Thomas Daniel

16th Sep 1762 - 6th Apr 1854

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

Bristol and London merchant in the firm Thomas Daniel & Sons (q.v.). Son of the Bristol merchant Thomas Daniel (1730-1802) and Eleanor Neil (d. 1774), and brother and partner of John Daniel (q.v.). He has a recent entry in the ODNB as 'merchant.'

  1. One of the '"civic Dons" [of Bristol]: perhaps the last of them.' Born 16/09/1762 and baptised 28/09/1762 in St Michael, Barbados, son of Thomas Daniel and his wife Eleanor. 'So large were the estates and possessions of Thomas Daniel and Sons in Demerara, and other of the West Indian Islands, that it was stated at the time of the Slave Emancipation Act, they obtained as compensation for the services of the negroes who were manumitted by that humane measure, not much less than a quarter of a million of the twenty voted for that purpose.' High Sheriff of Bristol 1786 [this might be confusion with his father]; Mayor 1797; chosen Alderman in 1798. Married Miss Cave, sister of Daniel [sic] Cave. Head of the old Corporation and "reigned without a rival" in the Chamber until the Municipal Reform Act, and was the first chosen by the Council as Mayor under the new regime ( which he declined). For almost half a century the late Alderman Daniel was '(as it was bluntly expressed) the King of Bristol.' A long time treasurer of 'our two great educational charities, Queen Elizabeth's and the Red Maids' hospitals. Power and influence greatest as a leading member and chief of the old True Blue Steadfast club, 'this all-effecting, all-funded [Tory] party coterie'. '[W]hen the "Old Steadfast" resolved that a thing should be done, it was sure not to be left undone'. Declined a baronetage from Pitt's government.

  2. Left £200,000. Described as merchant and a partner in Ames, Cave & Co. Bankers, sugar merchant and West Indies proprietor (sourced to Bush, A history of banking in Bristol, 1898). His father Thomas Daniel (1730-1802) appears to have returned to Britain from Barbados in 1764.

  3. 'The king of Bristol'.

  4. Father of Thomas Daniel (1798-1872) who married Augusta Louisa Bridges 1819 and had among other children Thomas Daniel (1823-1862), who in turn was the father of Thomas Carew Daniel. When Thomas Daniel (1798-1872) of Stoodleigh and Bristol died 22/04/1872 his effects were under £250,000; his sole executor was his son the Rev. Henry Arthur Daniel of Somerset.

  5. In a Levy Book list for St James, Barbados, 1822, was listed as owning 192 enslaved and 364 acres of land. The name of the estate (or estates) was not given.

  6. Thomas Daniel of Stoodleigh Court, Bampton [Devon] was a subscriber to the seventh edition of Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England in 1848. The Daniel family owned the estate until at least the 1880s.


Sources

Madge Dresser, ‘Daniel, Thomas (1762–1854)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2016 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/107411, accessed 16 June 2017]

  1. 'Death of Thomas Daniel Esq.', Bristol Times 08/04/1854. Familysearch.org, Barbados, Church Records, 1637-1887 [database online].

  2. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume Two 1840-1859 (MS) reference 1854/10.

  3. Madge Dresser, Slavery obscured: the social history of the slave trade in an English provincial port (London & New York, Continuum, 2001) p. 223.

  4. National Probate Calendar 1872.

  5. Levy Book for St James, 1822. Barbados Department of Archives, RB9/3/7.

  6. Samuel Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England (7th ed., 1848) p. xiv.

For the Daniels of Bristol see also Kenneth Morgan, 'Bristol West India Merchants in the Eighteenth Century', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 3 (1993), pp. 185-208; Alexandra Franklin, Enterprise and advantage: The West India interest in Britain, 1774-1840 (University of Pennsylvania, Unpub. PhD, 1992).

Portrait of Thomas Daniel © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery); http://discoveringbristol.org.uk/browse/slavery/thomas-daniel/.

We are very grateful to Ruth Hecht and Robert Lancashire for their help with this entry.


Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Spouse
Susannah Cave
Children
Thomas (1798-1872) plus 6 daughters
Wealth at death
£200,000
Rubinstein
1854/10
Oxford DNB Entry

Associated Claims (60)

