Matthew Towgood

Matthew Towgood IV (1760/1–1830) was an English banker and industrialist, from about 1808 proprietor of a paper mill near St Neots, then in Huntingdonshire.

Life

He was the son of Matthew Towgood III, and was banker to Henry Fourdrinier.[1] As banker, he advanced sums of money to the brothers Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, who were developing paper-making machinery; and was later taken as a partner into the firm of Bloxham & Fourdrinier.[2] D. C. Coleman suggests the reason Towgood became a partner may have been a loan extended by Langston, Towgood & Co.[3] The Fourdrinier debt is described as having run up to £50,000 or £60,000; but also as with Rogers, Twogood & Co., which was the name of the bank created in 1811 after Langston, Twogood & Co. merged into the Rogers family bank.[4]

Background on Bloxham & Fourdrinier

A 1809 bank run happened in parallel with the crisis on the future of the paper machines. Bloxham & Fourdrinier was for most of its existence a wholesale stationer in Lombard Street, London, co-founded by Matthew Bloxam (also Bloxham, later a Member of Parliament and knighted) and trading at one point as Foudrinier, Bloxam, and Walker;[5] The Fourdriniers were descendants of Paul Fourdrinier who died in 1758.[6] Bloxham became an apprentice stationer in 1759.[7]

Bloxham joined the Southwark Bank (so trading) in 1791, in partnership with Sanderson, Harrison and John Brenchley. He further in 1794 involved the banking consortium of Wilkinson, Polhill, Pinhorn and Bulcock in the bank.[7] The Southwark bank moved to a new Gracechurch Street building in 1802.[8]

Matthew's son William Bloxham (c.1780–1869) left the stationery partnership in 1803;[9] and that year married Ann Burnett, third daughter of Sir Robert Burnett, the distiller at Vauxhall. He settled at Moditonham House in Cornwall.[10][11][12] The style of the bank in 1805 was Sir Matthew Bloxham, Wilkinson, Taylor and Bloxham.[13] It was commented in 1964 that "surely no concern was run so haphazardly as that of Sir Mathew Bloxham, Wilkinson, Taylor and Bloxham of 27, Gracechurch Street, which failed eventually in 1809."[14]

Outcome for Fourdrinier businesses

Financially stretched, the Fourdriniers made over their share of a paper mill at St Neots, acquired in 1807 to Towgood.[15] While the mill nominally belonged to John Gamble, Towgood moved to remove Gamble's claim to it. Both Towgood and Matthew Towgood V became partners in the firm, with Towgood (Matthew IV) shortly dropping out.[2] In 1811 the partnership running the stationery business in Sherborne Lane, City of London, given as Henry and Charles Fourdrinier, Matthew Towgood V, J. B. Hunt, W. Abbott and F. Morse, was wound up.[16] Matthew Bloxham maintained some contact at that period through Bryan Donkin.[17]

The partnership between Gamble and Matthew Towgood V was dissolved in 1811.[18] Gamble subsequently described the course of events, attributing to the absence of any mention in the partnership deed of his paper machine, one of two then existing, his loss of the capital invested in it because he did not have ready money to pay for a share.[19]

Paper mill development

The acquisition of the paper mill has been taken to be the end of Matthew Towgood IV's involvement with banking.[4] It became a viable business, and innovated, for example with the dandy roll for watermarks supplied in 1827 to Towgood by John Marshall of London.[20]

Family

Towgood, who was twice married, had 24 children. His first wife died in 1803.[21] He married again in 1804, while living at New Barnes near St Albans, to Miss Gibson.[22] At this period, he brought in Humphry Repton to produce plans for landscaping the grounds at New Barnes, and these were carried out.[23] In 1823 he was the tenant of Riversfield on the banks of the River Great Ouse at Little Paxton near St Neots, by the paper mill.[24]

Of the sons:

Joseph Towgood

In 1831, after his father's death, Edward Towgood took over the St Neots paper mill, with his brother Frederick. Frederick retired from the firm in 1856, being replaced by another brother, Alfred. Edward died in 1883, Alfred continuing in sole charge of the business. The mill passed out of the family in 1888, as its lease expired and Alfred died.[34] Robert Louis Towgood (1865–1942), Alfred's son, was a director of Towgood & Beckwith, paper manufacturers in St Neots.[35] Towgood & Beckwith was set up in 1902 to combine paper interests, of Robert Louis Towgood at the Arborfield Mills, Helpston, and of Arthur Beckwith at the Usk Paper Works, Crickhowell.[36]

Robert Louis Towgood resided at Farm Hall, Godmanchester,[37] which was used for Operation Epsilon[38]

Of the daughters:

