| Description | Correspondence, personal and official papers, business records and deeds of the Galton family of Birmingham and of other families related to them by marriage, including the Strutt family of Belper, Derbyshire. The bulk of the papers in this collection date from the mid eighteenth century to the mid nineteenth century, although many of the deeds date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and there are also a few medieval manorial records. The deeds and associated papers primarily relate to inherited holdings of the Galton family in Somerset, some of which were acquired through intermarriage in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and to estates subsequently purchased by members of the family in Worcestershire, principally Hadzor and Warley, and in Somerset. The collection also includes some deeds relating to properties in Birmingham; Staffordshire; Devon and Cornwall.
Personal papers include official documents such as certificates, passports, wills, settlements, bonds, indentures, financial accounts, diaries and journals and other narrative accounts created by or relating to members of the family. The substantial family and business correspondence forms probably the most significant material in this collection, comprising letters written to and from members of the Galton family, and other families related to them by marriage, including the Farmer family, the Abrahams family, the Douglas family and the Strutt family. Business correspondence of Samuel Galton and James Farmer, in particular, together with the largely financial business papers of Farmer & Galton, are a rich source for the study of the eighteenth century gun trade in the context of the fluctuating fortunes of this Birmingham based firm, and contain detailed information about the organistaion and management of the business, and its clients, who for the most part were merchants involved in the triangular trade. Also significant in this area is the correspondence of William Archibald Douglas, an officer in the company of merchants trading to Africa in the 1790s, who provides details of his trading activities at Cape Coast castle and schemes to improve his financial status. Other correspondence is rich in detail about family and social life, and is a source for the study of childhood and family life, women's history, social networks in Birmingham and Derby, connections with other Quaker families, the involvement of various family members in public and charitable works, the interest of Samuel Galton jnr and his wife in popular education, and of Joseph Strutt in political reform, travel in the United Kingdom, particularly to seaside resorts such as Scarborough, Blackpool, Brighton and Sidmouth, but also to Bath, Yorkshire, Scotland and the Lake District, and in Europe, particularly in Italy, but also in France, Germany and Spain. |
| AdminHistory | Samuel Galton (1720-1799), a Quaker and Bristol haberdasher of small wares, from a family that had lived in the Somerset area for several generations, moved to Birmingham in 1746 and married Mary Farmer (1718-1777). He also became partner in the Birmingham based gun manufacturing business of his brother-in-law, James Farmer (1715-1773), which became known as Farmer & Galton. This business, with premises in Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham, had been started by James Farmer's father, Joseph Farmer (d.1741), and was expanded under his son, with warehouses and employees in Liverpool and Bristol during the mid eighteenth century. James Farmer's brother, Joseph Farmer (fl 1741-1763), based in Liverpool, and Samuel Galton's brother John Galton (1705-1775), a Bristol iron merchant, also had connections with the firm, which received most of its orders from merchants involved in the triangular trade between England, west Africa and North America and the West Indies, but also took commissions from the government Office of Ordnance during war time. James Farmer was declared bankrupt in 1755, after substantial losses sustained in his business dealings in Portugal and Brazil, and the business, together with several pieces of his property in Birmingham and the surrounding area, was assigned to Samuel Galton. Farmer was again able to take an active role in the business in the 1760s, but after his death, Samuel Galton and his only surviving son, Samuel Galton jnr (1753-1832) ran the business as partners.
In later life, Samuel Galton lived at Dudson house, Birmingham and Samuel Galton jnr and his family rented Great Barr Hall in the 1780s, before moving to Dudson in 1799. He also purchased substantial property in Somerset, to consolidate existing family holdings in that county, and acquired the Warley abbey estate in Worcestershire. Samuel Galton jnr was criticised by other Quakers for his family's involvement in the gun trade, and was forced to mount a defence of his business interests in 1796. He was disowned by the Society of Friends, but he and his wife Lucy Barclay (1757-1817), daughter of Robert Barclay of Ury, still seem to have attended meetings, and were both buried in the Quaker burial ground in Birmingham. Samuel Galton jnr and his eldest surviving son, Samuel Tertius Galton (1783-1844) ran the gun business together until Samuel Galton jnr's retirement in 1804. The family later established a banking business, known as the Galton & James bank, in which Samuel Tertius Galton's brothers, Hubert John Barclay Galton (1789-1864), who lived at Warley abbey and John Howard Galton (1794-1862), who lived at Hadzor, near Droitwich, Worcestershire, were also partners, together with Paul Moon James. This partnership was dissolved in 1831.
Samuel Galton jnr attended Warrington Academy as a boy. He was keenly interested in science, particularly in the field of optics, light and colour, and was a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham. He and his wife were close friends of Joseph Priestley and his wife Mary, and the family were also friendly with the families of Matthew Boulton, James Watt and Erasmus Darwin. He was also keenly interested in canal navigation, and held shares in the Birmingham Canal Navigation company. He and Lucy Barclay had eight children: Mary Anne Galton (1778-1856), who married Lambert Schimmelpenninck, a Dutch tobacco merchant, in 1806, and who later became a member of the Moravian church; Sophia Galton (1782-1863), who married Charles Brewin in 1833; Samuel Tertius Galton, who married Frances Anne Violetta Darwin (1783-1874), daughter of Erasmus Darwin, in 1807; Adele Galton (1784-1869), who married Dr John Kaye Booth in 1827; Theodore Galton (1784-1810), who died of plague in Malta while on a tour of Europe with Dr Francis Darwin; Hubert John Barclay Galton, who married Mary Barclay in 1815; Ewan Cameron Galton (1791-1800) and John Howard Galton, who married Isabella Strutt (1797-1877) in 1819. She was the daughter of Joseph Strutt (1764-1844), a Unitarian cotton mill owner and philanthropist with an interest in political reform, from Belper, Derbyshire, who was the son of Jedediah Strutt (1726-1797), cotton spinner and inventor, and was mayor of Derby 1835-1836. Joseph Strutt had married Isabella Douglas (1768-1802), the daughter of Archibald Douglas (1726-1796), a Plymouth merchant, and the sister of William Archibald Douglas (d.1799), writer in the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa, and secretary to Archibald Dalzel (fl 1799-1803), governor of the fort at Cape Coast castle, West Africa. |
| CreatorName | Galton family of Birmingham; Strutt family of Belper, Derbyshire; Farmer and Galton gun manufactory; Galton, Samuel, 1720-1799, gun manufacturer; Farmer, James, 1715-1773, gun manufacturer; Galton, John, 1705-1775, iron merchant; Galton, Samuel, 1753-1832, scientist, gun manufacturer; Galton, Samuel Tertius, 1783-1844, banker; Galton, John Howard, 1794-1862, of Hadzor, Worcestershire; Strutt, Joseph, 1764-1844, of Belper, Derbyshire; Douglas, William Archibald, d 1799, of Cape Coast castle, Africa. |