£3,171 3s 4d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)
£2,728 15s 9d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£2,043 7s 10d
Not a claimant
£3,942 2s 1d
Unsuccessful claimant
£3,410 0s 10d
Beneficiary (Judgement creditor)
£133 1s 10d
Unsuccessful claimant
£504 18s 1d
Unsuccessful claimant
£31 1s 5d
Awardee (Judgement creditor)
£320 8s 5d
Awardee (Judgement creditor)
£3,384 15s 11d
Unsuccessful claimant
£1,258 7s 7d
Other association
£1,359 7s 1d
Unsuccessful claimant
£4,998 11s 0d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)
£4,481 19s 9d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)
£4,748 0s 9d
Unsuccessful claimant (Judgement creditor)
£2,874 1s 6d
Not a claimant
£295 9s 3d
Awardee
£29 2s 7d
Not a claimant
£2,823 11s 7d
Unsuccessful claimant (Judgement creditor)
£229 2s 11d
Awardee
£3,299 7s 1d
Not a claimant
£4,180 19s 9d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)
£2,441 0s 4d
Unsuccessful claimant (Judgement creditor)
£4,078 1s 5d
Not a claimant
£128 3s 4d
Unsuccessful claimant (Judgement creditor)
£3,169 4s 10d
Awardee
£3,398 7s 8d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£2,648 16s 1d
Awardee (Judgement creditor)
£1,879 16s 1d
Unsuccessful claimant
£6,956 0s 4d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£4,592 13s 6d
Not a claimant
£2,151 13s 3d
Not a claimant
£2,623 11s 1d
Unsuccessful claimant
£4,233 8s 7d
Unsuccessful claimant
£3,577 1s 0d
Unsuccessful claimant (Mortgagee)
£3,221 13s 7d
Unsuccessful claimant
£1,945 16s 7d
Unsuccessful claimant (Judgement creditor)
£1,042 13s 10d
Awardee
£17,532 6s 6d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£9,919 12s 5d
Awardee
£9,653 0s 9d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£10,298 17s 5d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)
£430 3s 2d
Unsuccessful claimant (consensual)
£3,421 16s 4d
Not a claimant
£7,699 0s 3d
Awardee
£12,577 14s 5d
Awardee
£5,737 15s 2d
Unsuccessful claimant (Mortgagee)
£5,512 9s 2d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£4,887 3s 10d
Awardee (Mortgagee-in-possession)
£3,997 7s 5d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£2,162 8s 9d
Awardee
£1,257 8s 5d
Unsuccessful claimant
£793 9s 10d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£2,697 7s 0d
Unsuccessful claimant (consensual)
£1,845 11s 1d
Awardee
£2,566 2s 6d
Unsuccessful claimant
£3,161 5s 9d
Unsuccessful claimant
£1,941 0s 11d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£5,883 11s 8d
Awardee (Mortgagee)
£3,922 7s 2d
Unsuccessful claimant (Mortgagee)

Associated Estates (14)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1812 [EA] - 1816 [LA] → Owner

Bought by Thomas Daniel, who also had substantial mortgage on the estate.

- 1834 [LA] → Joint owner
1802 [SY] - 1854 [LA] → Owner
1795 [EA] - 1795 [LA] → Mortgage Holder
1834 [EA] - → Mortgagee-in-Possession
1822 [EA] - → Other

John and Thomas Daniel were creditors of John Simmons: see 1822 evolution notes.

1790 [EA] - → Mortgage Holder

See 1792 evolution for other Daniels involved.

1790 [EA] - 1803 [LA] → Mortgage Holder

End date of mortgage holding not known. 1803 is approximate.

1834 [SY] - 1834 [EY] → Mortgage Holder
1812 [EA] - 1816 [LA] → Owner
1815 [EA] - → Mortgage Holder
1825 [EA] - 1825 [LA] → Creditor
1829 [EA] - 1832 [LA] → Mortgage Holder
1817 [EA] - 1817 [LA] → Joint owner

Legacies Summary

Commercial (4)

Senior partner
Thos. Daniel & Co.
West India merchant  
 
Name partner
 
Firm Investment
 
Partner
 

Cultural (3)

President
Bristol Asylum...... 
notes →
Madge Dresser, ‘Daniel, Thomas (1762–1854)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2016 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/107411, accessed 16 June...
Co-founder
Bristol, Clifton and West of England Zoological Society...... 
notes →
Given as 'founding shareholder', Madge Dresser, ‘Daniel, Thomas (1762–1854)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2016...
Trustee
Dr White's Charity...... 
notes →
Madge Dresser, ‘Daniel, Thomas (1762–1854)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2016 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/107411, accessed 16 June...

Physical (1)

Bridge
Clifton Suspension Bridge [Built] 
description →
'In 1829 Daniel was on the bridge committee which sought designs for an iron suspension bridge from Clifton Down over the River Avon and was named as one of the Clifton suspension bridge's first...
notes →
Madge Dresser, ‘Daniel, Thomas (1762–1854)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2016 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/107411, accessed 16 June...

Political (4)

Local Government
Tory 
office →
Sheriff
1786 - 1787
office →
Mayor
1797 - 1798
office →
Alderman
1798 - 1835
Urban Politics
Tory 
political association →
True Blue Steadfast Club Member
-

Relationships (6)

Son-in-law → Father-in-law
Brothers
Notes →
Business partners as well as...
Son → Father
Father-in-law → Son-in-law
Brother-in-laws
Notes →
TD's sister Anne, married Stephen Cave; SC's sister Susanna married...
Executor → Testator

Addresses (3)

Berkeley Square, Bristol, Gloucestershire, South-west England, England
Henbury, Bristol, Gloucestershire, South-west England, England
Stoodleigh Court, Stoodleigh, Devon, Devon & Cornwall, England