Parish
main page
|
|
| Leeds Parish main page |
"LEEDS, is a parish-town, and the most populous market town in Yorkshire and the principal seat and emporium of the woollen manufacture in England, is the capital of an extensive parish and borough, which was enfranchised by a charter of the lord of the manor, in the reign of King John, and incorporated by Charles 1 but was not endowed with the privilege of sending representatives to parliament until the enactment of the Reform Bill in 1832; though, during the Commonwealth it was allowed by Cromwell to send one member to the House of Commons. It has long held a distinguished place among the opulent commercial towns of the kingdom, and is pleasantly seated on the river Aire, in the liberty of the Honor of Pontefract, and in the Wapentakes of Skyrack and Morley; chiefly in the former, - the greater part of the town, being upon the gently rising acclivities on the north side of the river, and the rest, with the populous suburbs in Holbeck and Hunslet, occupying a low Champaign tract on the south side of the river. It is situated at the north eastern extremity of the great clothing district, of which it is the principal mart, and is distant 24 miles S W by W of York; 13 miles N W by W of Pontefract; 9 miles S W by W of Wakefield; 10 miles E by N of Bradford; 18 miles E N E of Halifax; 16 miles N E of Huddersfield; 33 miles N of Sheffield; 40 miles N E of Manchester; and 186 miles N N W of London. The population of the township of Leeds increased from 30,669 in the year 1801 to 71,602 in 1832; and in the same period the number of inhabitants in Hunslet and Holbeck increased from 9,995 to 23,284, swelling the population of the town and suburbs, in the latter year, to 94,886, who have since augmented to nearly 110000 souls, of whom, however, more than 10,000 are somewhat detached from the great body of the town being in the villages of Hunslet, Holbeck, Woodhouse, Woodhouse-Car, and Buslingthorp, distant more than a mile from the centre of the town, but connected with it by long ranges of factories, houses, and handsome villas, extended on the different roads and round the margins of the moors or commons at Woodhouse, Holbeck, and Hunslet. The compact or solid portion of the town extends about two miles along the river from east to west, but it is little more than a mile in breadth, though Briggate, its principal street, is above 600 yards in length from north to south, forming one of the broadest, handsomest, and busiest thoroughfares in the north of England, and rising from the bridge in a straight line and with a gradual ascent to the vicinity of St John's Church; whence the suburbs rise in beautiful undulations northward to Woodhouse and Buslingthorp, and the town descends westward along a broad and gentle slope on which are many handsome streets, squares, and public buildings; and eastward to the Sheepscar-beck, which receives the Gipton-beck near New Town, and flows southward through a populous part of the town which rises in bold swells at Quarry-hill, Burmantofts, and Richmond-hill, on the east side of the beck, the water of which, after being contaminated by many dye-houses, falls into the Aire below the parish church. The old bridge at the foot of Briggate, was, till a few years ago, the only communication between the northern and southern parts of the town, except a few ferries, but since 1827 two fine Suspension Bridges have been thrown across the Aire, one forming a direct communication from Hunslet to the York-road and the eastern side of the town; and the other communicating with Holbeck and the western part of the town. Above the latter is Wellington bridge, of one handsome arch, built in 1818, and communicating with the populous villages of Wortley and Armley. A foot bridge, erected in 1828, forms the long wanted communication between School close and Water-lane; and in May 1837, the first stone was laid of a spacious bridge across a broad angle of the river Aire, from Sandford-street to the Leeds and Liverpool canal dock and basin. The union of this Canal with the Aire, gives to Leeds the important advantages of a fine inland navigation which extends without interruption from the Eastern to the Western seas; in addition to which the town has now the facility of a Railway to Selby and other tram-roads are projected to pass from it to Manchester, Derby, &c., and to form connecting links in the great chain of Railways by which the kingdom will in a few years be traversed in every direction, in carriages propelled by the power of the steam engine. During the last ten years the central parts of the town have been greatly improved, by the formation of several commodious market places, by the removal of the Middle Row which contracted a portion of Briggate into two narrow lanes, and by the widening of many other old thoroughfares, and the opening of several new ones. The Aire furnishes the inhabitants with a scanty supply of water, but they are about to erect new water-works on an ample scale, and they have the benefit of many copious springs, some of which are slightly sulphurious, and highly esteemed both as a beverage and for culinary purposes. The neighbouring mines and quarries afford an abundant supply of coal and building stone, and the clay found here produces excellent bricks. To these and other local advantages, the increasing wealth, population, and prosperity of Leeds, are chiefly to be ascribed.
The Parish of Leeds is co-extensive with the Borough, and comprises an area of 21,766 acres of land; being more than seven miles in length and breadth, and extending westward from Halton-Dial to Stanningley, and southward from Cookridge-Wood, Meanwood, and Street-Lane, to Farnley-Wood, Mill-Shaw, Stank-Hall, Beeston-Park, and Woodhouse-Hill. It is divided into eleven townships, exclusive of the small hamlets of Coldcotes, Osmondthorpe, Thornes, and Skelton, which lie on its eastern side, and maintain their poor jointly with the township of Temple Newsam, in the Parish of Whitkirk. The soil is generally a strong coarse clay, under which is a finer stratum, of which an inferior kind of earthenware is made. Below the later is a thin bed of coal, and under it is a vein of clay, of which fire bricks, equal to any in England, are manufactured. A white clay abounds about Wortley, which is much used in the manufacture of tobacco pipes. There are three distinct beds of coal. Worked in various parts of the parish, but the most extensive collieries of the neighbourhood are in the adjoining parish of Rothwell. The heights in the vicinity of the town furnish excellent flags and freestone, of which latter, immense quantities are sent from the quarries at and near Bramley-fall, to all parts of the kingdom, for the construction of docks, bridges, &c. On the north-east border of the parish, near Gipton and Potternewton, is a bed of imperfect granite. Here are also strata of cilicious grit, abounding in organic remains, some of which are very curious. The northern boundary is sandy and sterile, but the land near the town is generally fertile. The Aire flows through the parish in a south easterly direction from Kirkstall Forge to Skelton-Grange, receiving in its course many small rivulets or "becks", all of which are subservient to the purposes of manufacture. The parish, includes the populous clothing villages of Hunslet, Holbeck, Beeston, Wortley, Armley, Farnley, Bramley, Stanningley, and Kirkstall; and also those of Burley, Headingley, Woodhouse, Chapel-Allerton, and Potternewton, in which are many handsome villas. It increased its population from 53,162 in the year 1801; to 123,393 in 1831, and it is now augmented to about 150,000 souls; its increase in buildings, &c. having been as great during the last six years as in any similar period before the last census. The air, though in many places infected with smoke from the engine chimneys of numerous mills and factories, is generally salubrious, as is evident from the remarkable instances of longevity which have occurred in the parish. In 1829, there were in Leeds Poorhouse 25 paupers whose ages averaged nearly 77 years each. To the following list of departed parishioners who lived a century or more, perhaps some others might be added, and the parish register furnishes a long catalogue of persons who survived their 80th year.
INSTANCES OF LONGEVITY Names and Residences years aged died Jno. Kitchingman esq. Chapel-Allerton 115 1510 A poor Woman at Farnley 102 1699 Jane Horner, Leeds 109 1700 Mrs Simpson, Leeds 103 1698 Thomas Barnard, Leeds 103 1698 James Sagar, Leeds 112 1701 Grace Shaw, Leeds 104 1705 Widow Norris, Leeds 106 1712 Rt. Kitchingham Esq. Chapel-Allerton 100 1716 Neriah Storey, Leeds 100 1764 Robert Oglesby, Leeds 114 1768 Catherine Sommergill, Chapel-Allerton 100 1794 Ann Keighley, Hunslet 100 1796 Grace Barnard, Leeds 101 1804 Mrs Arton, Potternewton 105 1805 Martha Morris, Leeds 104 1812 Ann Cocker, Meanwood 110 1820 Mrs. Eve Randall, Leeds 100 1830The town is visited by epidemic diseases as seldom as most other places, though it suffered severely from the Plagues which occasionally ravaged England in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in 1596-7 and 1644-5. In the latter year, 1,325 inhabitants, amounting to nearly one-firth of the whole population, fell victims to this direful malady. The Sweating Sickness, which either "mended or ended" its victims in 24 hours, was very fatal here in 1551; and in 1675, an epidemic distemper, profanely called the "Jolly Rant," prevailed in this and many other towns in Yorkshire. Leeds had its full share of suffering from that awful disease, Asiatic Cholera, which ravaged the whole kingdom in 1832. The first case that occurred here was on May 26th, and the malady did not disappear till Nov. 12th, when it was found that there had been 1,817 persons afflicted with it in the town, and that 702, had died. It prevailed with its greatest virulence in the months of July and August, and its most fatal ravages were in those parts of the town where the sewers, watercourses, and drains had been neglected. Leeds did not escape the general sickness occasioned by the prevalence of Influenza, in the early part of 1837, where there was much mortality, but the number of deaths were not recorded.The following enumeration of the eleven townships in the parish shews their territorial extent, with the number of houses in 1821 and 1831, and the population of each at the four decennial periods of the parliamentary census.
Population Leeds Parish & Borough No of in A.D. Acres Houses Houses 1801 1811 1821 1831 Males Females 1821 1831 1831 1831 Leeds Township (Divisions of) 3050 East * 2027 3030 5124 5580 7701 12413 6207 6206 Middle & Kirkgate * 1048 1095 3805 4212 4769 4927 2434 2493 Mill Hill * 576 615 2676 2630 3031 3031 1240 1799 North East (lower) * 2328 3595 {8547 6354 9194 14402 7131 7271 North East (upper) * 1513 2312 { 4425 6518 9619 4570 5049 North West (low) * 812 2134 {4059 {5710 3804 9797 4772 5052 North West (upper) * 1114 1740 { { 4877 7602 3502 4100 South * 1145 1478 2907 3791 5501 6549 3274 3275 Upper * 671 694 3551 3243 3208 3262 1512 1702 Leeds Total 3050 11264 16698 30669 35951 48603 71602 34672 36938 +Out Townships Armley 1040 927 1112 2695 2941 4273 5159 2611 2548 Beeston 1770 382 440 1127 1538 1670 2128 1142 986 Bramley 2490 1020 1378 2562 3484 4921 7039 3516 3523 Chapel Allerton 3040 349 428 1054 1362 1678 1934 952 982 Farnley 2070 270 310 943 1164 1332 1591 793 798 Headingley with Burley 3020 410 684 1313 1670 2154 3849 1880 1969 Holbeck 760 1536 2597 4196 5124 7151 11210 552 5658 Hunslet 1150 1749 2940 5799 6393 8171 12074 5956 6118 Potternewton 2340 136 180 509 571 664 865 393 470 Wortley 1036 661 1264 1995 2335 3179 5944 3006 2938 Total 21766 18708 28047 53162 62534 83796 123393 60473 62920* The acres in the ten Divisions are included in the total of Leeds Township, which in 1831 made its population return under the heads of twelve divisions, for each of which a constable is appointed yearly at the manor court. In municipal affairs the township is divided into eight Wards.+ All the out-townships are Chapelries, except Potternewton. The greater part of Leeds township is on the north side of the river Aire, and, with Headingley- cum-Burley, Chapel-Allerton, and Potternewton, is locally situated in Skyrack Wapentake; and all the other seven townships are on the south side of the river in Morley Wapentake.
# Of the males above twenty one years of age, 9,400 were returned as being employed in the woollen and worsted manufactures (chiefly in the former); upwards of 1,000 in coal mines and stone quarries; and 108 on the Leeds and Selby Railway.
The township of Leeds extends nearly three miles in length from east to west, and averages about one mile and a half in breadth from north to south, including the villages, hamlets, of Woodhouse, Woodhouse-car, Little Woodhouse, Little London, Sheepscar, the greater part of Buslingthorp, the Barracks, Black-Bank, Ivy house, Knostrop, Hillhouse, and Richmond-hill. The whole lies on the north side of the river Aire, between Joppa and Burley Terrace on the east and the termination of the Knostrop-cut near Thwaitegate on the east; except a small but populous portion which lies on the south side of the river, bounded by Hunslet and Holbeck, extending from Water Lodge to Sayner's Dyehouse, and including Campfield, Water-lane, Meadow-lane as far as its junction with the Dewsbury-road, and Hunslet lane as far as the Coal staiths.
