Background
Goodman was the son of Benjamin Goodman (d 10 June 1848), a Leeds wool merchant. Goodman started his career learning his father"s business and becoming a partner in his father"s firm of B. Goodman & Sons at 21 Hunslet Lane, Leeds.
Goodman was the son of Benjamin Goodman (d 10 June 1848), a Leeds wool merchant. Goodman started his career learning his father"s business and becoming a partner in his father"s firm of B. Goodman & Sons at 21 Hunslet Lane, Leeds.
He had at least one sibling, a sister Eleanor (1791–1877). He prospered as a wool-stapler in Leeds and Bradford, and was a Director of the Leeds and Bradford Railway. He was elected Mayor of Leeds on 1 January 1836, the first Mayor of the City of Leeds after the Municipal Corporations Acting.
In April, he was presented a gold chain with an inscribed pendant to honour his mayoral election.
Following the resignation of C. G. Maclea, Goodman was again elected mayor on 1 January 1847 and left office on 9 November 1847. He was re-elected for a third term on 9 November 1850, and a fourth term on 9 November 1851.
He resigned from his position as mayor in March 1852 in order to be eligible to run for Parliament. A Whig, Goodman was elected to Parliament with Matthew Talbot Baines in 1852.
He was a magistrate of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and appointed a deputy lieutenant on 27 January 1853.
In 1853, Goodman served as Leeds" civic representative at the 1851 The Great Exhibition, after which, on 26 February 1852, he was knighted at Buckingham Palace, shortly before his resignation as mayor. Goodman sat for the Borough of Leeds in the House of Commons for five years, beginning at the 1852 general election, before retiring upon the 1857 dissolution of Parliament because of poor health brought about by a stroke of paralysis and neuralgia.
16th United Kingdom Parliament]
On 1 January 1836, he was elected the first Mayor of Leeds after the Municipal Corporations Acting 1835, and he served as a Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Leeds from 1852 to 1857.