About the Book
By the 1970s, Robt. Jowitt & Sons was believed to be the oldest surviving wool company in Britain. From a small family concern it grew into a large international business before suffering from the general decline in domestic demand and increase in overseas competition which afflicted all British wool businesses. Unlike most similar concerns, Jowitts made a series of audacious attempts to diversify into fire alarms, caravan sites, kangaroo fur coats and many other areas. While some of these were unsuccessful, others – sometimes the most unlikely ones – helped the company to survive into the twenty-first century.
This book tells the story of the company and the family behind it. In the seventeenth century, the Jowitts were persecuted for being Quakers. By hard work and moderate habits, they escaped poverty to become leading opinion-formers and benefactors in nineteenth-century Leeds. They backed the Reform Bill, fought tirelessly against the slave trade and were instrumental in setting up the Leeds branch of the Cotton Districts Relief Fund. They were a major force behind the General Infirmary, the Medical School and the University.
352pp. – 234mm x 156mm – hardback – £30.00 – 46 illustrations
More about the Book
In the twentieth century, the company became combers and topmakers, moving their headquarters to Bradford where they continued to play an important role in public life.
As well as business records and newspaper articles, the book draws upon unpublished diaries which give a fascinating glimpse into the private lives of the Jowitts, in particular John Jowitt junior and Deborah Benson’s trip to Europe in 1835, the year before their marriage. The diaries also shed light on the family’s central role in the Beaconite controversy which caused many, including the Jowitts, to leave the Society of Friends.
About the Author
Peter Danckwerts studied Book Publishing at Oxford Polytechnic, Bibliography & Textual Criticism at the University of Leeds, Mathematics at the Open University and Medieval Studies at Birkbeck College. He has worked in publishing for many years and is a director of The Word Business Ltd, a company providing writing services to businesses of all sizes.
He has found it a great privilege to work on this book, meeting members of the Jowitt family and returning to the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds for the first time in over thirty years.
Ordering from Amazon
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