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 absent Hudson. Another committee of inquiry was set up under William Cash and within a month the Midland Railway shareholders had set one up and Hudson had resigned. In April 1849 the Prance report (YNMR) revealed the wrongful valuation of the shares and Hudson had to pay back £30,000. Later that month he faced a hostile ECR inquiry (formed of men who had approved everything he did in previous years) after which he resigned. On 7 May MP Francis Charteris alleged possible bribery of MPs and another inquiry was started. Hudson addressed parliament on 17 May but the damage was