In 1835, Dudley was doomed to have another election. A Captain Forbes offered his feeble services, and he was floated by the Reformers amid many fears and doubts, because it was fully understood that Mr. Thomas Hawkes was again to run the Tory ticket against all comers, and by the hard exertions of his friends, and the personal regard in which he was held by the townspeople, he was returned the second time M.P. for Dudley.
| 1. Mr. Thomas Hawkes, Tory | 327 |
| 2. Captain Forbes, Reformer | 250 |
| —— | |
| Majority for Mr. Hawkes | 77 |
The spirit of Reform, branching out into every thing we had to deal with, awakened in this borough a lively sense of its own backwardness and commercial ease and security. The neighbouring hamlets and villages were beginning to show signs of much vitality; new coal mines were opened out; new iron works erected; branches, or arms, of our canal routes were extended, and a great impetus was given to the development of the coal and iron trades in every direction. The shops and shop windows in our then narrow Market Place began to look antediluvian, weird, and shabby; thus a spirit of rebuilding and renovation set in, and many of our old familiar shops began to change faces. The increase of gas lamps in our main streets and an improved effort made by the Town Commissioners to better our bye-ways and highways, all tended to convince the occasional visitor to Dudley that the old Dudley town had caught the flame of Reform and regeneration and was going ahead in progress and civilisation. The old Middle Row of shops and dwelling houses had long been deemed a nuisance and an encumbrance on the ground, and strenuous, and ultimately successful, efforts were made by both the inhabitants and those then high in authority to pull down and remove the same, resulting in giving Dudley the largest and most commodious Market Place in the County.
1835. May 14th. This day and night, a violent and boisterous snow storm visited this town and neighbourhood; the snow remained on the ground for some days, the thermometer standing at 30 degrees. Great damage was done to the buildings, grass lands, and gardens, and the like severe weather had not been witnessed before by the oldest inhabitants.
Died, October 1st, 1835, Rev. Luke Booker, M.A., LL.D., many years vicar of the valuable living of St. Thomas’s, the Parish Church of Dudley. Aged 73 years.
Dr. Booker came to Dudley as a young curate of great promise, and was for some time the Incumbent of St. Edmund’s Church. On the death of the Rev. Doctor Cartwright, M.A., the then vicar, his friend and patron, the good Viscount Dudley and Ward, presented Dr. Booker to the living of St. Thomas, and a long life friendship existed between him and his noble patron. Dr. Booker was a gentleman of great classical learning and erudition, and being favoured with a commanding person, his appearance both in and out of the pulpit always commanded attention and respect. He was a sound theological preacher, exercising great energy and zeal, and secured a large share of church attendants. He contributed largely as a writer to many of the leading Christian periodicals of the day; and his firm adhesion to the national principles of Church and State, made him at all times a powerful and welcome advocate on the platform. In politics the Doctor was a pronounced Tory, and at times his persistent interference in political questions did not add to his dignified position as Vicar of Dudley. He was also a poet of considerable beauty of thought and enunciation, a few remains of which are still extant; he also published an History of Dudley Castle and the genealogy of the noble owners. Among the varied remarkable acts that he did was to write a voluminous social and political Diary of the leading events of Dudley and its people in his day, which he did not live to put in print.
Dr. Booker was a great favourite amongst the weaker sex, for he embraced the privilege of leading four blushing brides to the hymeneal altar during his long and excitable life. The unhappy drawback in the Doctor’s character was the thorough hatred of Dissenters, and his unswerving abhorrence of all Reformers and Radicals, to whom he ascribed all kinds of inconceivable mischief against King, Lords and Church, by their unlawful machinations at the time of the Great Reform Agitation to obtain their political freedom. The Rev. Doctor was the main motive power in the destruction of the commodious and historic Old St. Thomas’s Church, and the erection of the present handsome Gothic Parish Church, at a cost of upwards of £20,000. Great opposition was raised by the Parishioners at this time to the demolition of their Parish Church, which was known to be quite large enough for its audience, and which might have been restored to answer all parochial purposes at a much less cost.
The laying of the foundation stone of this new church took place on October 25th, 1816, by the Bishop of Worcester, (The Right Rev. Dr. Folliott,) occasioned an immense Public Procession of School Children, Clergymen, Merchants, Shopkeepers and Inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood, with the Reverend Doctor at their head, which presented such a motley group, as to become a subject of much comment and ridicule by some of the witnesses of that vainglorious ceremony.
The following amusing description of the procession by an eye-witness, who happened to be on a visit to Dudley at the time, will repay a perusal.
THE
PROCESSION AND THE BELLS,
OR
THE RIVAL POETS,
Inscribed to the
INHABITANTS OF DUDLEY.