BAPTISED:

27th October 1799 in Warrington

MARRIED:

(probably second marriage)

6 June 1834 to Mary Ker of Manchester

KNOWN CHILDREN:

James - Baptism: 5 Oct 1836 Collegiate, Manchester

Thomas Ker (c1840)

Others not researched

DIED:

27th July 1851 in Manchester

Buried 31st July 1851 in Manchester General Cemetery

Biography

Thomas Molineaux was born in Warrington to Thomas Molineaux and Alice Whittle. His father worked as a sawyer and was also from Warrington, being baptised on the 4th December 1763. Thomas and his brother Boulton were two of the five founders of Molineaux & Webb. His wife was Mary Ker and this may well represent an in-law family tie to the firm of Ker & Webb which started in 1868.

When Molineaux & Webb started in the 1820s, Thomas had moved to Manchester and stayed there, but Boulton continued to live in Warrington. Along with William Maginnis, the Molineaux brothers appear to be the senior figures in the firm at the time of its birth. Boulton probably provided financial support to the business. According to a paper by historian C.P. Hampson dated 1932, Thomas was a chemist.

Once William Maginnis left the business in the early 1830s, it became known as Molineaux, Webb, Ellis & Co. There are various signs that Thomas Molineaux was the lead figure in the firm, such as his name representing the company on government duty payments.

Railway Investor

Virtually all of the names behind Molineaux & Webb joined the mania for investing in railway shares. A share register dated 1837 shows that Thomas was involved with such shares far more than his peers. He invested in the following parts of the network:

£1000 - Birmingham & Derby Junction railway

£1000 - Bolton & Preston railway

(His brother Boulton invested £1000, and a suspected brother William invested a further £500)

£500 - Lancaster & Preston Junction railway

£400 - Portsmouth Junction railway

£1000 - Grand Connection (or Worcester and Wolverhampton railway)

(Owen Ellis invested £500 in this one)

£1250 - London, Salisbury, Exeter, Plymouth and Falmouth Railway

(Thomas Webb invested £500)

£1800 - Dublin & Kilkenny Railway

Unsurprisingly, Thomas put his name to a couple of petitions printed in newspapers encouraging certain lines to be built and supported.

Politics and Public Causes

For the most part though, Thomas' public deeds far outweighed his private investment speculations. He made contributions to various causes, and the numerous public donations and contributions of Molineaux & Webb had a habit of mirroring Molineaux's public interests.

Thomas donated £1 1s to the District Provident Society in 1833, which was set up in that year to help the poor and the sick. The organisation ran for well over a century. In 1838 Thomas was elected as a councillor to St. Clement's Ward, Manchester. He was elected to the town council in 1840.

Molineaux was elected as one of five police commissioners to the New Cross ward in 1841. In 1842, a meeting of local police commissioners was called, their duty being described as "cleaning, lighting, watching, and regulating the town of Manchester." Joining Thomas on the commissioner list was his glass works business partner Thomas Webb.

However, Thomas' most significant campaign from the late 1830s until the end of his life was the Corn Laws, a hated piece of legislation introduced in 1815, one of the causes of the notorious Peterloo massacre in Manchester in 1819. One of Molineaux's fellow local councillors, Richard Cobden, was a leading free trade advocate, and elected as MP to Stockport in 1841. Cobden played a significant role in the eventual repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. Throughout the campaign, Cobden was supported by fundraising events in Manchester, and for several years afterwards, Manchester businessmen were still celebrating the repeal of the law.

Molineaux was one of the 40 or so founding members of the Anti-Corn Law Association in Manchester in 1838, which later became the national Anti-Corn Law League.

Bust of Richard Cobden at the Manchester Town Hall

Corn Law Banquet

In 1840 there was a massive Anti-Corn Law banquet in Manchester where food was provided for over 3,000 people. An inventory list reveals that over 10,000 pieces of glass were required, but the chosen supplier let the organisers down. Thomas Molineaux rallied Molineaux & Webb to fulfill the order. A local paper commented that Molineaux "immediately commenced the manufacture of wine glasses to supply the immense and sudden demand." Part of the order was also completed by Percival, Jackson and Woolfall. Other items ordered for the banquet from other companies included 7,200 dinner plates, 500 mince pies, 1,200 sticky buns and 1,300 bottles of sherry!

Corn Law Repealed

By 1846 the Corn Laws were repealed and to show their appreciation of Richard Cobden, a fund was set up to provide him with a suitable tribute, to which Thomas Molineaux and Thomas Webb both contributed £20.

In 1849 a further celebratory banquet was held in Manchester. The guest list included 22 MPs, including Cobden, and 5 town mayors. Thomas Molineaux and Thomas Webb were two of the sixteen names on the organising committee.

Death

Thomas Molineaux died in 1851. His obituary in the local paper read:

On the 27th July at his residence, 5 Ardwick Green, aged 51 years, Thomas Molineaux, flint glass manufacturer. Deservedly respected, and whose loss will be sincerely felt by all who knew him. He was one of the founders of the "Manchester Flint Glass Works," the parent establishment of that manufacture in this city.

Thomas had made his will in 1848. It stated that his wife Mary was to take on his interest in the glass firm. The will was proved on the 19th November 1851 at the Chester county court. An official notice of Thomas Molineaux being dissolved from the company partnership followed in a matter a weeks. There is no further sign of Mary Molineaux being involved with the company. By the 1861 census she was living in Ardwick, making a living as a landlady. Two sons at the same address were working as a surgeon and a salesman. There is no further sign of involvement in the glass industry.

Grave of Thomas Molineaux at Manchester General Cemetery

Grave of one of the sons from the marriage of Thomas Molineaux and Mary Ker

1841 CENSUS:

Not located

1851 CENSUS:

Not located