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 arrest. Given that Thompson was the chairman of one of the railways pursuing Hudson for debt and was facing defeat in Whitby, it does seem a likely scenario. The Whitby Conservatives appointed another candidate, Charles Bagnall, who after fighting a short two-day campaign, won the election. Hudson meanwhile was remanded in York prison. Hudson however had many friends in York and the north and the thought of an old man (now aged 65) in poor health in prison offended Victorian sensibilities. Hudson was released in October 1865 as the debt (still one of many outstanding at this point) was