Reuben Gaunt’s Diary, 1841 - 1854
Reuben Gaunt, now remembered as the founder of Reuben Gaunt & Sons Limited, was born into a yeoman-clothier's family in 1824. He was brought up at New Cote (probably the original name for Mount Pleasant). At age seventeen years' old he began to keep a diary. He was already ambitiously describing himself as a cloth manufacturer, and there are glimpses in his diary of the drive and personality of the embryonic business tycoon.
When he was nineteen years' old he arranged to have shorthand lessons after attending the cloth market in Leeds, and after just three lessons proceeded to make the writing of his diary a piece of practical homework.
The original diary has been handed down through members of Reuben Gaunt’s family and is now in the safe keeping of the Leeds City Library Archives.
We appreciate the assistance of the Pudsey and Farsley historian Ruth Strong in making available this full version.
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