George Hudson payment of 12 shillings and 6 pence recorded in the Howsham poor book as being “received of George Hudson for bastardry”. Hudson was apprenticed to Bell and Nicholson, a firm of drapers in College Street, York. He finished his apprenticeship in 1820, was taken on as a tradesman, and given a share in the business early in 1821. On 17 July that year he married Nicholson's daughter Elizabeth. When Bell retired, the firm became Nicholson and Hudson. By 1827 the company was the largest drapery, indeed the largest business, in York. In 1827, his great-uncle Matthew Botrill fell ill and
George Hudson the bridge design himself. The Sunderland Conservatives selected Hudson hoping he would help to re-invigorate two failing infrastructure projects – Monkwearmouth Dock and the Durham and Sunderland Railway. Hudson defeated the opposition candidate and was elected to parliament on 14 August 1845. In parliament Hudson – as well as looking after his railway interests – was a key player in the repeal of the Corn Laws. In his election campaign he claimed to be in favour of the Corn Laws but later joined the other side citing the need to protect British agriculture as his reason. In 1847 Lord George