The Borough comprehends the whole parish of Leeds, which includes the eleven townships enumerated in the foregoing table, together with the hamlets of Coldcotes, Osmondthorpe, Skelton, and Thornes, which lie at the west end of the Borough, about 2 miles from the town, and maintain their roads separately; but for the maintenance of the poor they form part of the township of Temple Newsam in Whitkirk parish; though they have been from time immemorial ecclesiastically included in the parish of Leeds, and contributed to the reparation of its mother church. They were not however considered as being within the borough, until the passing of the Parliamentary reform act in 1832, and the Municipal Corporation Reform act in 1835, since which these hamlets have been called upon to contribute to the borough rates, but they have hitherto refused payment on the ground that they derive no benefit from the police establishment; - a complaint which may be urged by all the out-townships, except Hunslet and Holbeck. The two latter adjoin and form populous suburbs of the town, and consequently participate in all the security and benefit derived from the day and night police, which, for the year ending April 1837, cost £5,300, paid out of the watch and borough rates, which for the same year amounted to £10,817. 6s. 7d. Of this sum £3,300 was levied as a watch rate, and the remainder in two borough rates, to which may be added upward of £5,000 levied yearly as lamp and improvement rates, in the town and within the suburbs extending one mile beyond the bars, as will be seen in a summary view of the several local act of parliament at subsequent pages. The Reform Act of 1832, conferred on the borough the privilege of sending two representatives to parliament, and the Municipal Act of 1835, changed the self elected corporate body for one to be chosen periodically by the election of the burgesses, and consisting of a mayor, 16 aldermen, and forty eight councilors, with a recorder, and a commission of the peace (comprising twenty two magistrates,) appointed by the crown on the recommendation of the Town Council. The Borough is divided by the last named act into twelve Wards, of which the following is an enumeration, shewing the number of councilors appointed for each, together with their respective numbers of burgesses and voters in 1836; the former being persons who had been rated three years to the relief of the poor, and consequently entitled to vote in the municipal elections; and the latter being occupiers of houses, &c. of the yearly value of £10 or upwards, and entitled, under the Reform Act, to vote in the election of the two parliamentary representatives of the borough.
Cns Leeds Township Burgs Voters 6 Mill Hill Ward 751 1001 6 West Ward 704 843 3 North West Ward 497 383 3 North Ward 467 443 3 North East Ward 287 241 3 East Ward 293 241 3 Kirkgate Ward 505 526 3 South Ward 326 318 30 Totals 3830 3984 Cns Wards in the out Townships Burgs Voters 3 Hunslet Ward including Hunslet Township 670 250 6 Holbeck Ward including Holbeck & Wortley townships 1028 410 6 Bramley Ward including Armley, Beeston, Bramley & Farnley 2025 609 3 Headingley Ward including Headingley- cum-Burley, Chapel Allerton & Potternewton 390 309 18 Totals 4113 1578One third of the councilors of each Ward are changed yearlyFrom the above table it will be seen that the total number of Burgesses, or municipal voters, in the Borough, in 1836, was 7,943 and of parliamentary voters, 5,562, exclusive of 17 registered in the hamlets of Osmondthorpe, Coldcotes, Thornes, and Skelton, in Temple-Newsam township. The registered burgesses in the out-townships are more numerous than those in the town, owing to the poor-rates of small houses in the latter being generally paid by the owners of the property.
ANCIENT HISTORY: Leeds is a town of great antiquity, but its origin and the derivation of its name are alike unknown. Thoresby supposes the latter to have been derived from the British - Caer Loid Coit, signifying a town in a wood, but this term might have answered the description of almost every British town before the invasion of the Romans. Other antiquaries imagine that Leeds was named after Lede, or Leod, a British chief; but the most probable conjecture is that it received its appellation from the Saxons, there being a town called Leedes on the river Dender in Austrian Flanders, and not far from it a village called Holbeck. Many vestiges of both Roman and Saxon Antiquities have been found in Leeds and the neighbourhood, and the conjecture of Thoresby is that there was a Roman station here, on the road from Calcaria (Tadcaster) to Cambodunum, (Slack) and thence to Mancunium (Manchester), has been proved by subsequent discoveries, though its name does not appear on the Roman maps. On Wallflat, near Quarry Hill, the outline of a castrum was discovered many years ago, but every trace of it is now obliterated by the numerous buildings which have been erected on this site. In 1745, between Wallflat and Briggate, a Roman urn was found containing a British celt; and in digging a cellar behind the old shambles which stood in Briggate, an ancient pavement, strongly cemented, was discovered. The work men employed a few years ago in constructing the new Dock, a little below the old bridge, found part of a Roman ford, composed of a substance known only to that people, wonderfully hard and compact, and calculated to resist the destructive action of water for a long series of ages. Further observations demonstrated that this ford crossed the river in a line with the north-east corner of the gigantic warehouse lately erected by the Aire and Calder Navigation Company, on the opposite side of the river, whence the Roman road is supposed to have passed northward by Call lane, Quarry hill and Wallflat; and southward by the front of Salem Chapel and the Theatre, whence it took a south westerly direction, passing near Beeston, Morley and Gildersome; its line being still traceable in the vicinity of the two latter places. The workmen in excavating the new dock on the south side of the Aire, also found evident traces of a water course, defended on each side by large quantities of piles, and inducing the opinion that the river anciently flowed a little to the south of the present bridge, In the same excavation were found four large oak trees, three of them decayed and as black as charcoal, and the other quire sound at the heart. Of the character and dimensions of Leeds in the Saxon era, nothing is authentically known, but it probably consisted, like other Saxon towns of a small collection of houses built of wood, or mud, wattles and straw, and having windows formed with panels of horn, fixed in wooden frames; streets of such humble dwellings are supposed to have then occupied the sites of Briggate, Kirk gate, and Swine gate. Of the Saxon Church, which occupied the site of the present parish church, not a vestige now remains. Osmondthorpe or Oswinthorpe, near the eastern boundary of Leeds township about 2 miles east of Briggate, is the Villa Regia of Bede, having been the residence of Oswin, King of Northumbria, one of the most mild and peaceable of the Saxon Kings, who was murdered in the ninth year of his reign at Ingithling, now called Yeddingham, in the year 651. Upon some painted glass in one of the windows of the old hall at Osmondthorpe, was a representation of Edwin, King of Northumbria, with a crown, a sword, and a shield. Upon the latter were exhibited the arms of Redwald, King of the East Angles, by whose intercession, Edwin had been restored from the condition of an exile to the possession of his crown. Edwin was the first Christian King of Northumbria, and was slain at Hatfield near Doncaster, in 633, in a severe battle with Penda, the Pagan King of Mercia, who, in the 80th year of his reign, marched his troops northward against Oswy, who then reigned in Northumbria, and whom he wished to add to the five monarchs whose funeral memorials recorded him as their destroyer. Oswy gave the Pagans battle in 655, at Winwaedfield (Winmoor) near Seacroft, about 4 miles N E of Leeds where the haughty Penda and many of his vassal princes were slain, and the whole barbarian army sustained a complete defeat. Bede, who was born about twenty years after this great battle, says the "more of the Mercians were drowned, as they fled, in the river Winwaed, (then overflowing its banks,) than had fallen by the swords of the Northumbrians." This victory was equally advantageous to both nations, for the conqueror delivered his own people from the ravages of the Pagans, and converted the Mercians to the Christian faith. The river which Bede calls Winwaed must have been the Aire, on the banks of which the fugitives were pursued by the victors. The memory of Oswy's victory was long preserved by the Saxons in one of their proverbs, which says "in Winwaed's stream was revenged the death of Anna, the deaths of Sigebert and Egeric, of Edwin and Oswald." - all Kings of Northumbria slain by the Mercians. In the time of Charles 1., fragments of extensive Saxon work were to be seen at Osmondthorpe, but these were cleared away when the late hall was erected, and the trenches were filled up. At Gipton in Potternewton township, about 2 miles N E of Leeds, Thoresby discovered the remains of a Saxon fortification, "the out-trench whereof was 18 feet broad, the first camp 100 feet long and 66 broad; the second 165 square; - both were surrounded by a deep trench and rampire. The out-camp was about 18 poles long and 12 broad; and at a little distance was a small out-work about 4 poles and a half square." Of this fortification all traces are now obliterated.
At the Domesday Survey, Leeds appears to have been rather a farming village than a considerable town, having no doubt suffered first from the incursions of the Danes, and afterwards the exterminating wrath of the Norman Conqueror, who entered Yorkshire with fire and sword, swearing that he would not leave a soul of his enemies alive, as will be seen in the general history of the West Riding in vol.11. The manor of Leeds was given, as part of the great Baron of Pontefract, by William the Conqueror, to Ilbert de Laci. It is noticed thus in Bawdwen's translation of Domesday book; - "In Ledes, ten carucates of land and six oxgangs to be taxed. Land to six ploughs. Seven Thanes held it in the time of Edward the Confessor, for seven manors. Twenty seven villages and four sokemen, and four bordars have now there fourteen ploughs. There is a priest and a church, and a mill of four shillings, and ten acres of meadow. It has been valued at six pounds, now seven pounds." From this notice it would appear that Leeds, at the close of the Saxon era, did not contain a population of more than 300 souls; for no principle of computation will allow a larger number of persons to be attributed to the families of the tenants mentioned in the survey, together with the subordinate labourers and cottagers in their employ. "It further appears that all the land in the immediate vicinity of the town was in a state of cultivation; no mention is made of either wood or waste; the proportion of only ten acres of meadow must be regarded as astonishingly small, and can only be accounted for by supposing that at this period the horses and cattle were wintered in the open air; and the produce of the land which was under tillage, from the wretched state of husbandry, and the system of oppression which generally prevailed throughout the Kingdom, must have been exceedingly limited. The seven Thanes mentioned in the survey were a kind of Saxon Esquires; the other individuals designated by the names which have been repeated, were occupiers of land under different tenure; while of the proportion and condition of the inferior servants, no accurate estimate can be formed. The priest was probably the most influential person among the inhabitants; his house most likely was the best; and the mill, a humble edifice with the rudest machinery, to prepare the corn for the food of the inhabitants." It may safely be concluded that in the Saxon times, Leeds consisted of "three wretched lanes, the humblest and meanest representations of streets, with a population of 2 or 300 semi-barbarians, the rude cultivators of the soil upon which they vegetated, with seven Thanes to hold them in the trammels of dependence, with a priest to rivet the fetters of superstition, and a church in which to behold the unintelligible mummeries, which in those days of darkness were dignified with the prostituted name of Christianity. What a contrast to the appearance, the condition, and the population of the present Leeds! What a cause for gratitude, for pleasure, and yet for anxiety, is to be discovered in the mighty change!" Ilbert de Laci, Lord of the great barony of Pontefract, does not appear to have retained the manor of Leeds in his possession; for we find that Ralph Paganel held the church in 1089, and gave it to the priory of the Holy Trinity of York, and the manor itself was soon afterwards possessed by his family. The Painells or Paganels, may therefore be supposed to have held Leeds under the Lacies, who, as superior lords of the district, resided at the baronial castle in Pontefract. That there was a castle in Leeds, soon after the Conquest, is certain, and it was no doubt erected by the Paganels and stood upon Mill Hill, overlooking the river, and encompassed by a park extending northward to Park lane. In 1139, this fortress was besieged and taken by King Stephen, in his march against the Scots, who had taken up arms in defence of his niece the "Empress Matilda," whose son Henry was heir to the throne. In 1399, it was for a short time the scene of confinement of Richard II, prior to his barbarous murder at Pontefract. At what period, or by what means the castle of Leeds was destroyed, does not appear. Thoresby states that it was the tradition of his time, that the old bridge was built out of its ruins; but this could not be the case, as the old bridge, and the chantry connected with it, were in existence in 1376, and the castle certainly remained till the 15th century, when it was probably abandoned by its proprietors and its ruins may have been gradually removed and applied by the growing population of the town, in the erection of their houses and other buildings.
Burgage Charter; - Though Leeds was but a small and humble place at the time of the Norman conquest, it must have been greatly increased in buildings, population, and consequence, in the 9th of King John, when Maurice Paganel, the mesne lord of the manor, granted a curious charter of privileges to the burgesses, giving them free burgage, together with their several tofts or homesteads, and half an acre of arable land attached to each, in fee, subject to the yearly payment of 1s. 4d. each to himself and his successors. By the same charter he also granted them all such rights and customs as were enjoyed by the burgesses of Pontefract; viz. - that every burgess should be allowed to grant or sell his burgage land to whom he would, saving the lord's superiority, and the charter of the covenant; that every person purchasing part of a toft should be as free as if he purchased the whole; that the tenants occupying tofts, or parts of tofts, should be free to buy and sell goods within the borough; that a person dwelling in the capital messuage of a toft, and paying 4d. yearly to the praetor or mayor, should enjoy all the privileges of a burgess; that whosoever committed any offence within the borough, should be attached and take his trial within the same; that the burgesses should not go out of the borough for any pleas or plaint, except for pleas of the crown; that the praetor or mayor should pay the rent of the borough to the lord at Pentecost, when the lord should remove him, and put into his place whomsoever he thought proper, - the burgesses having the nearest claim, provided they would give as much for the office as another; that the burgesses might erect what officers they chose in order to make up the lord's rent, and might convey their goods by land and water wherever they pleased, without toll or other praestation, unless prohibited by the lord or his bailiff; that every burgess found guilty of larceny, should, for the first offence, make "one compurgation with 36 compurgators," and for the second should purge himself either by the water ordeal, or by single combat; and that the burgesses should be released from all toll and custom in the borough, except the custom of baking in the lord's oven. These are among the most important provisions of this charter, which Dr Whitaker was "compelled" to transcribe from a copy written by some illiterate scribe, who had left some of the passages in great obscurity. At the date of this charter, (1207) Leeds had become a town of some importance, and was then rapidly increasing, as is evident from the grant of so small a portion of arable land as half an acre to every toft. Tofts were the homesteads of houses, containing cartilages, gardens, offices, and all the necessary accommodations for a family, but many of them were now subdivided, and numerous houses soon occupied the site of one original toft. This increase may be attributed o the immunities conferred on the burgesses, and to the protection which the castle afforded them. Their being allowed by the charter to export grain and other commodities by water, as well as by land, implies that the Aire was navigable in the early part of the 13th century, either by dams or some other contrivance. Their exports consisted chiefly of agricultural produce, and the wool which they sent to Flanders, was afterwards returned to them in manufactured clothing, until Edward III encouraged its manufacture in his own kingdom. "The first principles of English liberty sprung up in the boroughs, and it is a singular fact, that the vassals who were most immediately under the eye of the lords, were the first whom they condescended to render independent." At what period the ancient municipal jurisdiction of Leeds became obsolete, does not appear, but it probably ceased after the desertion of the castle. Which is no where mentioned as actually existing after the imprisonment of Richard II. One reason might be that the manor was once more in the greater fee of Pontefract, so that there was no longer any interest in the lords to exercise a local jurisdiction, nor any power in the burgesses to maintain their rights against such powerful antagonists.
