William Arnott (biscuit manufacturer)
Scottish-Australian biscuit company founder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Arnott (6 December 1827 – 22 July 1901[1]) was a Scottish-born Australian baker and businessman. After emigrating to New South Wales in 1848, he worked as a baker and later founded a biscuit-making business in Newcastle, which became the basis of Arnott's Biscuits Holdings.
William Arnott | |
|---|---|
Arnott in c. 1899 | |
| Born | 6 December 1827 Pathhead, Scotland |
| Died | 22 July 1901 (aged 73) New South Wales, Australia |
| Citizenship | Australian |
| Organization | Arnott's Biscuits Holdings |
| Spouses | Monica Sinclair
(m. 1848; died 1865)Margarete McLean Fleming
(m. 1865) |
| Children | 12 |
Early life
William Arnott was born 6 December 1827, in Pathhead, Fife, Scotland,[2] the eldest of eight children.[3][4] His father was David Millie and his mother was Isobella Arnott.[3][4] In October 1847,[5] he and his brother David set out for Sydney, Australia on board the assisted-immigrants' ship Sir Edward Parry;[3] they reached Sydney some 135 days later, on 17 February 1848.[6]
Career
Arnott's Biscuits
After arriving in Australia, he first started a baking company in Morpeth, New South Wales, 22 miles north-west of Newcastle.[2] He continued working as a baker, together with David, for three years.[6] Arnott decided to try his luck gold mining in 1851, and left for the Turon River diggings alone.[5] He was not successful; he failed to find any gold and eventually returned to life as a baker.[5][6] In 1865,[5][6] Arnott established the William Arnott's Steam Biscuit Factory in Newcastle, New South Wales.[2] It was so named as his biscuit-making machines (or "rotary ovens"[7]) were steam-powered.[5][8] In 1894, Arnott employed numerous workers[6] after purchasing a biscuit factory in Forest Lodge, Sydney;[2] his biscuits had already begun shipping to Sydney in 1882.[5][6] The factory in Forest Lodge was relocated to Homebush circa 1908.[5] During his career as a biscuit manufacturer, Arnott came up with the Milk Arrowroot biscuits, a combination of arrowroot biscuits and plain milk biscuits; they were marketed as "children's food" and were very popular, to the extent that other rival companies tried to come up with imitations of the Milk Arrowroot biscuits.[9] Arnott also produced Tim Tam, Jatz and SAO biscuits.[10]
Personal life
William Arnott was a prominent member of the Wesleyan Church and taught Sunday school for close to 25 years.[11] In 1848, Arnott wed Monica Sinclair, who already had four children at the time of the marriage; Sinclair died aged 36 on 11 April 1865.[4] That same year, Arnott married Margarete McLean Fleming. She assisted him in his baking business and they had eight children.[4] His son William was also a baker and his daughter, Margaret Oppen, was a noted artist and embroiderer.[12] It is not in the Australian Dictionary of Biography[1] but his father David Millie Arnott[13] had been transported here for breach of trust, fraud and embezzlement following sentence in 1837.[14][page needed]
