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English Quaker philanthropist and businessman
- Joseph Rowntree (24 May 1836 – 24 February 1925) was an English Quaker philanthropist and businessman from York. Rowntree is perhaps best known for being a champion of social reform, partner and friend of Charles Booth, and his time as a chocolatier at the family business Rowntree's, one of the most important in Britain.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rowntree_(philanthropist)
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Joseph Rowntree (24 May 1836 – 24 February 1925) was an English Quaker philanthropist and businessman from York. Rowntree is perhaps best known for being a champion of social reform, partner and friend of Charles Booth, and his time as a chocolatier at the family business Rowntree's, one of the most important in Britain.
- Cocoa and Chocolate Business
- Move of The Factory Site
- A Limited Liability Company
- New Earswick
- Temperance & Alcohol
- Death
- References
In 1869 Joseph handed the Pavement business to his elder brother and (bringing his capital from that business with him) joined his younger brother, Henry Isaac Rowntree in his newly founded cocoa and chocolate business. His great asset was his sons; John Wilhelm entered the factory in 1885 and Seebohm in 1888. Trade had improved, business had expan...
In 1890 Joseph Rowntree bought 29 acres of land in Haxby Road for a purpose-built factory, to which raw materials could be brought by a works branch from the North Eastern Railway; it was, however, 16 years before the last department had vacated Tanner’s Moat. The move to Haxby Road was financed by a loan of £10,000 negotiated with William Morrell,...
In 1897 the firm became a limited liability company and the style changed from H.I. Rowntree & Co. to Rowntree & Co. Ltd. JR (as he was referred to throughout the firm) became the first chairman (he retired in 1923), the other directors being his sons John Wilhelm Rowntree (1868-1905) and Seebohm Rowntree (1871-1954), his nephews Arnold Stephenson ...
In 1901 Joseph bought 123 acres at New Earswick, bordering the factory site but further from the city centre. Though York did not have a major slum problem there was substantial housing of such poor quality that it would rapidly deteriorate into a future slum, and Joseph was anxious to demonstrate that well-built houses within the means of men earn...
Until at least 1880 JR does not appear to have been a teetotaller, though his consumption of alcohol was very moderate. At Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting in 1889 he countered Friends who claimed that poverty was due solely to ‘the drink’, but he came to suspect that it was a contributory cause and, with Arthur Sherwell, set out to discover some hard f...
Though steadily distancing himself from full-time involvement in the firm, Joseph Rowntree had been fully active until within five days of his death, which took place at his home, Clifton Lodge, on 24 February 1925.
The above biography is a slightly edited version of a biography drawn from The Biographical Dictionary of British Quakers in Commerce and Industry 1775-1920,by Edward H Milligan, published by the Sessions Book Trust, York, England, 2007. It is included here by kind permission of Edward Milligan and the Sessions Book Trust.
Two important figures, Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree, sponsored major investigations into the extent and causes of poverty.
Joseph Rowntree was a visionary Quaker businessman and social reformer. He built New Earswick, a village in York, for people on low incomes, including staff who worked in his factory, giving them access to decent homes at affordable rents.
At the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, we work to speed up and support the transition to a future free from poverty, in which people and planet can flourish.
Joseph Rowntree was an English businessman, philanthropist and social reformer. His vision lives on in the charitable trusts that continue his work today.
In addition to the clarity and depth of his thought about philanthropy – so different from many in the field even today – Joseph Rowntree stood out he because he did not separate his philanthropic instinct from his everyday life and activities.
