Histories

William, a butcher living in Hartwith, married Margaret Grange in Kirkby Malzeard on 7th June 1778. They lived in Grewelthorpe and Grantley, then, with their 4 children, moved to Leeds sometime between 1786 & 1789. They lived in Bank, West Leeds and later, moved to Ebenezer Street.
The couple had a further 5 children, before Margaret died, in 1797, aged 38.

William was the son of William Leeming and Dorothy Mountain and was baptised in Winksley on 25th September 1757. His father died when William was only 10 years old and provision was left in his father’s will for William to be brought up and educated by, amongst others, William’s uncle, Joseph Mountain. William was also left his father’s property and land (of circa 30 acres) in Grantley and Skelding.

As Joseph Mountain was a butcher, by profession, this may have encouraged William to take up the same trade.

William died in Leeds in 1832 and is buried in St Peters parish church.

Of William and Margaret’s 9 children, Margaret (who succumbed to small pox), Isabella and Peter all died in childhood. Son, John, died just before his sixteenth birthday and daughter, Mary, died aged only eighteen. Of the remaining family, their eldest son, Thomas, joined the 1st West Yorkshire Militia and was still in the army when he married his first wife, Mary Simpson in 1800. Thomas and Mary had 2 sons, William (1801) & John (1803).

William and Mary’s third son, Michael, was baptised in 1782. Michael married Mary Stead in Leeds in 1810. Michael worked as a cloth presser and finisher in Leeds. They had 7 children.

William & Mary’s only other surviving son, Joseph, was born in 1793. Nothing is known about Joseph until his death in Matanzas in Cuba around 1846. He left a will dated 1841, which indicated he had no surviving wife or children. It is likely he never married. He left his estate to his friend, William Moss, also in Cuba, along with legacies to his two god-daughters. Joseph also directed that his four slaves be given their freedom.

William and Margaret had 1 surviving daughter, Elizabeth, who was baptised in 1786. Elizabeth may have married John Moore in Leeds in 1810.

Thomas Leeming & Mary Simpson.

Thomas and Mary married in Leeds, St Peters on 2nd June 1800. Thomas was still in the 1st West Yorkshire Militia when he married but would leave the army, possibly as early as 1801. He turned to the wool trade and in 1834 was working as a slubber (a slubber prepares the cotton or wool for spinning, taking the imperfections, or slubs, out of the yarn). By 1841, he was working as a carpet weaver. This work boosted his army pension.

Thomas and Mary had 2 sons, William, born 6th March 1801, and John, born 13th March 1803.

Michael Leeming & Mary Stead

Michael married Mary Stead in Leeds, St Peters on 10th September 1810. Together they had 7 children, all born in Leeds. Of the 7, 3 sons did not survive infancy. Michael worked in the woollen trade, as a woollen cloth presser.

Thomas and Michael’s property development

During the first half of the nineteenth century, Leeds was growing very rapidly and there was huge demand for new housing. Michael, along with his brother, took advantage of this and bought land adjacent to their homes off Cankerwell Lane and Sunny Bank. They built houses on this land, which they and their extended families occupied as well as letting out to others. Part of this land purchase and development was through a building club called The Queens Loyal Society, to which Michael was a member. Some of the land purchased was from another, bankrupt, developer, Richard Paley and from the estate of the deceased James Kendall. When Michael died on 20th June 1862, he left nine houses, a shop and vacant land in his will. Some of these houses were already occupied by members of Michael’s family, others had tenants in them. His daughter, Margaret, inherited the family home and the shop, which she tended, plus another dwelling house and vacant building land. Michael’s other 2 daughters, Mary Ann & Sarah both inherited 2 further houses each and his son, James inherited three properties. The properties were in Leeming Square, adjacent to Cankerwell Lane and along Leeming Street – what Michael referred to as his “Cankerwell Lane estate”.

Interestingly, this Leeming Square was next to Thomas’s Yard and bordered by Thomas’s Passage which could have referred to Michael’s brother, Thomas, who had developed properties next to Leeming Square in Sunny Bank Place.

When Thomas died on 3rd June 1864, he left a total of 11 freehold cottages and houses in Sunny Bank Place and Kendall’s Yard. Everything was left to his one surviving son, John.

Photographs of Leeming Square & Sunny Bank Place can be found on the LEODIS photographic archive website
www.leodis.net
An archive delivered by Leeds Library & Information Service.






JMH September 2009