Baron Dickinson Webster (1818–1860), son of Joseph Webster of

Penns Hall Penns Hall is a building on Penns Lane, Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England, operated as a hotel and country club by Ramada International. It is a Grade B locally listed building, and is licensed as a venue for civil marriages and c ...

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, known locally as Sutton ( ), is a town and civil parish in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south ...

(then in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, was a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

, a

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, a member of the Aston Union and of the Turnpike Trust and was Warden of the town in 1844 and in 1855-1858 ("Baron" was his

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...

, not a heraldic title). A man of some prominence, he was much involved in the negotiations with railway companies regarding their plans for routes to and through Sutton Coldfield. His business interests included the manufacture of

wire Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is c ...

, and in 1998 a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

was erected at Penns Hall, by the Sutton Coldfield Civic Society, honouring his involvement in the first

transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...

. In 1855, the business of Websters was merged with that of Horsfall at

Hay Mills Hay Mills is an area of east Birmingham, England straddling the A45 road, A45 Coventry Road about south east of the city centre. North of the Coventry Road is mainly residential whereas the south is mixed residential and commercial. The area wa ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and, in 1859, the whole business was transferred to Hay Mills and the Penns Mills were closed down, with serious financial consequences for many workers and the economy of the Walmley area of Sutton Coldfield.

Family

He was the son of Joseph Webster (1783-1856) and Maria Mary née Payne (1792-1848) a daughter of Sir Peter Payne (1762-1843) MP 3rd Baronet Payne of St Christopher's. His sister was the writer,

Janet Millett Janet Millett (1821–1904) was an English writer about life in Western Australia in the 1860s, best known for her book '' An Australian Parsonage or, the Settler and the Savage in Western Australia''. Early years She was born Janet Webster ...

. He married twice: * in 1846 to Anne Maria Pipe-Wolferstan (1820-1848) by whom he had two sons who both died young: Baron Webster (1845-1845), Charles Payne Webster (1846-1862) and a daughter Frances Sharpe Webster (1848-1932) who married Stanley Edward Hicks JP DL Barrister at Law; and * secondly, in 1850, to Anna Maria Bristowe (1826-1862) daughter of Samuel Ellis Bristowe (1800-1855) JP DL and Mary Anne née Fox and brother of

Samuel Boteler Bristowe Samuel Boteler Bristowe QC (5 October 1822 – 5 March 1897) was an English barrister and Liberal Party politician from Nottinghamshire. He sat in the House of Commons from 1870 to 1880, and later became a county court judge, surviving a murde ...

(1822-1897) QC. They had two sons: Baron Dickinson Webster (1850-1930) who married Ellen Elizabeth Fox (1852-1923), a daughter of

William Darwin Fox The Reverend William Darwin Fox (23 April 1805 – 8 April 1880) was an English clergyman, naturalist, and a second cousin of Charles Darwin. Early life Fox was born in 1805 and initially raised at Thurleston Grange near Elvaston, Derbys ...

; and Lt Col Godfrey Fox Webster (1852-1933).

References

Sources

*''The Ironmasters of Penns'', 1971, John Horsfall 1818 births 1860 deaths 19th-century British businesspeople {{UK-business-bio-stub