The Manor of Leeds appears to have passed from the Paganels, either in the time of the above named Maurice Paganel, or his successor. In 1234, it was granted as part of the estate of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, to Hugh de Albenci, Earl of Arundel, son of Mabel, the second of Ranulph's four sisters and co- heirs. Earl Hugh dyeing without issue, the probability is that it reverted to the family of earl Ranulph, whose fourth sister, Hawise, had the Earldom of Lincoln conferred upon herself and her heirs; for the next mention f Leeds proves it to have been in the possession of the Lacies, - John de Laci, the first earl of Lincoln of that family, having married Margaret, daughter of Robert Quincy, by the Lady Hawise above mentioned. In the 36th of Henry III, Edmund, son of John de Laci, obtained a charter of free warren in all his demesne lands of Pontefract, Rowell (Rothwell,) Leedes, Berwick Seacroft, Bradford, Alemondbury, Windlesford (Woodlesford), Oltone, Carltone, Lofthouse, Sladeburn, Castleford, Methley, Grenlington, Braford (Bradford) in Bowland, Swillington, Farnelegh, Backshelf, &c. in Com. Ebor. In the fourth year of Edward II, Alice, widow of the above mentioned Edmund de Laci, had assigned for her dowry the manors of Leedes, Rodwell, Berwick, Sladeburn, Grinleton, Bradford, &c. Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, having married Alice de Laci, only daughter and heiress of Hugh de Laci, the last earl of Lincoln of that name, the manor of Leeds, with all the vast possessions of the Laci family, were united to those of the Duchy of Lancaster. When the Duke of Lancaster ascended the throne with the title of Henry IV, this manor with the other ducal possessions passed to the crown, and in the crown it was vested, until the death of Anne, princess of Denmark, and consort of James I, part of whose jointure it was. At this period it was sold into private hands. From the records in the office of the Duchy of Lancaster, it appears that the manor of Leeds was granted by Charles I, in the fourth year of his reign, to Edward Ditchfield and John Highlord, in trust for the city of London. It seems, however, to have reverted to the crown, in some unknown manner, almost immediately; for Thoresby tells us that it was purchased of the crown, by his great grandfather, Richard Sykes, Alderman of Leeds, in the years 1629 and 1636. At the request of John Harrison, the founder of St. John's Church, who thought that the possession of the manor by a single individual, a resident in the place, would give him too great a superiority over his fellow townsmen, and expose him to considerable odium, Mr Sykes permitted him and several other gentlemen to become joint purchasers with him, reserving only one share for himself and another for his son. It has ever since been divided into nine shares, of which four now belong to Christopher Wilson esq. of Ledstone, and one each to Lady Frances Gorden, Rev. F T Cookson, Christopher Beckett, Esq. the Executors of the late Cphr. Bolland, Esq. and Robert Sangster, Esq. The latter gentleman purchased his share by auction in 1837, for £695, and about five years ago Mr Beckett gave £590 for his share, though the income of each share is only about £17 per annum. These owners of the manorial rights of Leeds, hold a Court Leet, at which a jury is empannelled, to inspect the weights and measures, to resist encroachments, &c. &c. Messrs. Atkinson, Dibb and Bolland, are the Manor Stewards. Leeds is still subject to the paramount jurisdiction of the Honour of Pontefract, for which a Court Baron, for the recovery of debts under £5, is held at Pontefract on Wednesday, in every three weeks, (return days;) and by adjournment from thence at Huddersfield, Bradford, Leeds, and Barnsley, about eight times a year at each place. John Hardy, esq. of Bradford, is the steward, and attends at the Leeds Court House, twice a year, to try all cases that are standing over. Mr Samuel Hailstone is the deputy steward. This court was extended for 40s. to the recovery of debts under £5, by an act passed in 1777, which established Courts of Request in several neighbouring parishes, but not in Leeds. The Debtors' Gaol is at Rothwell, 41/2 miles S W of Leeds, and Chpr. Jewison, Esq. is the governor, and also chief bailiff and a coroner for the
Honour of Pontefract, as will be seen in Vol. II.
Soke; - The feudal rights of Leeds now in use are few in number and unimportant in their operation, with one solitary exception - the rights claimed and exercised by the owner and occupier of the King's Mills, of compelling the inhabitants of the manor of Leeds grind their corn at the said mills, subject to a toll, which on malt amounts to a 32nd part, and on wheat to a 16th part. The origin of this custom is very remote. In ancient times each family ground its corn in hand-mills. When water mills were invented, their introduction was eagerly desired, and no one being found able to build them, in some poor districts, the king was petitioned to erect mills in various places, to which he consented, on condition that the inhabitants would bind themselves and their heirs for ever, to grind at such mills, on the terms then agreed on. During the Crusades or Holy Wars, many privileges and immunities were granted to the Knights Templars, of whom there was a large, wealthy, and iniquitous community at Temple Newsam, who had bestowed upon them land, messuages, and tenements in Leeds, which they annexed as members to their manor of Whitkirk,. The occupants of the houses in Leeds, standing upon the land which formerly belonged to these knights Templars, of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, claim exemption from the soke by the payment of a trifling septennial demand. They have, however, had several disputes with the miller, the last of which was an expensive litigation, which terminated in a trial at York, March 27th, 1787, when all the tenants of the manor of "Whitkirk-cum-Membris", were declared to be exempt for suit and service at the King's Mills. In this trial the miller was plaintiff, and John Peart defendant; and the houses in Leeds which claim exemption have ever since been distinguished by stone crosses placed upon their fronts, as may be seen in St. John street, Templars street, &c. The Soke Mills have been rebuilt and enlarged at various periods, and stand in Swinegate, upon a stream which flows in a channel cut across from the two points of a semicircular reach of the river Aire. In 1372, under the designation of the "two corn mills of the Queen's Majesty," they were held by letters patent under the seals of the Duchy of Lancaster, by John Lindley Esq. of Leathley, at the yearly rent of £13. 6d. 8d. but their clear yearly value was then £126. 13s. 4d. Charles I granted the soke and the mills to Edward and Wm. Ferrers; and in 1815, thy were purchased by their present proprietor and occupier Mr Edward Hudson, at the cost of £31,000. The Commune Furnum or Common Bakehouse, with a soke annexed, as noticed in the burgage charter of Maurice Paganel, stood at the upper end of Kirkgate, opposite the site of the old prison. It wan an evil which grew with the growth of the town, but common sense and the necessity of the case gradually abolished it, in the early part of the 17th century, when James Ibbetson, Esq. built a square of houses in the yard where the bakehouse stood. Its annual value was £120 in the reign of Elizabeth, though it was them farmed by John Metcalf, at the yearly rent of £12. At the Domesday Survey, Hunslet, now a populous suburb of Leeds was in the soke of Beeston.
Leland, who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII, and was honoured by that monarch with the title of his antiquary, affords us a comparative view of Leeds and the neighbouring towns, as they existed about the year 1538, when it appears that Leeds was less than Bradford, and Wakefield was larger than the latter town. It is probable that at this period Leeds was only just uprising from the depression of ages, - that its woollen manufactures had very recently been introduced from Wakefield, Bradford, and other places, and that it was only commencing that career of industry and enterprise which has elevated it to the highest rank among the Yorkshire towns. The letter patent of Henry VIII, granting the advowson of the parish church to Thomas Culpepper, Esq. - the foundation of the Grammar school,. - the purchase of the advowson by the parishioners, - the munificent benefactions of Harrison and others, - the improvement in the streets, &c., - and the rise, progress, and present state of the trade, commerce, and institutions of the town, will be shewn under their proper heads at subsequent pages. In 1583, the stone stairs or "Grieve," on the west side of Leeds bridge, were built with stone from Kirkstall Abbey. These stairs led to the tenters and to Embsey Bridge which crossed the mill stream to the Isle of Cinder. From 1572 to 1691, there were eleven triple births in Leeds, as appears by the parish register. In 1615, a bill of complaint was exhibited in Chancery by the inhabitants of Leeds, stating that "The said town and parish being very large and populous, consisted of five thousand communicants, or more, and though some were three or four miles distant from the parish church, yet nevertheless three or four thousand of them ordinarily resorted thither on Sabbath day, &c." Chapels had previously been built at Beeston and Chapel Allerton, but not withstanding the urgent want of further church accommodation, set forth in the above bill of complaint, St john's the second church in Leeds, was not built till 1634, nor the chapels at Armley and Hunslet till 1630 and 1636.
The Borough, was first incorporated in 1626,by a Charter of Charles I, under which it was governed till 1661, when Charles II granted the burgesses a new charter, preserving nearly the same form as the first incorporation, but conferring additional power and privileges, after making the following reference to his father's charter - "Our most dear father Charles the First, lately King of England of blessed memory, by his letters patent under the Great Seal of England, made bearing the date the thirteenth day of July, in the second year of his reign, of his special grace did ordain, grant, and appoint, the town aforesaid to be a free borough of this his real of England, and that under the name of the borough of Leedes aforesaid the whole parish of Leedes should be comprised, and that all and every the inhabitants of the town and parish of Leeds aforesaid, and their successors thenceforth for ever, should be and continue one body corporate and politic in thing, fact, and name, by the name of aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Leeds, in the county of York; and should have, exercise, and enjoy, divers liberties, privileges, powers, and authorities, in those letters patent particularly specified." Under the charter of Charles I, Sir john Savile, the builder of Howley Hall, and at that period the great patron of Leeds, was the first mayor, and in that capacity he was so highly respected, that his arms, known by the name of Hullarts, (Three Owls,) were adopted by the town. He did not however formally discharge the functions of his office, which were performed for him by John Harrison, the great benefactor of the town. John Clayton was the first recorder, and George Banister the first town clerk. One of the objects of the charter of Charles II, was to protect the merchants and clothworkers of Leeds from "the many great abused, defeets and deceits," which had been discovered "in the making, selling, and dyeing of woollen cloths," by fraudulent individuals, to the injury of the manufacture itself, and the prejudice of the royal customs and revenue. The limit of the borough are repeatedly stated in this charter to be commensurate with those of the parish and it vested the government of the borough in a corporate body, consisting of a Mayor, twelve Aldermen, and twenty four Assistants, forming the Town Council with power to fill up the vacancies in their own body, and to elect the mayor yearly from the Aldermen on the feast of St. Michael. The charter also provided that the borough should have a Recorder and Town Clerk, to be appointed by the King on the petition of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses, and that each of these officers might appoint a deputy. The Mayor and Aldermen were empowered to elect a Coroner, two Sergeants at Mace to serve in the borough for proclamations, arrests, and execution of processes, and a Clerk of the market. The Town Council were to appoint Constables and a Prison was enjoined to be kept for the reception of offenders, under the control of the mayor and his deputy. The Mayor, Aldermen, Recorder, and Deputy Recorder, were to be justices of the Peace, within the borough, with power to hold both Petty and Quarter Sessions. The Town Council , when assembled by the summons of the Mayor, were invested with full power o make "such reasonable laws, orders, statutes, and ordinances, in writing, for the good rule and government of the borough, as to them might seem reasonable and meet. They had the power to propose new laws relative to the manufacture, dyeing, or the sale of woollen cloth, but under this restriction, - in all such cases they were commanded to summon "forty of the more honest and sufficient cloth workers, inhabitants of the borough," who, with the Council, were to be called the Common Assembly; to them the Corporation were to submit the proposed statutes, which, if approved by the majority, were to become the standing and effective laws of the borough, obligatory, with the pain and penalties they contained, upon "all the cloth workers, artificers, and merchants." In order to enforce these laws, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Assistants, were empowered, with the consent of the Common Assembly, to impose such fines upon the property, or imprisonment of the person, of an offender, as they might deem requisite and reasonable. And they were intrusted with the same power respecting their laws for the internal regulation of the borough, it markets, and fairs, and the conduct of the different officers and servants they might be under the necessity of employing. These fines for offences against the municipal laws were to be collected by the Corporation and applied to the use of the body; as also were all the fines, forfeitures, issues, and amerciaments, imposed before the borough justices and in the borough courts, which they were empowered to levy by attachment of the goods or persons of offenders. To the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses, were committed the inspection, correction, and enforcement of the assize of wine, bread, ale, and other kind of victuals sold within the borough; but the fines imposed upon offenders upon these matters, were not to be applied to the use of the Corporation, but to be laid out for the benefit of the poor. It was expressly declared by another provision of the charter, that all victuallers, and fishmongers, and other persons coming to the borough with victuals for sale, should be under the government of the Mayor and Aldermen. The charter freed the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses from serving as jurors, bailiffs, or constables out of the borough, except they possessed such lands or tenement out of the borough as might render them liable to such offices. It also confirmed to them the privilege of a market to be held every Tuesday, with free customs, tolls, stallage, fines, &c, and empowered them to "impose, tax, and assess," upon the inhabitants, such sums of money as might be necessary to the support of their dignity and authority, as conservators of the peace and general weal of the borough.
