Richard Johnson, in common with a number of our nineteenth century benefactors, was a successful Manchester businessman. The roots of Johnson’s wealth lay in the late eighteenth century. James Howard had worked as a wire drawer on Long Millgate, very near MGS, from 1773. In 1804 he formed a wire works which was subsequently bought by Richard Johnson’s father, John. Richard and his brother William inherited the company in 1838, and the name was changed to Richard Johnson & Brother. The company inspected the first telegraph connection between Manchester and Liverpool and supplied the galvanised armouring wire for the 1851 cross-Channel cable. The company also worked on the 1866 Atlantic cable. Later projects included supplying wire for the Niagara Suspension Bridge and the Cincinnati Suspension Bridge. The company had a thriving business in America, supplying Western Union, amongst others. Wire was also supplied to link the UK with China and Singapore. The company changed its name in 1864 to “Richard Johnson and Nephew” upon the appointment of Thewlis Johnson, Richard’s nephew, to director. By the 1870s, the company had expanded and a new premises was opened in Ambergate, Derbyshire. The company had continued success into the twentieth century, merging with Thomas Firth and John Brown to become known as Johnson and Firth Brown. In turn in 1989 this company was acquired by Bridon.
Johnson was keen to use his wealth to assist various institutions. He was a notable benefactor of Owens College (later to become Manchester University) as well as Governor and also supported the Royal Institution. He was involved in politics as a Liberal and was a keen Nonconformist. He therefore took particular interest in matters affecting Nonconformists, particularly their exclusion from higher education. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce from 1866 – 1878, becoming President in 1875.
An advert for “Richard Johnson & Nephew, 1920s
Johnson’s connection with the Manchester Grammar School commenced in 1864 when he became a school “Feoffee” (forerunners of the Governors). In 1875 he became Deputy Chair of the first MGS Governing Body. Prior to F.W. Walker’s time as High Master, Feoffees were required to belong to the Church of England. It was to the benefit of the School that Walker changed the constitution of the governing body to allow Nonconformists to serve. Many had moved into business due to their exclusion from Oxbridge and the professions as a result of the Test Acts. Their business experience and wealth were key in enabling the High Master to modernise MGS. Walker was keen to expand the curriculum to include Modern Languages and Sciences, but this would require new buildings. He also knew that the solution to the School’s financial problems would be to introduce fees. Johnson’s obituary in Ulula noted that Walker leant on the businessman for support during the turbulent 1860s when he pushed through these reforms. The obituary reads:
“From him the late High Master always received wise and courageous support in those far-sighted projects for the good of the School which, bitterly opposed at the time by many, have since been acknowledged to have laid the foundation of its success.“
The rapport may have been particularly strong due to Johnson’s relationship as Walker’s father in law, who married his daughter Maria in 1867. The obituary also notes that Johnson originally donated £500 to the School to create feeder “branch schools”, a scheme that had to ultimately be dropped. The “branch schools” idea was a sound one, and would later be resurrected by High Master John Edward King in 1898 with the creation of the three MGS prep schools. Instead, Johnson’s gift was used to create a new Gymnasium. He later gave a further £5000 (around £300,000 in today’s money) which was used for the 1882 buildings. He also gave money to establish three bursaries of £10 a year specifically for boys from elementary schools who performed well in the Foundation Scholarship examinations.
Ulula wrote of Johnson on his death in 1881:
“As a public man he was emphatically one of those— energetic and prudent, liberal and judicious, at once men of action and men of thought,— who, whilst winning for themselves commercial success, have at the same time had the will and the ability to do good service to their fellow citizens, and who, by example as well as by practice, by what they have been as well as by what they have done, have advanced the fame and the prosperity of this great city.”
The combination of thought and action and the desire to succeed in order to help others is a legacy that has continued at Manchester Grammar School in the twenty first century.
Rachel Kneale
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