The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-02
LEEDS AND ITS MERCHANTS.


~
Some time before Murrays independent settle
y mcnt in Hobeck, John Marshall had gone
. thither. In 1871 he established in Water lane
. the mill which, with later additions Is stI the
s chief seat of the iaX-spnning business, con-
Z Quoted by his successors. Three mills now
OCCUPY the ground, one of them being unique
pm manufacturing architecture The building
Iunlike almost all other laree factories, Is only
|pne story in height; one room comprises the
Il yhole; about four hundred feet long by more
a han two hundred broad, it covers nearly two
acres of ground. tt is nine times as large as
u Birmingham Town Hall, seven times as large
as Exeter Hall IN London, The room is about
#twenty feet high and supported by about
twenty pillars. The spans between the pillars
y allow the roof to be parttioned oil into a series
of hattish domes, or groined arches, sixty OF
seventy in number; and In the centre OF each
dome is a lofty concal skylight, of such large
size that the whole series together contain ten
thousand square feet of glass. Upwards of a
thousand persons, mostly females, are employed
in this room alone. In one part of it the flax
drawing operations are carried on; in another
the rowing, in another the spinning. This room,
perhaps the largest in the world, is not the only
marvel. The roof is a green field we are told;
the wood work being thickly covered with plas-
Ter and asphalte, and That with stratum of
earth which protects the asphalte from the heat
OF the sun.
John Marshall also built great linen manu-
factory at Shrewsbury. But his chief business
was in Leeds, and there his mills were larger
than those of any OF the other manufacturers
whom his success had led 10 embark IN the
trade In 1871 there were i'm Leeds and its
~ nelRnOOIlOOu nineteen ullllSs having IN All 900
r horse power and containing $4,000 spndles.
-Four out of the nineteen were Marshalrs. In
1881 the number of mills had been increased by
five; and in 1888 i had grown to forty employ
ment being thereby given TO 2027 men and
& 4303 women. In 1916 there we're in Leeds
4 thirty-seven different establishments, giving
work to lao power looms, l9sO76 spindles, and
~ .045S men and women all the Olher linen facto-
Z ries of Yorkshire having only about half that
Strength.
4 This rapid growth of linen manufacture in
ppds has nd NJ 70 ucb
with other parts Of England and with
4 foreign countries. Besides encouraging manu-
4 factuiers to settle in Leeds, John Marshall's
prosperity brought to the town many inhuen-
tial merchants. Of these the worthiest, though
not the richest, was Michael Thomas Sader,
fifteen years younger than MaIshali; he was
"a born at Snelstone, in Derbyshire on the Sd of
January, 1850. In a comfortable house, and by
u estimable parents, he was carefully educated,
n With the intention that he should be a lawyer.
# tn the year 1900, however when he was about
N twenty, he was sent TO Leeds, where his elder
Brother Benjamin, had already been esta-
b lshed as a linen merchant. The brothers
Worked successfully for ten years, and then en-
fered into partnership with tue widow of
81 Samuel FentOn, who had for a long tme-lOng
before Leeds had any linen goods of its own to
VII sen-been the prlpelpal importer OF Irish
linens for sale in Yorkshire. Thenceforward
NJ the house of Sadler Fenton, & Company
carried on thriving trade, both in raw flax
4 and in linen goods, having places OF business
both IN Leeds and in Belfast, and doing good
service to both districts by promoting an inter
4 change OF commodities between Yorkshire and
the north of Ireland.
But Michael Thomas sadler was not himself
much OF merchant. During the tirstlew years
OF his residence in Leeds he found relief from
Il the monotony of the counting-house in literary
~ and other pursuits. He a hard reader, a
M close scholar, anu diligent writer He pro-
J duced metrical version OF the "Psalms," wrote
4 an epic poem and shorter pieces, and contributed
numerous articles 10 the Leeds ElteGjgencer then
the leading Tory newspaper In the north OF Eng
land. He was captain OF company OF Leeds
+. ...,4aa TIn urop ule m
the indetatigable superintendent of large Sun
dsy School, and all through life an active sharer
In all sorts of religious and phIauthropic works,
having therein congenlal fellowship win VIII
1iam Hey, the benevolent and learned surgeon
of Leeds, friend of Wnberlorce and other leaders
OF the anti.slavery party.
Gott and Marshall, also, though too full OF
their commercial duties to give to it very much
of their time, were Jealous promoters OF phian-
thropic work in Leeds. All four men, ana many
others, were associated in the foundation OF the
Leeds Philosophical Society, in 1878. In No
n vember of that year, at a meeting held in the
"A Court House, under the presidency of William
n Hey, it was decided to establish society fol
a the advancement of 'all the branches of natu
raj knowledge and literature, but excluding all
topics of religion, politics, and ethics On the
9th of November 1919, the foundation stone o.
Philosophical Hall was laid by Benjamin GOtt
and ON the 9th of April, 1921, it was formally
opened, the total cost Of the building, about
10000, being betrayed by subscriptions in whict
Gott and Marshall took the lead. Both men were
active in helping on the society by all possible
means. Gott gave to it fossils, books, an'
1he like. Marshall, besides various donations
A aided it by several lectures One delivered II
WI 1919 during the SOciety's temporary lodgment
N in the Court House was on The Relative Hap
piness of Cultivated Society and Savage Life
in 1921 he lectured on Geology in 1924, "OI
~ fhe Production of Wealth, and on the PrOprietI
iof discussing subjects of Political Economy a
DISTINGUISHED from Politics. in 1926 ION thV
present State OF Education in England as pre-
tparation for Active Iilen These titles indicat
the bent OF the lecturers mind. Other lecture
~ swere from time to time delivered by Mlchat
H 4TbOmas Sadler, in common with most OF To
sotner leaders of society in Leeds forty years age
The Philosophical Society being especial
Resigned, and therein succeeding admirably tc
~ the announcement OF studious thought anon
~ theTmore wellto-do inhabitants Of the town,
was quickly followed apparently in 1924, By Il
t& Leeds Mechanics Institute adapted for di
@ ferent class of members, Colt was ITS fin
president Marshall its first yice-presldeni
~ and both were liberal donors 10 its luud
Marshall was also foremost patro
W of the Lancasterian School established g
W Leeds. He organized Work-scbools for IL
IA children of his own WorkL eople; and anon
various other measures for the instruction
- those wOrkpeople, he published a volume G
S& the Economy OF Social Life, repeating cleYerl
and clearly, In form adapted 10 the unde
standing OF factory operatives the leading prl
~ ,cipes of political economy as they were the
W NEtabllshed. He was one Of the founders OF Il
M Ebndon University in 1895 and served for mar
Years on its council In 1926 his zeal Tor Il
advancement of education led hlm to urge Il
r formation OF a similar institution in Leeds f
HW the benefit OF the inhabitants of the north
England.
<4| Generally agreeing on matters Of phila
ihropy, the great merchants Of Leeds d
aIaN.. kafnHng