John Martineau

John Martineau the younger (1789 – 6 January 1832) was an English sugar refiner and engineer, best known for his involvement in the firm Taylor & Martineau.

He was the third son of John Martineau, the elder, of Stamford Hill. Through the mining interests of the Martineau family, he came into contact with his cousins John Taylor and Philip Taylor, who became business partners. At that point the Taylors were running a chemical business, backed by Martineau money. John Martineau's uncles worked in dyeing, textiles and sugar. Under the influence of the Martineaus, the Taylors introduced a high-pressure boiler manufactured by John Braithwaite the younger.

Martineau became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1821. After the business of Taylor & Martineau fell away, he in 1827 went into steel manufacture, with Johann Conrad Fischer and Richard Carter Smith. He had an earlier patent on a steel process.

With his family, John Martineau planned an emigration to the USA. After his death in 1832 on board ship, they had to return to London.

Martineau was closely associated with George Birkbeck and the London Mechanics' Institution. He attended the meeting in early November 1823 at the Crown and Anchor, Strand, attended by about 50 people, representing with Bryan Donkin and Alexander Galloway employers with an interest in technical training of their staff. He was a member of the Provisional Committee of 15, with Richard Taylor, brother of Philip. After the mass meeting at the Crown and Anchor on 11 November, there followed a tense and confrontational meeting of 22 November at which the question of subscriptions to the Institution was debated. Joseph Clinton Robertson and Thomas Hodgskin argued the case for rejecting outside subscription, on the grounds that the autonomy of the mechanics to run their own affairs would be limited by accepting the money. They were supported by the architect Robert McWilliam. Martineau and Taylor sided with Birkbeck and Francis Place, in backing the subscription scheme brought forward by William Bayley, which was carried.

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