The burgesses were not long allowed to manage their municipal affairs under this charter without interruption. "In the reign of James II there was great dabbling among charters, to extend the influence and facilitate the designs of the court." That monarch forced upon the borough a new charter in the first year of his reign, (1685) but the innovation was abrogated in 1689, by William and Mary, who restored to the burgesses their second charter, under which the borough was governed till 1835, when an act was passed by the legislature to provide for the regulation of all the Municipal Corporations in England and Wales, This national charter gave the Corporation a new and popular constitution, and the Reform Act, passed in 1832, conferred upon the borough the privilege of sending two representatives to parliament. These great charters passed under the auspices of our late lamented sovereign, William IV, who died June 20th, 1837, will carry the memory of his reign to all posterity, as one of the most glorious in our country's annals, as one in which the deeply rooted abuses of ages were abolished, and a sure foundation was laid "for the progressive establishment of equal rights and equal freedom, civil and religious, to every class of the community."
In the reign of Queen Anne, (1710) the office of recorder being vacant, the corporation elected Mr Wilson, by a very large majority of votes, but his politics being disliked by the Tory party, Wm. Nevile, Esq. the acting High Sheriff of Yorkshire, "in order to obtain his deposition, represented, in the name of the church, the magistrates of Leeds as being infected with the principles of Whiggery," in consequence the appointment was conferred upon a tool of the court, altogether inadequate to the office. The misrepresentation was soon discovered, and the corporation determined to deliver themselves from the imputation. Two years afterwards they presented a loyal address to the Queen, in the palace at Kensington, and it was so graciously received, that Alderman Wm., Milner was at the expense of a white marble statue of her majesty, which he present to the corporation, who placed it in front of the Moot Hall. "The day when this statue was erected, (May 12th 1713) was observed in the town as a festival and holiday, a splendid procession traversed the streets, and every demonstration of joy was exhibited by all grades of the people." When old Moot Hall was demolished, in 1825, this statue of Queen Anne, executed by Carpenter, was re-chiselled, and now looks down Briggate from an elevated niche in front of the Corn exchange. The above was not the only instance of the interference of the crown in the election of the officers of the Corporation. In 1753, they chose Mr Barstow to be the Town Clerk, but the King annulled the appointment, and ordered Mr Thomas Atkinson to have the place, then valued at £200 per annum.
In the Civil Wars, which so long disturbed the kingdom in the 17th century, between Charles I and the Parliament, most of the towns of the clothing district were decidedly in favour of the latter; but Leeds does not appear to have exercised much opposition to the royal cause, perhaps from a sense of gratitude for the charter of incorporation with which the unfortunate King had honoured the town. Immediately before the commencement of these intestine broils, the government agent at York, sent orders to the corporation of Leeds, to levy on the inhabitants £72 as their quota towards the setting out of one ship of 450 tons, to be furnished with "men, tackle, munition, victuals, and other necessarys for the safeguard of the seas and the defence of the realme." The agent at York, declared in his letter that the town was highly favoured in "having but to pay £72 toward soe great a charge." In the same year, the celebrated Hampden refused to pay his contribution to the ship money, and his example was followed by other popular leaders, who soon raised such a storm of prejudice against the proceedings of the crown, as brought about a long and bloody contest between the King and the Parliament, in which Leeds did not suffer so much as Bradford, Wakefield, and some other places in the West Riding. The principal action here was the capture of the town on the 23rd January 1643, by the Parliamentarians, under Sir Thomas Fairax. That General, with six troop of horse, three companies of dragoons, one thousand musketeers, and two thousand club-men, marched out of Bradford to attack Leeds, and advancing within a short distance, summoned Sir Wm. Savile to surrender the town; but receiving a haughty answer, he advanced with colours flying to the south west side of the town, and began the assault, which lasted about two hours, when the royalists were beaten from their out works, and their cannoneers were killed. Sir Thomas, and his brother Sir Wm. Fairfax, with Sir Henry Fowlis, and Captain Forbes, now cut their way thorough all opposition, and took possession of the town, where they found two brass cannon, with a large store of ammunition, and took 500 prisoners, among whom were six officers. Sir Wm. Savile (the governor for the King) fled, and escaped being taken by crossing the river; but Serjeant-Major Beaumont was drowned in making the attempt. Leeds often changed master in these turbulent times, but was never the scene of much blood-shed, as is shown in the following extract from the register of the parish church; - "23rd Jan. 1642-3, Leedes was taken by Sir Tho. Fairfax, 11 soldiers slain, buried 24th; five more slain two or three days after; six more died of their wounds. Buried 1st April, 1643, Captain Boswell, slain at Seacroft battel, and six soldiers. A gentleman and two common soldiers slain in Rob Williamson's house, of Hunslet, buried 13th April, 1643. Five soldiers more slain. Nine more in May, 1643. Sixteen more in June under Capt. Lascells, Major Gifford, Sir George Wentworth, Capt. Thornton, and the Earl of Newcastle. Twelve more in July under Gen. King, Sir Ingram Hopton, and Sir Wm. Widdrington. 26 soldiers buried in July and august 1644. A soldier buried in the old school garth."
In 1646, after the battle of Marston Moor, and the surrender of the castles of Skipton, Sandall, and Pontefract, had annihilated the hopes of the royalists, King Charles I surrendered himself to the Scots at Newark and was conveyed by them to Newcastle upon Tyne. On the road, the treacherous Scots halted at Leeds where the royal captive lodged at the Red Hall. A servant maid at this house, compassionating the fallen condition of the king, intreated him to put on her clothes, and make his escape, assuring him that she would conduct him in the dark out of the garden door, into a back alley, (Lands Lane,) and thence to a friend's house, whence he might escape to France. The King however declined the woman's offer, but with many thanks, and gave her for a token, "The Garter", saying , that if it were never in his own power, on sight of that token, his son would reward her. After the Restoration, the woman presented the token to Charles II, and told him the story - The King inquired whence she cane? She replied, from Leeds, in Yorkshire. Whether she had a husband? She replied, yes, - What was his calling? She said an, Under Bailiff. Then, said the king, he shall be Chief Bailiff in Yorkshire. The husband was elevated to affluence, and afterwards built Crosby House, in the Head row.
During the Commonwealth, when the reins of government were held by Cromwell, Leeds was allowed to send a representative to parliament; and the person chosen was Adam Baynes, Esq., of Knostrop, a captain in the parliamentary army. It appears from a letter written by a Mr. Walker to Mr Alderman Thwaytes, that this honour was procured for the town of Leeds by the influence of Mr Baynes himself. The words of Mr Walker are, "Capt. Baynes, as I am credibly informed, out of courtesy and good will procured the town this honour; but for him it had not been; now we shall render ourselves unthankful persons indeed, if at the first election we give that coat of honour to another which he won for us; far be it from us." Captain Baynes was duly elected, in July 1654, and in his first Letter to his constituents, he says, "I understand by letters from Dr. Diveroe, and other good friends, how exceedingly you have obliged me beyond my deserts and expectations, so that I am at a loss for power and abilities, nay even for expression, to show my gratitude for the same. And therefore can only return you my affections, which shall ever continue to supply all other defects to do you faithful service; to which end I desire you to look upon me as one ever ready to receive and obey your commands in every thing tending to your service. And in order thereunto, I make bold to hint to you. how short a time it is before the parliament beginneth to sit, and also the multiplicity of business that the next parliament will have, to the end that you may lose no time in preparing your commands for me, either in relation to your government, civil or political, or any thing else that may concern you. To which end my humble advice to you is, that you will study peace and love amongst yourselves, (if any thing contrary be) that you may be as unanimous as may be in your meetings, for a house or a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand; and in all your consultations let me beg of you to endeavour the promotion of the clothing trade, which you know, under God, is the greatest means of most of your well beings; and to that end let every man divest himself of self, and adhere to that which may be for the public good, which will be great honour and comfort to you, and satisfaction to him that is." As the Rev. E. Parsons says, "making the necessary allowance for the difference of style, this letter may be compared with our modern production of the same class; there are the same expressions of gratitude, the same protestations of unbounded service, facturing interest, and it may be added, the same concealed and very natural exultation."
When James II evinced his intention of dispensing with acts of parliament and overturning the Protestant religion, Leeds and the neighbourhood took an active part in bringing about the "Glorious Revolution", and in 1688, when William and Mary ascended the throne, they were proclaimed here Feb. 19th amidst the joyful acclamations of thousands. In the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, when attempts were made to re-establish the Stuarts on the throne, the insurgents did not reach Leeds, though in the latter year, the Pretender, at the head of an undisciplined, but intrepid and faithful army of Highlanders, passed from Scotland to Manchester and Derby, whence he made a hasty retreat, and soon after quitted the Kingdom. During this period of alarm, General Wade, with a numerous army, lay encamped on the north side of Leeds, between Sheepscar and Woodhouse, and from the absence of old trees in that vicinity, it I supposed that the soldiers used all the timber they could find, in keeping alive their own fires. Though they had little to fear from the expected approach of the rebels, during the presence of Wade's army, many of the inhabitants took the precaution of hiding their plate and other valuables; but as no slaughter followed, all survived to dig up their treasures again. Wade's encampment is commemorated in the names of Wade lane, Camp road, &c and it is celebrated as being the last tented field in actual war in England.
Duke of Leeds: - This town was of such consequence in the 5th of William and Mary, as to be selected to give the title of Duke to one of the most distinguished statesmen of the age, by whose descendants the same honour is still sustained. "This circumstance seems to have afforded no little gratification to Thoresby. In the first page of his Ducatus, he speaks with evident pride of "His Grace, the High Puissant and most Noble Prince, Thomas Osborne, Duke of Leeds, Marquess of Caermarthen, Earl of Danby, Viscount Latimer, Baron Osborne of Kiveton, and a Baronet, Lord President of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council, Lord Lieutenant of the East, West, and North Ridings in the County of York" &c, &c. &c. In giving the Duke of Leeds a title derived from a trading town, it must be confessed that there was something appropriate. For his Grace's family originated from among the people. Its founder, Edward Osborne, in the middle of the sixteenth century, was the apprentice of William Hewett, and opulent tradesman, who lived upon London bridge, then occupied by a number of houses and presenting a continued street. The only daughter of Mr Hewett, on one occasion, fell into the river, and would have been drowned but for the gallantry of young Osborne, who plunged into the stream at the hazard of his life, and succeeded in saving his young mistress from destruction. He received the fair lady's hand as the reward of his courage; his father in law, who became Sir William Hewett, and Lord Mayor of London, richly endowed him with wealth; he was created a knight and elevated to the highest civic honours in the reign of Elizabeth; and his son, Sir Edward Osborne of Kiveton, was made a baronet by Charles I, and was afterwards appointed Vice President of the Council for the north of England, The son of this Sir Edward was High Sheriff of Yorkshire the second year after the Restoration, and by his patriotic conduct as Earl Danby (so created 1674) in taking arms at York for Wm. and Mary, he obtained the Dukedom of Leeds in 1694; and died full of honours at the advanced age of eighty one, in the year 1712". The present Duke is the sixth in order from the creation of the title and resides generally at Hornby Castle, in the north Riding of Yorkshire.
