James Godfrey Booth
James Godfrey Booth (born January 24, 1794 in Falkirk , † May 12, 1871 in Hamburg ) was a seed wholesaler and founder of the gas company in Hamburg.
Work and life
James Godfrey Booth was the eldest son of James Booth , landscaper and owner of the nursery and nursery James Booth & Sons . When his father died, James Godfrey Booth was 20 years old. He took over the management of the tree nursery with an experienced gardener. At the beginning of 1828, he and his brothers agreed to spin off the James Booth & Sons business , which involved the seed business and trade in Dutch flower bulbs, and to leave the tree and plant trade and nursery to the younger brothers, John Richmond and George .
JG Booth & Co.
James Godfrey Booth founded the seeds and Dutch flower bulbs business JG Booth & Co in February 1828 . While the tree nursery was located in Flottbek, which was part of Altona in Holstein at the time, the office in Hamburg was initially located on the Mühlenbrücke, and from 1839 at Reichenstrasse 37. In 1830 he had acquired citizenship in Hamburg . Booth had close business and personal ties to Great Britain . He was a member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England .
In 1853, James Godfrey Booth sold his business to his colleagues Otto Andreas Ernst and Gustav Heinrich Theodor von Spreckelsen. They operated under the well-established name JG Booth & Co until around 1861 . It is not possible to clearly determine which name they later used. The following names are known from advertisements: JG Booth & Co, successor and JG Booth & Co, successor, Ernst & von Spreckelsen and Ernst & von Spreckelsen . Von Spreckelsen died on February 5, 1863. Otto Andreas Ernst became the sole owner of Ernst & von Spreckelsen, JG Booth & Co, successor .
Garden and flower growing association for Hamburg, Altona and their surroundings
Together with his younger brother John Richmond, he worked in the gardening and flower-growing association for Hamburg, Altona and the surrounding area from 1836, when it was founded , and from 1839 as their treasurer. The members were on the one hand wealthy Altona and Hamburg citizens and on the other hand “commercial and art gardeners”, as the gardening owners were called at the time. In 1837 he described the creation and maintenance of English lawns. He advertised his "patent grass cutting machine", which he had manufactured in England. In a paper from 1841 he presented the reasons why agriculture in Hamburg could not, in his view, achieve the superior level of agriculture in Great Britain.
After the Hamburg fire of 1842, he also highlighted other innovations from Great Britain, including the modern fire extinguishing system in the British capital .
Gas company
In addition to his activities as a seed dealer, James Godfrey Booth was committed to converting the street lighting in Hamburg from oil to gas. For this purpose he founded the gas company together with English engineers , for which he was authorized. On March 28, 1844, he signed a contract with the finance department of the Hanseatic city, which gave the company a monopoly on gas delivery for 30 years and from which the Hamburg gas works emerged . Booth was director of the company from 1844 to 1847, which from October 1845 had a gas works on Grasbrook . Since he had made capital contributions and agreed special contractual services, he received dividends and shares from the company's net profit even after his service as director, which amounted to several 10,000 marks per year.
family
In 1829 James Godfrey Booth had stayed in Scotland , where he married Eliza Thompson (1810–1871) from Edinburgh . In March 1857 Booth inherited extensive property of his childless deceased uncle Peter Booth (1787-1857) in his native town Falkirk. 1857 He then moved back to Scotland, where he wanted to stay permanently. In 1861 he returned to Hamburg, where he lived until his death in 1871. His grave, with a memorial by Engelbert Peiffer, was in the Dammtor cemeteries until it was repealed in 1935 . Today the family grave can be found in the Ohlsdorf cemetery .
Fonts
- About the creation and maintenance of an English lawn , or: Why are our lawns not as beautiful as they are found almost everywhere in England? In: Archive of the Garden and Flower Growing Association for Hamburg, Altona and their surroundings , Hamburg 1837, pp. 25–29, (illustration of the “grass cutting machine” p. 28).
- Reflections on the state of agriculture in Great Britain and the attempt to indicate the causes by which it has reached and can be reached here also on the high level on which it stands . Hamburg, 1841.
- Regulations for the Lösch-Anstalt in London with a suggestive foreword in relation to Hamburg. Hamburg, 1842.
literature
- Hans Walden: Booth, James . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 1 . Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1364-8 , pp. 52-52 .
References and comments
- ↑ This is probably New Holland , by which Australia was meant: Lorenz Oken: Isis , Heft VIII – X, 1831, Col. 852 ".... through their connections with America, India, New Holland ...."
- ^ Advertisement in: Staats und schehre Zeitung des Hamburgischen impartial Correspondents , anno 1828, on Wednesday, February 13th, without page number, digitized .
- ↑ Hans Walden: Booth, James. In: Hamburg biography
- ↑ Hamburger Garten- und Blumenzeitung, 19/1863 p. 141.
- ↑ Central organ for the German trade stand (ed.): Collection of German trade registers , Volume 2 1863, M. DuMont-Schauberg, Cologne, p. 69, digitized
- ↑ see editions of the archive of the garden and flower growing association for Hamburg, Altona and their surroundings , Hamburg from 1839
- ↑ On the creation and maintenance of an English lawn
- ↑ Including James Malam, who had knowledge of coal gasification , and William Crosskill, who supplied the street lighting (Source: Frank Hinz: Planning and Financing of the Speicherstadt in Hamburg , Publication of the Working Group for Hamburg Regional History , Vol. 7, Lit, Hamburg 2000, p. 35-36, (Diss. 1998), ISBN 3825836320 ).
- ↑ The term “combing” used in the literature is not in use in Hamburg. Instead, one speaks of “deputation”, and accordingly the “financial deputation” was probably meant here.
- ↑ Falkirk Archives (Archon Code: GB558) Russel & Aitken Papers (55) Papers of Peter Booth, Reference Code: A1855 Digitized * PDF
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Booth, James Godfrey |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish seed wholesaler and founder of the Cas-Compagnie in Hamburg |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 24, 1794 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Falkirk |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 12, 1871 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |