Samuel Whitbread (30 August 1720 – 11 June 1796) was an English brewer and Member of Parliament. In 1742, he established a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

that in 1799 became Whitbread & Co Ltd.

Early years

Samuel Whitbread was born on 20 August 1720 at Cardington in

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, the seventh of eight children of Henry Whitbread. At 12, he received two years' education with a local clergyman, before being sent at age 14 to London to live with family (most likely, his uncle). At age 16, his family paid £300 for him to be taken as an apprentice at a brewery under John Wightman ( Master of the Brewers' Company from 1734 to 1735).

Brewing

After learning the brewery trade, Samuel Whitbread went into partnership with Godfrey and Thomas Shewell in 1742, investing £2,600 in two of the Shewell's small breweries, the Goat Brewhouse (where

porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian 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., a locom ...

was produced) in Old Street and a brewery nearby in

Brick Lane Brick Lane () is a street in the East End of London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, borough of Tower Hamlets. It runs from Swanfield Street in Bethnal Green in the north, crosses the Bethnal Green Road before reaching the busiest, mo ...

(used to produce pale and amber

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

s). Demand for the strong, black porter had begun to grow and Whitbread identified the need for scale to ensure commercial success, moving the business to larger premises on the site of the derelict Kings Head Brewery in

Chiswell Street Chiswell Street is in the London Borough of Islington. It includes several buildings listed by Historic England. Location The street, in St Luke's, Islington, runs east-west and forms part of the B100 road. At the west end it becomes Beech St ...

in 1750. Starting over, Whitbread invested in all the latest technology to industrialize production, storing the beer in large vats. The brewery was also one of the first to employ a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

(purchasing a

sun and planet gear The sun and planet gear is a method of converting reciprocating motion to rotary motion and was used in the first rotative beam engines. It was invented by the Scotland, Scottish engineer William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt, but wa ...

engine, the Whitbread Engine, from

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was f ...

's company in 1785). While not the first to discover Porter production, Whitbread became the first to exploit it commercially on a large scale and this coincided with an increase in beer consumption in the UK, following regulations to limit the sale of gin owing to the excesses of the

Gin Craze The Gin Craze was a period in the first half of the 18th century when the consumption of gin increased rapidly in Great Britain, especially in London. Daniel Defoe commented: "the Distillers have found out a way to hit the palate of the Poor, by ...

. By 1760, it had become the second largest brewery in London (producing almost 64,000 barrels annually). By 1770 Whitbread had bought out his partners for £30,000. By the end of the century, Whitbread's business was London's biggest producer of beer, producing 202,000 barrels in 1796. In May 1787 the brewery was visited by

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

and

Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until her death in 1818. The Acts of Un ...

. By 1793, Whitbread had become a Freeman of the Brewers' Company.

Member of Parliament

Whitbread was appointed

High Sheriff of Hertfordshire The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was an ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the foundation of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provi ...

for 1767–68 and elected Member of Parliament for

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

in 1768, and held the seat until 1790, and then represented

Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham District, Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, north of the coastal town of Shoreha ...

from 1792 to 1796. He was an early supporter of the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. T ...

, and took part in some of the anti-slavery debates of 1788 in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

Family

Whitbread married firstly Harriet Hayton, by whom he had two daughters, one of whom, Emma Maria Elizabeth Whitbread, married Henry St John, 13th Baron St John of Bletso, and one son, the politician, Samuel Whitbread. The other daughter, Harriet, married James Gordon MP. Harriet died in 1769 and is buried in Cardington Parish Church. Her memorial is by Richard Hayward. He married secondly Lady Mary Cornwallis (1736–70), eldest daughter of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis, with whom he had one daughter, Mary Whitbread (1770–1858). Mary married Sir George Grey, 1st Baronet, 3rd son of Charles Grey, Lord Howick. Whitbread became wealthy from the success of his brewery and bought several large estates: these included Lord Torrington's Southill Park, Elstow Manor, and other substantial property in

and High House, Purfleet,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. His real estate purchases were worth in the region of £400,000—equal to over £8 million in 1992. Samuel Whitbread died on 11 June 1796 at Bedwell Park. ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' speculated that he was "worth over a million pounds" ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitbread, Samuel English brewers Brewing in London Whig (British political party) MPs Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 British MPs 1784–1790 British MPs 1790–1796 1720 births 1796 deaths Whitbread people High sheriffs of Hertfordshire 18th-century English businesspeople People from Cardington, Bedfordshire People from Southill, Bedfordshire