John Wakefield (banker)

He was the son of Roger Wakefield III and Mary Wilson. Wakefield began life as a shearman-dyer, apprenticed to his father, in the mid-1750s.^[2] His father however died young, in 1756; Mary Wakefield carried on what was a substantial business that included finance as well as dyeing. John was taken into partnership by the end of the decade.^[1] His mother's second husband was William Dilworth, a Quaker banker from Lancaster.^[2]

Wakefield had an interest in the Gatebeck gunpowder mill, operating from 1764 in an existing family property set on the River Bela. As the result of a tontine he became the sole owner.^[2][3] The company traded as Wakefield, Strickland & Co.^[4] In 1790 he obtained a licence for another gunpowder mill, in Sedgwick, Cumbria.^[5] In 1806 the Kendal Monthly Meeting of Quakers censured Wakefield because of his continuing involvement in the gunpowder trade.^[6]

With a reputation for financial soundness, Wakefield's name was good over a wide area of northern England. He took on investments in a local turnpike, and in shipping from Liverpool.^[7] He had five ships active in trade with the West Indies, exporting Kendal cotton and importing sugar. Wakefield had his own cotton mill, at Burneside. He set up a brewery, Wilson & Noble, in Kendal.^[8]

On 1 January 1788 Wakefield set up a bank in Kendal. This establishment was simultaneous with the other initial bank in Kendal, set up by Joseph Maude, Thomas Crewdson and Christopher Wilson. The two banks merged in 1840.^[9]

Wakefield married Margaret Hodgson of Carlisle. Their son John II (1761–1829) married Mary Beakbane in 1787.^[10][11] In all there were five sons and one daughter.^[12]

• George Chandler (1968). Four Centuries of Banking. Vol. 2. B. T. Batsford.