John Smith (18 March 1824 – 9 September 1879) was an English brewer. He is best known for operating the

John Smith's Brewery John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England, produces beers including John Smith's, the highest selling bitter in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s. The majority of John Smith's sales are of the nitrogenated Extra Smooth p ...

Tadcaster Tadcaster is a market town and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England, east of the Great North Road, north-east of Leeds, and south-west of York. Its historical importance from Roman times onward was largely as the ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, which continues to operate.

History

Smith was born in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

on 18 March 1824; the eldest of five children of Samuel Smith, a wealthy butcher and tanner from Leeds.Wilson, R.G
"Smith, John"
, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 19 August 2011 "West Yorkshire Archive Service", ''Yorkshire Parish Records'', Reference RDP68/3A/5, p. 344. In 1847 John Smith purchased the Backhouse & Hartley brewery with funding provided by his father."Brought To Book, The Brewers Who Made a Name for Themselves"
Yorkshire Post (online), accessed 23 June 2012 Smith's timing proved fortuitous;

pale ale Pale ale is a golden to amber coloured beer style brewed with pale malt. The term first appeared around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with high-carbon coke, which resulted in a lighter colour than other beers popular at that time. Diff ...

s were displacing

porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., ...

as the public's most popular style of beer, and Tadcaster's

hard water Hard water is water that has high mineral content (in contrast with "soft water"). Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum, which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbo ...

proved to be well-suited for brewing the new style. The prosperity of the 1850s and 1860s, together with the arrival of the railways, realised greater opportunities for brewers, and by 1861 Smith employed eight men in his brewing and malting enterprise. The operations became sizeable during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Smith died at Tadcaster on 9 September 1879, leaving an estate valued at under , and his assets were jointly inherited by his two brothers, William (a

gentleman A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ra ...

) and Samuel Smith (a tanner).

Principal Probate Registry The National Probate Calendar is a register of proved wills and administrations in England and Wales since 1858. History The probate calendar was created by the Probate Registry, which was responsible for proving wills and administrations from 1 ...

, England & Wales,

National Probate Calendar The National Probate Calendar is a register of proved wills and administrations in England and Wales since 1858. History The probate calendar was created by the Probate Registry, which was responsible for proving wills and administrations from 1 ...

(Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John Businesspeople from Leeds English brewers 1824 births 1879 deaths People from Tadcaster 19th-century English businesspeople