John Webster

John Webster
Died	1878
Residence	St James Row Sheffield [1862]
Occupation	legal
Society Membership membership ESL Ordinary Fellow left 1862 last listed elected_ESL 1861.02.06 ??

Notes

Notes From Elsewhere

Attorney, 2 St James Row - later 14 St James Row. Mayor of Sheffield 1866-67
JOHN WEBSTER - THE SHEFFIELD CORONER
'John Webster [who resided at Broomhall Park] had been coroner for two years. He was a leading public figure in the town, where he had been in practice as a solicitor for nearly thirty years, and was renowned for his straight talking. Indeed, his sharp tongue sometimes ran away with him and his acid comments at the resumed inquest were to provoke a storm of criticism. His honest intentions were never in doubt although the manner in which he sometimes expressed them was not always appreciated. Mr Webster was dogmatic. There was hardly a subject upon which he did not have an emphatic view. 'Even when he was not found engaged in the duties of his profession,' a contemporary reflected, 'he could be found expressing his opinions--always clearly, sometimes tartly and generally positively--on various questions of public interest.' (CDDD)
'On the day following the flood, John Webster opened the inquest. It was held at the Union Workhouse, part of which (as indicated in the Town Clerk's letter) was being used as a makeshift mortuary (some parts of this building still remain - on Alma Street - directly opposite the entrance road to Kelham Island - parts of the building being incorporated into a steel works), . . .' and on the following day, Sunday, he 'went to his office at 14, St James's Row-- overlooking St Peter's Church' (now Sheffield Cathedral) and wrote to the Home Secretary, Sir George Grey, informing him of the terrible tragedy which had occured at Sheffield:
At the resumed inquest on 23rd. March, Webster launched a savage and sustained attack on John Gunson and John Towlerton Leather, determined to establish that responsibility for the disaster lay clearly with them. Presenting forceful arguments was one of his strengths, however, as Geoffrey Amey states:
'In that strength lay also his weakness: by blurting out his personal feelings, the emotional Mr Webster had managed to produce the opposite effect to that he had intended and his indiscretions had sparked off a wave of sympathy for the company's engineers.'
'Webster, who was fifty-four, had been a bright young man in his mid twenties when he settled in Sheffield to start legal practice, having served his articles with a firm from York. He was regarded so highly for his straight dealing that he soon became known as 'the honest lawyer'. He established himself as a respected member of the community, was elected to the Town Council in 1858 and was now an alderman. Webster was a no nonsense debater, he was condemnatory about the poor sanitation existing in the town and his forthright views and enthusiasm had much to do with the council's adoption of the Local Government Act. He was to be Sheffield's Mayor in 1866 and 1867. In later years, Webster was handicapped by heart trouble; he relinquished the office of coroner in May 1873, and retired from the council the following year. Then, in May 1876, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the West Riding.' He died on 28 June, 1878, when he was in his sixty-ninth year. (CDDD)