  • Ellen married in 1845 Hamer Stansfeld, Mayor of Leeds in 1843.[39][40]
  • Catherine married in 1850 Francis Wansey of Arborfield.[41]

Notes
  1. McConnell, Anita. "Fourdrinier, Henry (1766–1854)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9997. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Clapperton, R. H. (28 June 2014). The Paper-making Machine: Its Invention, Evolution, and Development. Elsevier. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-4832-7960-2.
  3. Coleman, Donald Cuthbert (1958). The British Paper Industry, 1495-1860: A Study in Industrial Growth. Clarendon Press. p. 183.
  4. The World's Paper Trade Review. Stonhill & Gillis. 1897. p. 744.
  5. "Bloxam, Matthew (1744-1822), of Highgate, Mdx. History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  6. Murdoch, Tessa. "Fourdrinier, Paul (1698–1758)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9998. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. "Bloxam, Matthew (1744-1822), of Highgate, Mdx. and Morden, Surr. History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  8. Guildhall Library (1979). Guildhall Studies in London History. Guildhall Library. p. 14.
  9. "Bloxham and Fourdrinier - Graces Guide". www.gracesguide.co.uk.
  10. The Gentleman's Monthly Miscellany. 1803. p. 192.
  11. Berry, William (1837). "County Genealogies. Pedigrees of Surrey families". babel.hathitrust.org. Gilbert. p. 93.
  12. The Register; and Magazine of Biography, A Record of Births, Marriages, Deaths, and other Genealogical and Personal Occurences: I. Nichols & Sons. 1869. p. 67.
  13. Price, Frederick George Hilton (January 1890). A Handbook of London Bankers. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent. p. 16.
  14. The Bankers' Magazine. BPC Bankers' Magazine Limited. 1964. p. 271.
  15. The Paper Maker. Paper Makers Chemical Corporation. 1966. p. 28.
  16. The Tradesman. 1811. p. 84.
  17. The World's Paper Trade Review. Stonhill & Gillis. 1897. p. 817.
  18. Britain, Great (1811). The London Gazette. T. Neuman. p. 1208.
  19. Le Neve Foster, P.; Denison, E. B.; Gamble, John; Nash, E.; Bentham, M. S.; Good, S. A. (1857). "The Origin of the Machine for Making Endless Paper, and its Introduction into England". The Journal of the Society of Arts. 5 (223): 237–239. ISSN 2049-7865. JSTOR 41323638.
  20. Hübner, Julius (1903). "Journal of the Society for Arts, Vol. 51, no. 2654". The Journal of the Society of Arts. 51 (2654): 867. ISSN 2049-7865. JSTOR 41335732.
  21. The Gentleman's Magazine. E. Cave. 1803. p. 1193.
  22. "Married". Northampton Mercury. 6 October 1804. p. 3.
  23. Prince, Hugh C. (2008). Parks in Hertfordshire Since 1500. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-9542189-9-7.
  24. "Riversfield House in Little Paxton - sale 1823". St Neots.
  25. "Married". Hereford Journal. 21 November 1827. p. 3.
  26. McKitterick, David (1992). A History of Cambridge University Press: Volume 2, Scholarship and Commerce, 1698-1872. Cambridge University Press. p. 309. ISBN 978-0-521-30802-1.
  27. Charles James Durand, Edward Charles Ozanne (1898). Elizabeth College Register, 1824-1873: With a Record of Some Earlier ... F. Clarke. p. 58.
  28. "Married". Kendal Mercury. 17 November 1860. p. 5.
  29. The World's Paper Trade Review. Stonhill & Gillis. 1909. p. 26.
  30. "Deaths". Worthing Gazette. 18 April 1928. p. 7.
  31. "Marriages". Yorkshire Gazette. 23 January 1830. p. 3.
  32. The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, for the Year ... Edw. Cave, 1736-[1868]. 1845. p. 444.
  33. "History of the family of Stansfeld of Stansfield in the parish of Halifax" (PDF). ia601902.us.archive.org. p. 324.
  34. The World's Paper Trade Review. Stonhill & Gillis. 1888. p. 356.
  35. "Towgood, Robert Stevenson (TWGT883RL)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  36. Paper Makers Monthly Journal. Vol. XL. 1902. p. 155.
  37. "Towgood, Robert Louis (TWGT883RL)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  38. Frank, Charles (1 January 1993). Operation Epsilon: The Farm Hall Transcripts. University of California Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-520-08499-5.
  39. The Christian Reformer, Or, Unitarian Magazine and Review. Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper. 1845. p. 720.
  40. Schroeder, Henry (1852). The Annals of Yorkshire. p. 15.
  41. "Married". Cambridge General Advertiser. 30 October 1850. p. 3.
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