"Though Leeds was formerly connected with some of the principal families of the West Riding, some of whom made it the place of their residence, others sustained offices in its corporation, and others interested themselves in the transaction of its affairs; it has long been totally abandoned by the aristocracy. Three distinguished noble families reside within a few miles of it, and one of them is possessed of considerable property in the borough; but the residents at Harewood, at Temple Newsam, and at Methley, are seldom to be seen in its streets, the independence of manufacturing wealth being inconsistent with both the taste and the pride of dignity and rank."*
* The Denison Family are connected with Leeds, and one of them was elected Bishop of Salisbury in 1837. The name of this prelate's father was originally John Wilkinson Esq. a London merchant, and first cousin of Wm. Denison Esq. of Kirkgate, in this town, where he carried on an extensive business as a woollen merchant and realised a fortune of £700,000, a large portion of which he gained, it is said, by one ship's cargo, which arrived at Lisbon immediately after that city had been nearly destroyed by an earthquake. He died in 1782, and was interred at Ossington, where, on his monument in the church, he is represented standing on a pedestal, with his ship unloading in Lisbon haven. He bequeathed the bulk of his property to the above named John Wilkinson Esq. on condition of his assuming the name of Dension, and continuing to carry on at Leeds. Mr D's business as a cloth merchant, along with Mr W's brother, to whom about £3,000 or £4,000 year was also bequeathed and who retained his own name. Mr John Denison built for himself the spacious mansion in Hanover Square, (London) called Denison Hall, and was for some time a member of Parliament. The principal estate left to him was Ossington, in Nottinghamshire, the present residence of J E Denison Esq. M P for that county, and brother to the present Bishop of Salisbury. The families of John Denison, Esq. and his brother - Wilkinson Esq., still hold jointly the property extending for some distance on both sides of the river Aire near Knostrop, and they have also property at Woodhouse and in Kirkgate.
Two fatal Riots occurred here in the first half of the 18th century. The first in 1735, was occasioned by the dearness of provisions, and the allowance of a bounty on the exportation of corn. The rioters were so violent, that the King's troops were obliged to fire upon them, and 8 or 9 were killed. The second in 1753, exhibited a painful instance of the ignorance and folly that often give rise to popular clamour. The public roads in Yorkshire then consisted of narrow lanes, fitted only for the transit of pack-horsed; carriages could only move in a single row, while an elevated causeway, covered with flags or boulder stones afforded a narrow path for pedestrians. The first law for making Turnpikes was enacted in 1663; but it was not till long afterwards that local acts were rendered available to facilitate the communication between the towns in the West Riding. When the first turnpikes near Leeds were opened, the exaction of tolls excited an immense ferment among the people, and they determined to destroy the toll bars and the houses of the collectors. They demolished the gate between Bradford and Leeds, and also those at Halton Dial and Beeston. Three of the rioters were apprehended at the latter place, and conveyed before the borough magistrates then assembled at the King's Arms inn, in Briggate. The mob having in the morning rescued a carter who had been seized by the soldiers for refusing to pay toll at Beeston, assembled before the inn with the determination of liberating the prioners, and they soon broke the windows and shutters of the house with stones which they tore up from the pavement. The magistrate ordered out a troop of dragoons but the mob furiously assaulted them as they had previously done the constables. Orders having been issued for the closing of the shops and for every family to retire as far as possible from danger, the troops were commanded to fire fist with powder and this proudcing no effect, with ball. The people then fled in all directions, leaving in the streets about ten persons killed, and 27 wounded. Some of the latter afterwards died, and many others were injured. No subsequent explosion of popular violence occurred on this subject, and the people soon perceived that turnpike roads were a great benefit, instead of an oppressive grievance. The Pack horses now gave place to carriers' waggons, and stage coaches were established. The first stage coach in Yorkshire, proceeded from York to London, and performed the journey in four days. In 1764, we find the following advertisement; "Safe and expeditions travelling with Machines on steel springs, in 4 days to London, from the Old King's Arms, in Leeds, every Monday and Wednesday." The roads and carriages were much improved, and the speed of travelling greatly accelerated in 1776, when a new post coach was advertised to go to London from the same inn, in 39 hours.
Though the convenience and speed of stage coaches have been greatly improved since the close of the 18th century, they may, in a few years, be nearly all superseded by locomotive engines on rail roads. "and the next generation may smile at the clumsy dilatoriness of our present method of travelling, just as we ridicule the tediousness and apprehensions of our forefathers," who looked upon a journey of 50 or 100 miles as a perilous adventure. The great advantage of railways having been fully ascertained in other parts of the kingdom, an act of parliament was obtained on the 1s of June, 1830, for making the Leeds and Selby railway. The company of proprietors, incorporated by this act, were authorised to raise money amongst themselves for the undertaking, not exceeding £210,000, to be divided into shares of £100 each; "and they might also raise an additional sum of £90,000," by way of mortgage. The work was commenced in the beginning of the year 1831, and the road was opened for passengers on September 22nd 1834, and for the transit of merchandise on the 15th of December following. The whole length of the line is 19 miles, 7 furlongs, including the tunnel at the Leeds end. The work was executed under the direction of Messrs. Walker and Burgess, engineers, of London, and the contractors were Messrs. Nowell and Sons, of Dewsbury, for the fist two miles, including the tunnel; and Messrs. Hamer and Pratt, of Goole, for the remainder. The road is formed of a bed of stone broken small, and two feet thick. Upon this, two lines of railway are laid down, six feet six inches apart from each other. The rails are fastened into iron chains, which are plugged into heavy blocks of stone, at the distance of three feet, and to prevent the loosening of the chains by the shaking of the rails, a sheet of Borrodaile's'' composition felt is bedded between each of them and the stone. Three miles of the road is a dead level; seven miles on an inclined plane of one in one thousand; and the other inclined planes are so gentle in slope as to be nearly imperceptible to the naked eye. It commences on the east side of the town near the upper end of Marsh lane, where the company's extensive warehouses, &c. are admirably arranged, and afford every possible convenience for the reception and transmission of passengers and goods. Immediately after leaving this station the traveller arrives at the tunnel which is 700 yards long, and in the deepest part 70 feet below the surface. One third of the excavation is through rock, and the remainder through shale and coal measures. The materials derived from the rock have been used for the foundation of the middle part of the railway. The tunnel was excavated from five different points - one at each extremity, and from three shafts sunk to the proper level, at intermediate distances. An open excavation of 160 yards in length, retained by a strong wall of excellent masonry rusticated, precedes the actual entrance into the tunnel. This entrance is by a handsome stone archway built with large stones, and admirably appropriated to its purpose. The tunnel is 22 feet wide at the springing line of the arch, and 19 feet high from the invert to the top of the arch; from the level of the railway to the top of the arch is 17 feet. It is walled and arched with brick throughout. There are generally two courses of bricks placed lengthways so as to make the thickness of the arch twenty inches, and where the shale or earth is at all loose, there are three courses of bricks. The bricks are of superior quality, and they are carefully cemented with mortar, in which volcanic matter is mixed, and which soon becomes as hard and as tenacious as the brick itself. The walls are not perpendicular, but form a slight concave curve so that the tunnel is wider at the springing line of the arch that at the level of the road. The object of this mode of construction is to give strength to the whole mass of brickwork, and to preclude the possibility of the superincumbent earth forcing in the walls. The work is still further strengthened by an inverted arch of brick, passing under the railway from wall to wall, wherever the excavation is through earth or shale. The tunnel is sufficiently and very ingeniously lighted; and the traveller leaves behind him a region where the smoke of countless factories pollutes the atmosphere, and he enters upon a scene where no such contamination affects his organs, where the whole population is agricultural, and where rural tranquillity and peace are never invaded and destroyed by the confusion and bustle of manufacturing industry." The embankment upon which the railway is carried from the mouth of the tunnel across the valley to the opposite hill of Halton, is a very stupendous work, supported by immense walls and buttresses, and crossing the road to Ferrybridge by an arch of excellent workmanship. The hours of departure of the trains of coaches and carriages are stated at page 533, together with the passengers' fares. In 1836, and 7, acts of parliament were obtained for making upwards of thirty lines of railways, which will in a short period intersect kingdom in almost every direction. One of these is to extend from Leeds to Manchester; another from Selby to Hull; and a third from Leeds to Derby. The cost of the first is estimated at £1,300,000; of the second, £400,000; of the third (the North Midland) £1,500,000. Locomotive Steam engines were first invented by Mr Trevethick, of Merthyr Tydvil Iron Works, in South Wales, in the year 1804. They were subsequently tried at various coal and iron works, but were not brought into constant use in Yorkshire, till 1812, when one began to run on a railroad from the Rev. R Brandling's colliery at Middleton, to the coal staith in Hunslet lane, - a distance of three miles and a half.
The formation of these tram roads, on which carriages may be propelled at the rate of more than twenty miles per hour will no doubt materially injure the proprietary interest in the extensive and greatly improved Inland navigation, to which Leeds has long been indebted for a larger portion of its growing prosperity. In 1627 a Mr. Meeres suggested to Sir T Savile, the propriety of making the Calder Navigable to Wakefield, but it was not done till 1698, when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds, under the same Act of Parliament obtained in that year by the Aire and Calder Navigation Company, who, in 1760, extended the navigation of the Calder to Salterhebble, and since 1820 have extended the latter to Halifax, and cut the Knottingley and Goole Canal, which branches from the Aire, and saves a distance of seventeen miles in the navigation from Leeds to Hull. They have also constructed a large Dock on the south side of the Aire, and have so improved the whole navigation as to make Leeds a Port for sea-borne vessels of 120 tons. Their warehouses on both sides of the river are extensive, especially that near the north end of the bridge, which was built in 1827 & 8, and is seven stories in height forming a prominent object in the approach from the south. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which extends the navigation from the German Ocean to the Irish Sea, was commenced under an act passed in 1770, but amended by other acts passed in 1790 and 1794. About thirty miles of this great canal, extending from Leeds to Holm Bridge near Gargrave, and 28 miles, extending from Liverpool to Newbrough, were finished before the close of the 18th century, but the whole line (129 miles) was not finished till October 19th 1816, when it was opened by a grand aquatic procession. It commences on the south side of the Aire, opposite School close, where there are spacious wharfs and warehouses, and a large dock and basin, communicating with which is Victoria Bridge, which crosses the Aire to Sandford street and was erected in 1837. A general survey of the rivers, canals, and roads, of the West Riding will be found in Volume II.
Water Works; - The attention of the inhabitants of Leeds was directed at an early period to the supply of their families with water. In 1694, works were constructed for this purpose, under the direction of an engineer of the name of Sorocold, who had been employed in a similar manner at London, Bristol, and Norwich. A large reservoir was constructed at Lidgates, and pipes were laid from it to Kirkgate; but these works were greatly inadequate to the wants of the increasing population, and in 1754, the proprietors obtained a lease for 99 years of the Pit Fall Mill, near the bridge, which had been occupied as a fulling mill in the time of Charles II. From this mill they forced water from the river Aire into the reservoir, but the works were so inefficient, that in 1790, an act of parliament was obtained, not only for better supplying the town and neighbourhood with water, but also "for more effectually lighting and cleansing the streets and other places," and for "preventing nuisances, annoyances, encroachments, and obstructions therein." This act authorised the borrowing of money requisite to complete the woks, on the mortgage of the works themselves; and the present shareholders, 122 in number, are in fact the mortgagees. The management of the Water Works is in the hands of Commissioners appointed yearly by the Vestry , and who are the same as the Improvement Commissioners. The total nominal amount of the shares is £14,600, which bears 5 per cent interest. Only 2200 houses, inhabited by 12,000 persons, receive water from the Water Works; and a population of upwards of 60,000 in the township of Leeds alone, have no supply, except from wells and rain-water. The water is raised by the Water Works from the river near the Bridge, and forced up by a water wheel to reservoirs in New street, St. John's, and Albion street, at the rate of 80 or 90 gallons per minute. Its quality is very indifferent; and from this cause, as well as from the deficient quantity, the inhabitants, a few years ago, engaged several eminent engineers for the purpose of finding out some new source, whence pure water, in sufficient abundance might be provided. This desideratum has been obtained, and in June 1837, an act passed both houses of parliament, for the construction of New Water Works, by a company of proprietors, at the estimated cost of £91,000, to be raised in shares of £25 each. The new works will derive their supply form copious springs at Alwoodley and Eccup, on the Earl of Harewood's estate, about six miles N of Leeds. These springs yield about 500 gallon of water per minute in the driest seasons, and this ample stream will be conveyed to a reservoir of six acres, on Woodhouse Ridge, from which elevation, the water will be sent in pipes to all parts of the town and suburbs. The management of the works is to be equally in the shareholders and the Town Council, and the rates to be paid by the consumers are to be on a moderate scale, so as to yield merely a remunerating interest on the capital expended. The proprietors of the old works (valued at £12,000 in £100 shares) are to have the option of receiving £100 for each of their shares, or of receiving in lieu thereof four shares in the new works.
