People from Stoke-on-Trent

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John Lewis Ricardo

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John Lewis Ricardo (1812-1862) - Railway Company Director and Liberal M.P. for Stoke-on-Trent

 

Ricardo Street, Dresden
Ricardo Street, Dresden, Longton was named after John Lewis Ricardo.
Many of the streets on this estate were named after leading liberals.
| photos of Ricardo Street |


| the Dresden Estate |

 

father: Jacob Ricardo  
John Lewis Ricardo wife: Katherine Duff
son: Augustus Lewis Ricardo

 

1812 born (son of Jacob Ricardo, nephew of the economist David Ricardo)
entered family financial business after the death of his father.
1841 Married Katherine Duff (the daughter of General Sir A. Duff. They had one son, Augustus Lewis.
1841 Elected as Liberal Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent. He was a representative until his death, winning elections in 1847, 1852, 1857, 1859.
1846 Chairman of the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) (1846-62)
1846 Chairman of the Electric Telegraph Company (which he was active in the formation of) until 1856
1849 Ricardo was instrumental in obtaining the repeal of the Navigation Acts in 1849.
1855 Resigned from the NSR (for 5 months) after the failure of the NSR to amalgamate with the London & North Western Railway.
1862 2nd August - Ricardo died in London
 

Ricardo was also a director of the London and Westminster Bank and associated with railway construction in Norway and Denmark.

 

Extract from "The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent" by John Ward, published 1843
‘We must carry forward the electioneering history of the Borough to the conclusion of our work, embracing the general election of June 1841, consequent on the formation of Sir Robert Peel’s ministry.
Mr. Davenport, who had represented the Borough since the commencement of its franchise, having, for some time before the dissolution, made known his intention to retire whenever such an event took place, the Conservative party fixed upon the Hon. Fred. Dudly Ryder (a younger son of the venerable Earl of Harrowbv) for his successor. The Liberal party, however, determined to contest the seat, and brought forward John Lewis Ricardo, Esq., a gentleman “without any special ground of connexion with the Borough or its interests,” which disqualification had been proclaimed before as an insuperable objection; but political congeniality, like charity, covers a multitude of sins, and the wealth of this gentleman’s family connexions obtained for him no small favour with the venal portion of the electors. The result of the poll placed him conspicuously in the foreground, and Mr. Ryder in the background. We are obliged again to notice (however unwillingly) acts of violence most disgraceful to that part of the population by which they were perpetrated.
On Wednesday, the 23rd June, whilst Mr. Alderman Copeland and Mr. Ryder were proceeding with three or four attendants on horseback, and without any display whatever, for the purpose of canvassing Fenton and Longton, they were followed by crowds of people, issuing from the neighbouring manufactories, who grossly insulted and menaced them, and on their arrival at Longton, assailed them with stones and missiles, by which Mr. Copeland received some severe contusions, and one of his attendants had the back part of his head laid open. The canvassing party hereupon made the best of their way to the Town-Hall, where Mr. Rose and another magistrate happened to be at the same time