Richard Rathbone (2 December 1788 – 10 November 1860) was a member of the noted
Rathbone family
The Rathbone family of Liverpool, England, were a family of nonconformist merchants and ship-owners who were known to engage in philanthropy and public service.
The family origins trace back to Gawsworth, near Macclesfield, where the first Willi ...
of
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
in
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 ...
.
Life
Rathbone was the second son of
William Rathbone IV
William Rathbone IV (10 June 1757 – 11 February 1809) was an English ship-owner and merchant involved in the organisation of American trade with Liverpool, England. He was a political radical, supporting the abolition of the slave trade and unive ...
. Richard was a commission merchant, setting up in partnership with his brother,
William Rathbone V
William Rathbone V (17 June 1787 – 1 February 1868) was an English merchant and politician, serving as Lord Mayor of Liverpool.
Life
The notability and prosperity of the Rathbone family of Liverpool was tied to the growth of that city as a ma ...
in 1809.
On 8 April 1817 Rathbone married his half-cousin, the illustrator and writer,
Hannah Mary (5 July 1798 – 26 March 1878), daughter of Joseph Reynolds of
Ketley
Ketley is a large village and part of Telford in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It is a civil parish. Immediately to the north of Ketley is Hadley.
Residential development
East Ketley is currentl ...
,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
, and granddaughter of Richard Reynolds. Richard devoted a lot of his time to the family business, which concerned his wife.
He retired in 1835. As a committed opponent of the
slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, he published in 1836 ''Letter to the President of the Liverpool Anti-Slavery Society''.
Rathbone attended the
1840 anti-slavery convention in London and he was included in the painting which is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
[The Anti-Slavery Society Convention]
, 1840, Benjamin Robert Haydon
Benjamin Robert Haydon (; 26 January 178622 June 1846) was a British painter who specialised in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and portraits. His commercial success was damaged by his often tactles ...
, accessed April 2009
Rathbone and his wife six children:
[
* Hannah Mary (1818–1853)
* Richard Reynolds (1820–1898)
* Margaret (b. 1821 later Dixon)
* William Benson (1826–1892)
* Basil (1824–1853)
* Emily (1838–1907, later Greg)
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rathbone, Richard
1788 births
1860 deaths
English abolitionists
Businesspeople from Liverpool
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...
19th-century British businesspeople