Everything about Sir John Gladstone 1st Baronet totally explained
Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet (
11 December 1764 –
7 December 1851), was a
Scottish merchant,
Member of Parliament, and the father of the
British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.
Early life
Born in
Leith, in
Midlothian,
Scotland, John Gladstones was the eldest son of Thomas Gladstones (1732-1809) and Helen Neilson (1739-1806). John was the second of the family's sixteen children. Thomas Gladstones was born in
Biggar,
Lanarkshire, but moved to Leith in 1746, aged 14, to be apprenticed to a wine merchant. Thomas later became a successful corn merchant in Leith and 1762 he married Helen Neilson. Thomas Gladstones was a
Whig and an elder in the
Church of Scotland.
John Gladstone followed his father into the mercantile business, working first for his father's business, before basing himself in
Liverpool in
1787, where he entered the house of grain merchants Corrie & Company as a clerk.
He was eventually taken into the firm as a partner, the name of the house becoming Corrie, Gladstone & Bradshaw. The business of the firm, and the wealth of its members, soon grew very large. Once he'd settled in Liverpool, Gladstones dropped the "s" from his surname, although this wasn't legally regularised until
1835. In
1792 he married his first wife Jane Hall, the daughter of a Liverpool merchant. However, she died in
1798.
Marriage and family
In
1800, he married his second wife Anne MacKenzie Robertson, the daughter of the
Provost of
Dingwall in
Ross-shire. They had six children together:
- Anne MacKenzie Gladstone (1802-1829)
- Sir Thomas Gladstone, 2nd Baronet (1804-1889)
- Robertson Gladstone (1805-1875) (External Link
)
- John Neilson Gladstone (1807-1863)
- William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898)
- Helen Jane Gladstone (1814-1880)
Business
John Gladstone made a fortune trading in corn with the
United States and
cotton with
Brazil. He acquired large
sugar plantations in
Jamaica and
Demerara, and was Chairman of the
West India Association. He used
slaves on these estates and when the slave trade was abolished in the
British Empire in
1833, he was active in obtaining compensation for slave owners.
After the abolition of slavery, John Gladstone used
Indentured servants from India to work in slavery-like conditions in his sugar plantations. Knowing that a number of Indians had been sent to Mauritius as indentured labor, he hit upon the idea of using them in his plantations in the West Indies as well. In a letter dated January 4, 1836 to Messrs. Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co of Calcutta, Gladstone expressed his desire to obtain labor from India . He used false promises of light work, comfortable housing and schools to make work on Gladstone plantations appear attractive to prospective Indian migrants. Indians, on their arrival in British Guiana, became known as Hill Coolies . From 1838 to 1917, over 200,000 Indians arrived under indentureship in British Guiana alone. They lived under harsh conditions in the plantations.
After sixteen years of operations, Corrie, Gladstone & Bradshaw was dissolved and its business was continued by John Gladstone under the name of
John Gladstone & Company. His six brothers followed him from Leith to Liverpool, and he took his brother Robert into partnership with him. Their business became very extensive, having a large trade with
Russia, and as sugar importers and West India merchants. In
1814, when the monopoly of the
British East India Company was broken and trade with
India and
China was opened to competition, Gladstone's firm was the first to send a private ship to
Calcutta.
Politics
Gladstone was also interested in politics. He was in favour of a qualified reform of the franchise and of Greek independence during the
1820s. At first he was a
Whig, but he came to support the
Tory George Canning, and became a
Tory. In
1812 he presided over a meeting at Liverpool which was called to invite Canning to represent Liverpool in the
House of Commons. Gladstone wanted to represent Liverpool himself, but this never happened. Instead, he was
Member of Parliament for
Lancaster (
1818-
1820),
Woodstock (
1820-
1826), and
Berwick-upon-Tweed (
1826-
1827). This rejection by Liverpool soured his relationship with the city.
Later years
Returning to his native Scotland after 42 years, in
1829 John Gladstone bought the
Fasque Estate in
Kincardineshire from Sir Alexander Ramsay for
£80,000. In
1846 he was created a
Baronet by the outgoing Prime Minister, Sir
Robert Peel.
Sir John Gladstone died at Fasque House in December
1851, aged 86, and was buried at St Andrew's Episcopal Church at Fasque. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Thomas Gladstone, 2nd Baronet.
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