Joseph Rowntree was born in 1836 into a family who had been Quakers for several generations.
At fourteen, he accompanied his father on a visit to Ireland. Witnessing the horrors of the Irish potato famine influenced his thinking for the rest of his life. The following year he was apprenticed to his father, working in his grocery shop in York. Following his father’s death in 1859, Joseph took over the running of the shop.
Ten years later, he joined his brother in the modest cocoa factory which was to become the major concern known as Rowntree. The new factory he opened in 1891 on the outskirts of York provided excellent facilities and he pursued enlightened employment policies, including introducing one of the first occupational pension schemes.
His business flourished and, contrary to his personal expectations, he became rich in later life. In 1904, he transferred a substantial part of his wealth to the three trusts which bear his name and which are now known as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.
Married twice, he had seven children, who shared his social concerns. His third child, Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, was himself a noted commentator on poverty issues, writing a classic study of York in 1901, Poverty: A study of town life.
Joseph retired from business at the age of eighty-six, by which time the factory had grown from employing twelve men to employing over seven thousand people. He died two years later in 1925.
Read more about the life of Joseph Rowntree and the earlier history of the Foundation in:
A Quaker business man: The life of Joseph Rowntree by Anne Vernon (1958, George Allen and Unwin; reprinted in 1987 by The Sessions Book Trust)
One man’s vision: The story of the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust by Lewis Waddilove (1954, George Allen and Unwin)
Private philanthropy and public welfare: The Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust 1983-1979 by Lewis Waddilove (1983, George Allen and Unwin)
