Early Life
He was born the youngest of five children in York in October 1722, but otherwise very little is known about his childhood. Having moved to London to become a hatter's apprentice, in 1743, at the age of 21 he married Frances Atkinson, the daughter of his employer, in the chapel of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.
By 1746 he was trading as a hatter in his own right from premises in Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, a few years later moving to new premises in The Strand.
Frances died in 1760, and the next year, at the age of 39 he remarried, to Barbara Huddart. It was at this time he became involved with the East India Company, later working up to having a number of ships under his control - records at the British Library show him as 'Principal Managing Owner' of a number of vessels including the East Indiaman York. Also at this time he received his knighthood, at the relatively young age of 46.
Read more about this topic: Richard Hotham
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“No two men see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will apply in different ways a principle that they both acknowledge. The same man will, indeed, often see and judge the same things differently on different occasions: early convictions must give way to more mature ones. Nevertheless, may not the opinions that a man holds and expresses withstand all trials, if he only remains true to himself and others?”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can only, like invalids, act on the defensive. But strong natures, backwoodsmen, New Hampshire giants, Napoleons, Burkes, Broughams, Websters, Kossuths, are inevitable patriots, until their life ebbs, and their defects and gout, palsy and money, warp them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)