Hudson's success was built on dubious financial practices and he frequently paid shareholders out of capital rather than money the company had earned.

Beaumont (2003) suggests that this may have been the result of the slump affecting agriculture in 1815, but there was also a payment of 12 shillings and 6 pence recorded in the Howsham poor book as being "received of George Hudson for bastardry".

[5] From being a Methodist and a Dissenter,[Note 1] Hudson changed his allegiance to become a High Church Tory and became treasurer of the York Conservative Party in 1832.

They retained John Rennie to survey the line and Hudson accompanied him, learning the practicalities of railway construction and of dealing with landowners.

[7] In spite of the success of the locomotive powered Liverpool and Manchester Railway on the other side of the Pennines, Rennie produced plans for a horse-drawn line (in 1834), and matters fell into abeyance.

In April – before full opening – Hudson declared a dividend of one guinea per share which, when questioned he confirmed had been paid out of the companies' capital.

[13] Opening to a junction on the Leeds to Selby line took place on 29 May 1839 and to Normanton on 1 July 1840 meaning London was now linked by rail to York.

[11] On 9 November 1840 the YNMR leased the Leeds and Selby Railway for £17,000 per year and Hudson promptly closed the line so passengers had to use his route via Castleford.

It is worth noting that Hudson had purchased the Londesborough Hall estate in September 1845 to partly to prevent the scheme of one of his bitter enemies George Leeman succeeding.

In 1842 the North Midland Railway was in severe financial difficulty due to its high construction costs down to George Stephenson's insistence that the ruling gradient should be no more than 1 in 300.

An Act of Parliament was obtained in July 1843, to build a line from Leeds to Bradford via Shipley as well as a link to the North Midland Railway's terminus at Hunslet Lane, to allow connections to the south.

Initial services between York and London ran via Doncaster, Retford, Lincoln and Boston with the line through Grantham to Peterborough opening in 1852.

Later investigation showed that while Hudson decided the levels of dividends to be paid to shareholders it was Waddington's job to doctor the traffic accounts to make it appear legally earned.

[34] Hudson cut costs in a similar way on the North Midland Railway and an accident at Romford on 18 July 1846 led the satirical magazine Punch to petition Hudson to the effect that: "by reason of the misconduct, negligence and insobriety of drivers and sundry stokers, engineers, policemen, and others, your Majesty's subjects, various and several collisions, explosions and oversettings are continually taking place on the railways, your Majesty's dominion"[35] During Hudson's time as chairman the ECR network expanded with the line from Ely North Junction to Peterborough opening on 14 January 1847 and from March to Wisbech on 3 May 1847.

A payment of £400,000 had to be made in 1849; many of these companies were left in a difficult position with falling revenues, an economic depression and little scope for future shareholder dividends.

In the Midland Railway meeting of 15 February 1849 there were calls for a committee of inquiry to be set up which Hudson managed to quash by threatening to resign.

Five days later at the meeting of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway two shareholders Horatio Love and Robert Prance revealed a number of shares had been sold to the company at a value far in excess of what they were actually worth and the beneficiary was Hudson.

Vice chair David Waddington faced the wrath of the shareholders (who had received a very small dividend) and promptly blamed the absent Hudson.

Vaughan (1997) states "The Whigs were not in favour of bribery but instead used gangs of thugs to intimidate any would be Tory voter – in those days the vote was given orally and in public, surrounded by the crowd".

In his election campaign he claimed to be in favour of the Corn Laws[52] but later joined the other side citing the need to protect British agriculture as his reason.

[56] There are contradictory accounts about his time on the continent with some claims he lived in a series of shabby hotels sometimes unable to afford food while others suggested he was reasonably provided for.

Thompson was also the chairman of the North Eastern Railway (NER) and was not popular in Whitby as he had failed to join the town to the national rail network and had overseen the rise of neighbouring Scarborough as Yorkshire's leading seaside resort.

[63] Hudson however had many friends in York and the north and the thought of an old man (now aged 65) in poor health in prison offended Victorian sensibilities.

[65] While initially a blow for Hudson it acted as a turning point in his fortunes as his plight was noted by newspapers in Sunderland, Hull and Whitby.

Elliot and Hugh Taylor, MP for Tynemouth and North Shields started a subscription fund for Hudson later that year which raised £1,000 in three weeks.

[67] His name has been used to point the moral of vaulting ambition and unstable fortune, Thomas Carlyle calling him the "big swollen gambler" in one of the Latter-Day Pamphlets.

Notwithstanding the sinister leer of his eye, the ungainly frame and the unharmonious voice, his person however rude exteriorly, is the cover of a fairer mind than was first imagined"[70] Sir Thomes Legard (11th Baronet of Ganton) wrote when the Filey and Bridlington branch was opened in 1846:[71] "When railways and railway shares were dark as night, men said that Hudson ruled, and all was right.

[2][72] Elizabeth Hudson died in London at 13 Pitt Street, Kensington on 15 January 1886 and their son George was recorded as living there for a few years after his mother's death.

In 1845 he bought from Lord de Grey Colen Campbell's already much-remodelled Newby Park in the North Riding of Yorkshire, between the small towns of Ripon and Thirsk, which is often referred to as the first Palladian villa in England.

The painting has itself survived the years following his fall from grace in remarkable condition, but its frame, bearing a description of his accomplishments and titles has been disfigured, thought to be the work of disgruntled successors.