HOLDSWORTH, Joseph (1789-1857), of Belle Field House, Belle Isle, Wakefield, Yorks.

Holdsworth, whose career as Liberal MP for Wakefield was curtailed when he was unseated on petition, was a prosperous and ‘much respected’ local dyer.1Daily News, 16 Apr. 1849. Long settled in Yorkshire, his family belonged to the congregation at Wakefield’s Presbyterian/ Unitarian Westgate Chapel, where his grandfather Samuel had superintended the construction of a new building in 1751-2, and where Holdsworth was baptised.2Burke’s landed gentry (1871), ii. 636; J. Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield: the story of the Belle Isle dyeworks’, in K. Taylor (ed.), Aspects of Wakefield 2 (1999), 97-8; IGI [www.familysearch.org]. His uncle (Samuel, 1747-1826) and father (Joseph, 1759-1819) had purchased the Belle Isle dyeworks and adjoining land on the banks of the river Calder in the 1780s.3Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield’, 96-7. Holdsworth and his younger brother took over their father’s share of the business on his death in 1819, and Holdsworth subsequently inherited his uncle’s share.4Ibid., 100. By 1827 he had considerably expanded the dyeworks, enlarged Belle Field House to be his residence, and constructed corn warehouses, which he leased out. These projects, together with a series of other incidents – the failure in 1825 of a local bank in which he had deposits; the subsequent collapse in 1829 of a local cloth merchant who owed him almost £13,000; and the need to buy out his brother, who left the business to become a bookseller – necessitated the borrowing of £47,500 against his estates between 1827 and 1832.5Ibid., 101. However, he possessed considerable assets, such as a half-share in the ship Sarah (as of 1829) and in 1830 purchased a dyeworks on the opposite bank of the Calder, which he let as a worsted spinning mill, bringing in up to £1,000 annually.6Ibid., 102. Having weathered the financial storms of the 1820s, Holdsworth developed Belle Isle into one of the largest and most successful dyeing establishments in the West Riding, whose goods were exhibited at the Great Exhibition.7Ibid., 95; Leeds Mercury, 3 May 1851. Prior to his election as MP, he gave evidence to the commission on children’s employment in May 1841, opposing the extension of the Factory Acts to the dyeing industry.8PP 1843 [431], xiv. 525. Alongside his manufacturing interests, he became a director of the North Midland Railway in 1836, and was subsequently a director of the amalgamated Midland Railway.9Derby Mercury, 5 Oct. 1836; The Times, 28 Aug. 1845.

In 1831 Holdsworth served as constable of Wakefield, a position of prominence in local public life.10Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield’, 102. He chaired the colossal West Riding demonstration in support of the reform bill at Wakefield in May 1832.11Caledonian Mercury, 26 May 1832. Although his sympathies lay with the Reformers, he was approached as a Conservative candidate for the newly-created borough of Wakefield in 1832, but declined as ‘his engagements in business’ were not compatible with a parliamentary career.12Leeds Mercury, 16 June 1832. Appointed as Wakefield’s returning officer, he presided over the 1832, 1835 and 1837 elections, and was an active and well-respected magistrate, and for some time chairman of the local bench.13Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield’, 103. His efforts in encouraging the implementation of the rule of silence in Wakefield prison in 1833 were praised by its governor.14G.W. Hastings (ed.), Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (1859), 472. In 1837 he was vice-president of the celebratory proceedings following the Liberal victory in the West Riding contest, and declared himself a ‘determined supporter’ of the government.15Leeds Mercury, 12 Aug. 1837. Following a requisition asking him to stand at Wakefield in 1841, he sought to resign his position as returning officer, which debarred him from standing. His election address declared his support for Liberal ministers, particularly their commercial policy.16Report of the proceedings before a committee of the House of Commons, on the Wakefield election petition. April 1842 (1842), 17. He defeated the incumbent Conservative, and in one of his ‘usually frank and manly’ speeches at a victory dinner, denied that the proposed alteration in the corn laws would harm the landed interest.17Leeds Mercury, 31 July 1841.­­­ His triumph was, however, short-lived, for he was unseated on petition, 21 Apr. 1842, after it was ruled that, despite his attempt to resign, he was still technically the returning officer, and was therefore disqualified.

