William Rathbone II

William Rathbone II (22 May 1696 – 1746) was a member of the noted Rathbone family of Liverpool, England.

William Rathbone was the son of a sawyer who lived in Gawsworth, Cheshire, and shared his name.^[1] Born on 22 May 1696, William Rathbone II took up his father's occupation as a sawyer and by 1730 was based in Liverpool, Lancashire, where he probably established a timber business.^[2][3] He joined the Society of Friends in 1731.^[1]

In 1722 he married Sarah Hyde with whom he had at least two sons, William Rathbone III^[4] and Joseph. He died in 1746.^[1]

It was probably through business connections that William's son, Joseph, married Mary Darby, a sister of Abraham Darby II. The Darbys had opened a warehouse for export purposes in Liverpool and then began manufacturing there at the Phoenix Foundry. William had been a customer of the Darbys' Coalbrookdale-based iron foundry and eventually provided loans to them. Joseph became manager of the Liverpool foundry in 1771 and in 1784 married Mary. On his death in 1790 it seems that the Rathbone interest in the business at Coalbrookdale was considerable.^[5]

References

1. Chapman, Stanley (1992). Merchant Enterprise in Britain: From the Industrial Revolution to World War I. Cambridge University Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-52189-362-6. Archived from the original on 2 May 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
2. "The Rathbone Papers". JISC. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
3. Gordon, Alexander; Kirby, M. W. (September 2004). "Rathbone, William (1757–1809), merchant and philanthropist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23160. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
4. "William Rathbone III (1726 - 11 Aug 1789)". University of Liverpool Library. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
5. Anderson, B. L. (1977). "The Lancashire bill system and its Liverpool practitioners: the case of a slave merchant". In Chaloner, William Henry; Ratcliffe, Barrie M. (eds.). Trade and Transport: Essays in Economic History in Honour of T. S. Willan. Manchester University Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-84766-013-1. Archived from the original on 2 May 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2020.