Joseph Rowntree (Senior) (10 June 1801 – 4 November 1859) was an English

shopkeeper A shopkeeper is a retail merchant or tradesman; one who owns or operates a small store or shop. Generally, shop employees are not shopkeepers, but are often incorrectly referred to as such. At larger companies, a shopkeeper is usually referred t ...

and educationalist. Rowntree was born in

Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town in the Borough of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. Scarborough is located on the North Sea coastline. Historic counties of England, Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town lies between 10 ...

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 the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

s John Rowntree (1757–1827) and his wife, Elizabeth Lotherington (1764–1835). He was educated at two-day schools in Scarborough, his parents not being in a position to send him to the Quaker Ackworth School. By the age of 13 he was assisting his father and his brother John in the grocery business on Bland's Cliff, which his father had established. In 1822 he started a grocery shop in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, eventually becoming a master grocer. On 3 May 1832, he married Sarah Stephenson (1807–1888). They had five children. One of these was also called Joseph - Joseph Rowntree (Junior). His oldest son was

John Stephenson Rowntree John Stephenson Rowntree (2 May 1834 – 13 April 1907) was a Director of Rowntree's, the York confectionery company and a reformer of the Quaker movement in the United Kingdom. He was the eldest son of Joseph Rowntree (1801 – 1859) an ...

. The business prospered and in 1845 the family moved to

Blossom Street Blossom Street is a road in York, in England, immediately west of the city centre. History The street has been the main route leading south and west from York from the Roman Eboracum era onwards; the Roman roads to Calcaria (now Tadcaster) and ...

, then, in 1848, to 39

Bootham Bootham is a street in the city of York, in England, leading north out of the city centre. It is also the name of the small district surrounding the street. History The street runs along a ridge of slightly higher ground east of the River Ous ...

, York. During the 1850s his two elder sons became partners in the business. Chistopher Robinson had joined as a manager and William Hughes was in charge of the apprentices. This gave Joseph the time to channel his energies into a wide range of social and educational issues, which he discussed almost daily with

Samuel Tuke Samuel Tuke may refer to: *Sir Samuel Tuke, 1st Baronet (c.1615–1674), English Royalist officer, playwright and nobleman *Samuel Tuke (reformer) Samuel Tuke (31 July 1784 – 14 October 1857) was a Quaker philanthropist and mental-health ref ...

(1784-1857). He was, from 1830 until his death, honorary secretary of the Quaker boys and girls schools in York, and he was largely responsible for their respective moves to Bootham in 1846 and The Mount in 1857. With Tuke, he was a member of the Ackworth School Committee. The death of a young master in the fever epidemic of 1828 (leaving dependents) led him not merely to ensure that the immediate need was met, but to work methodically for the establishment of a financially sound insurance scheme; this resulted in the Friends Provident Institution (1832), the introduction of whose Rules and Regulations needed to make clear to Quakers that life insurance neither implied a distrust of Providence nor was in the nature of a lottery. He made an impact on both the education of Quaker children, the training of male and female teachers and the education of poor children in

, through the British and Foreign School Society. He was active in municipal reform in York and became an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

in 1853. Quaker concerns filled the last period of his life. Statute law provided that marriages according to Quaker usage were valid only if both parties were Quaker members. In 1856, he persuaded the Yorkshire Meeting to ask the national meeting in London to take steps to end this limitation (a proposal that was not popular in more conservative quarters). It was not until 1859 that the Yearly Meeting was prepared to ask

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

to broaden the provision and the Marriage (Society of Friends) Act 1860 provided for this change. By this date Joseph Rowntree had died - on 4 November 1859, in York.

Sources

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

article by Edward H. Milligan, 'Rowntree, Joseph (1801–1859)’, 200

accessed 2 Jan 2007 * Joseph Rowntree (Senior) (1801-1859

*Biographical Dictionary of British Quakers in Commerce and Industry 1775–1920; written by Edward H. Milligan; published by William Sessions Ltd {{DEFAULTSORT:Rowntree, Joseph (educationist) English educational theorists English Quakers 1801 births 1859 deaths People from Scarborough, North Yorkshire Joseph Rowntree 19th-century British philanthropists 19th-century English businesspeople