Matthew Towgood

Matthew Towgood IV was born on 17 December 1861.{{Cite web |title=TOWGOOD (Allen) |url=https://sites.google.com/site/lyndaslotlintern/all-tree-surnames/towgood |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Lintern & Wilmshurst |language=en-US}} He was the son of Matthew Towgood III.{{cite ODNB|id=9997|first=Anita|last=McConnell|title=Fourdrinier, Henry (1766–1854)}}

Towgood was banker to Henry Fourdrinier. As banker, he advanced sums of money to the brothers Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, who were developing paper-making machinery; and was later taken as a partner into the firm of Bloxham & Fourdrinier.{{cite book |last1=Clapperton |first1=R. H. |title=The Paper-making Machine: Its Invention, Evolution, and Development |date=28 June 2014 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-1-4832-7960-2 |page=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C3E-AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |language=en}} D. C. Coleman suggests the reason Towgood became a partner may have been a loan extended by Langston, Towgood & Co.{{cite book |last1=Coleman |first1=Donald Cuthbert |title=The British Paper Industry, 1495-1860: A Study in Industrial Growth |date=1958 |publisher=Clarendon Press |page=183 |language=en}} The Fourdrinier debt is described as having run up to £50,000 or £60,000; but also as with Rogers, Towgood & Co., which was the name of the bank created in 1811 after Langston, Towgood & Co. merged into the Rogers family bank.{{cite book |title=The World's Paper Trade Review |date=1897 |publisher=Stonhill & Gillis. |page=744 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EcUAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA744 |language=en}}

A 1809 bank run happened in parallel with the crisis on the future of the paper machines. Bloxham & Fourdrinier was for most of its existence a wholesale stationer in Lombard Street, London, co-founded by Matthew Bloxam (also Bloxham, later a Member of Parliament and knighted) and trading at one point as Foudrinier, Bloxam, and Walker;{{cite web |title=Bloxam, Matthew (1744-1822), of Highgate, Mdx. History of Parliament Online |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/bloxam-matthew-1744-1822 |website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}} The Fourdriniers were descendants of Paul Fourdrinier who died in 1758.{{cite ODNB|id=9998|first=Tessa|last=Murdoch|title=Fourdrinier, Paul (1698–1758)}} Bloxham became an apprentice stationer in 1759.

Bloxham joined the Southwark Bank (so trading) in 1791, in partnership with Sanderson, Harrison and John Brenchley. He further in 1794 involved the banking consortium of Wilkinson, Polhill, Pinhorn and Bulcock in the bank.{{cite web |title=Bloxam, Matthew (1744-1822), of Highgate, Mdx. and Morden, Surr. History of Parliament Online |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/bloxam-matthew-1744-1822 |website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}} The Southwark bank moved to a new Gracechurch Street building in 1802.{{cite book |last1=Guildhall Library |title=Guildhall Studies in London History |date=1979 |publisher=Guildhall Library |page=14 |language=en}}

Matthew's son William Bloxham (c.1780–1869) left the stationery partnership in 1803;{{cite web |title=Bloxham and Fourdrinier - Graces Guide |url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Bloxham_and_Fourdrinier |website=www.gracesguide.co.uk}} and that year married Ann Burnett, third daughter of Sir Robert Burnett, the distiller at Vauxhall. He settled at Moditonham House in Cornwall.{{cite book |title=The Gentleman's Monthly Miscellany |date=1803 |page=192 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBxAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA192 |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Berry |first1=William |title=County Genealogies. Pedigrees of Surrey families. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101073849091&view=1up&seq=111&q1=Burnett |website=babel.hathitrust.org |publisher=Gilbert|page=93 |date=1837}}{{cite book |title=The Register; and Magazine of Biography, A Record of Births, Marriages, Deaths, and other Genealogical and Personal Occurrences: I |date=1869 |publisher=Nichols & Sons |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MbFSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA67 |language=en}} The style of the bank in 1805 was Sir Matthew Bloxham, Wilkinson, Taylor and Bloxham.{{cite book |last1=Price |first1=Frederick George Hilton |title=A Handbook of London Bankers |date=January 1890 |publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent |location=London |page=16 |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookoflondon00pricuoft/page/16/mode/1up}} It was commented in 1964 that "surely no concern was run so haphazardly as that of Sir Mathew Bloxham, Wilkinson, Taylor and Bloxham of 27, Gracechurch Street, which failed eventually in 1809."{{cite book |title=The Bankers' Magazine |date=1964 |publisher=BPC Bankers' Magazine Limited |page=271 |language=en}}

