Samuel Bignold
{{Short description|British businessman and Conservative politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}
Sir Samuel Bignold DL (13 October 1791Norfolk, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812 – 2 January 1875) was a British businessman with insurances and Conservative politician.
File:Sir Samuel Bignold at Surrey House - geograph.org.uk - 5839793.jpg
Background
Born in Norwich, he was the third and youngest son of Thomas Bignold{{cite book | last = Dod | first = Robert P. | title = The Parliamentary Companion | year = 1857 | publisher = Whitaker and Co. | location = London | pages = 178 }} and his wife Sarah, widow of Julius Long and daughter of Samuel Cocksedge. He was educated at schools in Norwich and Bury St Edmunds.
Career
From 1814, he worked as secretary for the Norwich Union Fire Insurance CompanyRobert Blake: Esto Perpetua: the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society (1958) and from 1818 had the same office for the Norwich Union Life Assurance Society,{{cite book | last = Dod | first = Robert P. | title = The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland | year = 1860 | publisher = Whitaker and Co. | location = London | pages = 118 }} both founded by his father.{{cite web | url = http://www.norwichchurches.co.uk/monuments/Samuel_Bignold/Samuel%20Bignold.html | title = Norwich Historic Church Trust - Samuel Bignold 1791-1875 | accessdate = 22 November 2009 }} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}} Although an admirer of Benjamin Disraeli, he rejected the latter's rather dubious request of a loan by the Society; however, after a meeting lent the money from personal funds. In 1866, he arranged the incorporation of the Amicable Society, Britain's oldest life insurance institution.
Bignold was appointed Sheriff of Norwich in 1830Robert Bignold: Five Generations of the Bignold Family, 1761-1947, and their connection with the Norwich Union (1948) and was mayor of that city in the years 1833, 1848, 1853 and lastly 1872.{{cite book |editor1=M. G. Wiebe |editor2=Mary S. Millar |editor3=John Alexander |editor4=Wilson Gunn | title = Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1857-1859 |url=https://archive.org/details/benjamindisraeli0006disr |url-access=registration | publisher = University of Toronto Press Inc. | location = Toronto | edition = 2nd | isbn = 0-8020-8728-0 | year = 2004 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/benjamindisraeli0006disr/page/32 32] }} He presented a note of support of the Crimean War from the city of Norwich to the Parliament in 1854, for which he was created a Knight Bachelor. Shortly thereafter, he entered the British House of Commons and sat for Norwich in the following three years.{{cite web | url = http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Ncommons3.htm | title = Leigh Rayment - British House of Commons, Norwich | accessdate = 22 November 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170407065925/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Ncommons3.htm | archive-date = 7 April 2017 | url-status = usurped | df = dmy-all }} Bignold served as Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk.
Family
In 1815, he married Elizabeth, the only child of William Atkins{{cite book | last = Walford | first = Edward | title = The County Families of the United Kingdom | url = https://archive.org/details/countyfamiliesof01walf | year = 1860 | publisher = Robert Hardwicke | location = London | pages = [https://archive.org/details/countyfamiliesof01walf/page/53 53] }} and had by her six sons and seven daughters.Rosa, one of his daughters, married Edward Henry Bickersteth. He died in 1875 at Bignold House, which he had bought in 1820 and then had become his head office, and was buried at St Margaret, Old Catton. He left property worth about £120,000 (probate granted 15 February 1875).Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Bignold's fourth son, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Bignold (1831–1895) served as Mayor of Norwich between 1894 and 1895, Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk, and leader of the Conservative Party in that city after 1875.[https://books.google.com/books?id=F6Q0AQAAMAAJ&dq=charles+bignold+norwich+obituary&pg=PA105 Obituary of Charles Edward Bignold], The Banker's Magazine, vol. 60, p. 105 (1895).
References
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External links
- {{Hansard-contribs| sir-samuel-bignold | Samuel Bignold}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef| before = Edward Warner
Morton Peto }}
{{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Norwich
| with = Edward Warner
| years = 1854–1857 }}
{{s-aft| after = Henry Schneider
Viscount Bury }}
{{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bignold, Samuel}}
Category:Deputy lieutenants of Norfolk
Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies