Robert Ackrill

Robert Ackrill (1816 – 22 June 1894) was an English journalist, newspaper proprietor, founder of newspapers, printer and writer, working for most of his career in Harrogate, England. During the 19th century he owned six newspapers in the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, via his company Ackrill Newspapers, having founded three of them. Ackrill's descendants and relatives continued to run or be involved with Ackrill newspapers for at least a hundred years, the final incarnation of the company under that name being dissolved in 2020.

Ackrill was involved in the initial stages of the setting up of Harrogate Borough Council, and as Charter Mayor he met the train bringing its Charter of Incorporation from London, as part of a local celebration. He was a Provincial Grand Officer of the Freemasons for the West Riding. He was a public speaker who influenced local affairs, having some effect on decisions concerning the construction of Harrogate's railway lines and stations. He was a Liberal, involved in the Corn Laws agitation and the Chartist Movement. His funeral was a significant event in Harrogate, with local worthies, Freemasons, tradesmen and others accompanying the coffin to Grove Road Cemetery.

Background Ackrill's father was clock and watch maker Samuel Ackrill of Worcester (1776 – 11 September 1853), and his mother was Margaret Louisa (1779 – 14 April 1861). Ackrill was born in 1816 on The Tything, a road in Worcester, England. Ackrill's nephew was Joseph Ackrill, a journalist on The Times. Ackrill's great nephew and son of Joseph, Charles Ackrill (d. 27 June 1894), was the war correspondent of The Madras Times. Joseph Ackrill was attending his uncle Robert Ackrill's funeral when news of Charles' death in India was received. At Claines on 1 January 1845 he married Caroline Day (1824 – 1901) who was from Pershore. He had three children with Caroline: John William "Jack" (1849–1915), Ellen (1851–1932) and Thomas Samuel, who was born in Leeds. In the 1830s or 1840s, Ackrill moved from Worcester to Leeds or Harrogate spa, for the sake of his wife's health, although his newspaper obituaries do not specify which wife.

Career Worcester Ackrill was apprenticed to the owner of The Worcester Herald, where he was trained as a compositor, and printer. On completion, the apprenticeship earned him freedom of the city of Worcester, because in that era the freedom of the city could be inherited from a master who had that freedom.

In former times, a workman became a freeman by virtue of being apprenticed to one who was a freeman, and by himself taking up his freedom before the Mayor. Before the borough franchise was lowered, a working man thus often obtained a vote to which he would not have been entitled by his tenure of property. There was no dual vote. Then, of course, there was the distinction of being an accredited citizen of no mean city [i.e. Worcester], besides certain mundane privileges in the form of grazing rights on Pitchcroft, and of preference in application for certain almshouses. Ackrill was hired as a journalist on the Leeds Mercury,

By 1871, Ackrill was describing himself as a letterpress printer, and master of eight men and five boys. Ackrill was a Liberal who took part in local political activity, so when he purchased the Herald from Dawson, that newspaper' began a rivalry with the town's other paper, the Conservative Harrogate Advertiser, which was founded 1836 and run by Thomas Hollins. When the Advertiser became too successful in the 1870s, Ackrill bought it as a sister paper to the Herald, and founded Ackrill Newspapers. As of 2018, The Bedale and Northallerton Times still existed as The Thirsk, Bedale and Northallerton Times, a weekly with a tiny circulation.

Ackrill was a benefactor to Harrogate, and "did good service to Liberalism as a journalist during the Corn Law agitation, and for many years afterwards". For a long time before the end of his career, he was "designated the "father of reporters" in Yorkshire, and was involved with the business until 1915. Robert Ackrill Breare, son of W.H. Breare and Ellen Ackrill, ran Ackrill Newspapers until 1955, when his son William Robert Ackrill Breare took over. Robert Roddick Ackrill Breare was the last of the dynasty to run the company, from 1957 to around 1985, when the company was sold to United Newspapers. The company name survived under various ownerships until its last incarnation was incorporated on 12 May 1982, and dissolved on 5 November 2020.

Other activities Charter of incorporation

Ackrill was involved from the beginning, in Harrogate's push for a charter of incorporation. The town had expanded to the extent that it needed its own mayor and corporation. Ackrill contributed to meetings and, alongside many of the town's worthies, signed the formal memorial of 12 March 1883 sent to the improvement commissioners, saying that the townspeople wanted to begin the process of obtaining the charter. met the train which brought Harrogate's Charter of Incorporation from London, allowing the town to form its own borough council. After a celebratory procession from the station, with decorated streets and the ringing of church bells, he gave a public speech from a stand in front of the New Victoria Baths. Ackrill's bust (pictured, right) by Leeds sculptor Anthony Welsh is undated, but it is possible that it commemorates his time as Charter Mayor. "[Ackrill's] name stands upon that document prominently, and on him devolved the duty of carrying out some of the earlier preliminary stages connected with the Municipal Incorporations Act". He was a director of the Knaresborough, Harrogate and Clare Building Society, The Harrogate Advertiser. The Bradford Weekly Telegraph commented: "By [Ackrill's] death ... Harrogate loses a townsman to whom it owed much, for his energy and foresight were due many of the improvements [to the town] effected during the past thirty years.

As the cortège left Ackrill's home, all the blinds of the houses along the way were drawn, according to custom, and the bells of St Mary's Church "rung a muffled peal". On foot, at the front of the funeral procession, were "a large number of tradesmen" who had known him. Following the tradesmen were Ackrill's employees and journalists. After them, walked his Masonic friends, "wearing white gloves and sprigs of acacia". The American walnut and polished oak coffin was covered in flowers given by friends and relatives. Besides the hearse, the funeral procession included "seven mourning coaches and a large number of private carriages". In the common practice of the time, the official mourners were all male, so the chief mourners in the first coach were Ackrill's closest male relatives. Beside the procession, which included Thomas Holroyd, many other local people were walking to the graveyard.

The first part of the burial service was taken by the Reverend A.H. Rix, who met the hearse at the gate, and followed it to the cemetery's Anglican chapel. The plate on Ackrill's coffin said: "Robert Ackrill. Died June 22, 1894. Aged 77 years".