Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

SIR JOSIAH MASON (1795-1881)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 840 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

SIR See also:JOSIAH See also:MASON (1795-1881)  , See also:English See also:pen-manufacturer, was See also:born in See also:Kidderminster on the 23rd of See also:February 1795, the son of a See also:carpet-See also:weaver . He began See also:life as a See also:street See also:hawker of cakes, fruits and vegetables . After trying his See also:hand in his native See also:town at shoemaking, See also:baking, carpentering, blacksmithing, See also:house-See also:painting and carpet-See also:weaving, he moved in 1814 to See also:Birmingham . Here he found employment in the gilt-See also:toy See also:trade . In 1824 he set up on his own See also:account as a manufacturer of split-rings by machinery, to which he subsequently added the making of See also:steel pens . Owing to the circumstance of his pens being supplied through See also:James See also:Perry, the See also:London stationer whose name they See also:bore, he was less well known than See also:Joseph See also:Gillott and other makers, although he was really the largest producer in See also:England . In 1874 the business was converted into a limited liability See also:company . Besides his steel-pen trade See also:Mason carried on for many years the business of electro-plating, See also:copper-smelting, and See also:india-See also:rubber See also:ring making, in See also:conjunction with See also:George R . See also:Elkington . Mason was almost entirely self-educated, having taught himself to write when a shoemaker's apprentice, and in later life he See also:felt his deficiencies keenly . It was this which led him in 186o to establish his See also:great orphanage at Erdington, near Birmingham . Upon it he expended about £300,000, and for this munificent endowment he was knighted in 1872 .

He had previously given a dispensary to his native town and an See also:

almshouse to Erdington . In 188o Mason See also:College, since incorporated in the university of Birmingham, was opened, the See also:total value of the endowment being about 250,000 . Mason died on the 16th of See also:June 1881 . See J . T . Bunce, See also:Josiah Mason (1882) .

End of Article: SIR JOSIAH MASON (1795-1881)
[back]
SIR JOHN MASON (1503–1566)
[next]
WILLIAM MASON (1725—1797)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.