Henry Isaac Rowntree was the founder of Rowntree's

Rowntree's

Rowntree's was a confectionery business based in York, England. It is now a historic brand owned by Nestlé, used to market a range of fruit gums and pastilles formerly owned by Rowntree's. Following a merger with John Mackintosh & Co., the Company became known as Rowntree Mackintosh, was listed on...

, one of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

's largest confectionery

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

 businesses.

Career

Having served his apprenticeship in his father's shop at The Pavement in York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

, and following his father's death in 1860, Henry Rowntree went to work for the Tuke family

Tuke family

The Tuke family of York were "a remarkable family of Quaker innovators". They were involved in establishing*Rowntree's Cocoa Works*The Retreat Mental Hospital*three Quaker schools - Ackworth, Bootham, and The Mount.They included four generations...

 at their shop in Walmgate.

In June 1862 Henry Isaac bought out the chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

, cocoa

Cocoa solids

Cocoa solids are the low-fat component of chocolate. When sold as an end product, it may also be called cocoa powder, cocoa, and cacao....

-making and chicory

Chicory

Common chicory, Cichorium intybus, is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Various varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons , or for roots , which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. It is also...

 departments and ran the business himself employing around a dozen people. He followed Quaker principles and always insisted on the highest quality. In August 1864 he bought a disused foundry

Foundry

A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...

 at Tanners Moat and built a new factory there. However, he became distracted from his chocolate business by his mission to produce, edit and print the Yorkshire Weekly Press: accordingly his chocolate business suffered and in June 1869 he took on his brother Joseph

Joseph Rowntree (philanthropist)

Joseph Rowntree was a Quaker philanthropist and businessman from York, England. Rowntree is perhaps best known for being a champion of social reform and his time as a chocolatier at family business Rowntree's, one of the most important in Britain...

 as a full partner in the business, now renamed H. I. Rowntree & Co. The brothers continued in partnership and the business went from strength to strength until Henry Isaac's untimely death in 1883.

Family

In February 1868 he married Harriet Selina Osborn in Scarborough. They had three children: Francis Henry, born 1868, Alice Mary, born 1870 and Ethel, born 1873.

Further reading

• Rowntree and the Marketing Revolution 1862 - 1969 by Robert Fitzgerald, Cambridge University Press, 1995 ISBN 978-0521435123