Our speaker on 1 March 2025 was Paul Dawson, giving us a talk on Henry
Briggs – Outwood Industrialist.
Paul started his talk by giving us a general background of Outwood, until 1579
the Royal Forest of Wakefield. He told us that Outwood Hall was just behind
the memorial hall and Outwood’s economic base was cloth making. Joseph
Kinsman 7
Armytage built the Hall in 1710; Richard Lucas was the next owner who lived
in the Hall for many years and it was then let to Henry Briggs, Unitarian.
At this point Paul gave us some information on Unitarianism which provided
us with a context into the radical left wing nature of the Briggs family. We were
then given some history of the Briggs family and their origins in Hull as merchants.
Confusingly, all the sons of the same generations were given the same
name! We learned about Henry Briggs’ ancestors in Hull and Halifax, particularly one
John Briggs who was a very wealthy merchant and who married the
daughter of Christopher Rawdon of Bilborough Hall. Rawdon became the
name of the next generation of Briggs sons and so we came to Rawdon Briggs,
John’s son. He was a cloth merchant and carpet manufacturer, in business
with his brother in law William Currer. Rawdon was a left wing radical who
along with other of his contemporaries, Dorothy and William Wordsworth,
Jack Milnes the Democrat etc, wanted revolution in England similar to France.
His son Rawdon Briggs was banker to Anne Lister and was also an MP.
Henry Briggs, born 1798, was the third son of Rawdon and Ann Currer.
Unsurprisingly, he had a radical upbringing and up to his marriage to Marianne
Milnes in 1824 he had been a partner in his father’s firm Currer Briggs and
Company but after his marriage he moved to Flockton to help his mother in law
run the family colliery business; a long time widow, his mother in law Marianne
ran a colliery and railway concession which was very rare for a woman at the
time. Henry Briggs of H Briggs and Company retired at the age of 40 and
passed his share of the company onto brother in law William Stansfield and
went on to develop various collieries in partnership with Charles Morton of
Normanton.
Henry Briggs and his wife worshipped at Westgate Chapel. In his journal he
described himself as a liberal who was not deterred from his objectives. He
was a conscientious Unitarian. An imposing figure at 6’2”, he had an equally
imposing wife, equally tall. She was a Sunday School teacher and a local minister;
again unusual for the time. They both worked tirelessly for universal suffrage and
met the freed slave Frederick Douglas when he came to Wakefield.
Henry’s fellow Unitarians included Henry Clarkson, William Marriott and
Charles Gaskell among others. He died in 1868 on a business trip to Dunfermline and
stated that he wanted no unnecessary expense or pompous displays at his funeral.
The business was taken over by Henry Currer Briggs who married Catherine Shepherd,
daughter of the governor of Wakefield Prison. He lived and
died by his political convictions and continued the traditions of his left wing family.
He used his vast wealth to build Unitarian chapels and introduced profit
sharing across his business which was pioneering in 1865. He lived at Outwood Hall.
He died in 1881 and was succeeded by his son Arthur Currer Briggs who was born at
Outwood Hall in 1855. He took over the family business in 1881 but did not become
the chairman until 1893. He was responsible
for building the art nouveau houses in Whitwood and was also Mayor of Leeds
in 1903 and Alderman in1904. The same year, his wife Helen persuaded the
directors to give £3000 to help fun d Leeds University. The family eventually
moved from Outwood Hall to Meanwood and worshipped at Mill Hill Chapel in
Leeds.
The business was inherited by Reginald Martin Briggs and Donald Henry
Briggs; it was bought for a huge sum of money by the state in 1947 when the
mines were nationalised.
Paul finished his talk by telling us that Henry Briggs had a radical political
background and believed in the rights of man and fair wages. He also believed
that the rights of women were as important as the rights of man. He advocated
for free education and the abolition of slavery. He was a man who helped to
create the modern world and the family used their wealth to make the world a
better place.
