Robert Spurr

Robert Spurr is not famous. You will not find his name on any city roll-of-honour. No street or park is named after him. Nevertheless Robert Spurr was just as important to the growth and success of Leeds as those people whose names we come across every day in the city.

Robert Spurr was one of the workers. He didn't get materially rich but without him, and many thousands like him, Leeds would still be a small provincial town with no great claim to fame. He left us a biography that gives a fascinating glimpse into the life of an ordinary working man.

Robert Spurr was born at Ossett, ten miles from Leeds, in 1801. In 1825 the country was in an economic crisis, his wife had died that year, and he was unemployed. In a vain bid to find work he, and his brother, walked to Liverpool and back. Later he found employment in Hunslet and then Leeds before falling ill with typhus and then another illness that kept him from work for a year. At the end of this period he was desperate for money and had to sell a couple of chairs to buy a hat.

'… I then went off with a very heavy heart to seek work. I worked three months at Gildersome, making men's boots at two shillings a pair. After that I came to work for brother John again for some short time. But I wished again to try my weel of fortune else where, so I went to work at Leeds, up at bank, and lived with brother David but I slept at another place. I had not been there long before my master removed to Meanwood and all the shopmen went with them - five in number. This was a very pleasant place and I enjoyed the working days very well. It is a very healthy country in that land scape. There was parks, woods and groves. It was full of beauty. But when Sunday afternoon came I was left alone because my shop mates went to the publick house to enjoy them selves. But I could not do that and support myself and my son.'

Spurr's mother and sister brought up the son by his first wife.

The good life at Meanwood did not last following his employer's bankruptcy. Robert found his next employer in Rodley.

'…In this Rodley shop there was eleven men in number. We had plenty of work and plenty of pastimes, such as sing, dance and drink and all kinds of folly from morning till night. So time passed away when at our work very well - except that profane swearing that I never did practice, nor did I like to hear it. But when Sunday came I found it was all vanity and vexation of spirit. All my shop mates went to their own homes and I was left alone.'

Again Robert was a victim of his master's bankruptcy and in 1831 he settled in Bramley. He became a member of the Zion Baptist chapel and married for a second time.
This marriage was to last thirty-four years until his wife's death. The union produced eight children.
Life was harsh for Robert and he tried to start a boot shop of his own. That venture failed and he had to borrow money to bury his fourth child.
Robert remembered a dismal Christmas 1837 with only one shilling to spend:

'…we was clear from money as a toad is from feathers. Our table was very scanty; we had plenty of poverty, because the people was feasting on our money. And so we was year to year, working and trying to get our bread day by day.'

Further attempts were made to start a shop failed. It was not until Robert's children had grown up and earning money that life began to improve.
In the 1850s the economic cycle turned for the better. With the loan of five pounds a boot shop was started. Robert made some sort of success of this venture and succeeded in keeping out of debt.

In 1867 Robert looked back on his life and achievements with some justified pride:

'… After I left Ossett I went from town to town, from shop to shop, working for different men and living and lodgin with other men for near ten years.
Some times it was very unpleasant to me. Then I got married to a poor hard working woman. She was faithfull to her trust. We where united to gather near thirty-four years before she Died. During our pass through life we have had births and deaths, times of sickness and of health; we have been in poverty and in plenty; we have had poor trade and good trade. But I do not remember at any time putting a price upon my goods to extortion from a customer that which was not right. I have often had too little for my labour and I might have a good conscience, believing it would be better for us at the end. We have had 8 Children (as well as Joshua [by his first wife]) but lost 4 of them by Death. So now, as a working man, I think after all my poverty, If any one has reason to be thankfull, it is me. For there his a deal of people in poverty and in debt, but all my debts is paid and all my Children is sober hard working Children…(and I hope they are all resting on the faith of the Gospel of Christ).'

Robert Spurr died, at the age of sixty-eight.