Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

THE CAPTAIN OF THE “REFORM” BOAT ROBBED IN LEEDS.-Last night Richard Curtis, the captain of a boat lying at Warehouse-hill, Leeds, called the “Reform,” of Rawcliffe, Goole, while out on the spree, met with two females of abandoned character. After treating them freely at a public-house he provided himself with a bottle of port wine, to dispose of which they all adjourned shortly before midnight on board the “Reform.” Arrived there Curtis undressed and went to his berth, but while there he discovered that one of the women was quietly inspecting his garments. Suspecting that he was robbed, ho hastily left his berth, but the woman as hastily left the boat. Nothing daunted, though only covered with his shirt, he pursued her up Warehouse-hill into Call-lane, where he captured her. Being in somewhat of a predicament, he called out for the police, and an officer named Dixon went up and took the woman into custody, and Curtis returned to the “Reform” to dress. Upon the prisoner, who gave the name of Bridget O’Brian, was found the captain’s valuable silver watch and guard, his bottle of wine, and a number of eggs. She was removed to the Town Hall, and will be placed before the magistrates this morning.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

The Mercury of March 5th reports the magistrates’ hearing:

Prosecutor, who appeared old enough to be the prisoner’s grandfather, evinced no shame whatever as he recounted the disgraceful circumstances … of the robbery. The prisoner denied the charge, and said that the watch and guard (valued at £7), the bottle of wine, and the eggs, were given to her by the other woman to take care of.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Alcohol (drug) (62) W/G ·
• Alcohol intoxication (28) W/G ·
• East Riding of Yorkshire (67) W/G ·
• Egg (4) W/G ·
• Goole (8) W/G ·
• Leeds Town Hall (16) W/G ·
• 📌Leeds (248) W/G ·
• Port wine (4) W/G ·
• Prostitution (15) W/G ·
• River Aire (27) W/G ·
• Theft (11) W/G ·
• Watch (1) W/G ·
• West Riding of Yorkshire (150) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

The Mercury of March 5th reports the magistrates’ hearing:

Prosecutor, who appeared old enough to be the prisoner’s grandfather, evinced no shame whatever as he recounted the disgraceful circumstances … of the robbery. The prisoner denied the charge, and said that the watch and guard (valued at £7), the bottle of wine, and the eggs, were given to her by the other woman to take care of.

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Similar

1 July 1840: The opening of the Hull and Selby Railway terminates the threat to Hull’s port from Goole, Scarborough and Bridlington

5 February 1643: Rioting locals reïnundate Hatfield Chase in protest at flooding and a loss of fishing and fowling caused by Netherlandish colonists and Cornelius Vermuyden’s land reclamation scheme

25 September 1705: Daniel Defoe is amazed by Leeds’s outdoor cloth market on Briggate, shortly before the opening of the white cloth hall

20 January 1536: Thomas Cromwell’s dissolvers of monasteries, Richard Layton and Thomas Legh, report allegations of whoring and theft by William Thirsk, Abbot of Fountains

25 August 1840: Debating the teetotal vegetarian Frederic Lees at Rotherham, the Wesleyan James Bromley calls the pledge unchristian, and “alcohol-free” wine undrinkable

9 August 1845: Young George Boothby of Honley goes to Huddersfield for a night out, and four women are later transported for ten years

30 March 1856: Future prime minister H.H. Asquith (3) and his brother lead a procession of children through the streets of Morley to celebrate the end of the Crimean War

22 February 1865: Rioters besiege the Park Square, Leeds, home of surgeon and magistrate Henry Chorley, on the release from Armley Gaol of his dripping-thief cook Eliza Stafford

2 March 1830: Leeds Corporation prosecutes its own waste contractors, Messrs Kelly, and a Woodhouse Moor landowner, who have been fly-tipping fæces

4 April 1825: A Leeds jury shows limited sympathy for Job Robinson, a London fashion designer sacked by Hardwick’s of Briggate

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Via Paul Smith (Smith 2013). Was the Harewood story true? Would association with a Tory landowner have helped or hindered with a jury in a (Liberal) manufacturing town like Leeds? What happened to Mr Robinson?

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