Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

On Wednesday last at the council meeting the disgraceful fact was elicited that the old corporation on the 30th of May last transferred the WHOLE of the corporate property, amounting to £6,500 3% consols [government bonds], and £500, secured on the tolls of the Leeds and Wakefield road, to three individuals, John Wilson, William Beckett, and John Blayds, so as thereby to vest the same in those gentlemen, and divest this corporation of all power and control over the same. This they did for no consideration – for no municipal use – but evidently as a means of distributing the whole of the corporate property according their pleasure and for the purposes of their own party, and to prevent the new town council, chosen by the burgesses, from finding a sixpence in the corporate purse when they entered upon office. We scarcely need say that the town council have done their duty by appointing a committee to inquire into the disposal of the property of the late corporation, and to take counsel’s opinion as to the practicability of recovering it for the public uses of the borough.

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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Original

The extraordinary conduct of the old Leeds corporation, in alienating the whole of the corporate property before they were removed from office, has at length been brought to light by the inquiries of the town council. On Wednesday last, at the council meeting, the disgraceful fact was elicited, that the old corporation, on the 30th of May last (that is, when the Corporation Reform Bill was expected to be brought in, but six days before it was actually introduced) “absolutely transferred and alienated” the WHOLE of the Corporate property, amounting to “the sum of 6,500l. three per cent. Consols, and the sum of 500l secured on the tolls of the Leeds and Wakefield road,” to three individuals, John Wilson, Esq., Wm. Beckett, Esq., and John Blayds, Esq., “so as thereby to vest the same in those gentlemen, and divest this Corporation of all power and control over the same!” This they did for no consideration, – on no condition that has been hitherto stated, – for no municipal use, – but evidently as a means of distributing the whole of the corporate property according their pleasure and for the purposes of their own party, – and to prevent the new town council, chosen by the burgesses, from finding a sixpence in the corporate purse when they entered upon office. We scarcely need say that this act has excited the loudest and justest indignation throughout the borough; and that the town council have, as was to be expected, done their duty by appointing a committee to inquire into the disposal of the property of the late corporation, and to take counsel’s opinion as to the practicability of recovering it for the public uses of the borough. –Leeds Mercury.

300 words.

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.

• Adolphus, John (1768-1845) (2), barrister and historian ·
• Adolphus, John Leycester (1) ·
• Beckett, Christopher (1777-1847) (2), banker of Meanwood Park (Leeds), son of Sir John Beckett ·
• Beckett, Thomas (2) ·
• Beckett, William (2) ·
• Bond (finance) (2) ·
• Charles Milner (1) ·
• Conservative Party (1834-) (22) ·
• Consol (bond) (1) ·
• Corruption in local government (6) ·
• Corruption (11) ·
• Embezzlement (1) ·
• George Banks (2) ·
• Gott, William (1797-1863) (4), Leeds wool merchant, mill owner, philanthropist, and art collector ·
• Henry Hall (2) ·
• John Blayds (1) ·
• John Wilson (1) ·
• Joseph Robert Atkinson (2) ·
• Leeds City Council (32) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Municipal Corporations Act 1835 (6) ·
• Perpetual bond (1) ·
• Political corruption (10) ·
• Ralph Markland (2) ·
• Richard Bramley (2) ·
• Sadler, Benjamin (2) ·
• Sadler, Michael Thomas (1780-1835) (3), Tory MP, Evangelical Anglican, Poor Law administrator in Leeds ·
• Thomas Blayds (2) ·
• Toll road (4) ·
• 📌Wakefield (36), cathedral city on the River Calder in the West Riding/West Yorkshire ·
• Whigs (1678-1859) (21), political faction and, later, party, supported parliamentarism, various forms of elite liberalism, manufacturing interests, opposed Catholic emancipation, succeeded by the Liberal Party ·
• William Dinsey Thorp (1) ·
• William Hey II (1772–1844) (2) ·
• William Hey III (1796–1875) (2) ·
• William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (4) ·
• William Perfect (1) ·
• Wright, Griffith (1784-1846) (2), Leeds magistrate, last mayor of the Corporation (1834-35), owner after his grandfather and father of the Leeds Intelligencer ·

All tags.

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