John Ramsbottom

Banker, Brewer, Member of Parliament and Freemason (1777 – 1845)

– A Vignette

Published in Windlesora 23 (2007)

© WLHG

John Ramsbottom was born in 1777 and was educated at Eton College. After leaving Eton he joined the cavalry regiment of the 16th Dragoons in 1798 and was the regimental ensign or ‘cornet’. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1799 and retired in 1801. His association with the military continued when in 1803 he was appointed Major and Commandant of the ‘Clewer Volunteers‘(1) a militia regiment raised during the French Peninsula Wars. In 1796 he went into partnership with William Legh(2) and took over the running of a Windsor brewery and bank known simply as ‘The Windsor Bank’ and ‘Brewery’. This brewery was previously owned by Henry Isherwood(3) who stood as Member of Parliament for New Windsor between 1796-7. This brewery was bought in 1780 by John Ramsbottom’s uncle, Richard Ramsbottom, and his partner, James Baverstock.

The Ramsbottom brewery and banking businesses appear to have been in existence until 1837 when they were taken over by the rapidly expanding brewery and bank Nevile Reid and Co(4), which, during the same year, had purchased the Cookham Brewery.(5) After selling the brewery and bank John Ramsbottom and his family moved to the outskirts of Windsor to a house called Clewer Lodge.(6) Ramsbottom’s original brewery headquarters became the offices for the Neville Reid bank and brewery. Although the bank was run by Nevile Reid and Company, it was actually owned by the partners of the London bank, Williams, Deacon, Labouchere and Company, which was established in 1771.(7) A further branch of Nevile Reid & Co. opened in Datchet in 1909. The bank was acquired in 1914 by Barclay & Co Ltd, (established in 1896), a City of London bank.(8)

In 1918, the brewing portion of the business was sold to the London brewery, Noakes and Company, which was purchased by the Southwark-based brewery, Courage and Company, in 1930. The Windsor brewery finally closed in 1962, marking an end to over 180 years of brewing on the site.

The original house and headquarters of the bank and brewery built by the Ramsbottoms, still exist in Thames Street, Windsor in a fine late eighteenth century building(9) built in the classical style known as the Old Bank House(10), a name acquired during the ownership of the brewery by Courage & Co.

Apart from his brewing and banking businesses, John Ramsbottom was a greatly admired and respected public figure.(11) In 1810 he had become Member of Parliament for New Windsor, having taken over from his uncle, Richard Ramsbottom.(12) He remained Windsor’s MP for thirty-five years, until his death in 1845. The Duke of Wellington was rather scathing of Ramsbottom during his career as an MP in that he mentions in 1832, that ‘we should be sorry to see the House of Commons composed of Ramsbottoms – that gentleman is a brewer in Windsor‘.(13) This was a time when ‘trade’ was frowned upon in mixing socially with the upper classes even though he was a Member of Parliament. During his long stay as MP he voted on many issues but he did not make one single speech in the House.(14)

One area of John Ramsbottom’s life, which is not generally known, is that he was an extremely prominent Freemason.(15) He was initiated into Freemasonry on the 8th July 1813 at a meeting of the Lodge of Friendship, No. 6, which met at the Thatched House Tavern in St James’s Street in London. He was the Master of this lodge in 1821, 1822, and between 1843 and 1844. In 1817 he had joined St John’s Lodge, No. 340, which had met at the Castle Inn (now the Castle Hotel) in Windsor High Street, since 1791.(16) It is also interesting to note that William Legh, Ramsbottom’s partner was also a Freemason and had joined St John’s Lodge in 1813.

In 1820 John Ramsbottom was appointed as Senior Grand Warden of the United Grand Lodge of England, which was one of the highest promotions which a Provincial Mason could obtain in Freemasonry. Also, during that year, he deputised for the Duke of York, who was also a very senior Mason at the ceremony of the laying of a foundation stone of the new Parish Church in Windsor. A report in the Windsor and Eton Express dated 17th September 1820 describes the Masonic procession from Windsor Town Hall to the site of the Parish Church. The procession was led by Clergy from both St George’s Chapel and also the Parish of New Windsor. They were followed by visiting Freemasons and the members of the Church Building Committee. Next in the procession, was the Foundation Stone itself, accompanied by Charles Hollis(17), the architect, and Robert Tebbott andJames Bedborough, the builders, followed by the Mace Bearer, George Davis, the Mayor and Members of the Corporation. Finally, at the rear of the procession, was John Ramsbottom, the acting Provincial Grand Master and other grand and provincial officers. The music accompanying the procession was played by the Band of the Blues, together with Drums and Fifes and the Band of Guards. The ceremony of the laying of the Foundation Stone was carried out with full Masonic pomp and circumstance: the newspaper reports that ‘over one hundred Freemasons were present at the Ceremony’.

Apart from the 1820 foundation stone ceremony, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Berkshire did not have a formal meeting until 1837, though a similar Masonic ceremony took place for the laying of the cornerstone of the Windsor town bridge in 1822.(18) On the 19th May 1837, a meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge took place at the Masonic Hall at the Forbury, in Reading. At this meeting, John Ramsbottom presented the Provincial Grand Lodge with a set of Officers’ jewels, which still exist to this day. Also at this meeting, he appointed his two sons, John Ramsbottom Junior and Somerville Ramsbottom, as Senior and Junior Wardens, respectively, of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Berkshire. John Ramsbottom was to preside over two further meetings of the Provincial Grand Lodge, in 1843 and 1844. He died in December 1845, having acted in life as a catalyst, and influencing the growth of industry, commerce, politics and Freemasonry, not only within the town of Windsor, but also in the County of Berkshire, as a whole.

Elias Kupfermann

Notes

  1. Thorne, R.G (ed.) History of Parliament: House of Commons 1790-1820, p.7.
  2. William Legh became Mayor of Windsor in 1836 and Magistrate in 1842.
  3. Richard Ramsbottom had originally been apprenticed to Thomas Isherwood at a distillery in Aldersgate Street, London — Henry Isherwood was a member of the same family.
  4. Richmond, L and Turton, A, The Brewing Industry — A Guide to Historic Records (1990), Manchester.
  5. R and V Bootle, The Story of Cookham (1990), Privately Printed, p.117.
  6. History of Parliament (see above).
  7. Information from archives of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
  8. Matthews, R and Tuke, Anthony, History of Barclay’s Bank Ltd (1926), London
  9. There is a drawing of Ramsbottom’s house by John Claude Nattes (1765-1822) in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle (Ref: RL17389).
  10. Morriss, R.K and Hoverd, K, The Buildings of Windsor (1994), Alan Sutton, p.30.
  11. There is a full length engraving of John Ramsbottom in full Masonic regalia in the Illustrated London News in 1845, p.409. (See page 27).
  12. Tighe, R.R and Davis, J.E., Annals of Windsor (1858), London, Vol. ii, p.530
  13. Duke of Wellington (ed.), Despatches, Correspondence and Memoranda of Field Marshal Arthur, Duke of Wellington, edited by his son The Duke of Wellington, Vol. VIII, 1858, London p.16.
  14. History of Parliament (see above).
  15. White, R and Harborne, L, History of Freemasonry in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire (1990), Abbey Press, Abingdon, Oxon, p.46.
  16. Ibid., p.6.
  17. Charles Hollis was also the architect for the Windsor town river bridge.
  18. Windsor & Eton Express, 13th July 1822.

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