John Owens

John Owens (1790 – 29 July 1846) was an English merchant and philanthropist, whose bequest helped found part of the University of Manchester. Life and career Owens was born in Manchester, England, in 1790. His father was Owen Owens, a native of Holywell in Flintshire, Wales, who married Sarah Humphreys in 1788 and soon after moved with her to the rapidly industrialising town of Manchester. Once there, he became a prosperous merchant. Historians such as H. B. Charlton and William Whyte have noted that details of the life of John Owens are sparse and that, according to Whyte, he is historically a "shadowy" character. The only one of three brothers to survive infancy, Owens was educated at a private school at Ardwick Green until around the age of 14. He then began work for his father's firm, which advertised itself as "hat-linings, currier and furrier". Certainly by 1819, and probably in 1815, he had become a partner in the business, which by then described itself as "manufacturers" and, since 1812, had been exporting its products rather than being completely reliant on domestic trade. The range of products had expanded to include umbrellas and various cotton goods made using the outwork system and almost entirely exported to the Americas. It was based at Carpenter's Lane, off Tib Street in Manchester, while Owens lived with his father at Nelson Street, variously described as being in Chorlton on Medlock and Rusholme. From 1825, the Owens family were for 18 years investors in the cotton-spinning business of Samuel Faulkner, whose son, George, had been a friend of John Owens since his schooldays. Their £10,000 investment produced an annual return of almost 10 per cent until it was decided to withdraw the capital. Following the retirement of Owen Owens from the family business around 1830, the hard-working, somewhat parsimonious John Owens expanded its geographic market while reducing its range of goods. The cheap cotton products ceased to be manufactured but the countries to which it exported now included China, India and the Middle East. By 1840, Owens was also attempting to leverage the profits from that business by speculating in shares and moneylending. It was these new activities that most concerned him from thereon. the remaining years of his life.