The first Act for Lighting and Paving the streets, was obtained in 1755, and its preamble describes the town as follows; "Whereas the town of Leeds, in the county of York, is a place of great trade and large extent, consisting of many streets, narrow lanes and alleys, inhabited by great numbers of tradesmen, manufacturers, artificers, and others, who, in the prosecution of and carrying on their respective trades and manufactures, are obliged to pass and repass through the same as well in the night as in the day time; and whereas several burglaries, robberies, and other outrages and disorders have lately been committed, and many more attempted within the said town, &c., and the enlightening the said streets and lanes, and regulating the pavements thereof would be of great advantage, and then not only to the security and preservation of the person and properties of the inhabitants of the said town, but the benefit and convenience of strangers and persons resorting to the several markets within the said town &c. When the act for the water works , in 1790 was obtained, it extended the provisions of the former act for lighting and improving the streets, to those parts of the town which had hitherto remained without the privilege of nocturnal lamps, and to this distance of 1000 yards from the Bars. By oil lamps the town continued to be lighted till 1828, when an act was obtained for the establishment of coal Gas Works, by a company of shareholders, with a capital of about £30,000, which they expended in laying pipes through the streets, and in erecting commodious buildings with gasometers, retorts, &c, in York street. These works were finished, and the town first illuminated with their brilliant vapour, on the 4rh February, 1829, when the twinkling coruseations of the oil lamps, which had so long rendered "darkness visible," were disused. In 1824, an Oil Gas Company was established here, with a capital of "20,000 and erected works in New Park street; but the speculation proved abortive, and the works were discontinued after the lapse of about seven years. In 1834, a New Coal Gas Company was formed, and erected works in Meadow lane at a considerable expense,. The town and suburbs are now efficiently lighted by the two establishments, at the rate of 8s. for every thousand cubic feet of gas. The act of 1755, and 1790, so far as regards lighting, paving, and the prevention of nuisances, &c. were amended by an Act passed in 1809, which also contained provisions for erecting a court house and prison for the borough, and for widening and improving the streets. This act was amended in 1815, by another act, which provided for the expense of the prosecution of felons in certain cases, and established a police and nightly watch in the town and borough. All these four local acts, except such parts as relate to the water works and court house, were amended in 1824, by another Improvement Act, which after reciting that the town had greatly increased during the preceding ten years, and enumerating the titles of the former Acts, states that "there are several narrow, confined and inconvenient markets, streets, passages, and public places, and dangerous impediments, obstructions, and annoyances, in the town and neighbourhood of Leeds, which it is expedient to alter, remove, prevent, and remedy; but by reason of the defective or insufficient powers and provisions contained the said Acts, the same cannot be effected, nor can divers other beneficial and salutary regulations for the improvement of, and rendering more commodious the said markets, street, highways, public passages, and places in the said town and neighbourhood of Leeds, be accomplished, without the further aid and authority of parliament; it is therefore expedient that further and more effectual powers and provisions should be granted and made for the purposes aforesaid and for raising money for carrying the same into execution." This Act appoints all the Justices of the Peace for the Borough. And nineteen persons elected yearly by the rate payers, to be Commissioners for carrying it into execution. The jurisdiction of this act comprises the town and all the suburbs within the distance of one mile in a direct line from any of the Bars, and within these limit the commissioners were empowered to levy three distinct rates, to be called the "Middle Row Rate;" the "Improvement Rate," and the "Lamp Rate," the first not to exceed the yearly sum of 5d.; the second 3d.; and the third 4d. in the pound upon the rackrent or real annual value of the property chargeable thereto. The improvement rate is only to be levied within such parts of the aforesaid limits as are in the township of Leeds. The primary object of the first named rate was the purchase and removal of the Middle Row, an ancient pile of buildings, having at its south end the old Moot Hall. And extending along the centre to Briggate from Kirkgate end to a little above Wood street, where the upper part of Briggate then bore the name of Cross parish or Market place. The removal of this great obstruction from the principal thoroughfare in the town, was effected in 1825, at the cost of about £13,000, exclusive of nearly £2,000 expended in obtaining the act. These sums were liquidated in 1833, but the Middle row Rate was continued three years longer, being made available to the cost of purchasing the Vicar's Croft, and opening it as a Free market. The lamp and Improvement rates are levied yearly, generally to the full amount allowed by the act, and out of the latter, the commissioners have at various periods expended large sums of money in widening contracted thoroughfare, &c. In 1836, they expended £3,986 in improving Quebec and Mill hill, and in 1837, they widened the narrow entrance into Mab-gate from Quarry hill. The Bridges and the Market places which have been provided in various parts of the town during he last twelve or fifteen years (since he removal of the markets and fairs from Briggate,) rank amongst the most important improvements of the town, as will be seen at subsequent pages.
Floods:- The Aire has at various periods overflowed its banks and inundated some of the lower parts of the town, especially those on the south side of the river. One of the highest of these floods was on the 20th and 21st of October, 1775, when the bridges at Calverley and Swillington were destroyed, and a hare escaped by floating down the stream on the body of a drowned sheep. The height to which the water rose in Leeds, is commemorated by a notice at the corner of Water lane. In December 1790, another flood destroyed several bridges, and washed away Mr Gilyard's dyehouse, on Sheepscar beck. On February 9th, 1795, a most destructive flood was produced by a rapid thaw and heavy rain; during which a boat was carried away from it moorings, and forced on its broad side across one of the arches of the bridge, where it was broken to pieces by the force of the ice and water; horses, carts, timer, and furniture were carried away, and three men were drowned at Hunslet dam. Similar floods occurred in 1799, 1806, 1807, 1816 and 1822. "The most remarkable, though not the most destructive flood which has ever been known in the river Aire, was in 1824. On the night of Sept. 2nd in that year, the inhabitants on the banks of the river were astonished to perceive in a few moments a very considerable height, by a frightful accumulation of black water, which prevented the dyehouses and similar establishments from working, destroyed the fish in the river, and effected immense damage in it irresistible course. This strange inundation was produced by the sudden discharge of a vast quantity of peaty water from a bog on the summit of Crow hill, about nine miles from Keighley, and six from Colne. An area of bog three quarters of a mile in circumference, sunk to the depth of from four to six yards, and the flood which was thus discharged rolled down the valley to Keighley with a terrible noise and violence. Stones of a vast size and weight were carried down by the stream more than a mile, corn fields were covered, and bridges were damaged, but happily no life was lost. A dreadful thunder storm raged at the time when the water descended from the moor, and the inundation was no doubt caused by the electric influence, or the agency of a waterspout, by which the accumulation of ages was liberated in a moment, and precipitated into the valley below. In 1829, there was a yet more destructive flood in Leeds. At Black hill, near Addle, there was a large reservoir occupying an extent of from twenty to twenty five acres, and formed by the natural inequality of the ground and a large embankment at the east end about fifteen feet high. This reservoir was situated at the head of the stream known nearer Leeds by the name of Sheepscar beck. On the evening of July 11, the quantity of water in the reservoir had been materially increased by a heavy fall of rain during a thunder storm, and in the night the embankment gave way. The beck was in a moment increased to a mighty torrent; the fences, the walls, and bridges were carried away, the lands in the valley were covered; the mills by the bed of the stream were overwhelmed, and the goods they contained on their lower floors were either ruined or carried away; the houses and cottages exposed to the inundation were deluged, their contents were destroyed, and many a poor family lost all the clothing and furniture they possessed in the word; in the neighbourhood of Timble bridge and East street, great confusion was occasioned, as some of the inhabitants were in imminent danger of losing their lives, so that altogether this was by far the most calamitous flood that ever occurred in the neighbourhood of Leeds.
In 1730, Leeds Bridge was enlarged for the passage of "double carriages," and two men were killed during the alteration. In 1796, it was again repaired and widened. In 1750, the Methodists obtained a lease for 99 years of an old house and piece of land, on which they built their first chapel in Leeds. Lunardi, the first aeronaut in Britain, ascended in his balloon from the area of the White Cloth Hall, Dec 4th 1786. Here were great rejoicings and a grand procession of workmen, on July 1st, 1788, as a testimony of gratitude for the passing of an act to prevent the exportation of live sheep and wool, in which the French had encouraged an illicit trade, for the purpose of robbing the English clothier of his staple. A speech, written for the occasion, and delivered by a woolcomber on horseback, at the head of the procession, concluded with "may we never want a Pitt for the French to fall into." In November, the centenary of the "Glorious Revolution," was honoured with every demonstration of public joy. In 1790, as some workmen were digging clay in a field now occupied by part of George street, they discovered about 50 oak coffins, containing human bones and supposed to have been buried there during he plague of 1644-5. In 1792, the effigy of Tom Paine (properly labelled, and holding a pair of stays in one hand, and his "Rights of Man" and "Age of Reason" in the other,) was carried through the streets with a halter round his neck; and having been whipped and hanged at the Market cross, was thrown into a large bonfire, amidst the shouts of the surrounding multitude. In 1791, corps of Volunteer Infantry and Yeomanry Cavalry were established at Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Wakefield, and other towns, for internal defence against insurrection or invasion. To assist in clothing the former, liberal subscriptions were raised to which Earl Fitzwilliam gave £1,000, and many other gentlemen £100 each. In 1795, Leeds raised its quota of 27 men for the navy. In 1796, wheat sold at from 12s to 13s per bushel, and the inhabitants of Leeds and Bradford entered into a solemn engagement to reduce its consumption in their own families at least one third. On January 4th, 1796, Leeds Volunteers were reviewed on Chapeltown Moor, by the Royal Duke of Gloucester, and on Feb 13th, the extensive linen manufactory of Messrs. Marshall and Benyon was destroyed by fired. The damage was estimated at £8,000, and 8 persons were killed and 20 wounded by the falling of one of the walls. On the 29th of May following, another melancholy accident happened in a building called Thoresby's Chapel, where a crowded congregation of Methodists were holding a love feast in a large upper room, the floor of which gave way, and 10 men and a boy were killed, and upwards of 30 others were so dreadfully bruised that several of them died of their wounds.
In 1797, public credit suffered a severe shock, from a scarcity of gold and the depression of trade; many banks stopped payment, but those at Leeds were promptly assisted by the gentry and merchants, who declared at a public meeting that they would take their notes in lieu of specie. An invasion being threatened by the French, three regiments of Supplementary Militia were raised in the West t Riding, in 1797; and in the following year, an Armed Association was formed in Leeds, and the Corporation subscribed £500 in aid of the supplies requisite for the defence of the kingdom. This gift was transmitted to the cashier of the Bank of England, and in order that it might be considered liberal, compared with their means, it was ordered to be entered thus on the subscription list - "The Corporation of Leeds having no property or income whatever, save the interest of £1,800, arising from fees of admission, and fines paid by those refusing to serve office, - £500." For the same purpose, J Smyth, Esq. of Heath, near Wakefield, gave £1,000 and the Earls of Harewood and Carlisle, each £4,000. Sir R B Johnston contributed £1,000 annually during the continuance of the war, which commenced after the decapitation of the King of France, in 1793 previous to which, the trade of Leeds and other place suffered severely from the effects of the American War which commenced in 1775. During both these long expensive wars, great distress frequently prevailed amongst the poor, but their sufferings were often alleviated by the liberal contributions of their more fortunate neighbours, in addition to the relief which they derived from parochial assessments, which pressed heavily on the smaller tradesmen. On May 6th, 1800, the market was disturbed by a riot, occasioned by the high price of corn, which in July, rose from 14s to 16s. 8d. per bushel.. To reduce its price, the inhabitants bound themselves not to consume more than 4lb of bread per head per week, until corn should be 10s. per bushel; and to make mutton cheaper and more plentiful, they determined not to eat lamb for three months. The Peace, which was ratified between Great Britain and France, on the 27th of March, 1802, was celebrated here by great rejoicings and a day of thanksgiving. The Volunteers were disembodied, and their colours deposited in the parish church. This peace only continued a year and sixteen days;- war being declared against France on the 16th May, 1803. An Act having hastily passed, requiring all the male inhabitants between the ages of 17 and 55 years, to be enrolled for the defence of the kingdom, the lieutenancy, magistracy, and principal gentry of the West Riding, assembled in Leeds, and resolved to have none but Volunteers "to stand forth to meet and resist an enemy threatening us with invasion and destruction." Aided by a subscription of £15,000 a regiment of Volunteer Infantry was raised in Leeds, and it soon comprised 2,400 men, who were provided with flannel waistcoats by the contributions of the ladies. In 1803, there was 1,364 deaths in Leeds, and in the following year only 671; - this decrease of mortality was supposed to have been occasioned by the introduction of Vaccine Inoculation. On the 9th January, 1805, died Jervas Storr, of this town, a worthy member of the Society of Friends, who possessed a yearly income of several hundred pounds, of which he expended £30 per annum on himself, and distributed the rest among the poor.
