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Friends in business
This was the third conference to be organised by the project and it focused on the contribution made by Friends to the development of industrial capitalism in Britain. Quakers have a long history of involvement in business and commerce, excluded as they were from the universities and the professions until the mid 19th century. In the Yorkshire region, and in neighbouring Co. Durham, there have been Quaker wool staplers and merchants, ironmasters, steel manufacturers, bankers, cocoa and chocolate manufacturers, canal and railway developers, silk and worsted spinners, colliery owners, locomotive and agricultural machinery manufacturers, mechanical engineers, grocers, apothecaries, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Tony Corley of Reading University began with a series of slides illustrating the history of the Reading biscuit manufacturers, Huntley and Palmers (see his 1972 history of the firm). He followed this by an overview of Quaker entrepreneurship, highlighting the reasons for Quaker business success and attitudes to wealth amongst Friends. Gill Cookson, County Editor of the Victoria County History of Durham, discussed her recent research into the Pease and Backhouse families of Darlington, concentrating on their business, financial and family networks [see http://www.durham.past.net, the Durham VCH website]. Jane Pietrusiak, a recent graduate of Hull University, gave a beautifully illustrated talk about the philanthropic work of the Reckitt family in creating a garden village in east Hull in the early 1900s. Edward Milligan, former Librarian at Friends House, spoke briefly about his work in compiling a biographical dictionary of 19th century Friends in business and commerce; the dictionary will be published by William Sessions in the near future. The conference ended with a summary of the project's survey work in the field of Quaker business archives by the project archivist, Helen Roberts.
An information pack produced for the conference is available on request from the project archivist. The papers will be published in the journal Quaker Studies.
