Silas Mainville Burroughs: the missing story (1999)

so a great deal has been written about henry welcome but so little about silas burris welcome and burrows both products of the philadelphia college of pharmacy joined different american pharmaceutical companies burress came to london in 1879 he felt the pharmaceutical world was at his feet how right he was he sent for his old friend henry welcome and in 1880 the burress welcome company was formed burroughs provided all the initial capital and was very much the senior partner can be argued that but for silas burress the welcome trust and indeed glaxo welcome would never have existed today the trust has assets of more than 12 billion pounds and is the largest grant giving charity in the world glaxo welcome is one of the leading international pharmaceutical companies a chance conversation between len goodwin a senior figure for so many years with both the welcome foundation and the welcome trust and dick stillwell silas burris's grandson has recently brought the welcome trust and the burroughs family together dick stillwell has very kindly presented the trust with all his grandfather's memorabilia including his extraordinarily interesting diaries we also now have the burroughs room at the heart of the welcome building over the past year or so the burris family have been frequent visitors to the building and it gave us all much pressure when only last month two of his great great grandsons came and had a good look around it is wonderful that for the first time since the latter part of the last century for silas burress died in 1895 when only 48. the burress family is once again a part of the welcome scene len goodwin now takes up this fascinating story the stillwells have been our neighbors here in berkshire for more than 30 years although we met them only recently they had no idea that i had ever worked for welcome and it was only a chance remark of richard's that revealed that burroughs was his grandfather it was pure serendipity i went in search of hay and horse manure and i came away with a piece of missing history the stillwells know all about horses this is the farm where i first met them they run of well-known stables they have trained and taught and judged horses and riders all over the world including the british olympic teams richard himself is a famous horseman and so was his father sydney before him my father was a great horseman and he was a very quiet horseman with wonderful hands he could drive anything from before and hand to tandem randoms he raised troika's in russia he was a great polo man and he traveled the world he went to egypt he went to paris he went everywhere there was to go with a horse he loved hunting he rode in his last race at the age of well over 60 and he rode in the maryland hunt cup in america which was some fate for an englishman richard stillwell grew up in this house the limes in windsor his father had moved there in 1920 when he married anna burrows who had been living there with her sister francis my father lived in edgeworth house which was next door to the lions and that is where he met my mother anna who's the elder daughter of cyrus manville buyers and they married and we lived there in some style we had a lot of staff my father had a valley and we had horses at the lines and my father was still teaching a lot of the aristocracy of england they all used to come there for advice and they used to ride and show horses all over the country and we lived there and my mother had a car the only kind box actually and um we really did have a mildless time richard's wife joan has strong recollections of anna from the late 1940s when she and richard started spending time together we met in 47 when richard came out of the army and the great thing was to be introduced to his mother who lived in this quite sizable house with two old retainers and i was a little bit scared actually she was quite powerful lady but by that time i'm afraid a lot of the money had gone she she was quite um spent it quite well including taking the the council to high court over the lime trees that were around the house and they chopped them down my mother was extremely extravagant but when she died we ended up with the house and the furniture which was all brought or most of it to the farm here we also have all the boxes full of papers and documents belonging to my grandfather that my mother so carefully stored all those years all these things have been carefully kept by richard and joan and when catalogued and analyzed will throw further light on the life and times of one of the founders of the modern pharmaceutical industry burroughs was born in america but he came from a very old and distinguished british family in 1302 they were established at northam near biddeford in devon and they built a great house barrow house with its seven gables which survived until victorian times when it was pulled down and replaced with a more modern building all that remains are the cellars a watchtower and a bank in the grounds which is said to have been used by people for watching archery and other sports the church dates from the 13th century and it has a great tall tower that used to be whitewashed to serve as a beacon for ships at sea it contains a number of borough's tombs they were great seamen in 1556 stephen burras sailed further into the northeast passage than any previous navigator on his first attempt he had a narrow escape from the ice his brother william vice admiral in drake's fleet led a raid on cadiz in his vessel the lion commemorated by a pub in northam and he damaged a hundred ships and burned three castles he was later granted a coat of arms by queen elizabeth the first and made controller of the queen's navy nearly fifty years later among the many who fled to escape religious persecution was john barrows born in barnstaple in 1611. he crossed the atlantic and arrived in massachusetts in 1634 later he moved down to long island the history of the family in america has been traced by richard stilwell's uncle stanley many of them held high office in local government and in 1815 one of them david who was silas manville's grandfather bought 180 acres of land in western new york and that must have added to the family's fortunes silas manville burras generally known as manville was born in medina new york state in 1845 the son of a lawyer and u.s congressman who had started life as a merchant borough studied at