In 1808, the iniquitous practices of Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire witch, who had long resided in Camp field, Leeds, were exposed before the borough magistrates. The following is the outline of the tragical history of the abominable hag, who in 1806, alarmed her credulous neighbours with an egg, on which she had cunningly inscribed "Crist is coming." She was born at Aisenby, near Thirsk, in 1768, and having married, and taken up her residence in Leeds, became a witch by professon. Her arts were innumerable, and her crimes even to murder not a few. Poison was her favourite instrument and when her interest prompted to the deed, her conscience never stood in the way of its application. After practicing upon a number of other persons, She was directed by a young woman, one of her dupes, to the ill fated family of William Perigo, a small clothier at Bramley, whose wife was supposed to labour under an evil wish. This was in the year 1806. For upwards of nine months, the enchantress, aided by an imaginary personage, to whom she gave the name of Miss Blythe, held Perigo and his wife in her toils, now exciting their hopes, then rousing their fears, but all the time draining their purse, till she had got from them £70 in money, and remorselessly stripped the house of its furniture, and the inmates of their be apparel. At length, when they had nothing more to give, and when they became clamorous for the fulfillment of her promise of happiness and prosperity, she took the desperate resolution to silence their importunities and avoid detection, by terminating their lives. With this purpose, and under the pretence of administering a charm, she gave them poison to mix in their food. Both Perigo and his wife partook of the honey and the pudding in which the noxious drug was infused; she to the loss of her life, and he to the injury of his constitution. The death of Perigo' wife, dissipated the delusion under which he had so long laboured. He laid his case before the magistrates at Leeds, and Mary was committed to the County Gaol. On the 17th of March, 1809, she was tried for the willful murder of Rebecca Perigo, and being convicted on the clearest evidence, she was ordered for execution of the Monday following. At the appointed time she expiated her crime on the gallows, and her body was given for dissection to the Leeds infirmary. The lawless system of "Luddism," under which the enraged workmen of the clothing district arrayed themselves, in 1812, against the introduction of machinery, extended its depredations to this town and neighbourhood but its most destructive and tragical operations were in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield, as will be seen in Vol II. On January 10th, 1814, died Joseph Linsley, who for upwards of 34 years was governor of the Leeds workhouse and was several times visited by the philanthropic Howard, who wrote as follows;- "The poor of Leeds are well fed and taken care of; indeed, they, and the people at large, are happy in having a worthy and very honest man for the governor of the workhouse, a Mr Linsley, who was formerly a manufacturer in the town. His temper and disposition, as well as those of his wife, seem peculiarly adapted for their charge; mildness and attention to the complaints of the meanest, joined with firmness of manner, gain the respect of those who are placed under their care." Saml. Birchall, a member of the Society of Friends, and industrious naturalist, and author of a work on provincial coins, died here the same year, May 17th, aged 53. The Austrian Archdukes, John and Charles, visited the Cloth Halls, and principal manufactories of the town, on December 13h, 1815, after the general peace, which had been honoured here on February 3rd, by a grand Bishop Blaize Procession, but was for several months disturbed by the re-entry of Napoleon into France. In December 1816, the Grand Duke Nicholas, (now Emperor) of Russia, visited Leeds, Harewood House, York, and many other places in this county. In 1817, peace not having brought with it a revival of trade, many political meeting were held in Yorkshire, and subscriptions were opened for the relief of the unemployed. Cries for parliamentary reform became loud and urgent, and many large meetings were held, wearing the aspect of sedition, and excited, it was supposed, by several government spies. The gig-mill of Messrs. Willans and Sons, Hunslet lane, was destroyed by fire on November 10th, and as the pipes of the engines brought to extinguish the flames, were willfully cut, the fire was supposed to have been lighted by an incendiary. The damage was about £2,000, but the premises were insured. On Dec 17th, 1819, Benjamin Surr, a poor innocent of Leeds, then about 30 years of age, was found chained to the wall, in his father's cellar, where he had been confined more than 15 years, with nothing but a few sacks and a little straw for his bed, and such a scanty supply of food that his bones had in several places penetrated the skin. He was removed to the workhouse, but only survived the transition from misery to comfort, 13 days. On Sept 4th, 1823, Mr W W Sadler ascended in his Balloon from the Coloured Cloth Hall. The latter in his descent at Haxey, near Gainsbro', was thrown out of the car without much injury, but his balloon having re-ascended, passed over the German Ocean, and fell on the coast of Holland, where it was found by a Dutchman, who demanded £18 for its restoration, though it was much torn, and the barometer was lost. The failure of the great bankers, Messrs. Wentworth, Chaloner and Rishworths, of Wakefield, December 9th 1825, was followed by the bankruptcy of nearly fifty other banking houses, which created a long depression of trade and much distress amongst the poor. In the winter of 1826, the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood had their feelings frequently wounded by a gang of "Resurrection Men," who during the night purloined many bodies from the church yards, and sent them to the anatomical schools of Edinburgh, but two of the packages were intercepted at a coach office in Newcastle and the body of Mary Oddy, the daughter of an Armley clothier, was recovered after a tedious search. Two of the gang (George Cox, and Michael Armstrong,) were detected and sentenced to six months imprisonment.
Sir John Beckett, Bart., an eminent banker and alderman of Leeds, died at his seat, (Gledhow,) on the 18th of Sept. 1826, aged 84 years. He was created a Baronet in 1813; was twice mayor of Leeds; and as a magistrate of the borough and the West Riding, he was distinguished for legal knowledge and impartiality. He was succeeded by his son, the present Sir John Beckett, Bart., one of the present parliamentary representatives of the borough, who married Mary Anne Lowther, third daughter of the Earl of Lonsdale.
In July 1827, Elizabeth Armitage, of Woodhouse, a spinster aged 69, suddenly fell into a state of lethargic stupor, in which she continued eight days, without receiving any kind of food or shewing any signs of life, except a slight breathing. She expired on the eighth day without a struggle. On Dec 18th, Kirkstall abbey Mills were destroyed by fire, and the damage amounted to £12,000. The building belonged to Sir Sandford Graham, Bart., and the occupants were Messrs. O Willans & Son. During the preceding twenty hears, many destructive fires happened at mills and factories in the town and neighbourhood; and in 1828, Mr. Hammond's flax mill at the Bank, was burnt to the ground; but such conflagrations do not now so often occur, owing, perhaps, to more care being used in the construction of the building, and in the manufacturing processes. On Dec. 22nd, 1828, died Betty Jackson, of Holbeck, aged 106. When in her 23d year, she accompanied the pack horses with rations to General Wade's army, then lying at Tadcaster. Many other instances of longevity have occurred in the parish.
Parliamentary Reform and elections; - Leeds has long been a populous and wealthy borough, but it had no representative in parliament until the passing of the Reform Bill, in 1832; though it was allowed to send one member to the House of Commons assembled at the commencement of the Commonwealth. In 1821, the electors of Grampound having been convicted of general bribery and corruption, a bill was brought into parliament by Lord John Russell to transfer the franchise of that borough to Leeds; but after passing the House of Commons, it was remodelled in the House of Lords; and instead of two members being returned for Leeds, it was finally enacted that Yorkshire should send four members in lieu of two. "By the memorable act of 1832, the right of the borough of Leeds to return two members to the House of Commons was finally recognised. To describe the anxiety which prevailed in this town during the alarming period when the Reform Bill, and the administration by which it was introduced and supported, were in jeopardy - to give a detailed history of the numerous public meetings which were held, of the energetic spirit which was displayed, and of the overwhelming manner in which public opinion lifted up its voice in the borough of Leeds at this crisis in the national affairs, would occupy too extended a space in these volumes; we can only state that the proceedings adopted by the inhabitants of Leeds not only coincided with the general sentiments of convictions of the vast majority of the people in every part of the kingdom, but materially contributed to sustain the hope and invigorate the exertion of the other towns in the West Riding, and had no inconsiderable influence upon the legislature and the empire." After the dissolution of the last parliament under the old system, three candidates appeared for the honour of representing Leeds, viz. Thomas Babington Macaulay, and John Marshall, jun., Esqrs., supported by the Whigs; and Michael Thomas Sadler, Esq., supported by the Tories. The nomination took place at the Mixed Cloth Hall, on Dec 10th 1832, when the shew of hands was decidedly in favour of the two first named candidates; but Mr. Sadler demanded a poll. Which commenced on the 12th, and closed on the 13th, in the election of Messrs. Marshall and Macaulay; the Votes being 2,102 for Marshall; 1,984 for Macaulay; and 1,596 for Sadler. The first had 38, the second 39, and the third 1,380 plumpers. In February, 1834, another election occurred in consequence of the resignation of Mr. Macaulay, preparatory to his going out to India as a member of the Governor General's Council, under the new India Bill. The candidates for the vacant seat were Edward Baines, sen., Esq., Sir John Beckett, Bart., and Joshua Bower, Esq. The nomination took place on Woodhouse moor, on the 13th; the polling on the 14th and 15th; and the result was the election of Mr Baines, who polled 1,951 votes, Sir J Beckett, 1917 and Mr Bower, 24. At the general election in January 1835, the late Mr Marshall declined appearing again as a candidate, and Edward Baines, Esq., and Sir J Beckett, were elected. The Votes for the three candidates being 1941, for Sir J Beckett, 1803 for Mr Baines and 1665 for William Brougham Esq.
Corporation Reform; - One of the great national charters passed in the reign of William IV, was "an act to provide for the regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales," which received the royal ascent September 9th 1835. Preparatory to the introduction of this measure into parliament, his late majesty instituted a commission to enquire into the existing state of the different corporations. On Dec 14th, 1833, Fortunatus Swarris, Esq., one of the commissioners, opened a Court of Enquiry in Leeds; when John Nicholson Esq., the Town Clerk, said the Corporation considered that the Commission was illegal, but had allowed him to answer all questions asked by the Commissioners. He then described the limits of the borough and the constitution of the Corporation under the charter of Charles II. As already shown at previous pages and stated that they were Commissioners under all the Acts of Parliament relating to the borough, and that the only property which they possessed was obtained by fines amongst themselves, and consisted of £6,500 three per cent consols, and £500 secured on mortgage of the tolls of the Leeds and Wakefield road. Though their income was small, he said they had contributed various sums towards the improvement of the town and for the benefit of the nation, having given £500 in 1798, towards the supplies for the defence of the country; £400 in 1806, towards opening an new street from Briggate to Commercial street; £824, in 1820, for fitting up a temporary barracks in the town to be used for soldiers during a time of popular tumult, and £257.8s.3d. in 1826, towards the commutation of the vicarial tithes. He said also the Corporation had occasionally been at the cost of public entertainments, and that these expenses, with the salaries of the Recorder, Deputy recorder, and other officers, amounted nearly to the whole of their income. The emoluments of his office, as Town Clerk, Clerk of Indictments at the Sessions, &c., were about £700 per annum. The complaints urged by Mr Richardson, Mr Clapham, and other burgesses, against the Corporation, were confined solely to the non publication of their account as receivers and disburses of the Court House and Watch Rates, and of the close system of election by which they filled up vacancies in their own body to the exclusion of all who differed from them in religion and politics - none but Churchmen and Tories being admitted, even after the Test and Corporation Act had been repealed. The accounts were produced for the inspection of the burgesses present who, in return, expressed their satisfaction, but said the majority of the people desired the introduction of a new and more popular municipal system. The Commissioner then closed his enquiry, after sitting about six hours and a half. Before the passing of the Municipal Reform Bill, the old Corporation determined to prevent their funds passing to the new Corporation, and with this view they alienated the above named sums of £6,500 and £500, to three trustees - Messrs. Wilson, Beckett, and Ballads, for the purpose of being applied to some public purposes. They afterwards requested the trustees to dispose of part of the money as follows; £525 to the Recorder, as a gratuity for his past services; £105 to the Deputy Recorder; £750 to the Infirmary; £500 to the House of Recovery; £250 to the Dispensary; £1,000 towards the erection and endowment of a Church (St George's) on the west side of the town; and £2,000, in equal portions, to improve the stipends of the incumbents of Christ Church and S. Mary's. But the Town Council have now (1837) a suit in Chancery, and anticipate the recovery of the whole or part of the £7,000 from the trustees. They have, however, had to grant some compensation to the late Town Clerk and Chief Constable for the loss of their offices. The Constitution of the present Corporate Body, or Town Council. With the division of the borough into wards, the number of burgesses, and the amount of rates levied in 1836, has been seen previously. Under the old system, the last Mayor was Griffith Wright, Esq. and the Aldermen were H Hall, G Banks, C & T Beckett, R Markland, T Blayds, T Motley, R Bramley, W hey, B Sadler, R W D Thorp and J R Atkinson, Esquires. The following is a list of the present Borough Magistrates and Town Council with their officers;
Magistrates in priority, as named in the Commission of the Peace; but those marked * have not qualified, and one is vacant by the death of John Marshall jun, in 1837
