Benjamin Flounders

Benjamin Flounders (17 June 1768-19 April 1846) was a prominent English Quaker with business interests in key new industries and developments at the time of the Mid-Industrial Revolution, such as The Stockton and Darlington Railway (of which he was a founding Director) and new canals in his native North-East England; he operated his own family businesses very successfully with large interests in timber for shipbuilding (at the time of the War with France), also owning two linen mills and large estates in places as diverse as Egham, Surrey and Glasgow. He was it seems, for all of his life, a hard working, astute and forward thinking man of independent means. He was born at Crathorne in 1768, and educated at Ackworth School, Leeds.