Eleazer Pickwick (2 Feb 1748 – 8 December 1837) was a British businessman. He became very rich and funded the local canal.

Life

Pickwick's grandfather, Moses, was a

foundling Foundling may refer to: * An abandoned child, see child abandonment * Foundling hospital, an institution where abandoned children were cared for ** Foundling Hospital, Dublin, founded 1704 ** Foundling Hospital, Cork, founded 1737 ** Foundling H ...

who was discovered in an area of

Corsham Corsham is a historic market town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south-eastern edge of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 national route, southwest of Swindon, southeast of Bristol, northeast of Bath and southwest o ...

known as Pickwick. This Pickwick was baptised Feb 2, 1748 in Freshford, Bath, UK. He started a coaching business that came to be based at ''The White Hart'' inn opposite the iconic Pump Room. Pickwick's nephew, Moses Pickwick, managed the inn. In 1794 Pickwick was on the board of the company that was created by the

Somerset Coal Canal The Somerset Coal Canal (originally known as the Somersetshire Coal Canal) was a narrow canal in England, built around 1800. Its route began in basins at Paulton and Timsbury, ran to nearby Camerton, over two aqueducts at Dunkerton, through a ...

. Pickwick invested tens of thousands of pounds in the canal business after its bankers refused to lend any more capital. Pickwick bought Bathford Manor House in 1798. Pickwick died in Bath in 1837 and was buried in

Bathford Bathford (pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable) is a village and civil parish east of Bath, England. The parish, which includes Warleigh, has a population of 1,759 and extends over . History The ancient charter ''Codex Diplomat ...

Legacy

The White Hart inn was demolished in 1869 but the sign was reused on another inn. There is a plaque that records the location of the inn and the Pickwicks on the corner of Stall Street and Westgate Street in Bath. The coaching business continued on very successfully under the ownership of Moses Pickwick. From the 1830s business reduced as the railways grew in importance. It is widely believed that Dickens wrote ''

The Pickwick Papers ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was Charles Dickens's first novel. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Boz'' published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to s ...

'' after visiting Bath using the surname he had seen there. His inn is also mentioned in the works of Jane Austen. Eleazer Pickwick's nephew, Charles Henry Pickwick-Sainsbury (1829-1885), descendants changed their name to Sainsbury. It has been speculated that part of the motive may have been to discard their lowly born ancestry, favouring their mothers (Harriet Sarah Sainsbury) prestigious line; and Dickens' caricatures that bore their name.Brenda J. Buchanan, ‘Pickwick, Eleazer (bap. 1749, d. 1837)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 3 Aug 2014
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickwick, Eleazer 1740s births 1837 deaths People from Somerset Mayors of Bath, Somerset 18th-century British businesspeople 19th-century British businesspeople