The 1939 edition of ''
Burke's Landed Gentry lists Thomas Martineau (1764–1826), as a "manufacturer" (textiles) and the fifth son of David Martineau II and Sarah Meadows, whose siblings were Margaret (1718–1781, mother of John Taylor) and Philip Meadows (1719–1783), solicitor and Lord of the Manor of Diss, Norfolk. On 13 January 1855, the Examiner'' reported that the siblings' "
collateral ancestor was
Sir Philip Meadows, the ambassador of
Oliver Cromwell". Thomas grew up in Norwich, attending family friend
Mrs Barbauld's school, the
Palgrave Academy in Suffolk. A "reading man" himself, in Martineau's family "there was always discussions about books and ideas". Thomas Martineau and his first cousin
John Taylor were deacons of Norwich's Unitarian church, the
Octagon Chapel. Alongside John Taylor, Martineau and his two brothers, Philip Meadows and David, are recorded in 1819 as being
commissioners for the "City and
County of the City of Norwich". Thomas Martineau and John Taylor were both benefactors of
Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, when the college was in
York, and proprietors of the Bow Gas Company, which obtained their
Act of Parliament on 1 May 1821, but had run into questionable financial circumstances by 1823. Thomas married Elizabeth Rankin (8 October 1772 – 26 August 1848) in 1793. Elizabeth had her portrait painted a year before her death by a member of the
Bonham Carter family. , was home to Thomas Martineau from the 1790s.By the 1790s, Thomas had acquired the
leasehold of Gurney Court in Magdalen Street, Norwich. His older children, including Robert (1798–1870) and
Harriet, were born at Gurney Court, which was owned by the
Gurney family. The two
Nonconformist Norwich families were close and would eventually intermarry with the marriage, in 1879, of Frances Julia Martineau (1853–1931) –
Peter Finch Martineau's great-granddaughter – to the
Rev. Joseph John Gurney (1848–1890) of
Earlham Hall, the Gurney's
family seat. Joseph John Gurney later lived at Bracondale Hall, once the home of Thomas' brother, Philip Meadows Martineau. It was at Thomas's home – "commemoratively known as Martineau House" – that literary
illustrissimo including
Amelia Opie and
Anna Letitia Barbauld were entertained. Thomas' finances and investments remained viable until around 1825–26, when, in the
Panic of 1825, the stock market and banking system collapsed. Thomas died on 21 June 1826 and is buried at
Rosary Cemetery, the first non-denominational burial ground in the United Kingdom. Thomas and Elizabeth had eight children. Thomas and Elizabeth Martineau's eldest child was a daughter, Elizabeth “Lissey” (1794–1850), who married
Dr Thomas Greenhow, a reforming doctor in
Newcastle, co-founder of the city's eye infirmary. Elizabeth's cousin George (1792-1857), son of David Martineau (1754-1840) married Greenhow's sister Sarah (1801-1891). Their daughter Lucy Martineau (1832-1860) married
Sir Alfred Wills. The Greenhows' daughter
Frances married into the
Lupton family of Leeds. Frances was an educationalist and worked to expand educational opportunities for girls. Honouring the Martineau
lineage, Frances' eldest son was named
Francis Martineau Lupton (1848–1921) whose great-grandson was Stephen Martineau Middleton (born 1945). Thomas and Elizabeth Martineau's eldest son was Thomas (1795–1824), a surgeon who co-founded the Norfolk and Norwich Eye Infirmary, which later became part of the
Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. Another son, Robert (1798–1870), became a magistrate, town councillor and then
Mayor of Birmingham in 1846. He married Jane Smith (died 1874). He hired John Barnsley to build a mansion in
Edgbaston, with a large wing for his mother, who lived there till her death in 1848, and another for his own family. Barnsley had already built most of Birmingham's grand Victorian and Edwardian public buildings. Their best known child was their sixth,
Harriet (1802–1876), the political author and a pioneer sociologist. She sometimes stayed with her widowed mother and her brother Robert, including during his mayoral tenure. The three of them, and other members of the family, are buried together in the Martineau vault at the
Key Hill Cemetery, Birmingham. Their seventh child,
James (1805–1900), was a religious philosopher and a professor at
Manchester New College. He was a guest teacher in
Liverpool, where his sister, Rachel (1800–1876), ran a
private girls' school which was attended by
Elizabeth Gaskell's daughters. James's daughter was the watercolourist
Edith Martineau (1842–1909). == Sir Thomas Martineau and family ==