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John Whitwell JP MP (1811-1880)

Written by Jean Warburton

Occupations: Businessman and Politician

Life and family

 John Whitwell was born on 6 September 1811 in Kendal. He was the second of eight children, having five brothers and two sisters. His brothers were: William (1809-1890); Thomas (1814-1828); Isaac (1815-1890); Edward (1817-1878); and Henry (1818-1886). His sisters were: Jane (1807-1858); and Hannah Maria (1810-1875). Their father was Isaac Whitwell (1765-1835), a wholesale grocer, who was the son of John Whitwell (1735-1782) and his wife, Dorothy. On 19 May 1806, Isaac Whitwell married Hannah Maria Fisher (1808-1866), daughter of William Fisher of Thorpe Hall, Leeds. John Whitwell was educated at the Kendal and then the Darlington Friends Schools. He returned to Kendal and was apprenticed to Messrs Atkinsons, carpet manufacturers.

On 24 August 1866, John Whitwell, at the Assembly of Quakers in Bradford, married Anna Maria Maude (1813-1848), daughter of William Maude (1816-1885), an apothecary, of Horton Grange, Bradford and his wife, Ann. They had five children: William Fisher (1837-1841); John Maude (1841-1868); Anna Maria (1838-1918) and two daughters Hannah Whalley and Rachel Jane both of whom died young. Sadly, only Anna Maria survived their father. She married John Wilson Colville (1835-1909), an East Indian merchant. John Maude attended Pembroke College, Oxford, obtaining a B. Med. in 1866. He became a resident on duty at University College Hospital where he contacted bronchial consumption, dying at Biarritz on 21 May 1868.

John Whitwell grew up in Kendal at the old Town House of the Wilsons of Dallam Tower. After his marriage, he continued to live in Kendal at Bank House, Highgate and died there on 28 November 1880 of pneumonia. John Whitwell was buried in the Castle Street cemetery after a large funeral procession with representatives of all the groups he had been connected with and a service at the Parish Church. Although John Whitwell was brought up a Quaker, about 1840 he commenced regular attendance at the Parish Church.

Business

In 1822, Joseph and John Atkinson introduced the manufacture of carpets to Kendal and became established in part of Dockray Hall Mills. The Whitwell and Atkinson families were linked by marriage and, after completing his education, John Whitwell became apprenticed to Messrs Atkinson. He subsequently became a partner with Joseph Atkinson and then sole owner of the business as Whitwell & Co. In 1850, he took over the whole of Dockray Hall Mills for carpet manufacture and also had an associated factory at the junction of Strickland Place and Stricklandgate. John Whitwell developed the carpet business into a lucrative operation, introducing steam powered looms in 1860 and other mechanical improvements and also improved the design of the carpets. Such was the quality and design of the carpets that the company won a prize medal at the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851 and further prizes at Dublin in 1853. These high standards led to John Whitwell being appointed one of the jurors for the Great Exhibition in Paris in 1862. The 1851 Exhibition not only increased John Whitwell’s reputation but also increased the company’s business. The demand for carpets was so great in 1851 that John Whitwell gave a Christmas party for his employees and their wives.

In 1857, John Whitwell also began a business of wool merchants and brokers with Edward Busher (1834-1880) in Lowther Street. The business prospered and they built new premises, Albert Buildings, now part of Kendal Museum. J W Hargreaves joined the business in 1872 and Edward Busher retired in 1875. The resulting business of Whitwell Hargreaves built a wool warehouse on Beezon Fields which was served by its own railway line crossing the road. John Whitwell had long seen the benefits of railways being a director of the Kendal and Windermere Railway from 1845 to 1859 and Deputy Chairman for the last four years.

Public service

John Whitwell was involved with public affairs in Kendal from early in his working life, leading to him being elected an Alderman on Kendal Council in 1841. It was said that he always offered valuable and well considered suggestions to difficulties brought to his attention and provided solutions based on his deep general knowledge and experience. This approach and the regard with which he was held in Kendal led to him holding the office of Mayor six times between 1856 and 1867. He became a Justice of the Peace in 1865 and was Chief Magistrate six times, an office he was said to have carried out with zeal and fidelity. He meted out justice irrespective of personal considerations and was a great help to his fellow magistrates by his large experience and valuable judgment. He was also an Income Tax Commissioner for Kendal District.

An important area of public service for John Whitwell was the Chamber of Commerce. He was President of the Kendal Chamber of Commerce and was on the Executive Council of the National Association of Chambers of Commerce. In his final year, 1880, he became President of the National Association. He was also actively involved with the Rifle Volunteers.  In 1860, he became Captain of Kendal No 2 Company of the Volunteer Rifle Brigade and rose steadily in rank until, in 1869, he became Lieutenant Colonel of a Battalion of No 6 Company. He was noted for furthering the efficiency of the corps.

