George Goodman (politician)

Sir George Goodman (17 November 1791 – 13 October 1859)[2] was an English wool-stapler,[3] a magistrate for the borough and county of Leeds,[4] as well as a Liberal politician. On 1 January 1836, he was elected the first Mayor of Leeds after the Municipal Corporations Act 1835,[3] and he served as a member of parliament (MP) for Leeds from 1852 to 1857.[2]

The Right Honourable
Sir George Goodman
Sir George Goodman, Mayor of Leeds
Member of Parliament
In office
1852–1857
MonarchVictoria
Personal details
Born17 November 1791[1]
Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Died13 October 1859 (aged 67)
Roundhay, Yorkshire, England
Political partyWhig

Early years

Goodman was born in Leeds, the son of Benjamin Goodman (d. 10 June 1848), a wool merchant, and his wife, Ann Radford. He was baptised at Leeds South Parade Baptist Church[1] and remained a Baptist.[5] He had at least one sibling, a sister Eleanor (1791–1877).

Career

"I have made it a rule through life either to fulfill my engagement, or to die at my post." (G. Goodman)

[6]

Goodman started his career learning his father's business and becoming a partner in his father's firm of B. Goodman & Sons at 21 Hunslet Lane, Leeds.[7] He prospered as a wool-stapler in Leeds and Bradford,[3] and was a Director of the Leeds and Bradford Railway.[8] His firm acquired other local firms including, in 1846, Thomas Pearson and Sons, manufacturers of worsted.[9]

He was elected Mayor of Leeds on 1 January 1836, the first Mayor of the City of Leeds after the Municipal Corporations Act. In April, he was presented a gold chain with an inscribed pendant to honour his mayoral election. Following the resignation of C. G. Maclea, Goodman was again elected mayor on 1 January 1847 and left office on 9 November 1847. He was re-elected for a third term on 9 November 1850, and a fourth term on 9 November 1851. He resigned from his position as mayor in March 1852 in order to be eligible to run for Parliament.[3]

A Whig,[10] Goodman was elected to Parliament with Matthew Talbot Baines in 1852. He was a magistrate of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and appointed a deputy lieutenant on 27 January 1853.[11][12] In 1851, Goodman served as Leeds' civic representative at The Great Exhibition, after which, on 26 February 1852, he was knighted at Buckingham Palace, shortly before his resignation as mayor.[13][3] Goodman sat for the Borough of Leeds in the House of Commons for five years, beginning at the 1852 general election,[14] before retiring upon the 1857 dissolution of Parliament because of poor health brought about by a stroke of paralysis and neuralgia.[10][15]

Personal life

Goodman was a member of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. He once made a donation to the society of fourteen birds from Australia.[16] Although Goodman was recorded as living at Newton Hall estate in Potternewton, near Leeds in 1846, he had sold the estate to Arthur Lupton by 1845.[17][18][19] Goodman never married. The Gentleman's Magazine reported that he died on 13 October 1859 at his seat, Roundhay, near Leeds aged 67.[20] In compliance with Goodman's request, an autopsy was conducted, revealing softened spinal marrow.[6] Goodman, a Baptist, was interred at Whitkirk Church.[21]

He inherited his father's Roundhay estate, Goodman House,[22] which was renamed Beechwood by Arthur Lupton's brother, Francis Lupton, who had purchased the estate by 1860, following George's death.[23]

In later life, Goodman had a portrait commissioned as 'George Goodman, Mayor', by Charles Henry Schwanfelder, also from Leeds and Animal Painter to King George III and King George IV. The portrait shows Goodman looking outward, in the attire of the period, sat at a desk overladened with books, with reading glasses in hand.

References
  1. England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567–1970
  2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 1)
  3. Wheater, William; Smith, William (1882). Old Yorkshire. Vol. 3 (Digitized 5 June 2007 ed.). Longmans, Green. p. 203.
  4. Leeds man, pp. 61
  5. Cobden, Richard (2010). The Letters of Richard Cobden: Volume II: 1848–1853. OUP Oxford. p. 381. ISBN 9780199211968. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  6. Brewer, Rev. Dr. E. Cogham (1860). Memoir of Sir George Goodman, Knt., Leeds. p. 29. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  7. Garton, Steve (27 March 2010). "Transcript of the entry of "professions and trades" for LEEDS in Pigot's Directory of 1834". genuki.org.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  8. The Railway directory for 1845, containing the names of the directors and principal officers, of the railways in Great Britain & Ireland (Digitized 12 October 2007 ed.). London: Railway Times Office. 1844. p. 39.
  9. "No. 20657". The London Gazette. 6 November 1846. p. 3895.
  10. Leeds man (1868). Memoirs of eminent men of Leeds (Digitized 2 September 2005 ed.). G.J. Berger. p. 60.
  11. "No. 21411". The London Gazette. 15 February 1853. p. 408.
  12. Dod, Charles Roger (1857). The Peerage, baronetage, and knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, for ...: including all the titled classes (Digitized 4 May 2009 ed.). Whittaker and Co. p. 275.
  13. "No. 21298". The London Gazette. 5 March 1852. p. 698.
  14. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 177. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
  15. Taylor, p. 478
  16. Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society (1820). Report of the council (Digitized 5 April 2007 ed.). The Society. p. 22.
  17. Brown, W. (14 February 2013) [1909–1955]. Yorkshire Deeds:, Volume 1–10. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108058407. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  18. Treen, Colin (2018). The Thoresby Society – The Society's Archives (Sales Particulars) (Report). The Thoresby Society. Sale – 1845: Leeds and Potternewton (35 lots of building land) on Earl of Mexborough's Potternewton Estate – Surveyor: Henry Teal, 60 x 50 – Leeds City Archives, MX 2017/1 [Map of Newton Hall estate, otherwise Low Hall and Close (estate) of Arthur Lupton, Esq
  19. "1846 House of Lords – Accounts and Papers, Volume 12". Great Britain – Parliament House – House of Lords. 1846. p. 191. Retrieved 19 July 2020. George Goodman – wool-merchant Newton Hall, near Leeds
  20. "Obituary – Death of Sir George Goodman". The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 207. R. Newton. 13 October 1859. p. 546. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  21. The Yorkshire magazine: a monthly literary magazine. Vol. 3–4 (Digitized 20 July 2009 ed.). Yorkshire Literary Union. 1874. p. 137.
  22. "An Illustrated History of Roundhay Park". The Thoresby Society. Retrieved 19 July 2020. His land was subdivided and various parcels were purchased by Thomas Nicholson and Robert Elam. Samuel's friend and executor, John Goodman, also bought some of the land, but he did not have an easy task as nearly five years passed before Lot 1 waseventually sold to Benjamin Goodman of Hunslet Lane
  23. Hurworth, Neville (2014). "The Goodman family of Hunslet, Gledhow and Roundhay" (PDF). OAKWOOD AND DISTRICT AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY – Oakleaves, Part 14. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
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