Financially stretched, the Fourdriniers made over their share of a paper mill at St Neots, acquired in 1807 to Towgood.{{cite book |title=The Paper Maker |date=1966 |publisher=Paper Makers Chemical Corporation |page=28 |language=en}} While the mill nominally belonged to John Gamble, Towgood moved to remove Gamble's claim to it. Both Towgood and Matthew Towgood V became partners in the firm, with Towgood (Matthew IV) shortly dropping out. In 1811 the partnership running the stationery business in Sherborne Lane, City of London, given as Henry and Charles Fourdrinier, Matthew Towgood V, J. B. Hunt, W. Abbott and F. Morse, was wound up.{{cite book |title=The Tradesman |date=1811 |page=84 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dDUaAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA84 |language=en}} Matthew Bloxham maintained some contact at that period through Bryan Donkin.{{cite book |title=The World's Paper Trade Review |date=1897 |publisher=Stonhill & Gillis. |page=817 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EcUAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA817-IA4 |language=en}}

The partnership between Gamble and Matthew Towgood V was dissolved in 1811.{{cite book |last1=Britain |first1=Great |title=The London Gazette |date=1811 |publisher=T. Neuman |page=1208 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GztKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1208 |language=en}} Gamble subsequently described the course of events, attributing to the absence of any mention in the partnership deed of his paper machine, one of two then existing, his loss of the capital invested in it because he did not have ready money to pay for a share.{{cite journal |last1=Le Neve Foster |first1=P. |last2=Denison |first2=E. B. |last3=Gamble |first3=John |last4=Nash |first4=E. |last5=Bentham |first5=M. S. |last6=Good |first6=S. A. |title=The Origin of the Machine for Making Endless Paper, and its Introduction into England |journal=The Journal of the Society of Arts |date=1857 |volume=5 |issue=223 |pages=237–239 |jstor=41323638 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41323638 |issn=2049-7865}}

The acquisition of the paper mill has been taken to be the end of Towgood's involvement with banking. It became a viable business, and innovated, for example with the dandy roll for watermarks supplied in 1827 to Towgood by John Marshall of London.{{cite journal |last1=Hübner |first1=Julius |title=Journal of the Society for Arts, Vol. 51, no. 2654 |journal=The Journal of the Society of Arts |date=1903 |volume=51 |issue=2654 |page=867 |jstor=41335732 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41335732 |issn=2049-7865}}

Towgood died on 1 January 1831 in Little Paxton, Huntingdonshire. He was buried on 3 January at St James, Little Paxton.

File:Joseph Towgood.jpg

Towgood married twice and had 24 children. He married his first wife, Margaret Moore, on 12 December 1784 in St Mary, Marylebone, London. She died in 1803.{{cite book |title=The Gentleman's Magazine |date=1803 |publisher=E. Cave |page=1193 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29_PAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1193 |language=en}} He married Ann Gibson in Marton on 28 September 1804. At this period, he brought in Humphry Repton to produce plans for landscaping the grounds at New Barnes, and these were carried out.{{cite book |last1=Prince |first1=Hugh C. |title=Parks in Hertfordshire Since 1500 |date=2008 |publisher=Univ of Hertfordshire Press |isbn=978-0-9542189-9-7 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOYyyPCRbuYC&pg=PA124 |language=en}} In 1823 he was the tenant of Riversfield on the banks of the River Great Ouse at Little Paxton near St Neots, by the paper mill.{{cite web |title=Riversfield House in Little Paxton - sale 1823 |url=https://st-neots.ccan.co.uk/content/catalogue_item/riversfield-house-in-little-paxton-sale-1823 |website=St Neots |language=en}}

Of the sons:

