Robert Motherby
Robert Motherby (born December 23, 1736 in Kingston upon Hull , † February 13, 1801 in Königsberg ) was an English trader in East Prussia and a friend of Immanuel Kant .
Life
His father George (born December 20, 1688), married to Anne Hotham, died in 1748 when Robert was still a child. Robert came to Königsberg around 1751 because the English merchant Joseph Green was looking for a reliable young Englishman as an assistant who, because he remained childless, could become a partner.
Motherby quickly got used to Koenigsberg, despite lacking knowledge of German, and finally took over the company completely . In 1762 , Green, Motherby & Co. married Charlotte Toussaint (April 30, 1742– September 10, 1794) in 1762, who came from a Huguenot family She was one of the daughters of Jean Claude Toussaint (1709–1774), who originally came from France and then grew up in Magdeburg, and his wife, Catherine, born in Königsberg. Fraissinet (1719-1744). Jean Claude Toussaint was a co-owner of the trading house Toussaint & Laval .
Charlotte and Robert Motherby had eleven children (six sons and five daughters; one son and one daughter died shortly after birth). One of the sons was the doctor and farmer William Motherby .
Friendship with Kant
Kant was a regular Sunday guest in the Motherby house; he played and joked with the children and ate lunch. To this end, Robert Motherby always sent his servant to Kant on Sunday mornings, who brought him the invitation. When Kant, for his part, invited Robert Motherby to lunch, he sent his servant Martin Lampe with a written note that morning . Kant attached great importance to this formality: the invitee should be given the freedom to cancel if it did not suit him. This friendship was characterized by consideration and respect. Kant trusted him in all money transactions and invested his savings with him at a profit.
literature
- Fritz Gause , Jürgen Lebuhn: Kant and Königsberg until today. Verlag Gerhard Rautenberg, Leer 1989
- Deirdre N. McCloskey: The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce. University of Chicago Press, 2010, ISBN 0-2265-5667-0 , p. 267
- Manfred Kuehn: Kant. A biographer. Cambridge University Press, 2001 , ISBN 0-521-52406-7
- Karl Vorländer : Immanuel Kant's life. Felix Meiner, Leipzig 1911, pp. 61–64
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Marianne Motherby: Kant and the Motherby family. 2015 Friends of Kant and Königsberg ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Motherby, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English trader in East Prussia and friend of Immanuel Kant |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 23, 1736 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kingston upon Hull |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 13, 1801 |
| Place of death | Koenigsberg |