John Venimore Godwin was an early photographer and Mayor of Bradford in 1865-1866.
Godwin was born on 23 December 1814 in Dartmouth. He was the son of the Reverend Benjamin Godwin and his wife, Elizabeth. His father was the Baptist minister in Dartmouth, but he shortly moved to Great Missenden. [1]
Godwin married Rachel and they had ten children. They lived in the 1847 rebuilt Micklefield House in Rawdon before moving to Crowtrees House. [2] Godwin also owned the nearby Crow Trees Inn. [3] He died at his home in Crowtrees on 20 January 1898 aged 83. [4]
John asked his father in 1832 when they were living in Oxford to write about his life. Over the next 18 years his father wrote over fifty letters which he gave to his son on his son's birthday 23 December 1855. These letters provided him and historians with an insight into the Baptists and the abolitionists. [1]
Business people in Yorkshire were concerned by the competition created by the French woollen industry. In 1876 the Chambers of Commerce nominated Godwin and Henry Illingworth to investigate the French. Illingworth took the lead and he went on to chair Bradford Chamber of Commerce. [5]
Godwin was elected Mayor of Bradford in 1865 taking over from Charles Semon. [6]
The A6181 (Godwin Street) in Bradford is named after John Venimore Godwin. [3] Godwin's son John A. Godwin was the first Lord Mayor of Bradford in 1907. [6]
Vanity Fair is an English novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, which follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic Wars. It was first published as a 19-volume monthly serial from 1847 to 1848, carrying the subtitle Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society, which reflects both its satirisation of early 19th-century British society and the many illustrations drawn by Thackeray to accompany the text. It was published as a single volume in 1848 with the subtitle A Novel without a Hero, reflecting Thackeray's interest in deconstructing his era's conventions regarding literary heroism. It is sometimes considered the "principal founder" of the Victorian domestic novel.
William Godwin was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for two books that he published within the space of a year: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, an attack on political institutions, and Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, an early mystery novel which attacks aristocratic privilege. Based on the success of both, Godwin featured prominently in the radical circles of London in the 1790s. He wrote prolifically in the genres of novels, history and demography throughout his life.
Guiseley is a town in metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated south of Otley and Menston and is now a north-western suburb of Leeds.
Rawdon is a village and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It sits on the River Aire and on the A65 south of Yeadon.
Orlando George Charles Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford, PC, DL, styled Viscount Newport between 1825 and 1865, was a British courtier and Conservative politician. In a ministerial career spanning over thirty years, he notably served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household between 1866 and 1868 and as Master of the Horse between 1874 and 1880 and again between 1885 and 1886.
Undercliffe Cemetery is located between Otley Road and Undercliffe Lane in the Bolton and Undercliffe ward, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The cemetery stands atop a hillside overlooking the city and contains some very impressive Victorian funerary monuments in a variety of styles. It is a notable example of a Victorian cemetery where a number of rich and prominent local residents have been buried, notably mill owners and former mayors. Undercliffe Cemetery is grade II* listed by English Heritage in their Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn was an American journalist, teacher, author, reformer, and abolitionist. Sanborn was a social scientist, and a memorialist of American transcendentalism who wrote early biographies of many of the movement's key figures. He founded the American Social Science Association, in 1865, "to treat wisely the great social problems of the day". He was a member of the so-called Secret Six, or "Committee of Six", which funded or helped obtain funding for John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry; in fact he introduced Brown to the others.
Spen Valley was a parliamentary constituency in the valley of the River Spen in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
George Augustus Frederick Henry Bridgeman, 2nd Earl of Bradford, styled Viscount Newport from 1815 to 1825, was a British peer.
Robert Milligan was a Liberal Party politician and the first mayor of Bradford.
Alfred Illingworth, was an English worsted spinner and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1868 and 1895.
Benjamin Flower was an English radical journalist and political writer, and a vocal opponent of his country's involvement in the early stages of the Napoleonic Wars.
Elisha Smith Robinson (1817–1885) was an English businessman and politician.
Rawdon House is a former residence in the High Street of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, England. It was built as a house in 1622 by Marmaduke Rawdon, and extended in 1879. The Jacobean and Victorian wings of the building are Grade II* listed. In 1898 it became St Monica's Priory, a convent of Augustinian canonesses, a use that lasted to 1969, since when it has been converted for use as offices.
Charles Joseph Semon (1814–1877), was born in Danzig, Free City in 1814 of German Jewish descent. He came to Bradford, England in the middle of the 19th century and soon built up one of the most important textile export houses in the town. His expertise was not only running a successful textile export business but also as a leading light in Bradford's municipal affairs, charities and education.
William Lewis Dayton Jr. was an American lawyer, judge and diplomat who served as U.S. Minister to the Netherlands. He was the son of William L. Dayton.
West Park United Reformed Church is located in the West Park area of Harrogate, England, and is a Grade II listed building. It was designed in Nonconformist Gothic style as West Park Congregational Church by Lockwood & Mawson and completed in 1862 for around £5,000. Along with Belvedere Mansion across the road, it was intended as part of the prestigious entrance to the Victoria Park development. For the Congregationalists it was meant to house an increasing congregation of visitors brought to the spa town by the recently-built railways. It became a United Reformed church in 1972.
Reverend Benjamin Godwin was a Baptist clergyman, abolitionist and activist. He was a pastor at Dartmouth, Great Missenden, Bradford, and Oxford as well as a teacher of classics. He became involved in debates on the ethics of slavery and a schism in the Baptist missionary community. Godwin's writing's are an interesting source as he wrote 58 letters to his son to record his autobiography. Godwin's son and his grandson were Mayors of Bradford.
Bluecoat School was a former school in Sawclose in Bath, Somerset. The school was founded in 1711 and operated as a charity offering free education to Anglican boys and girls. The building which was rebuilt in 1860 is now known as Bluecoat House.
Alfred Hill Thompson, ARIBA was an English architect in the Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts styles, who specialised in small schools and chapels in the Yorkshire area. In partnership with Isaac Thomas Shutt he co-designed the Church of All Saints, Harlow Hill, completed in 1871.