• Matthew Towgood V, married in 1827, as of Dartford, Maria Frances Witherington, daughter of Lieut. Witherington of the 63rd Regiment.{{cite news |title=Married |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000398/18271121/017/0003 |work=Hereford Journal |date=21 November 1827|page=3}} His paper mill in Dartford was a major supplier of paper to Cambridge University Press by the mid-1820s.{{cite book |last1=McKitterick |first1=David |title=A History of Cambridge University Press: Volume 2, Scholarship and Commerce, 1698-1872 |date=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-30802-1 |page=309 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dsdgIPlNK4YC&pg=PA309 |language=en}}
• Joseph Towgood (1810–1858) was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and became a lieutenant-colonel in the 35th Regiment Bengal Native Infantry.{{cite book |last1=Charles James Durand |first1=Edward Charles Ozanne |title=Elizabeth College Register, 1824-1873: With a Record of Some Earlier ... |date=1898 |publisher=F. Clarke |page=58 |url=https://archive.org/details/elizabethcolleg00brocgoog/page/n63/mode/1up |language=English}} His only daughter Emma Rosaline (died 1928 at age 90) married in 1860 Arthur Towgood of Great Paxton, a cousin, the second son of Edward Towgood below.{{cite news |title=Married |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000430/18601117/046/0005 |work=Kendal Mercury |date=17 November 1860|page=5}}{{cite book |title=The World's Paper Trade Review |date=1909 |publisher=Stonhill & Gillis |page=26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E09BAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Deaths |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002167/19280418/118/0007 |work=Worthing Gazette |date=18 April 1928|page=7}}
• Edward Towgood married in 1830 Sarah Bischoff, eldest daughter of James Bischoff.{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000266/18300123/036/0003 |work=Yorkshire Gazette |date=23 January 1830|page=3}}{{cite book |title=The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, for the Year ... |date=1845 |publisher=Edw. Cave, 1736-[1868] |page=444 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ve8IAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA444 |language=en}} Their daughter Marian married Thomas Wolryche Stansfeld (1822–1885) as his first wife.{{cite web |title=History of the family of Stansfeld of Stansfield in the parish of Halifax |url=https://ia601902.us.archive.org/16/items/historyoffamilyo00stan/historyoffamilyo00stan.pdf |website=ia601902.us.archive.org|page=324}}
• Frederick Towgood (1807–1860) married Ann Napier in 1856. He was a writer, reformer, and activist who championed phrenology, temperance, and vegetarianism.{{Cite book |last=Gregory |first=James Richard Thomas Elliott |url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/467032/2/886115_v.2.pdf |title=The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections |publisher=University of Southampton |year=2002 |volume=2 |pages=116 |language=en |chapter=Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food reformers of the Victorian Era |access-date=2022-10-02}}

File:FarmHallLarge.jpg,{{acad|id=TWGT883RL|name=Towgood, Robert Louis}} which was used for Operation Epsilon{{cite book |last1=Frank |first1=Charles |title=Operation Epsilon: The Farm Hall Transcripts |date=1 January 1993 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-08499-5 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pzNjntMMq-oC&pg=PA10 |language=en}}]]In 1831, after his father's death, Edward Towgood took over the St Neots paper mill, with his brother Frederick. Frederick retired from the firm in 1856, being replaced by another brother, Alfred. Edward died in 1883, Alfred continuing in sole charge of the business. The mill passed out of the family in 1888, as its lease expired and Alfred died.{{cite book |title=The World's Paper Trade Review |date=1888 |publisher=Stonhill & Gillis. |page=356 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LpoAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA356 |language=en}} Robert Louis Towgood (1865–1942), Alfred's son, was a director of Towgood & Beckwith, paper manufacturers in St Neots.{{acad|id=TWGT883RL|name=Towgood, Robert Stevenson}} Towgood & Beckwith was set up in 1902 to combine paper interests, of Robert Louis Towgood at the Arborfield Mills, Helpston, and of Arthur Beckwith at the Usk Paper Works, Crickhowell.{{cite book |title=Paper Makers Monthly Journal |date=1902 |page=155|volume=XL |language=en}}

Of the daughters:

• Ellen married in 1845 Hamer Stansfeld, Mayor of Leeds in 1843.{{cite book |title=The Christian Reformer, Or, Unitarian Magazine and Review |date=1845 |publisher=Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper |page=720 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_4QAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA720 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Schroeder |first1=Henry |title=The Annals of Yorkshire |date=1852 |page=15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1b8HAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA15 |language=en}}
• Catherine married in 1850 Francis Wansey of Arborfield.{{cite news |title=Married |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002159/18501030/044/0003 |work=Cambridge General Advertiser |date=30 October 1850|page=3}}

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Category:1761 births

Category:1831 deaths

Category:19th-century English businesspeople

Category:Bankers from London

Category:English bankers

Category:English industrialists

Category:Papermakers

Matthew