James Williamson Esq Edward Baines, sen. Esq George Banks Esq * Thomas Beckett Esq Thomas Benyon Esq Thomas Wm. Tottie Esq William W Brown Esq James Holdforth Esq George Goodman Esq David William Nell Esq Hamer Stansfield Esq James Musgrave Esq John Clapham Esq Thomas Hebden Esq William Pawson Esq William Cadman Esq Edward Grace Esq William Smith Esq John Gott Esq * William Hey, sen. Esq* Darnton Lupton Esq Clerk to the Magistrate - Mr Robert Barr Mayor Jos Williamson Esq Recorder Rt. Baynes Armstrong Esq ALDERMEN George Goodman William Williams Brown Hamer Stansfield Thomas William Tottie James Williamson James Holdforth Thomas Benyon William Pawson Thomas Beckett John Clapham Griffith Wright John Rainforth Bywater William George Scarth James Musgrave Henry Hall Thomas Hebden (eight of the aldermen are changed triennially) COUNCILLORS (1836-37) (Sixteen out of the 48 are change yearly) Mill Hill Ward Wm. Hey. Jun. John Heaton Thos Shann John Howard Henry Jennins Edward Charlesworth West Ward William Smith Joseph Bateson Robert Dorrington Obadiah Willans Peter Fairburn Richard Bramley North West Ward Jas. Robinson Jas. Ogle Matthew Gaunt North Ward Wm. Cadman Darnton Lupton Wm. Brown North East Ward Robert Jackson Joshua Barett Robert Baker East Ward John A Buttrey Israel Barrows Eli Whiteley Kirkgate Ward Wm. Beckett J S Barlow T H Pease South Ward John Wilkinson Rt. Derham Jtn. Dickinson Hunslet Ward John Bower Joshua Bower Wm. Heaston, sen. Holbeck Ward Jas Hargreave Jas. Whalley Rd. Jackson Jonth. Shackleton Chas. G Maclea Edw. Tatham Bramley Ward Samuel Priestman Matthew Moss, jun. Rd. Wilson Benj. Rogers Wm. Clark Wm. Musgrave Headingley Ward Jas. Maude Rt. Harrison Geo. Heyward Officers appointed by the Council Edwin Eddison, Town Clerk, John Smith Treasurer, John Blackburn, coroner, Jas. Richardson, Clerk of the Peace, George Hanson, Sergeant at Mace, Jas. Lancaster , Gaoler and Edward Reed, Foreman of the Town Fire Engine. Officers appointed by the Watch Committee Wm. Heywood, Chief constable, Williamson Etches, Superintendent, John Wood, Committee Clerk, John Handley, Beadle, Jas. Child, Wm. James, John Ulleart and Joseph Hainsworth, Police Inspectors, and Benj. Wood, Captain of the Watch and Bail Constable.The Court House, under which is the prison and Police Office, is an elegant stone building fronting Park row, commenced in 1811, and finished in 1813, from designs by Mr Taylor, under the sanction of an Act of Parliament, which was obtained in 1809, and provided, among other things, that a rate of 1s. 3d. in the pound should be levied, to defray the expense of this building, on such messuages in the borough as were usually assessed to the poor. The form has a centre and two wings, the former having a lofty portico of four Corinthian columns, supporting a handsome pediment; and the latter have panels, in which the faces, fleece, wreaths, &c. are highly wrought in bas-relief. The Rotation Office and Magistrates' Room are on each side of the vestibule, and both communicate with the large hall which affords accommodation for the assembly of a considerable number of persons; having two galleries, one for the Grand Jury and one for ladies, and an elevated stage capable of containing 800 persons. The Grand Jury Room is over the vestibule, and communicates with their box. While two other rooms are appropriated to the Counsel and Juries and communicate with their boxes. This hall is used for the municipal and other public meetings, for the transaction of such local affairs as involve popular discussion. The basement story, which is entirely arched with stone, consists of an open arcade, a guard room, police office, and engine room,* and the gaoler's apartments, which overlooks the prison court, in which are thirteen cells. A room for military stores, an armoury, &c. are accessible through a guard room at the west end of the building, where there is also a distinct entrance for the public.* Fire Engines - Two engines belonging to the Leeds and Sun Fire Offices are stationed at the Court house, the Leeds and Yorkshire Company have one at the White Hart Yard; the Norwich Union one in the Black Bull Yard, and four others are stationed at the Leeds Pottery and at the factories of Benyon & Co. Meadow lane, Marshall and Co, Water lane, and Hives and Atkinson, at the Bank
The Old Rotation Office was in Kirkgate, opposite Vicar lane, and was so called from the Aldermen attending there in turn for the administration of justice, after the ancient Moot Hall, which stood in the centre of Briggate, at the lower end of the Middle row, had become too small for the crowds who assemble at the quarter and Petty Session. Near the latter stood the Old Prison, which contracted the entrance into Kirkgate, and had long been a disgrace to the town, but was taken down after the completion of the Court House. The present gaol is said to be the worst in the county affording no classification of prisoners, and having only one small airing yard, so that the borough culprits, after conviction, are sent to Wakefield House of Correction; but the town Council had had the erection of a new borough gaol in contemplation, since 1836. Quarter Sessions are held here four times a year for the Borough, and for the west Riding at Michaelmas Petty Session, for the Borough, are held here every Tuesday and Friday, and it has long been a matter of surprise that the Corporation have not appropriated a room in the Court House for the weekly sittings of the west Riding Magistrates, who attend in the town to hear causes from the surrounding parishes. The Act for the erection of the Court house was the origin of some of the most useful improvements effected in the streets, and authorised the establishment of the present system of Police, which without any undue exercise of rigour, or any ostentatious display of authority, is efficient, and well regulated. The Vagrant Office, in Grantham street, was established in 1818, for the suppression of mendicity, and is supported out of the poor rate of Leeds township. It is under the care of a superintendent and assistant, who in some years, relieve as many as 6,000 vagrants, none of whom are allowed to beg in the streets, nor to remain longer than one night in the town. The number of criminal committals, in the borough of Leeds, amounted from the year 1816 to 18127, to no fewer than 17,463, being an average of 1,455 per annum.
The Cavalry Barracks, near Buslingthorpe, just within the northern boundary of Leeds township, were built at the cost of about £28,000, granted by Government, in 1819 and 1820, for the purpose of keeping in awe the populous clothing district, then supposed to be on the verge of insurrection. The barracks for the officers and men and the stables, are built of brick, on a commodious plan, and with the spacious parade ground, occupy more than eleven acres of land, in a pleasant and salubrious situation.
Market and Fairs - The market days are Tuesday and Saturday, and both of them are extensive marts for cloth, provisions, &c., and the former is also a corn, cattle, and swine market. A Fortnight Fair for cattle and sheep was established in 1827, and continues to be held on the opposite Wednesday to that at Wakefield. Two Annual Fairs are held on the 10th and 11th of July, and the 8th and 9th of November the former for horses, and the latter for horned cattle, &c. On the second day of each fair, young persons of both sexes, from the country attend to hire as servants, principally into the families of farmers. A Quarterly Leather Fair was established in 1827, to be held on the third Wednesdays in January, April, July and October; but in consequence of the increased demand for leather four additional fairs were established in 1833, to be held on the first Wednesdays in March, June, September, and December, and all of them are numerously attended by tanners and buyers. Until 1823, Leeds had no Market Places but its Cloth Halls, except such a formed parts of its streets and thoroughfares. Previous to that year, vegetables were mostly exposed for sale on the east side of Briggate, and the stalls of country shopkeepers, &c., occupied the west side of the same street The Shambles occupied the east side of the Middle row, above which Briggate took the name of Cross Parish from a convenient cross erected in its centre in 1776, on the site of an older structure, and round which the corn, butter, egg and poultry market was held. The cattle market was held in the narrow avenue of Vicar lane, the swine market in Lowerhead row, and the horse fair in Upperhead row, to the great annoyance of residents and passengers. Before the removal of the Middle row and the cross from the centre of Briggate, in 1825, and the exclusion of the market stalls and carts from that street, it was necessary that other market accommodation should be provided. In 1823, a company of shareholders raised a large capital for the erection of the Bazaar, New Shambles, Fish Market, &c, which extend from Brigatte into Vicar lane, and were finished in 1826, at a great expense, no less than £6,000 being given for that part of the ancient buildings which formed what was called the Old Square. The shambles are in two streets opening into Briggate, and called Cheapside and Fleet street, and above the centre row of shops is the Bazaar, a spacious room about 80 yards long, let in compartments to dealers in fancy goods, millinery, clothes, &c. At the end opening into Vicar lane, is "Leadenhall Wholesale Carcase Market," where 150 beasts, besides sheep, calves, &c., may be killed and dressed. Being below the surface, this slaughter house is cool in summer, and sheltered from the frost in winter. It is plentifully supplied with water, and kept perfectly clean and free from offensive smells. The free Market, for the sale of vegetables, fruit, hay, cattle, swine, &c., occupies and area of 9,758 square yards of land at the junction of Vicar lane and Kirkgate, formerly the Vicar's Croft, and the site of the Vicar's house outbuildngs, gardens, &c., all of which were purchased, in 1823, by the Improvement Commissioners, for a very considerable sum, part of which was laid out in land, and the rest in the purchase of an excellent mansion in Park square, to be the future residence of the Vicars. Though originally intended to be a free market, kept in repair, &c. out of the improvement rates, the farmers, graziers, and other dealers, preferred paying small tolls which are now let by the Commissioners to Mr Joshua Bower, for £1,200 per annum.
The Central Market, a spacious covered building, occupying a large square plot of land at the corner of Duncan street and Call lane, is one of the principal ornaments of the town. It was commenced by a company of shareholders in Nov 1824, and finished in October 1827, at the cost of about £35,000, from designs by F Goodwin, Esq, of London. Its principal front is a handsome elevation of Grecian architecture, consisting of a central and lateral divisions or wings, the former having two fluted Ionic columns and two antae, crowned with an entablature inscribed, "Central Market," above which is a blocking course with socles at the extremities, and a large acroterium above the centre, charged with three paterae, and finished with a pediment having Grecian tiles at the angles. The entrance between the columns is through a lofty doorway. The interior is very spacious and commodious; the centre is divided into three walks with stalls, and a gallery is carried round three sides of the building, with a Bazaar on one side. Streets or alleys, round the exterior of the market, are occupied by butchers and other traders; an avenue to Kirkgate leads to the Free Market, and in 1833, an opening called Market street was extended into Briggate. The Corn Exchange, at the head of Briggate, where the corn market is held every Tuesday from 11 to 1 o'clock, was commenced in 1826, and finished in 1828, at the cost of abut £12,500, raised in £50 shares, exclusive of the land which is held with some adjoining building sites on a 999 year's lease, at the yearly rent of £300. The form, which looks down Briggate, is extremely neat, having two Ionic columns and two antae, supporting an entablature and pediment, crowned by an elegant bell turret. In a niche between the columns is placed the renovated statue of Queen Anne. Art of the building is a commodious hotel, and behind it is a large court with a piazza where the corn market is held by sample; but corn is still sold in sacks, at the top of Briggate, though on a smaller scale than formerly. The erection of the corn exchange was followed by another great improvement - the widening of the Upperhead row, by pulling down and rebuilding the north side of that once narrow and dangerous thoroughfare. The South Market, where eight leather fairs are held yearly, occupies a large plot extending from Hunslet lane to Meadow lane, and was built in 1823 and 4, as a general market for the accommodation of the southern portion of the town and suburbs It consists of a great number of uniform shops, partly disposed in the form of streets, with a semicircular range surrounding an area, in the centre of which stands a circular temple, or cross covered by an hemispherical dome, resting on 24 Doric pillars. This market though it cost about £22,000, raised in £50 shares, was never patronized by the inhabitants of the populous part of the town and suburbs for whose use it was erected; and though many of the shops are now let for the use of the leather fairs the rents have never afforded any thing like an adequate interest for the capital expended.
The two Cloth Halls are among the largest and most important, though the plainest buildings in Leeds. In these halls the principal sales of woollen cloths, in their rough state, from the country manufacturers to the merchants take place on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The arrangement of the markets is well adapted to the despatch of business and in brisk times exhibits an interesting view of the trade of the town and neighbourhood. The Coloured or Mixed Cloth Hall, built in 1758, at the junction of West bar, Park row, and Wellington street, is a large quadrangular building, 127.1/2 yards long and 66 broad, enclosing an area, and divided into six departments, which, from their magnitude are denominated streets. Each street contains two rows of stands, and every stand measures 22 inches in front, and is inscribed with the name of the clothier to whom it belongs. The total number of stands is 1,800, and each of them cost originally three guineas; but in the early part of the present century they sold at from £16 to £24 each, though they have since been reduced in value to 50s. each. In 1810, an additional story was erected on the north side, and it is used chiefly for the sale of ladies' cloths in the undyed state. The White Cloth Hall, built on the same plan in 1775, is nearly as large as the other. It has an entrance from the "Calls," and forms one side of the street to which it give name. The original cost of its stands was 30s. but now only 20s. each; though about 30 years ago they sold at from £6 to £8 each. This depreciation is not owing to any decrease in the quantity of woollen goods manufactured, but to the factory system having so far prevailed over the domestic system, as to reduce the number of that valuable class, the clothiers attending the Leeds market, from upwards of 3,000 to less than half that number. The Cloth Market is held ever Tuesday and Saturday forenoon, and opens at each hall by the ringing of a bell; in a few minutes, the merchants walk in, each manufacturer appears behind his stand, and the sales immediately commence At the end of an hour, a warning bell announces the approaching close of the market, and the sound of the third bell, in a quarter of an hour afterwards, terminates the business of the day Each merchant now quits the hall on pain of a penalty of five shillings for every five minutes that he continues in after the last bell has rung; and thus, in an hour and a quarter, transactions are completed at each hall, often to the amount of £15,000 or £20,000, and sometimes to a still greater extent. The Mixed Cloth Hall opens at half past eight in summer; nine in spring and autumn; and half past nine in winter. The White Cloth Hall opens when the other closes; and strangers passing through the town frequently gratify themselves by visiting the halls during the hours of business, to which there is no objection. The cloth is brought to these halls in the unfinished state, and it is dressed under the merchants direction, either by his own workmen, or by persons whose business it is to dress and finish woollen goods. One of the regul