The Man from Manchester

Abstract

Edward Hulton Junior was born in Hulme, Lancashire, on 3 March 1869, the son of a former bill setter on the Manchester Guardian, and Mary, a woman of severe and puritanical ideals. The story of Edward Senior, or Ned as he was known, is one of the great romances of newspaper lore. He was born in 1838 in Clock Alley, Manchester, the son of James Hulton, a self-employed tinplate worker, who owned a small foundry in the Ancoats area. When Ned was aged only 12, James Hulton’s foundry burned down and the father left, penniless, for America, never to return. Now responsible for his mother and five sisters, young Ned sold newspapers on the streets for 2s 6d per week, telling her that one day he would fill her apron with gold sovereigns. It was even said that if customers did not pay their bills, then Ned would dance in clogs outside their homes until the debts were honoured.¹