Samuel Morley

Samuel Morley (15 October 1809 – 5 September 1886), was an English woollen manufacturer and political radical. He is known as a philanthropist, Congregationalist dissenter, abolitionist, and statesman. Background He was the youngest son of John Morley, a hosiery manufacturer with premises in Nottingham who opened offices in Wood Street, London; his mother was Sarah Poulton of Maidenhead. Born in Homerton, from an early age he worked for his father's business in London. When his father and brothers chose to retire, he was left in managerial control. By 1860 he was sole owner of both the London and Nottingham parts of the business, and as it grew rapidly into the largest of its kind in the world he became very wealthy, and a model employer. Morley took a large residence in Stamford Hill, Stoke Newington when not living at his City of London address. He was a member of Thomas Binney's King's Weigh House Congregational Chapel in Fish Street Hill, London. He ventured into publishing, becoming one of the proprietors of the Daily News, the main Liberal paper of the period. By reducing its price, its losses turned to gains and carried greater influence.