| Authorised form of name | Galton; Samuel (1753 - 1832); gun maker and local politician |
| Dates | 1753 - 1832 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Duddeston, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
|
| Date of birth | 18 June 1753 |
| Place of death | Dudson House, Duddeston, Birmingham, England |
| Date of death | 19 June 1832 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Buried alongside his wife in the Quaker burial-ground attached to the meeting-house in Bull Street, Birmingham. |
| Occupation | gun maker and local politician |
| Research field | Optics |
| Activity | Education:
Warrington Academy (1768)
Career:
Appointed manager of the gun business (1755); became partner in the firm (1756); active in the midlands canal network and along with Matthew Boulton and the physicians John Ash and William Small, a proprietor of the Birmingham Canal Navigation Company in which he invested sizeable sums (1767); joined his father’s ‘accompting house’ (1770); served as one of fifty commissioners named in the first Improvement Act of 1769 to address the quality of Birmingham streets; joined the Lunar Society of Birmingham (1781), considered by James Watt as a possible source of investment; demonstrated that the colours in Newton's prism, drawn in the correct proportions, created white when spun on a wheel (1782); contributed to a fund to aid Priestley's research (1782); became a guardian of the poor, and a member of the town's commercial committee (1783); endowed 30 beds for the town’s recently founded General Hospital (1790); supplied large quantities of arms to the government and to the East India Company and the firm’s premises extended beyond Steelhouse Lane and the younger Samuel Galton's personal wealth increased from £10,000 in 1775 to £35,716 (1783); possessed a fortune of £140,748 (1803); defended his business but in vain as he was disowned by the meeting (1796) although he and his wife continued worshipping at the Bull Street meeting-house; stopped maintaining his gun-making business and established a bank in partnership with Joseph Gibbins, and later with Paul Moon James (1806); the firm of Galton and James continued to exist until its closure by Samuel Tertius (June 1831) following the disruption of the banking crisis of 1826–7; died in Dudston and as one of Birmingham’s wealthiest individuals left an estate worth £300,000, and made bequests of £4000 per annum to his three surviving sons.
Taught by Joseph Priestley
Memberships:
Lunar Society
Linnean Society |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 08/12/1785 |
| Age at election | 32 |
| Proposer | Richard Kirwan; Joseph Priestley; John Smeaton; Josiah Wedgwood; Timothy Lane; William Watson Junior |
| Relationships | Parents: Samuel Galton (1720–1799), haberdasher and later gun maker, originally from Bristol, and Mary, née Farmer (1718–1777). His mother was the daughter of Joseph Farmer (d. 1741) who had established an iron- and gun-making firm in Birmingham about 1702.
Spouse: Lucy Barclay (1757–1817), daughter of Robert Barclay, and granddaughter of the Quaker linen merchant Robert Barclay (October 1777).
Children: Five sons and three daughters; their eldest child, Mary Anne, achieved note as a writer [see Schimmelpenninck, Mary Anne], while their eldest son, Samuel Tertius (1783–1844), later inherited the family business.
Grandchildren: Sir Francis Galton (FRS 1860)
Son-in-law: Erasmus Darwin's daughter Violetta
Father-in-law of Erasmus Darwin's daughter Violetta; grandfather of Sir Francis Galton (FRS 1860) |
| OtherInfo | Faced disapproval and opposition from Birmingham Quakers in relation to the nature of his business, who criticised the Galtons for profiteering from warfare and slavery through the sale of guns to traders in west Africa. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
References:
Robert E Schofield, 'The Lunar Society of Birmingham; A Bicentenary Appraisal' in NR 1966 vol 21 pp 144-161 |
| Code | NA3519 |