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40   Life and Letters of Francis -Galton

£54,000 to John, Robert and Samuel Galton bo which I have already referred. His wife Hannah Galton (Farmer) died in 1767 at Bristol and was buried in the Quakers' Ground at Redclif. The youngest brother, Samuel Galton, born in 1720, also started life in Bristol', where he paid for his freedom in 1742. In 1743 his stock, he tells us, was worth £1144. In 1746 be married Mary Farmer, the daughter of Joseph Farmer of Birmingham, and thus cousin of Hannah, his brother Robert's wife. He received £1600 as marriage portion, and definitely becomes assistant to his brother-in-law, James Farmer. This probably took Samuel to Birmingham where his brother John was already established at Duddeston. In the next year, 1747, he is admitted partner with James Farmer for a quarter of his stock for £2500. In 1753 he is equal partner with Farmer. James Farmer's cousin Benjamin Farmer, son of Thomas, was a merchant in Lisbon, and James had very large ventures there in 1755. The earthquake of that year appears to have involved the Farmers in great losses, and James Farmer was bankrupt in this year.. The partnership was dissolved and the estates at Duddeston, Saltley; etc. were assigned to Galton. Samuel Galton renewed the partnership with Farmer in 1757, and from an agreement of 1766 the shares of James Farmer and Samuel Galton are placed respectively at £13,862 and £22,281. Meanwhile by the death of his mother, Sarah Button, iii 1754, an estate had accrued to Samuel at Taunton. By the death of his brother John in 1775, several other estates in Somerset-Edgmead, High Ham, Allermoor, Bridgwater-were inherited by Samuel'. This brother John had married Hannah Alloway and settled at Duddeston on the outskirts of Birmingham as it then was. He, however, had no children, and his property passed to his brother. When Samuel Galton died in 1799 aged 80, the Galton business held in equal partnership by himself and his son Samuel was valued at £139,000.

We have gone into these details as they are illustrative of the Quaker stubbornness turned to successful commercial achievement.


' The connection with Bristol was kept up, for Samuel's sister Mary died there in 1789 and his daughter Hannah in 1773.

' In 1776 Samuel Galton states in his memoranda that he sold the estate at ". Beer Hill." This proves that the Thomas Galton of Beere who appears in the Registers of Winterbourne-Kingston in 1617, and who was probably the Thomas baptized, Jan. 7, 1580, was an ascendant or relative of the John Galton of Yatton.


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