Henry Overton Wills I (2 March 1761 – 1826) was a British merchant who founded the firm of W.D. & H.O. Wills in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England, which eventually became one of the largest tobacco companies in late 19th-century Britain, and later became the largest constituent part of

Imperial Tobacco Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mo ...

. The 1966 Guinness Book of Records named the Wills family, descended from him, as containing the largest number of millionaires in the British Isles, of which 14 left estates in excess of one million pounds since 1910, totalling 55 million, of which 27 million was paid in death duties. Wills is said to have been a non-smoker, despite the fact that he is regarded as one of the founders of the British tobacco industry.

Origins

He was born on 2 March 1761 in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

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 ...

, the son of Edmund Wills, a watchmaker, & his mother Rebecca, daughter of Henry Overton of

Andover, Hampshire Andover ( ) is a town in the English county of Hampshire. The town is on the River Anton, a major tributary of the Test, and is situated alongside the major A303 trunk road at the eastern end of Salisbury Plain, west of the town of Basi ...

Career

He came as a young man by coach from Salisbury to

where he formed a partnership with Samuel Watkins to open a

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

shop on 73 Castle Street, Bristol. They named their operation ''Wills, Watkins & Co.'' When Watkins retired from the business in 1789, it became ''Wills & Co'', with Wills as sole proprietor. He soon found new partners, and the company merged in 1791 with the firm of Peter Lilly, which had a mill to grind tobacco into

snuff Snuff may refer to: Tobacco * Snuff (tobacco), fine-ground tobacco, sniffed into the nose ** Moist snuff or dipping tobacco ** Creamy snuff, an Indian tobacco paste Media and entertainment * Snuff film, a type of film that shows a murder Literat ...

. Lilly and Wills named the new company ''Lilly, Wills & Co'', and they consolidated the operations into Lilly's shop at 111–12 Redcliff Street, Bristol. In 1793 the company name was simplified to ''Lilly and Wills''. When Lilly retired in 1803, he was replaced by Samuel Ditchett, and the firm became ''Wills and Ditchett''. Wills' partnership with Lilly proved to be profitable, and the company in 1804 was valued at £15,435 (2017 value: $1.67 million U.S.). In 1819 they again changed the name of their firm, to ''Wills, Ditchett & Co.'', Wills by this time having brought into the operation his sons

William Day Wills William Day Wills (6 June 1797 – 13 May 1865) of 2 Portland Square, Bristol, England, was a tobacco merchant who in 1830 together with his younger brother Henry Overton Wills II took over W.D. & H.O. Wills, a company which (building on the s ...

and Henry Overton Wills II, first as apprentices and later as junior partners. He continued to be involved in the firm until his death on 1 December 1826 in Bristol, when his sons took over their father's interest in the business. They subsequently became senior partners of the company in 1830 when their father's partner Samuel Ditchett retired, and they renamed the company '' W.D. & H.O. Wills'', which grew to become one of the largest tobacco importers in Victorian England.

Religious and political activity

He raised his children in the strict Congregationalist faith, and his descendants actively supported the church in Bristol for more than a century. His sons were particularly generous in their support for non-conformist religious causes. The Wills family were also active in local politics, both by supporting the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

and by standing themselves for election to city offices as Liberal candidates.

Marriage and children

On 24 June 1790, when he was the sole proprietor in his tobacco venture, in Bristol he married Anne Day, eldest daughter of William Day of Bristol,Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement, ''Wills, William Henry'', by Charles Welc

/ref> a

linen draper In the Middle Ages or 16th and 17th centuries, a cloth merchant was one who owned or ran a cloth (often wool) manufacturing or wholesale import or export business. A cloth merchant might additionally own a number of draper's shops. Cloth was ext ...

. By Anne he had the following two sons: *

(1797–1865), eldest son, who in 1830 with his brother co-founded W.D. & H.O. Wills, a company that by the late 1800s became the largest importer of tobacco, and manufacturer of tobacco products in Britain. His son

William Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke William Henry Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke (1 September 1830 – 29 January 1911), known as Sir William Wills, Bt., between 1893 and 1906, was a British businessman, philanthropist and Liberal politician. Seat - Combe Lodge, Blagdon, Somerset. ...

became the first chairman of

. * Henry Overton Wills II ( 1800–1871), with his brother was a co-founder of W.D.& H.O. Wills. His son

Henry Overton Wills III Henry Overton Wills III (22 December 1828 – 4 September 1911) of Kelston Knoll, near Bath in Somerset, was a prominent and wealthy member of the Bristol tobacco manufacturing family of Wills which founded the firm of W. D. & H. O. Wills. As ...

founded the creation of the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

and became its first Chancellor, and two of his other sons

Sir Edward Payson Wills ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

and

Sir Frederick Wills Sir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet (22 November 1838 – 18 February 1909) was a businessman, philanthropist and politician in the United Kingdom. He was a director of W. D. & H. O. Wills, a famous tobacco company headquartered in Bristol which ...

became baronets. Another son,

Sir Frank William Wills Sir Frank William Wills (17 August 1852 – 26 March 1932) of Berkeley Square, Bristol, England, was a member of the Wills tobacco family, who became a noted British architect and went on to serve as Lord Mayor of Bristol. Early life and care ...

became a noted architect, who was knighted for his accomplishments.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wills, Henry Overton 1761 births 1826 deaths Businesspeople from Bristol 18th-century English businesspeople 19th-century English businesspeople