Christopher Wilson (businessman)
Christopher Wilson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1765 |
| Died | 1845 |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, financier, political figure |
| Known for | Opposition to reform movements, partnership in Kendal Bank |
Christopher Wilson (1765–1845) was an English entrepreneur, financier, and political figure noted for his opposition to reform movements.
Early life
As the eldest child of Christopher Wilson and Margaret Parke, he received his education at Hawkshead School, where he was a contemporary of William Wordsworth. Wilson embarked on a career in the cotton spinning sector near Staveley and maintained a business partnership in the Low Wood Gunpowder Mill located at Haverthwaite. This mill was a key supplier of gunpowder exported to Africa through Liverpool until the enactment of the Slave Trade Act 1807. His commercial ties to Liverpool were further reinforced by his uncle, Thomas Parke, a merchant.
In 1795, Wilson joined the Kendal Bank as a partner, an institution founded by his father along with Joseph Maude and Thomas Crewdson. By 1812, he advanced to senior partner status when the bank adopted the name Wilson, Crewdson & Co.
Election of 1818
During the fiercely competitive 1818 Westmorland election, Wilson led the local Lowther Committee backing Tory candidates Viscount Lowther and Henry Lowther in opposition to the reform advocate Henry Brougham. He orchestrated an anti-reform gathering that counterbalanced a pro-Brougham assembly organized by his rival banker John Wakefield II. The Kendal Chronicle accused Wilson—who also served as a land tax commissioner—of postponing tax assessments with the intent to prevent reform supporters from voting; this allegation was later addressed by Brougham in Parliament.
The election period was marked by disturbances, including an incident where reform supporters barricaded Kendal to obstruct the arrival of the Lowther faction from Dallam Tower. William Wordsworth remarked in his letters that despite Wilson’s wealth, he was not well-liked. Ultimately, both Lowther candidates won the two-seat constituency.
Later life
Wilson resided at Abbot Hall before acquiring the manor of Mansergh from Charles Satterthwaite in 1821. In the aftermath of the Panic of 1825, he withdrew from the Kendal Bank in 1826. The manor house at Mansergh, known as Rigmaden, was reconstructed in 1828 according to designs by architect George Webster. An enclosure act affecting Mansergh was passed in 1837, during which Wilson also founded and financially supported a local school.
Thomas Chalmers, who socialized with Wilson during the 1820s, described him as a "banker with an annual income of £10,000, a significant landowner, magistrate, and deeply knowledgeable about pauperism." Chalmers later referenced correspondence with Wilson concerning the select vestry system in his publication on poor relief, The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns (1823).
In 1837, acting as a magistrate, Christopher Wilson took part in a Kendal inquiry commissioned by the Poor Law Commission. This investigation responded to allegations of mistreatment made by William Carus Wilson from Casterton against the Board of Guardians overseeing the Union workhouse.
Family
Wilson wed Catherine, daughter of James Wilson J.P. of Kendal and Lambrigg. Together they had fourteen children: five sons and nine daughters. Their eldest son Edward became chairman upon the establishment of the Bank of Westmorland in 1833. Edward married Anne Clementina Beckwith, daughter of Thomas Sidney Beckwith. Following Edward’s tenure, his brother William Wilson (1810–1880) succeeded him; William married Maria Letitia Hulme in 1843 and fathered three sons and five daughters. Their firstborn son, Christopher Wyndham Wilson "Kit" (1844–1918), inherited the Rigmaden Park Estate in 1880.