George Goodman (politician)

Goodman was born in Leeds, the son of Benjamin Goodman (b. 1763 - d.10 June 1848), a wool merchant, and his wife, Ann Radford. He was baptised at Leeds South Parade Baptist Church^[1] and remained a Baptist.^[5] He had at least one sibling, a sister Eleanor (1791–1877).

Goodman started his career learning his father's business and becoming a partner in his father's firm of B. Goodman & Sons at 21 Hunslet Lane, Leeds.^[7] He prospered as a wool-stapler in Leeds and Bradford,^[3] and was a Director of the Leeds and Bradford Railway.^[8] His firm acquired other local firms including, in 1846, Thomas Pearson and Sons, manufacturers of worsted.^[9]

He was elected Mayor of Leeds on 1 January 1836, the first Mayor of the City of Leeds after the Municipal Corporations Act. In April, he was presented a gold chain with an inscribed pendant to honour his mayoral election. Following the resignation of C. G. Maclea, Goodman was again elected mayor on 1 January 1847 and left office on 9 November 1847. He was re-elected for a third term on 9 November 1850, and a fourth term on 9 November 1851. He resigned from his position as mayor in March 1852 in order to be eligible to run for Parliament.^[3]

A Whig,^[10] Goodman was elected to Parliament with Matthew Talbot Baines in 1852. He was a magistrate of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and appointed a deputy lieutenant on 27 January 1853.^[11][12] In 1851, Goodman served as Leeds' civic representative at The Great Exhibition, after which, on 26 February 1852, he was knighted at Buckingham Palace, shortly before his resignation as mayor.^[13][3] Goodman sat for the Borough of Leeds in the House of Commons for five years, beginning at the 1852 general election,^[14] before retiring upon the 1857 dissolution of Parliament because of poor health brought about by a stroke of paralysis and neuralgia.^[10][15]

Goodman was a member of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. He once made a donation to the society of fourteen birds from Australia.^[16] Although Goodman was recorded as living at Newton Hall estate in Potternewton, near Leeds in 1846, he had sold the estate to Arthur Lupton by 1845.^[17][18][19] Goodman never married. The Gentleman's Magazine reported that he died on 13 October 1859 at his seat, Roundhay, near Leeds aged 67.^[20] In compliance with Goodman's request, an autopsy was conducted, revealing softened spinal marrow.^[6] Goodman, a Baptist, was interred at Whitkirk Church.^[21]

He inherited his father's Roundhay estate, Goodman House,^[22] which was renamed Beechwood by Arthur Lupton's brother, Francis Lupton, who had purchased the estate by 1860, following George's death.^[23] In 1816, a portrait of George's father, Benjamin Goodman, was painted by Charles Henry Schwanfelder, also from Leeds and "Animal Painter" to King George III and King George IV.^[24]