Mayor of Dudley

The Mayor of Dudley is an office held by a councillor of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. The post is partly ceremonial although the mayor does also preside over full meetings of the council and has the duty of holding decision makers to account. The mayor is elected by fellow councillors in May of each year. Before 1865, when the municipal borough was incorporated, the position was associated with the Court Leet of the Lords of Dudley, which governed the borough of Dudley from at least the middle of the 16th century and probably from the Middle Ages. The earliest known mayor, John A’Parke was selected in 1565.

In the earliest records, the Mayor of Dudley was an official of the Court Leet of the Lords of Dudley. This was a manorial court that provided local governance to the borough of Dudley. The first named mayor is John A'Parke who was mayor in 1565. Records of the court leet before the middle of the 18th century are sparse so only a few names of the earliest mayors are known. One notable early mayor was Richard Foley, chosen in 1615. Oliver Dixon, mayor in 1690, came from a prominent local family that gave their name to the Dixons Green area of Dudley. Although the leading body governing the town changed in 1791, as the Town Commissioners came into being, the court leet continued to meet until the year after the incorporation of the borough in 1865. The mayor selected in 1860 was Charles Francis George Clark, author of The Curiosities of Dudley and the Black Country.

Since 1865 mayors have been chosen from an elected councillor. The first mayor of the new municipal borough was Frederick Smith. A notable mayor from this period was the industrialist Noah Hingley (1869-70). Noah's son Benjamin Hingley was the last mayor of the municipal borough, serving two terms from 1887. The Local Government Act 1888 changed the status of Dudley to a County Borough, effective from 1 April 1889. The first mayor selected by the new authority was William Squires Gorton. Notable mayors from this period include William Humble Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley (1895-96) and the founder of Bean Cars, Sir George Bean, who served three terms as mayor: in 1908 and 1911-1912. After the Earl of Dudley had finished his two terms, the next mayor was the Netherton-born George Henry Dunn, who had started his working life, still a child, in a colliery.

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