANA L Th e Lee s -L ve oo C , d i rp l, o 8 2 KIrk stall 1 16 1 0 7 , , 3 , , 9 4 , I C I . 2 f h arles , 4 , 49 C ofts E ne t 12 r , r s , 4 Leeds Mamm The 8 2 y, , 74; , DE EOE DANI L 62 1 1 1 1 , E , 9 3 1 3 1 4 d e L H e 2 0 ff L1b rar Th e Le e s acy, nry, . y, d , 75 r Loidis n E lm ete Di xon M s . 2 a d Wh t , 7 , i ’ Dom e s S ve 1 1 1 e s 1 68 day ur y, 3 , 4, 5 , ak r , 5 , 2 2 I I 9 , 3 1 7 AC ULAY HO MAS A , T B . , FA R NLE Y 1 8 0 8 8 if , 3 , , 4 9 . Fielders o hn Ma Ph , J , 9 4 y, il Me h 6 Fo t s be 1 ff. t lf o n un ain Ab y , 9 , 5 9 ca , J , 9 “ M H 0 6 1 ill ill , 5 , 5 ; 7 , 74 , 1 12 2 1 2 M ne s 1 0 12 1 W . 9 , 9 I il r, I aac , 2 , Gott Th e f m of Mrlne h 2 0 , a ily , 77, J p

A R RISO N OH N 6 8 fi OASTLE R RICH ARD H , J , 44 , 4 , 4 , , 9 3 , 9 4 72 H st n s L E z b eth PA GAN E L RA LPH 1 ff a i g , ady li a , 73 , , 5 .

H e m 2 P n s S nt ff. y, Willia , 7 auli u , ai , 9 I NDEX ' 12 7

Po ntef t 1 1 2 0 2 Ste h enson G eo e 8 2 rac , 4 , 5 , , 5 , p , rg , 2 ff 60 S es R h 2 9 . 5 5 , yk , ic ard , 7 P es t e ose h 12 2 ri l y, J p , 74 , 75 , , 12 TH ORE SB Y A LPH 2 3 , R , 7, ff P o to A e e A . 12 1 8 . 6 1 6 2 6 6 r c r, d laid , 43 , 4 , , , 4 , 5 , P o to B n W 12 1 68 1 8 1 18 r c r, rya . , , 7 , 3 , 9 9 ,

UNIVE RSI TY Th e Lee s 1 1 1 , d , if . ’ ST QH N S Ch h 1 . J urc , 44, 45 , 5 , 2 102 1 1 E SLE Y OH N 5 , , 5 W , J , 74 ’ Pete r s P sh Ch h 16 be fo e m St . ari urc , Wil r rc , Willia , 75 , 93 , 2 0 2 ff 12 0 3 . 4 . 4 . 43 . 45 . 9 4 . 9 9

' Mich ael Yo k P Sadle r T. r shire ost The 1 , , 9 3 , 9 4 , , 75 , 13 , Sm e ton oh n 12 1 1 a , J , 3 4

R D N D O l Ml D LON D N A N D BE LE S P I NT E BY WI LLlAM CW WES Q S S, L E , O CC l 6 a . o N e } THE STORY OF THE ENGLISH TOWNS

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