John Wilhelm Rowntree

Unknown photographer, 1895/1905.

John Wilhelm Rowntree (4 September 1868 – 9 March 1905) was a chocolate and confectionery manufacturer and Quaker religious activist and reformer.[1][2]

Life

He was born on 4 September 1868 in York, the eldest son of Joseph Rowntree (1836–1925) and his second wife, Antoinette Seebohm (1846–1924).

He was educated at Bootham School,[3][4] York and Oliver's Mount School, Scarborough He grew increasingly deaf from childhood, which impeded his academic progress at school, and was diagnosed in early adulthood with retinitis pigmentosa.[5] He married Constance Naish of Bristol in 1892.[6]

Business

He was a successful businessman, vastly expanding the already successful family chocolate business. He joined it in 1886 and became a board member in 1897. He established a cocoa plantation in the West Indies to prevent other companies from controlling the supply. By the turn of the century, Rowntrees was selling to Australia and New Zealand and exploring poassibilities in North America.[6]

Other achievements

He played a large part in enabling the Religious Society of Friends to incorporate an understanding of modern science (such as the theory of evolution), modern biblical criticism, and the social meaning of Jesus's teaching into their belief systems. He helped establish Woodbrooke, the Quaker study centre in Bournville, Birmingham.

He died unexpectedly on 9 March 1905 in New York whilst in America seeking treatment for his blindness. He is buried in Haverford, USA.[6]

Son

His only son Lawrence was killed in action during the Great War. Originally a volunteer orderly with the Friends' Ambulance Unit at Dunkirk, he subsequently joined the British Army and fought in the first tank action at Flers–Courcelette on 15 September 1916 as a member of the crew of HMLS Creme-de-Menthe. He was later commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery and was killed on 25 November 1917 in the Ypres Salient.

Publications

  • A History of the Adult School Movement (with Henry Bryan Binns). 1903.
  • Essays and addresses. 1905.
  • The Lay Ministry
  • Man's Relation to God, and other addresses ... With life of the author (compiled by S. Elizabeth Robson from the introductions written by Joshua Rowntree to "Essays and Addresses" and "Palestine Notes" 1917)
  • Palestine Notes, and other papers ... Edited by Joshua Rowntree.1906.
  • Present Day Papers. Vol. 1 edited ... by J. W. Rowntree. (Vol. 2–5, etc., edited by J. W. Rowntree and H. B. Binns.).1898-1902.

References

  1. ^ ODNB article by Edward H. Milligan, ‘Rowntree, John Wilhelm (1868–1905)’,[1] accessed 20 January 2007
  2. ^ Allott, Stephen (1994). John Wilhelm Rowntree (1868-1905) and the beginnings of Modern Quakerism. York: Sessions Book Trust. p. 138. ISBN 1-85072-137-8.
  3. ^ Bootham School Register. York, England: Bootham Old Scholars Association. 2011.
  4. ^ Milligan, Edward H. (2004). "Rowntree, John Wilhelm (1868–1905), chocolate manufacturer and religious activist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40229. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 4 August 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ Kennedy, Thomas C. (1983). "History and Quaker Renaissance: The Vision of John Wilhelm Rowntree". The Journal of the Friends Historical Society. 55 (1–2): 39. doi:10.14296/fhs.v55i1-2.4837.
  6. ^ a b c "John Wilhelm Rowntree". The Rowntree Society. Retrieved 16 January 2025.


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