MEN AND WOMEN OF RADFORD.
IT is desirable that children should be taught to regard the memories of men and women who have endeavoured to be of use to their fellows. A few names are here appended. Of course it will be easy to find fault with the selection, and persons interested in the welfare of the young may, with advantage, compile a better list. Some of the persons named may be regarded as notables or officials only, and there are many workers whose labours are unrecorded, but we have obtained the benefit of their service, and God will reward them. There have been more good and useful women than men, but where is the record?
Agnes Willoughby. AGNES WILLOUGHBY was the daughter of a gentleman who in 1645 lived in Aspley Hall, and who was a Roman Catholic and a Royalist. She had gone to visit a sick man at Bilborough, when she was set on by three vagabonds, and was rescued from outrage by Captain Thornhalgh, a Puritan officer during the Civil War in charge of the fort at Broxtowe Hall, and who shot one of the assailants, while the others made off. The Captain and Agnes fell deeply in love with each other, but were terribly troubled, for their creeds prevented marriage. Captain Thornhalgh was shot at the storming of Shelford Manor, and Agnes Willoughby thereupon resolved to devote her life to prayer, almsgiving, and all good works among the people. She lived for sixty years afterwards, a perfect pattern of every Christian grace. (See "The Maid of Broxtowe," by Thomas Bailey).
William Elliott. WILLIAM ELLIOTT became a local benefactor, leaving three houses on the west side of St. Peter's Street for the poor. His monument may be seen in the churchyard, and a street is named in honour of him. He died in 1792, aged eighty-eight.
Penny Pie Hall. The Builder of Penny Pie Hall, a notable house, now demolished, deserves notice, for he must have been a very worthy man who made good pies, or he could not have sold them, and he must have been thrifty to build the house out of the profits of his pies. Messrs. Buxton & Attewell have kindly traced back to 1802, and find that Mr. Gaskill then lived there, but it is not known that he was the builder.
Thomas Bailey. THOMAS BAILEY, the author of "Annals of Nottinghamshire" and other works, and his gifted son, PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, the author of "Festus," lived for some time in 16 and 18 Denman Street, and the son afterwards removed to 449, Alfreton road. "Festus" was, however, written at Basford.
Herbert Spencer. HERBERT SPENCER, the great thinker, who attempted to work out a complete system of philosophy in harmony with evolution and the results of modern science, was born at Derby in 1820, but his father removed to Radford in 1823. In his Autobiography he says, "he (my father) took a house at New Radford, near Nottingham, on what was then known as the Forest Side—a suburb adjacent to a tract of wild land. Here I spent the remaining part of my childhood." He refers to the delight of rambling amid the gorse bushes and bluebells there growing. The house named is now the "Spread Eagle" Inn, Aspley Terrace, and here Mr. Spencer continued four years. He became the author of quite a number of works, and lived to an advanced age.
John Leavers. JOHN LEAVERS, a framesmith, for two years (about 1813) shut himself practically in isolation in a garret in a house now strangely named St. Helen's Street, where a tablet marks the place, busied in perfecting the construction of point net and warp lace machinery. He died near Rouen in 1848, aged 62, and was buried with military honours. The Leavers branch of the lace trade is named after him, and Nottingham has profited enormously by his invention.
William Herbert. WILLIAM HERBERT (commonly called "Big Herbert") worked as a youth in a stocking frame; he afterwards fought in the Grenadier Guards at Waterloo, and later worked in a warp machine. He bought Foote's Factory in Highurst Street, and was fond of telling how that first coming to Nottingham he stood on Trent Bridge and felt in his pockets to see what his capital was, and found that all he had in the world was sixpence, and in order to be able to say that he came to Nottingham without a penny he threw the sixpence into the Trent. By a good knowledge of the capacity for adaptation of machines, and by energy, industry, and thrift he built up a fairly large business, but through his goods suddenly going out of fashion his immense stock became valueless and he failed, but afterwards paid everybody twenty shillings in the pound. He was an energetic local preacher, and gave largely to benevolent objects.
James Fisher. JAMES FISHER, with his great factory, in conjunction with William Crofts, took out the "monster patent," with its one hundred and forty-nine pages of specification, and forty-nine sheets of drawings, and claiming nine inventions or improvements. He lived at Scotholme House—now pulled down— and died in 1877, aged seventy, and was buried at St. Paul's, Hyson Green.
Sampson Copestake. SAMPSON COPESTAKE was the founder in 1826) of the great house of Copestake. Moore, Crampton & Co., whose huge warehouse is at the corner of Hounds Gate and Spaniel Bow, and their London House is in Cheapside. He was born in 1800, and lived in George Street, now Moorgate Street. The life of "George Moore, Merchant and Philanthropist," was written by the famous Dr Samuel Smiles, and is a book for young men. From this we learn that George Moore had at twenty-three distinguished himself as town traveller for Fisher, Strand and Robinson, and was then offered a partnership with a lace firm, which began in a small room over a trunk shop in Cheapside, and which as Growcock, Copestake and Moore became one of the largest in London. Copestake was an excellent warehouseman, always at his post. Their lace warehouse in Nottingham was built in 1845. In 1874 Mr. Copestake died. They had been partners forty-four years, and there had never been a wrong word between them. George Moore said he "had never known a man like bis partner for amiability, modesty, patience, kindness, and common sense. Mr. Copestake's brother built a house at Prospect Place and resided there many years.
William Hollins. WILLIAM HOLLINS, although not a Radford man, established very large works here for Spinning Yarn, etc. He was a man of large sympathies and a liberal supporter of education and social well-being He died in 1890, in his seventy-fifth year.
R. Sutton.
Richard Sutton. RICHARD SUTTON lived at the Grove, otherwise "The Folly." He succeeeded his father as the proprietor of the "Nottingham Review," a weekly paper afterwards amalgamated with the "Daily Express."
Those were the days when liberty of speech and writing had not been secured. CHARLES SUTTON, Richard's father, had in 1816 been imprisoned in Northampton jail for a year, for inserting in the paper a letter which offended the Government. Those, too, were the days of dear newspapers, for the price of the little paper in 1816 was 7d., the Government taking 4d. of it, and in 1850 the price was still 41/2d. Richard Sutton was an earnest, able, and religious man, who brought up a large family, and as a member of the Town Council, Guardian, and local preacher, worked hard for the public welfare. In 1856 his expressed wish was fulfilled that he might—
"His body with his charge lay down
And cease at once to work and live."
HENRY S. BUTTON, son of the above (see page 52) was a thinker, poet, reformer, newspaper editor and author. He, in 1848, published a book of collected "Poems,' dedicated to his father. The following will show his style:—
"He had his griefs, like other men,
But to God's will could softly bow,
And, smiling, say Heaven is not then
And there, but Heaven is here and now."