Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

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

Yesterday morning, after a short illness, Sir William Gallwey breathed his last at his residence, Thirkleby Park, near Thirsk. Sir William, who was a Conservative in politics, represented the borough of Thirsk in Parliament for twenty-eight years, and only resigned his seat when failing health compelled him to take the step at the last General Election, when the borough returned another Conservative in Colonel the Hon. L.P. Dawnay. Sir William during the last few years of his life conferred a lasting boon on the poor of Thirsk and Sowerby by the erection of some scores of cottage-houses, which were let at low rents. The deceased Baronet, who is seventy-three years of age, was born in 1808. The baronetage was created in 1812, and Sir William succeeded to it in 1831, and in 1847 he married Emily Anne, third daughter of Sir Robert Frankland Russell, of Chequers Court, Tring, and Thirkleby Park, Thirsk. He was a deputy-lieutenant for the North Riding of Yorkshire, and a major in the army, and leaves behind him a family, his heir being his son, Ralph William, born in 1848, who was educated at Eton. Lady Gallwey survives Sir William. Sir William, so late as Thursday, was out shooting in the parish of Bagby, and in crossing a turnip field fell with his body on to a turnip, sustaining severe internal injuries. All that medical aid could do was done, but with Sir William’s failing health he gradually sank, and died, as stated above, about ten o’clock yesterday 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

Via Kathryn Rix at Victorian Commons, who quotes another passage from the Northern Echo suggesting that the paper was not a fan of Gallwey:

although he has heard the burning words of Mr Gladstone, the polished satire of Mr Disraeli, the sustained eloquence of John Bright, and the incisive epigrams of Mr Lowe, he has never acquired the art of public speaking (Rix 2019/12/19).

Is the NE mischievously suggesting that the turnip took him up his posterior end? Other outlets say simply that he fell in a turnip field.

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• Anal sex (1) W/G ·
• Benjamin Disraeli (2) W/G ·
• Chequers (1) W/G ·
• Conservative Party (1834-) (25) W/G ·
• Deputy lieutenant (1) W/G ·
• Gladstone, William Ewart (1809-98) (4), Liberal Party PM for 12 years over four non-consecutive terms (1868-94), Chancellor four times, MP (1832-45 and 1847-95, five constituencies) W/G ·
• House of Commons of the United Kingdom (12) W/G ·
• Hunting (10) W/G ·
• Lewis Payn Dawnay (2) W/G ·
• Member of Parliament (United Kingdom) (2) W/G ·
• Robert Lowe (1) W/G ·
• Shooting (7) W/G ·
• Sir Robert Frankland-Russell, 7th Baronet (1) W/G ·
• Sir William Payne-Gallwey, 1st Baronet (1) W/G ·
• Sir William Payne-Gallwey, 2nd Baronet (1) W/G ·
• Sowerby, West Yorkshire (4) W/G ·
• Thirkleby Hall (1) W/G ·
• Thirkleby High and Low with Osgodby (1) W/G ·
• Thirsk (UK Parliament constituency) (2) W/G ·
• Thirsk (14) W/G ·
• Turnip (3) W/G ·

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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 Kathryn Rix at Victorian Commons, who quotes another passage from the Northern Echo suggesting that the paper was not a fan of Gallwey:

although he has heard the burning words of Mr Gladstone, the polished satire of Mr Disraeli, the sustained eloquence of John Bright, and the incisive epigrams of Mr Lowe, he has never acquired the art of public speaking (Rix 2019/12/19).

Is the NE mischievously suggesting that the turnip took him up his posterior end? Other outlets say simply that he fell in a turnip field.

Something to say? Get in touch

Similar

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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

£7K was about £0.75m in May 2024 – chicken-feed for Covid-era embezzlers.

They were not the only beneficiaries:

When the functions of the late Corporation of Leeds were about to cease, by virtue of the Municipal Bill, the members voted to Mr. Adolphus jun., the son of the eminent barrister and Deputy Recorder of that Corporation, the sum of one hundred guineas, in testimony of their esteem, and as a small but grateful record of their estimation of his services. Mr. Adolphus refused to accept the tribute, excusing himself upon the plea that he could not ???? to himself the idea of allowing the last act of the corporation to be that of giving a sum of money to one of its legal advisers (Morning Post 1836/04/06)

The Spectator has a follow-up (Gale doesn’t have Leeds Mercury scans for 1836!):

The Solicitor-General has given his opinion, that the conduct of the old Leeds Corporation, in alienating their funds, was illegal and fraudulent, and that the seven thousand pounds may be recovered on an application to the Court of Chancery. We are sure the burgesses of Leeds will require their Council to institute proceedings for the recovery of the property without delay, if the old Corporation should have the audacity to persist in their wrongful act, and that the borough will support the Council in those proceedings.—Leeds Mercury.(Spectator 1836/04/09)

This was during the period of Whig rule nationally 1835-41 under Viscount Melbourne, and there is probably a Tory response to the Solicitor General somewhere. But what happened eventually? Were there sanctions for the guilty members of the Corporation? Who were they? For that at least John Mayhall has the answer:

LEEDS CORPORATE BODY, 1834-5.
MAYOR: Griffith Wright.
RECORDER: Charles Milner.
DEPUTY RECORDER: John Leycester Adolphus.
ALDERMEN:-Henry Hall, George Banks, Christopher Beckett, William Hey, Benjamin Sadler, Thomas Beckett, Thomas Blayds, Ralph Markland, Rt. William Dinsey Thorp, Richard Bramley, Joseph Robert Atkinson, William Perfect.
ASSISTANTS:-Jonathan Wilks, Joseph Ingham, John G. Uppleby, Fountain Brown, Michael Thomas Sadler, Joseph Henry Ridsdale, William Wilks, Joseph Mason Tennant, William Hey, junr., John Wilkinson, Charles Brown, William Waite, Benjamin Holroyd, William Osburn, junr., John Upton, William Gott, Thomas Motley, Francis Chorley, Robert Harrison, John Cawood, William Milnes, Thomas Charlesworth, George Hirst.
TOWN CLERK: James Nicholson.
CORONER: Robert Barr.
CHIEF CONSTABLE: Edward Read.
DEPUTY CONSTABLE: James Ingham.
SERJEANT AT MACE: George Hanson.
CLERK OF THE MARKETS, AND BILLET MASTER: James Fairclough.
BEADLE: J. Handley.
CAPTAIN OF THE WATCH. Benjamin Wool.
GAOLER: James Lancaster
TOWN’S CRIER: Benjamin Spencer.
(Mayhall 1860)

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