Holdsworth does not appear to have spoken in the Commons, nor did he serve on any committees. He did, however, vote on a number of occasions, dividing with his party in opposition to the sliding scale on corn, 16 Feb. 1842, and to the income and property taxes, 13 and 18 Apr. 1842. He was in the minority for inquiries into the constitution of the Church of Scotland, 15 Mar. 1842, and into Gilbert Unions, 17 Mar. 1842. Although he entered the same lobby as Cobden to support Ward’s motion for a committee to consider whether there were any particular burdens on the landed interest, 14 Mar. 1842, he did not, as he had explained to a meeting at Leeds the previous December, favour total and immediate abolition of the corn laws (although he condemned them as ‘not only bad but wicked’), but rather a gradual relaxation. At the same meeting, Holdsworth noted that he himself farmed some land.18Leeds Mercury, 18 Dec. 1841.

Following his unseating he continued to play a leading role in Wakefield politics and became one of the chairmen of the Wakefield Liberal Registration Association in 1844.19Leeds Mercury, 19 Oct. 1844. Moving the first resolution at a local free trade meeting in 1845, he explained that he had revised his opinions, and now favoured free trade rather than a fixed duty on corn.20Leeds Mercury, 13 Dec. 1845. Holdsworth donated £20 to the funds of the Anti-Corn Law League in 1844: Bradford Observer, 1 Feb. 1844. Holdsworth, who had now moved to a larger residence at Belle Vue, was approached by the Wakefield Liberals as a candidate in 1847, but declined to stand because of ‘the claims of my family’, having been widowed and left with six children in December 1845.21Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield’, 103; Leeds Mercury, 22 May 1847. The daughter of Wesleyan Methodists, Holdsworth’s wife’s funeral sermon was preached at Wakefield’s West Parade Methodist chapel, where she worshipped: Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield’, 100. An account of a local meeting to protest against the factory bill in 1843 described Holdsworth as a Wesleyan, suggesting that he may have joined the same denomination as his wife: Leeds Mercury, 29 Apr. 1843. He did, however, serve as an alderman on the newly created municipal council from 1848-53, and was mayor in 1849.22Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield’, 103. In 1852 he chaired the election committee of the Liberal candidate, W.H. Leatham, and proposed him at the nomination.23Leeds Mercury, 15 May 1852, 10 July 1852. He continued to be an active magistrate, ‘universally popular’ and ‘ever faithful and constant’ in his duties, and was for many years chairman of the visiting justices at Wakefield prison, in which role he give evidence to the 1850 select committee on prison discipline.24Leeds Mercury, 21 Apr. 1857; PP 1850 (632), xvii. 175. His other local duties included serving on the lock-up committee, and as one of the trustees to oversee the implementation of the Abolition of Soke Act (which ended the practice of Wakefield’s inhabitants having to grind their corn at the soke mill): Leeds Mercury, 13 Apr. 1850, 16 July 1853. He was president of the Wakefield Mechanics’ Institute, and ‘a warm and liberal supporter’ of various charities.25Leeds Mercury, 18 Oct. 1845, 21 Apr. 1857. He expanded his railway interests, from a total investment of just over £6,000 in 1845 to £134,340 the following year, although by the time of his death he had reduced this to £6,709 10s.26PP 1845 (625), xl. 389; PP 1846 (473), xxxviii. 145; Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield’, 103.

Having been in declining health for two years, Holdsworth went to Leamington early in 1857, where he died six weeks later.27Leeds Mercury, 21 Apr. 1857. His estate – which with his Wakefield and Sheffield properties (the latter having come via his wife’s family) and other investments amounted to almost £100,000 – was divided between his sons, Thomas Holy Holdsworth (d. 1911) and Joseph Hulme Holdsworth (d. 1881).28Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield’, 100, 103. Although they continued to run the dyeworks until the 1880s, neither followed their father into politics.29Ibid., 104-5. However, Holdsworth’s son-in-law, Richard Smethurst, unsuccessfully contested Wakefield as a Liberal at a by-election in 1862.30W.W. Bean, The parliamentary representation of the six northern counties of England (1890), 1103. Papers relating to Holdsworth are held in the John Goodchild collection, Wakefield.31Goodchild, ‘Dyeing for Wakefield’, 105; http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/searches/locresult_details.asp?LR=2494