Commercial and Municipal Life
Over the years, the Harrison family had acquired considerable property in the Leeds Rural-urban fringe, soon to be absorbed by urban sprawl. John Harrison was the owner of a large tract of land lying at the top of Briggate, beyond the modern streets Upper and Lower Headrow. He was one of the first of the Leeds cloth merchants, and added to his inherited fortune by his commercial activities. However, Harrison was not just a merchant but also a benefactor. He was well respected throughout the city and often played a role in local politics. When, in 1626, the first charter was obtained from Charles I, and Sir John Savile was appointed Alderman, the real duties of the office were performed by Harrison, at that time his deputy. A few years later, Harrison and six other wealthy townsmen combined to buy the manorial rights of Leeds from the Crown: about that time he built a market cross at his own cost. During the whole of his life he was always prominent in improving the city: he is named in the first charter, and his name constantly occurs in all records between 1626 and his death thirty years later.
Read more about this topic: John Harrison (Leeds)
Famous quotes containing the words commercial, municipal and/or life:
“It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“No sane local official who has hung up an empty stocking over the municipal fireplace, is going to shoot Santa Claus just before a hard Christmas.”
—Alfred E. Smith (1873–1944)
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)