Samuel John Galton Jr. FRS (18 June 1753 – 19 June 1832) was an English arms manufacturer. He was born in

Duddeston Duddeston is an inner-city area of the Nechells ward of central Birmingham, England. It was part of the Birmingham Duddeston constituency until that ceased to exist in 1950. Etymology The name ''Duddeston'' comes from ''Dud's Town'', with Dud be ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, into a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

family. He would go on to join his father's gun manufacturing company. He was a member of the

Lunar Society The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophy, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly b ...

in December of 1785 and lived at Great Barr Hall, one of the meeting places for the Lunar Society. He also built a house at Warley Woods, and commissioned

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great designer of the classic phase of the English landscape garden, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown. His style is thought of as the precursor of the more intric ...

to lay out its grounds.

Family life

Galton married Lucy Barclay (1757–1817), the daughter of

Robert Barclay Allardice Robert Barclay Allardice of Ury (25 August 1779, Stonehaven, Kincardineshire – 1 May 1854), generally known as Captain Barclay, was a notable Scottish walker of the early 19th century, known as the celebrated pedestrian. His most famous feat w ...

, MP, 5th of Ury. They would go on to have eight children together. His first born was Mary Anne Galton (1778–1856) who was a writer in the anti-slavery movement. She would marry Lambert Schimmelpenninck in 1806. Galton's second child was Sophia Galton who would go on to marry Charles Brewin. His first son, Samuel Tertius Galton (1783–1844) would also become a member of the Lunar Society. He would end the family arms business in 1815. He married Violetta Darwin in 1807 and had a son named

Francis Galton Sir Francis Galton (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911) was an English polymath and the originator of eugenics during the Victorian era; his ideas later became the basis of behavioural genetics. Galton produced over 340 papers and b ...

(1822–1911) who would go on to be a famous proponent of

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

. Galton had another son, Theodore Galton (1784–1810), although not much is known about him. His next child was Adele Galton (1784–1869) who would go on to marry John Kaye Booth, MD, in 1827. Next would come Hubert John Barclay Galton (1789–1864), followed by Ewen Cameron Galton (1791–1800) who died at the age of 9. His last child was John Howard Galton who married Isabelle Strutt. They had a son named Douglas Galton (1822–1899) who became one of the

royal engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

. Galton was a lover of animals and even owned many bloodhounds. He loved birds as well, publishing three book volumes about them. Galton owned of land at

Westhay Moor Westhay Moor (sometimes, historically, referred to as West Hay Moor) is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Westhay village and from Wedmore in Somerset, England, SSSI notification, notified in 1971. Westhay Moor is ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, which he had drained, by constructing

Galton's Canal Galton's Canal was a 1-mile 3 furlong (2.2 km) canal with one canal lock, lock, crossing Westhay Moor in Somerset, England, and connecting the River Brue to the North Drain. It was operational by 1822, and ceased to be used after the 1850s ...

The Lunar Society

Samuel Galton joined the Lunar Society in December of 1785. Galton would join the Lunar Society as an in-person replacement for Erasmus Darwin, who remarried and moved away. He would be one of the fourteen members to be active during the height of the society. One reason for his inclusion into the Society was his love for statistics and data and his tendency to compare datasets. Galton also had a great love for natural history, one of the subjects taught in Quaker schools. This, compounded with his love for animals, lead him to write many natural history books on them. His first set was ''The Natural History of Birds: containing a variety of facts ... for the amusement and instruction of children.'' This was a three-volume set of books intended for the education of children, specifically at first for his children. These were also the first natural history books written with the intent for children to be the primary readers. Galton would have one more book project intended for younger audiences, and in 1801, ''The Natural History of Quadrupeds; including all the Linnaean class of mammalia...For the instruction of young persons'' was published. However, only one complete copy of this work exists in world libraries, specifically the Baldwin Library in the University of Florida. During his time with the Lunar Society, Galton was known as a careful experimenter and a very original man. Some his notable experiments were that of color mixing, which he would publish on August 1, 1799 in ''Monthly Magazine''. Galton also showed interest in canals, publishing a paper on them called ''On Canal Levels'' in 1817. This was for commercial reasons though, as Galton put those before scientific ones more times than not, leading to not many of his contributions being well known or published. His family, many of which were members of the society, are remembered by the Moonstones in

and a tower block in the center of that city.

Galton's gun manufacturing

Galton was condemned by the Quakers for manufacturing guns, as they believed it was against their pacifist values. His defense stated that since Britain was in a constant state of war, it was his duty as a citizen of his country to contribute through its massive industrial complex.

Family life

The Lunar Society

Galton's gun manufacturing

References

Further reading