In transcribing the following passage from the Internet Archive online version I have expanded abbreviations and added paragraphing and links. — George P. Landow
he name is of very doubtful origin. It was anciently written Loidis, Leodys, and Ledes; and it may possibly have been taken from a Saxon possessor, called Loidi. The town is very ancient, yet figures obscurely and sparcely in early record. Many writers suppose, from the discovery of considerable Roman relics on its site, particularly bricks, tiles, and coins, that it was a Roman settlement; and Dr. Whitaker believes it to have been traversed, in the line of Briggate, by the Roman road from Calcaria to Carnpodunum. The Venerable Bede mentions it as a place of some note about the year 650; but he speaks of it in terms which have been understood variously as referring to the town itself, to a place 3 miles south-east of it, and to a tract of about 10 miles in radius all around.
Numerous vestiges of the Saxons, of various kinds, have been found in the town and its neighbourhood; fragments of crosses, with some Runic sculptures, were found at the rebuilding of the parish church; and the evidence of these relics, together with that of some faint intimations in history, are thought to prove that Leeds was a residence of the Northumbrian princes, throughout much of the Saxon period, and even after the Danish invasions.
About 135 persons were landowners of Leeds and Holbeck at the Conquest; and most or all of them seem to have stoutly resisted the Conqueror; for their lands at Domesday were in a devastated condition. Ilbert de Lacy obtained large property here and at Pontefract from the Conqueror; and either he or one of his dependents built a castle at Leeds, on or near the spot now occupied by the Scarborough hotel. The castle was besieged by Stephen, in 1139; served as a temporary place of confinement for Richard II., in 1399, prior to his removal to Pontefract; and is mentioned, in connexion with mills, in a record of 1379; but was, long ago, demolished and obliterated. An extensive park appears to have surrounded it, and is commemorated in the names Park-place, Park-lane, Park-row, and Park-square. Leeds was called on for its proportion of ship-money in 1638; and Leeds, Halifax, and Bradford are characterized by Lord Clarendon, in 1642, as “three very populous and rich towns, depending wholly upon clothiers.”
The town was seized for the parliamentarians early in 1643; and it repeatedly changed masters during the vicissitudes of the civil war; but it happily never was the scene of much bloodshed. Charles I. is said to have for some time occupied a mansion in it called the Red Hall, and alleged to have got that name from its being built of brick, or from being the first, or nearly the first, brick edifice in Yorkshire. The great plague of 1644-5 made such havoc in Leeds that a fifth of the population died, the town was nearly deserted, and the streets were green with grass. A body of Marshal Wade’s troops, in 1745, encamped on the north side of the town, at a place still called Camp-road; and the Marshal established his own head-quarters at Wade Hall, a Tudor edifice in Wade-lane, recently demolished for the purpose of making a new street from Wade-lane to Woodhouse-lane.
A riot occurred in 1753, in consequence of the the improvement of roads and the erection of toll-bars; and was not quelled till several persons were killed, and upwards of twenty wounded, by the fire of the military. The first coach from Leeds to London was started in 1764; and the progress of events thence till now has been smooth and prosperous. The town has been free from popular tumults; it has enjoyed the results of great enterprise and ranch intelligence, without spasmodic speculation; and, at times of temporary commercial depression, it has never experienced as much distress as most other great seats of manufacture.
Wilson, John M. (John Marius). The imperial gazetteer of England and Wales: embracing recent changes in counties, dioceses, parishes, and boroughs: general statistics: postal arrangements: railway systems, &c.; and forming a complete description of the country. 8 vols. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton, 1870.Internet Archive online version of a copy in the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Web. 17 September 2022.
Last modified 16 September 2022