John Whitwell’s years of public service culminated in his being elected unopposed as Liberal MP for Kendal when the sitting member retired in 1863. He won two later contested elections in 1874 and 1880 with large majorities and was still sitting as an MP when he died in 1880.  Once in Parliament, John Whitwell consistently supported the Liberal government, including the Irish Land Bill and remained staunch in his Liberal principles during the period in opposition from 1874 to 1880. With two other members he brought into the House a Bill to facilitate the erection of labourers’ cottages in rural districts and also supported the Friendly Societies Bill. It was said that John Whitwell paid close attention to his Parliamentary duties and was assiduous in his attendance. He was not a great contributor to debates in the House but was very active in Committees, particularly those connected with commerce of which he had considerable knowledge and experience. He was very concerned to take up with the Government matters brought to his attention in Kendal, particularly those raised by his fellow Justices. Faced with a difference between Liberal policy and local concerns, however, he tended to favour party policy. For example, in 1873, at a meeting of constituents he proposed the transfer of the expense of prosecuting and maintaining criminals and of keeping lunatics from the local rates to the Consolidated Funds although he had previously voted against a motion to that effect in Parliament along with a majority of his fellow Liberals.

Interests

John Whitwell had a wide range of interests which were pursued with great industry in Kendal. As maybe expected of a man who had successfully incorporated improvements in his business, one of his interests was science. He was a member of the Kendal Literary and Scientific Society and gave a lecture on the ‘Practical Applications of Science’ in the Mechanics Hall in December 1868 which included a detailed description of the working of coal by machinery. In the same lecture, he stated his view that education ought to embrace useful and practical courses. He had a long interest in education, being originally a Sunday School teacher at the school in Wool Pack Yard and then Superintendent of the St Thomas’ Sunday School.

A major interest of John Whitwell was history. He was a founder member of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society in 1864, becoming a Vice-President in 1876. He contributed papers to Transactions, the journal of CWAAS, including one on Kendal Castle. He produced papers and lectured on a large number of topics over the years including the Towers of Arnside (1863), Old Wills of Kendal also in 1863, Kendal during the Civil War (1864) and Old Houses of Kendal (1866).

John Whitwell was a prominent and active member of the Masonic Body from 1862 and involved in promoting new lodges. He held a number of offices becoming Chief Intendent General of Cumberland and Westmorland. He was involved with and supported a number of charities in Kendal including the Kendal Clerical Society. He was also the first member of the Kendal Temperance Society and President of the Kendal and District Floral and Horticultural Society.

Character

John Whitwell was an astute business man who was fully aware of, and could grasp the importance of, developments in science and technology which he used to grow his carpet weaving business to a very successful one producing goods of a very high standard. He did not keep his knowledge and experience to himself but helped his fellow businessmen in Kendal and beyond by his contribution to Chambers of Commerce. He also helped fellow business men in a very practical by, on two occasions, endangering his own life to try to save business premises which had caught fire.

As Cornelius Nicholson pointed out in his Preface to ‘Memoirs of the late John Whitwell MP’, his striking characteristic and qualification was his unceasing, untiring energy. His involvement in the many organisations in Kendal, together with his assistance to myriad individuals, left those who benefited to wonder how he found the time to devote to the service of so many others. There was a general consensus that he discharged all his duties with dignity and success. He was held in high regard in Kendal and thought of with pride and affection summarised by the statement in his obituary in the Kendal Mercury that his death ‘cast such a gloom over the town that has not been experienced by any living individual’.

An important thread which ran through all of John Whitwell’s work was his refusal to differentiate how he dealt with people, disregarding their political beliefs, their social position, their wealth or poverty or their religious beliefs. In his address to the Electors of the Borough of Kendal after winning the seat in 1874, he particularly deprecated the fact that religion had been allowed to permeate the political debate. He stressed that he would have regard to the welfare of the community at large when considering questions of a fiscal or income nature. His character was balanced by a keen sense of humour and good taste in literature although he had an intense repugnance for anything approaching vulgarity, irreverence or indecency.

The only debate in relation to the character of John Whitwell is the motivation for his work for the citizens and community of Kendal. There were those, probably the large majority, who considered that he acted purely altruistically, a view expressed in his obituary in the Kendal Mercury, a Liberal newspaper. Alternatively, there were others who considered that he was driven by ambition to achieve the goal of becoming the Member of Parliament for Kendal, a view taken by the Westmorland Gazette, a Conservative newspaper.

Sources

  • England and Wales Census 1861
  • England and Wales Quakers Births, Marriages and Deaths Register 1578-1837
  • England and Wales Civil Registration Death Index 1837-1915
  • Burke’s Family Records
  • Oxford Alumni 1500-1886
  • Westmorland Gazette, 4 August 1866; 29 December 1866; 28 November 1873; 4 December 1880; 11 December 1880
  • Lancaster Gazette, 6 June 1868
  • Kendal Mercury, 3 December 1868; 26 December 1868; 3 December 1880
  • Carlisle Patriot, 28 November 1873
  • Roger Bingham, Kendal A Social History, (1995)
  • John and Jean Coopey, Kendal Green, (2002)
  • Andrew White, A History of Kendal, (2013)
  • Dick Smith, The Kendal and Windermere Railway, (2022)
  • Kendal Archive Centre, WDPW/20/8, Memoirs of the late John Whitwell MP, (1880)
  • Kendal Archive Centre, WDX413/19 Address to the Electors of the Borough of Kendal, (1874)