Isaac Reckitt

1792 Isaac Reckitt was born in Wainfleet St Mary, Lincolnshire, the fifth of thirteen children.

1819 Isaac and his brother Thomas, commissioned the Hull millwrights Norman and Smithson to build a mill for them. The Reckitt brothers carried on their business as millers, corn factors and bakers.

1820s They added a bakehouse; a steam engine was installed to supply power to a bone mill and to a "Roman Cement" mill built to the north of the granary. The 16hp beam engine was erected by Tuxfords of Boston at a cost of £300.

1833 The business failed after a succession of poor harvests; the mill was sold and the partnership dissolved.

Isaac Reckitt went to Nottingham and set himself up as a corn factor once more, but with little success.

1840 He borrowed money from his relatives and with it rented (then purchased eight years later) a starch factory in Hull. His first business card simply read "Isaac Reckitt Starch Manufacturer - late Middleton" for he had purchased the business from Charles Middleton. The business was to become Reckitt and Colman.

The factory was situated in Dansom Lane, still the location of the company's U.K. pharmaceuticals factory and its main U.K. office.

There was no development in the business until his four sons became old enough to help. From this point on the business was known as Reckitt and Sons.

Isaac's son, Frederick, become the company's first chemist and another son, George, its first salesman.

1862 Isaac died

After Isaac's death, James Reckitt and two of his brothers carried on their father's business as a partnership.

Isaac's sons George Reckitt and his two younger brothers, Francis and James (later Sir James) Reckitt, inherited the business. George realized his share after a disagreement and went into insurance, a venture that failed, and returned to the company as manager of the London office by 1870. One of his son's was Albert Leopold Reckitt who also went into the London office and eventually became chairman of Reckitt and Colman.

See Also

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Sources of Information

• [1] Hullwebs
• Trademarked. A History of Well-Known Brands - from Aertex to Wright's Coal Tar by David Newton. Pub: Sutton Publishing 2008 ISBN 978-0-7509-4590-5
• Biography of Albert Leopold Reckitt [2] and Sir James Reckitt [3]

• [4] Maud Foster Mill