Ernest Terah Hooley
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Ernest Terah Hooley (5 February 1859 – 11 February 1947) was an English financial fraudster. He achieved wealth and fame by buying promising companies and reselling them to the public at inflated prices, but a prosecution exposed his deceitful practices. He was made bankrupt four times and served two prison terms. Hooley was the developer of the world's first industrial park,
Trafford Park Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, opposite Salford Quays on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Manchester city centre and north of Stretford. Until the la ...
on the outskirts of Manchester.


Early life

Hooley was born in
Sneinton Sneinton (pronounced "Snenton") is a suburb of Nottingham, England. The area is bounded by Nottingham city centre to the west, Bakersfield to the north, Colwick to the east, and the River Trent to the south. Sneinton lies within the unitary au ...
, Nottinghamshire, the only child of Terah Hooley, a lacemaker, and his wife Elizabeth. He joined his father's lace business and in 1881 married baker's daughter Annie Maria, with whom he had four daughters and three sons. Possibly with the assistance of an inheritance from his mother, Hooley bought Risley Hall in Derbyshire for £5,000 in 1888, and in the following year set himself up as a stockbroker in
Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
.


Business career

Hooley moved his business to London in 1896 and began to affect "a lavish lifestyle". The rise in his fortunes coincided with the boom in bicycles that year, and until the 1898 slump in that business he had promoted 26 manufacturers with a total nominal capital of £18.6 million; to impress investors he populated the boards of his companies with members of the aristocracy. One of his most profitable deals was the purchase of the
Trafford Park Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, opposite Salford Quays on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Manchester city centre and north of Stretford. Until the la ...
estate from Sir Humphrey Francis de Trafford in 1896. Hooley's original plan was to convert the park into a high-class residential area containing 500 grand villas, a racecourse, and an industrial fringe along the banks of the
Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...
, but he was persuaded instead to develop the site as an industrial estate, the first in the world and still the largest in Europe. In 1895, he purchased Papworth Hall in
Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
. He was appointed
High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...
for 1897. In 1896, he purchased the 2,000 acre
Anmer Hall Anmer Hall is a Georgian country house in the village of Anmer in Norfolk, England. Built in the 19th century, it was acquired by the Sandringham Estate sometime after Queen Victoria purchased the property, and has previously been leased to b ...
estate in Norfolk for £25,000, later reselling it to the Prince of Wales at cost. The Prince of Wales had attempted to purchase the property prior to Hooley buying it, but it has been suggested his subsequent effort to secure it may have been to avoid the possibility of Hooley's business promoter
Alexander Meyrick Broadley Alexander Meyrick Broadley (19 July 1847 – 16 April 1916), also known as Broadley Pasha, was a British barrister, author, company promoter and social figure. He is best known for being the defence lawyer for Ahmed 'Urabi after the failure ...
, whom he had earlier forced from Society, from becoming a constant guest and neighbour.''La Marquise de Fontenoy'' (pseudonym of Marguerite Cunliffe-Owen), ''Chicago Tribune'', 8 May 1916 http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1916/05/08/page/6/article/la-marquise-de-fontenoy In the later prosecution of Hooley, Broadley was denounced by Sir Robert Wright, Justice of the Court of the Queen's Bench, as the real author of Hooley's schemes. In 1897, Hooley was selected by the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
as their candidate to contest the parliamentary constituency of
Ilkeston Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...
, Derbyshire at the next general election. His bankruptcy the following year made him ineligible to stand however. Hooley's bankruptcy was also a fraudulent affair. He did not, as has been much suggested, make over Risley and Papworth to his wife, but his trustee in bankruptcy sold them to her instead. Life for them went on very much as before – the press terming him 'The Splendid Bankrupt'. Hooley also continued his deceitful business activities, although on a smaller scale. He was made bankrupt again in 1911, 1921, and 1939, and jailed for fraud in 1912 and 1922.Robb, George ''White-Collar Crime in Modern England: Financial Fraud and Business Morality, 1845–1929'', Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 105–107 Hooley estimated that during his career over £100,000,000 had passed through his hands, and he remained unrepentant: "my spirit remains uncrushed ... Conscious that if I had done a certain amount of harm to my fellow-beings, any rate I had also done a very considerable amount of good ... Seemingly all the English people on the Riviera lunched and dined my expense, and some of them even came to breakfast." Despite his crimes, he also had admirers. The public prosecutor Sir Richard Muir, considered him the most attractive personality he encountered in his professional career, writing in his memoirs: "He might have made the greatest Chancellor of the Exchequer this country has ever known ... 'The Splendid Bankrupt' certainly had a wonderful way with him." However, Hooley's legacy was a string of ruined companies and firms floundering through overcapitalisation and shrunken share values, with the consequent losses for their investors.


Companies floated by E T Hooley and the gross profits of each promotion

:::::::* Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre :::::::*
Schweppes Schweppes (, ) is a beverage brand that originated in the Republic of Geneva; it is made, bottled and distributed worldwide by multiple international conglomerates, depending on licensing and region, that manufacture and sell soft drinks. Schwep ...
:::::::*
Bovril Bovril is the trademarked name of a thick and salty meat extract paste similar to a yeast extract, developed in the 1870s by John Lawson Johnston. It is sold in a distinctive bulbous jar, and as cubes and granules. Bovril is owned and distribut ...
:::::::* Trent Cycle :::::::* Cycle Manufacturers' Tube :::::::* Swift Cycle :::::::* Dunlop Pneumatic (France) :::::::* Clement-Gladiator and Humber :::::::* Blaisdell Pencils :::::::* Dee Estates :::::::* Trafford Park Estates :::::::* Raleigh Cycle :::::::* Singer Cycle :::::::* Humber (America) :::::::* Humber (Russia) :::::::* Humber (Portugal)
:£5,000,000 :£1,250,000 :£2,500,000 :£100,000 :£250,000 :£375,000 :£650,000 :£900,000 :£100,000 :unknown :unknown :£200,000 :£800,000 :£200,000 :£ 75,000 :£100,000
::::::::from the statement prepared by the Official Receiver of his estate.page 5 Coventry Herald, 13 May 1904 (findmypast.com The British Newspaper Archive) By 1911, he was in serious legal and financial difficulties. He spent a month in Brixton Gaol for
contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
and later in the same year received a twelve-month sentence for obtaining money on false pretences as part of a land deal. In the following year, he was judged bankrupt for the second time. He re-entered business as an estate agent, but by 1921 was again bankrupt, and in 1922 was convicted of fraud and sentenced to three years imprisonment. Following his release, Hooley returned to the business of property sales, continuing to work until his eighties. He was made bankrupt for a fourth time in 1939. Hooley died at
Long Eaton Long Eaton is a town in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and some 8½ miles (13.7 km) south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has ...
, Derbyshire, aged 88.


References


Citations


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Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hooley, Ernest Terah 1859 births 1947 deaths High Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire People from Sneinton