Robertson Gladstone was born on the 15th of November 1805 in
Liverpool and, along with his siblings, was brought up at the Gladstone
home in Rodney Street and then at Seaforth House. He was the second son,
and third child of Sir John Gladstone and brother of William Gladstone,
who became Prime Minister of the UK four times. He initially studied at
Eton College but his father felt it did not suit him and and he did not
seem to have the motivation to become a politician. John Gladstone decided
that Robertson, entirely at his own concurrence, should become a
merchant, firstly as his assistant and then as a partner.
In
September 1821, sixteen-year-old Robertson was sent to attend the
University of Glasgow, where he took classes of two years
in Mathematics, Moral and Natural Philosophy (metaphysics and physics)
in preparation for his future career as a merchant. After completing his
studies he took up a position at his father's office in Liverpool, and
in October 1828, then aged 23, he was sent to Demerara to carry out
inspection of his father’s estates staying in Demerara from 22 November
1828 to 3 March 1829, during which time he found some mismanagement of the
estates.
In 1830 he built a home at Cuckoo Lane, Woolton,
Liverpool and in 1833 joined a freemason's lodge before returning to the
West Indies in 1834, this time visiting the family estates in Jamaica
and Demerara. In 1835 at the age of 30 he became engaged to Mary Ellen Jones,
the daughter of a notable local banker Hugh Jones. They married on the 28th of
January 1836 in St George's Church, Liverpool but with Mary Ellen a
Unitarian, both his father and Robertson's younger brother, William
Gladstone disapproved of their marriage. William attended the wedding,
but left as soon as diplomatically possible. The following year Robertson returned to Demerara leaving his pregnant wife Mary in tears but he was obliged
to follow his father's wishes.
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| Court Hey Hall |
Around this time a mansion house,
Court Hey Hall, was built in a sixty acre walled estate in Huyton. The
entrance drive has been re-aligned but the original gate posts can still
be seen on the perimeter with Roby Road. In the fullness of time Robertson obtained a partnership in Heywood's Bank where
his father-in-law was a partner and in August 1845 he was appointed
Deputy Chairman of the Grand Junction Railway and became a Director of
the Liverpool to Manchester Railway. When the railway was renovated it
was necessary to replace the stone sleepers used for the track. These
sleepers had once been traversed by the famous Rocket Steam Engine and
the newer heavier locomotives were damaging the track. The Gladstone
family purchased the stones and used them to line the edge of the main
driveway toward the stable buildings and they are still there today. One
can actually see the holes and indentations made for the metal plates
securing the rail.
Active in radical Liverpool politics, he was
elected as one of the councillors in Liverpool's Abercromby Ward as part
of the 1838 Municipal Elections and in 1842 he became Mayor of
Liverpool, the first Mayor of Liverpool under the age of forty. He was
religious but increasingly tolerant of nonconformity, emphasised by a
move towards semi-socialist politics as he got older, with his politics
moving to the left as his youngest brother William. Robertson, now a large, slightly depressive man-mountain of 20 stones, in 1846
was one of the 'gentlemen' present during the visit of Prince Albert to
the Liverpool Sailors' Home. He was the first President of the Liverpool
Financial Reform Association after it was instituted at 6 York
Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool on 20 April 1848, a body which was
noted as 'the most persistent and single-minded free trade body England
had ever known'. He inherited his father's Liverpool firm,
Gladstone and Company, after John Gladstone's death in 1851 and, as a
measure of his continued importance, he was still a member of seven of
the thirteen town council committees in 1859. He had a large family of
eight children who were all spinsters and bachelors, and his home life
was entirely dependent on his wife's talent for housekeeping. He owned
many properties in Liverpool's bourgeois merchant district and was also
the owner of 24 Abercromby Square which is now part of Liverpool
University.
His wife Mary though ran the family finances and her
death in 1865 left him bereft. Robertson died on the 23rd of September
1875 at Court Hey and much of his extensive property portfolio was sold at a
Liverpool auction the following year between the 7th and 9th of
February. This included dozens of homes on Liverpool’s most prestigious
streets including a row of townhouses in Rodney Street and stables,
workshops and homes in Dale Street and Hope Street.
Gladstone
Dock in Liverpool, completed in 1913, is named after Robert Gladstone,
also a merchant from Liverpool and second cousin of both Robertson and
William.
see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/02/a-liverpool-exemplar-jeannie-mole.html
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