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Samuel Galton Jr.

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Samuel Galton

Samuel John Galton Jr. FRS (18 June 1753 – 19 June 1832) was an English arms manufacturer.[1] He was born in Duddeston, Birmingham, England, into a Quaker family. He would go on to join his father's gun manufacturing company.[2] He was a member of the Lunar Society in December of 1785 and lived at Great Barr Hall, one of the meeting places for the Lunar Society.[3] He also built a house at Warley Woods, and commissioned Humphry Repton to lay out its grounds.[4]

Family Life

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Galton married Lucy Barclay (1757-1817), the daughter of Robert Barclay Allardice, MP, 5th of Ury.[5] They would go on to have eight children together. His first born was Mary Anne Galton (1778-1856) who was a writer in the anti-slavery movement. She would marry Lambert Schimmelpenninck in 1806. Galton's second child was Sophia Galton who would go on to marry Charles Brewin. His first son, Samuel Tertius Galton (1783-1844) would also become a member of the Lunar Society.[5] He would end the family arms business in 1815.[6] He married Violetta Darwin in 1807 and had a son named Francis Galton (1822-1911) who would go on to be a famous proponent of eugenics.[6]

Galton had another son, Theodore Galton (1784-1810), although not much is known about him. His next child was Adele Galton (1784-1869) who would go on to marry John Kaye Booth, MD, in 1827.[7] Next would come Hubert John Barclay Galton (1789-1864), followed by Ewen Cameron Galton (1791-1800) who died at the age of 9.[8] His last child was John Howard Galton who married Isabelle Strutt. They had a son named Douglas Galton (1822-1899) who became one of the royal engineers.[8]

Galton was a lover of animals and even owned many bloodhounds.[1] He loved birds as well, publishing three book volumes about them.[1]

Galton owned 300 acres (120 ha) of land at Westhay Moor, Somerset, which he had drained, by constructing Galton's Canal.[9]

The Lunar Society

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Samuel Galton joined the Lunar Society in December of 1785.[10] Galton would join the Lunar Society as an in-person replacement for Erasmus Darwin, who remarried and moved away.[11] He would be one of the fourteen members to be active during the height of the society.[11] One reason for his inclusion into the Society was his love for statistics and data and his tendency to compare datasets.[12]

Galton also had a great love for natural history, one of the subjects taught in Quaker schools.[13] This, compounded with his love for animals, lead him to write many natural history books on them. His first set was The Natural History of Birds: containing a variety of facts… for the amusement and instruction of children. This was a three-volume set of books intended for the education of children, specifically at first for his children.[13] These were also the first natural history books written with the intent for children to be the primary readers.[13]

Galton would have one more book project intended for younger audiences, and in 1801, The Natural History of Quadrupeds; including all the Linnaean class of mammalia…For the instruction of young persons was published.[14] However, only one complete copy of this work exists in world libraries, specifically the Baldwin Library in the University of Florida.[14]

During his time with the Lunar Society, Galton was known as a careful experimenter and a very original man.[15] Some his notable experiments were that of color mixing, which he would publish on August 1, 1799 in Monthly Magazine.[15] Galton also showed interest in canals, publishing a paper on them called On Canal Levels in 1817.[15] This was for commercial reasons though, as Galton put those before scientific ones more times than not, leading to not many of his contributions being well known or published.[15]

His family, many of which were members of the society, are remembered by the Moonstones in Birmingham and a tower block in the center of that city.

Galton's Gun Manufacturing

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Galton was condemned by the Quakers for manufacturing guns, as they believed it was against their pacifist values. His defense stated that since Britain was in a constant state of war, it was his duty as a citizen of his country to contribute through its massive industrial complex.[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Galton, Francis (1909). Memories of My Life (2nd ed.). E. P. Dutton And Company. p. 3.
  2. ^ Inikori, J. E. (1977). "The Import of Firearms into West Africa 1750-1807: A Quantitative Analysis". Journal of African History. 18 (2): 339–368. doi:10.1017/S0021853700027304. S2CID 161693017 – via JSTOR.
  3. ^ Smith, Barbara M. D.; Moilliet, J. L. (1967). "James Keir of the Lunar Society". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 22.
  4. ^ Historic England. "Warley Park (1001301)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  5. ^ a b Galton, Francis (1909). Memories of My Life (2nd ed.). E. P. Dutton And Company.
  6. ^ a b "Ancestry of Francis Galton". Galton.org. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  7. ^ "Ancestry of Francis Galton". Galton.org. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  8. ^ a b Galton, Francis (1909). Memories of My Life (2nd ed.). E. P. Dutton And Company.
  9. ^ Galton, Erasmus (1845). "An Account of Improvement of a Shaking Bog at Meare in Somersetshire". Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 6. Royal Agricultural Society: 182–187. Retrieved 27 October 2008.
  10. ^ Smith, Barbara M. D.; Moilliet, J. L. (1967). "James Keir of the Lunar Society". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 22.
  11. ^ a b Schofield, Robert (1966). "The Lunar Society of Birmingham; A Bicentenary Appraisal". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 21 (2) – via JSTOR.
  12. ^ "Francis Galton". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. 85 (2) – via JSTOR.
  13. ^ a b c Allen, Peter. "The Extraordinary Natural History Books of Samuel Galton Jnr". West Midlands History.
  14. ^ a b Allen, Peter. "The Extraordinary Natural History Books of Samuel Galton Jnr". West Midlands History.
  15. ^ a b c d Pearson, Karl (1930). The Life, Letters, and Labours of Francis Galton. Cambridge University Press.
  16. ^ Satia, Priya (2018). Empire of guns: the violent making of the Industrial Revolution. New York : Penguin Press. ISBN 9780735221864.

Further reading

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  • Galton, Francis (1909). Memories of My Life (2nd ed.). New York: E. P. Dutton and Company. pp. 3–5.


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