Thomas Tobin

Sir Thomas Tobin (22 March 1807 – 9 January 1881) was a British merchant. He moved to Ballincollig in 1863 to become managing director of Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mills. He played an active part in the social and industrial life of Ballincollig and Cork until his death in 1881. Tobins of Liverpool The Tobins were an important merchant family in Liverpool at a time when the city was rapidly expanding at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. Thomas's grandfather, Patrick, was a native of Ireland and lived on the Isle of Man. Two of Patrick's sons, John and Thomas, became apprentice seamen and later master mariners. They both built their prosperity on the slave trade later branching into palm oil and ivory. They had estates in Africa which employed many black people. After the emancipation many of these slaves came to England, and it was not uncommon to see coloured people in Liverpool who bore a mark identifying them as having once been on the servitude of the Tobins. John became Mayor of Liverpool in 1819 and was knighted on the ascension of George IV to the throne. On 19 July 1821, George IV's Coronation Day, Prince's Dock was opened, and the Tobins ship, May, was the first ship which entered and in honour of the occasion she was exempted from paying Town or Dock Dues. Thomas' father and family On 6 June 1806, John's brother, Thomas, married Esther Watson, daughter of Richard Watson of Preston in Preston Church. They took up residence in Bold Street in Liverpool. At that time Bold Street had not become a shopping street but consisted of dwelling houses of well-to-do merchants, many of whom had their counting houses at the back. About halfway up the street Thomas Tobin, senior, lived in a fine house with a counting house behind. Thomas Tobin, senior, had a large family-six boys and six girls. The eldest of these were also called Thomas after his father and he was born on 22 March 1807, and was baptised in St. Peter's Church, Church Street, on 26 June 1807. Very little is known about the young Thomas' upbringing, except, as the oldest son, he naturally became involved in his father's business.