Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
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James Garth Marshall (1802 - 1873)
Mill Hill congregation member
Early Life
Born February 20th, 1802, James Garth Marshall was the third of eleven children of John and Jane Marshall (née Pollard). Three of their sons, including James, became Members of Parliament. John Marshall Jr and James Garth Marshall were both MP for Leeds for the periods 1832 – 1835 and 1847 – 1852 respectively.
Marshall’s father made his fortune using new factory methods for spinning flax, with his mills employing over a thousand people, mainly women and children, to work for 12-hour shifts in exchange for a few shillings a week. When he turned eighteen, James Garth followed his elder brother into the family business after receiving a private education in Edinburgh, during this time he became a leading figure in the firm, with responsibilities for significant improvements in machinery as well as in working practices. When a new, larger mill was required, it was James Garth who recommended the single storey plan adopted. Temple Works opened in 1840, boasting a vast two-acre space (supposedly the largest indoor space in the world at the time), an innovative ventilation and lighting system, and perhaps most famously, sheep grazing on the roof! It is now a listed building.
Political life
As well as being involved in the family business, James Garth was concerned with the conditions of the poor, and held the belief that extending the vote would lead to improvement. In 1841, he helped found the Leeds Parliamentary Reform Association and offered up Temple Works for a meeting place, where 7000 supporters gathered under a banner claiming ‘Justice for each and all’. However, in 1842, James Garth Marshall had to fight off an attack on the mill by Chartist protestors who tried to shut down the boilers and halt production.
Like his father, James Garth saw education as being the key to progress and so supported mill schools and founded a new school, in Holbeck with a library, an essential, he says, for “giving an early taste for reading and acquiring useful knowledge”. He also helped found a Mutual Improvement Society in Headingley where he gave land to the poor to create allotments. On a national level, James Garth Marshall was a strong advocate for the state provision of education rather than the current voluntary system, and agreed to stand as MP for Leeds as a member of the Liberal Party but was noted as a shy man and a poor public speaker and so retired in 1852.
Legacy
James Garth Marshall passed away on October 22nd, 1873, after moving to the Lake District with his wife, Mary Alice, and their four children. He was buried at Coniston, where his estate is now owned by the National Trust. In Leeds, the family business struggled on until it finally closed in 1886. Temple Works is a grade-1 listed building and is currently mooted as the potential site of the British Library’s planned northern reading room.
Bibliography
- Bradford, E. (2018). James Garth Marshall (1802-1873) - They Lived in Leeds - Thoresby Society. [online]
- Cumbrian Lives - Towards a Dictionary of Cumbrian Biography. (n.d.). James Garth Marshall (1802-1873). [online]
