John Bellows
| John Bellows | |
|---|---|
| Born |
John Thomas Bellows 18 January 1831 Liskeard, Cornwall, England |
| Died | 5 May 1902 Gloucester, England |
| Occupation |
Lexicographer Printer |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Earnshaw (1842-1932) |
| Children | Max, Marian, William, Hannah, Emily (who died young), Philip, Katherine (Kitty), Lucy, John Earnshaw, Dorothy |
| Parent(s) | William Lamb Bellows (1802-1877), Hannah Stricland/Bellows |
John Thomas Bellows (18 January 1831 – 5 May 1902) was a polymath,printer and lexicographer, originally from Cornwall in southwest England. He wrote prolifically.
A prominent member of the informal but influential network of Quaker businessmen-philanthropists that was a feature of Victorian England, he established the Gloucester printing firm, "John Bellows" which, under his son and remoter descendants, would remain an important part of the Gloucester commercial scene till 1967.
John Bellows was born in Liskeard, a small but regionally important market town in Cornwall. The hitherto Methodist family joined the Quakers in 1838, and in 1841 John's energetic father, William Lamb Bellows, established a school at Camborne, on the other side of the county: this necessitated relocation. Their father was an erudite man, a biblical scholar fluent in Hebrew and "passionately interested in nature". John Bellows and his younger brother Ebenezer received much of their education from their father, both as pupils at the school and on the long country walks which they took together.
In 1845 John Bellows became an apprentice with Llewellyn Newton, a Camborne printer. Newton also kept a library: John Bellows was frequently sent on long errands, and perfected the art of reading while walking, books which his employer was happy to loan him. Bellows became a voracious reader. On completion of the apprenticeship he took a job with Harrison's, a London printing business described as the "Queen's Printers", but he became ill in London and after six months had to return to Cornwall to recuperate. In 1851 he took a job in Gloucester with a small printing business, located in the lower part of Gloucester. He was stranded for several days in the printing works by the serious flooding that affected Gloucester in 1852, later recalling inventive ways of passing bread on the end of an improvised delivery system involving a long handled broom through the upstairs window of the printing works in which he was stranded, and across to the upstairs window of a neighbouring property where the occupiers had run out of food. It was also during the 1850s in Gloucester that he began to take a more thoughtful approach view to his inherited Quaker beliefs. This led him to give up smoking, recognising that "if he would save his soul he must no longer be the slave of any habit".
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