Sir Henry Meux, 1st Baronet (pronounced "Mews") (8 May 1770 – 7 April 1841) was a British

brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

, owner of the London brewery which became the Meux Brewery.

Early life

Meux was baptised on 8 May 1770. He was the second son of brewer Richard Meux (–1813) - whose portrait was drawn in 1796 by

Henry Bone Henry Bone (6 February 1755 – 17 December 1834) was an English Vitreous enamel, enamel painter. By he had attracted royal patronage for his portrait miniatures This patronage continued throughout the reigns of three monarchs; George I ...

copied from a painting by

Sir William Beechey Sir William Beechey (12 December 175328 January 1839) was a British portraitist during the golden age of British painting. Early life Beechey was born at Burford, Oxfordshire, on 12 December 1753, the son of William Beechey, a solicitor, and ...

- and Mary (née Brougham) Meux (–1812).Cokayne, G.E.; with Gibbs, Vicary; Doubleday, H.A.; White, Geoffrey H.; Warrand, Duncan; and de Walden, Lord Howard; editors, ''The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14'' (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 282. Henry's elder brother was Richard Meux, who died in 1824, leaving his daughter, and heiress, Elizabeth Meux, who married Thomas Starling Benson of Champion Lodge (parents of

Richard Meux Benson Richard Meux Benson (6 July 1824 – 14 January 1915) was a priest in the Church of England and founder of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, the first religious order of monks in the Anglican Communion since the Reformation. He is commem ...

SSJE The Society of St John the Evangelist (SSJE) is an Anglican religious order for men. The members live under a rule of life and, at profession, make monastic vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience. SSJE was founded in 1866 at Cowley, Oxford, Eng ...

, and Gen.

Henry Roxby Benson Henry Roxby Benson (2 November 1818 – 23 January 1892) was a British military officer. Life Benson was born on 2 November 1818, in Camberwell, to a distinguished Welsh family, the second son of merchant Thomas Starling Benson and his second w ...

). Another sister, Fanny Meux, was the wife of Vicesimus Knox. Meux was descended from an old

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

family. The elder brother of his grandfather's grandfather, Sir John Meux, MP for Newtown, had been created a baronet in 1641; but the title became extinct with Sir John's grandson in 1705. Sir Henry's maternal grandfather was Henry Broughman of Brougham Hall, Cumbria, and his uncle was Henry Brougham, father of Lord Broughman and Vaux.

Career

Meux's father owned the

Griffin Brewery Fuller's Brewery in Chiswick, west London, England, was the brewing division of Fuller, Smith & Turner PLC, a family-run business from its foundation in 1845 until 2019, when it was sold to the Japanese Asahi Breweries. John Fuller's Griffin B ...

on Liquorpond Street in

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell ( ) is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an Civil Parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish from the medieval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The St James's C ...

, London, and Meux learned the business from him. His father built in 1795 the largest recorded

vat A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...

, that held 20,000 barrels and cost £10,000. However, Meux "left his father's employ, in 1809, after an argument" and acquired the

Horse Shoe Brewery The Horse Shoe Brewery was an English brewery in the City of Westminster that was established in 1764 and became a major producer of porter, from 1809 as Henry Meux & Co. It was the site of the London Beer Flood in 1814, which killed eight peo ...

, 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 ...

in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a London borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater London, England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It contains a large par ...

that had been formed in 1764. Meux renamed it "Henry Meux & Co." and it became a major producer of

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 ...

. In 1814, his brewery was the site of the

London Beer Flood The London Beer Flood was an accident at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery, London, on 17 October 1814. It took place when one of the wooden vats of fermenting porter burst. The escaping liquid dislodged the valve of another vessel and destroyed ...

, which killed eight people after a porter vat burst. After his death in 1841, his son took over the brewery. On 30 September 1831 he was made a baronet of the second creation of the Meux baronets, this time of Theobald's Park.

Personal life

On 1 November 1816, Meux married Elizabeth-Mary Smith, a daughter of Thomas Smith of Castlebar House,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

. Together, they were the parents of one son and three daughters: *

Sir Henry Meux, 2nd Baronet Sir Henry Meux, 2nd Baronet (pronounced "Mews") (28 December 1817 – 1 January 1883), was head of Meux and Co., a London brewery, and a Member of Parliament (MP). Early life He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. On the dea ...

(1817–1883), who married Lady Louisa Caroline Brudenell-Bruce, the eldest daughter of Ernest Brudenell-Bruce, 3rd Marquess of Ailesbury and his wife, the former Hon. Louisa Elizabeth Horsley-Beresford (daughter of

John Horsley-Beresford, 2nd Baron Decies John Beresford, 2nd Baron Decies (20 January 1774 – 1 March 1865), later Horsley-Beresford, was an Anglo-Irish peer and clergyman. Early life Beresford was born on 20 January 1774. He was the second son of nine children born to William Bere ...

), in 1856. * Elizabeth Mary Meux (1819–1880), who married her first cousin, Richard Arabin, a son of William St Julien Arabin and Mary ( Meux) Arabin. * Marianne Frances Meux (d. 1875), who married Sir William Bowyer-Smijth, 11th Baronet, eldest son of the Rev. Sir Edward Bowyer-Smijth, Bt. of Hill Hall, in 1839.Cokayne, George Edward, editor, ''The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes''; Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume III, page 237. * Emma Martha Meux (1822–1905), who married Arthur de Vere Capell, Viscount Malden, eldest son and heir apparent of Arthur Capell, 6th Earl of Essex, in 1853. Sir Henry died at Theobald's Park, Hertfordshire on 7 April 1841, and was succeeded by his only son,

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

. His widow, Lady Meux, died on 18 September 1851.

Descendants

Through his only son Henry, he was a grandfather of Sir Henry Bruce Meux, 3rd Baronet, who married socialite Valerie Langdon. Through his daughter Elizabeth, he was a grandfather of William St Julien Arabin, Alice Charlotte Arabin (wife of Hon. Arthur Charles Lewin Cadogan, a son of

Henry Cadogan, 4th Earl Cadogan Henry Charles Cadogan, 4th Earl Cadogan PC (15 February 1812 – 8 June 1873), styled Viscount Chelsea between 1820 and 1864, was a British diplomat and Conservative politician. He served as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard between 1866 and 1 ...

), and Marianne Elizabeth Arabin (wife of John William Gordon Woodford, son of Sir

Alexander George Woodford Field Marshal Sir Alexander George Woodford, GCB, KCMG (15 June 1782 – 26 August 1870), was a British Army officer. After taking part in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, he served in most of the battles of the Napoleonic Wars. During th ...

). Through his daughter Marianne, he was a grandfather of diplomat Sir William Bowyer-Smijth, 12th Baronet, who died unmarried. Through his youngest daughter Emma, he was a grandfather of

George Capell, 7th Earl of Essex George Devereux de Vere Capell, 7th Earl of Essex (24 October 1857 – 25 September 1916), was a British aristocrat. He succeeded to the title Earl of Essex in 1892. Early life and background Capell was born on 24 October 1857 in London, the s ...

, who married American heiress Adele Beach Grant.

References

Notes Sources

External links

Sir Henry Meux, 1st Bt
at the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meux, Henry 1770 births 1841 deaths English brewers English businesspeople Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom