Joseph Stephenson Rowntree

Joseph Stephenson – known as Stephen – was the third of Joseph and Antoinette’s sons. He spent his working life at Rowntree and Co. but was also involved in Quaker committees and Liberal politics. He was the first member of the family to go to Cambridge University. Quakers had been debarred from entering the older universities mainly due to their non-conformism and this restriction had only recently been lifted. He was known as a good committee man and, most notably, he was on the Northern Friends Peace Board and the Yorkshire Friends’ Service Committee, the last of which was set up to pursue the ideas of John Wilhelm after his death. Both of these committees still exist although the latter is now the Outreach Projects Committee of Quakers in Yorkshire. Stephen was active in local politics and was mayor of Harrogate from 1911 to 1913.

Image: From originals held at the Borthwick Institute for Archives.