John Cadbury (12 August 1801 – 11 May 1889) was an English Quaker and businessman, who founded the Cadbury chocolate company in Birmingham, England. He was also involved in activism and philanthropy, championing workers' rights, environmental and industrial reform, temperance, animal welfare, education, and healthcare, while actively opposing cruelty, exploitation, and indulgent practices.
Biography
Early life and education
John Cadbury was born on 12 August 1801 in Birmingham to Richard Tapper Cadbury, a linen draper, and his wife Elizabeth Head Cadbury. He was from a wealthy Quaker family that moved to the area from the west of England. Cadbury attended Joseph Crosfield's Quaker School at Hartshill, Warwickshire.
Quakerism
Cadbury was deeply involved in the Birmingham Friends Meeting, where he served as an elder for many years. At the age of 29, he was appointed clerk of the Warwickshire North Friends Monthly Meeting, and a year later, he took on the role of Overseer. He was the inaugural president of the Friends' Reading Society and actively supported the Seven Street Friday-day Schools. Cadbury also made multiple missionary trips to Ireland on behalf of the Quakers. In 1824, Cadbury opened a shop at 93 Bull Street, Birmingham, selling cocoa and drinking chocolate that he prepared himself, along with tea, coffee, hops, and mustard. He eventually decided to start commercial manufacture, opening a warehouse in Crooked Lane in 1831. In 1842, he was selling sixteen varieties of drinking chocolate and eleven varieties of cocoa.
Activism and philanthropy
Between 1830 and 1841, Cadbury served as a Poor Law guardian, where he vocally opposed the exploitation of climbing boys and criticised the indulgent feasting practices of local poor law officials. A passionate advocate for environmental reform, he set an example by reducing pollution in his own factory and played a significant role in securing legislation to address industrial pollution.
Cadbury opposed animal cruelty including bull-baiting and was a supporter of the Animals' Friend Society. He was also a supporter of the Peace Society and an advocate for Sunday schools. He saw drinking chocolate as an alternative for alcoholic beverages. At the time of his death, he had been a total abstainer for half a century and was one of the first to sign the pledge for the formation of a temperance society in Birmingham. and had seven children: John (1834–1866), Richard (1835–1899), Maria (1838–1908), George (1839–1922), Joseph (1841–1841), Edward (1843–1866), and Henry (1845–1875).
Legacy
During his lifetime, Cadbury dreamed of creating a model village. In 1879, Richard and George relocated the Cadbury factory from the centre of town to an area of what was then north Worcestershire, on the borders of the parishes of Northfield and King's Norton centred on the 18th-century Bournbrook Hall, where they developed the model village of Bournville; now a major suburb of Birmingham.
In accordance with Cadbury's teetotal heritage, Bourneville has been dry for over 100 years, with no alcohol being sold in pubs, bars or shops. Residents have fought to maintain this, winning a court battle in March 2007 with Britain's biggest supermarket chain Tesco, to prevent it selling alcohol in its local outlet.