the philadelphia college of pharmacy and he qualified in pharmacy in 1877. his thesis on powders compressed into tablets showed how much more easily they disintegrated in water compared with the old rolled pills working as an agent for john wyatt he traveled to london where he saw great opportunities for the sale of the new compressed medicines that he had studied he was wealthy and was already selling medicines under his own name when in 1879 he invited henry solomon welcome another ambitious young american working in london for mckesson and robbins to join him they very soon created a thriving business both had traveled widely and boris continued to do so leaving the less volatile welcome to keep his eye on the company's base in london in october 1881 burroughs started on what was intended to be a short trip to the south of france on the steam yacht ceylon for some time he had been considering a journey around the world to extend the business and make our fortunes he found the ship comfortable and convenient and so he stayed on board using it as a base for his business through the middle east through egypt and then across to india where he spent several months from madras he took ship to australia and new zealand and eventually returned to america via the far east during the journey he filled many notebooks thin paper duplicate books that he used for letters orders instructions to welcome religious notes and lectures descriptions of scenery and new ideas for developing packing and selling his medicines the notebooks throw an interesting light on his character a devout christian the bible he carried with him is heavily annotated interested in missions and good works a bit of a dandy with an eye for the girls a keen observer and an astute and brilliant salesman for instance he wrote from india would advise you brother welcome to get on social and business acquaintance with the head medical men indian department in london get over some fluid extracts from wyeth and have them tested both by the indian and british regular army doctors at the same time they try the pills and tablets please send to the following important and leading doctors who can and will probably do us lots of good special pocket cases number 11 or some good style and with supplement inside those marked star are most important professor henry cook md bombay professor blaine md bombay dr cody bombay and he wrote from australia the doctors treat me first rate and like our stuff if we keep it before them constantly we are in for a fine trade here i think we should have a salesman or a traveler constantly here in australia looking after our interests if we don't warner who has a man here most of the time or park davis who have mr lakeman looking after their interest these folks will get the start of us i can get a good man here a thorough young gentleman thoroughly honest reliable and confident he saw the need to protect his goods against tropical climates kanpur march 82 re bottling of extract of malt and molten oil no one who has not been here in the summer has any idea of the heat it's often 130 in the shade the wind blowing like hot air from a furnace i don't think that our goods are generally exposed to such heat but they may in transportation be left in the direct sun heat which is nearly enough to set fire to them in manufacturing extractive malt it's not enough that it should be hot up to 125 or 130 degrees the bottle should be hot also when filled and corked immediately the corks being first soaked in hot water containing salicylic acid in good proportion he was constantly thinking of improvements to the sample cases that he had devised bombay january 82 rewire samples for india and all tropical climates all should be in bottles and they should be put in little cases of polished or varnished wood pine is good enough but they can be made cheaply in america the cover can also be made of wood and fit on like a card case the vials can be placed as per sketch gujarat february 82 re-pocket sample cases i've got an idea about these that beats the wooden one out of sight i think it's this make them out of some sort of colored tin there's no use for petitions the bottles will not break if placed side by side or if you like a wooden holder could be used with cover of metal as per illustration i think we can sell a lot of pocket cases all filled with our medicines if we get them up of this metal they will be strong light handsome and at such a reasonable price that the druggists will buy them already filled to sell instead of the old-fashioned pocket cases of leather that cost as much empty as ours would full re-large medicine chests the door can be made to slide upward or open at side or downward to make a table though i think the slide the simplest i append a sketch of what i would suggest the chest be somewhat like mahogany will be the best wood these cases became an important symbol of the quality of the firm's products and were presented to burrows friend h.m stanley and other explorers and famous people including gladstone he was an acute observer and tireless traveller bombay january 82 the weather's much cooler now still the native children roll about the doorsteps with not a stitch to cover them and the grown-up people wear mostly the thinnest cotton or linen garments while many have only a white cloth about the loins along the street and especially under the awnings like the wide one before the esplanade hotel the native people by scores are found stretched out and sound asleep on the pavement at any time after nine o'clock later from tasmania he wrote a rainy morning is slowly clearing to a sunny afternoon before dawn there was a heavy downpour and the crowd of passengers on the wharves and on the upper decks of the ss flinders parted in a sorrowful mist from the friends come down to see them off the channel of the tamar is so narrow at lonsden wharves that two steamers as large as this could hardly pass each other at full speed on still evenings can be heard the echo of the rapids up the rocky glen beyond the bridge the fall of water near lansdon from this romantic stream is sufficient to supply it with great power for manufacturing it is proposed i believe to employ this power for lighting the city by electricity barros took his religion very seriously dear pastor i know you'll be glad to attend to my request it is that you and yours will sometimes remember in your prayers to god my humble self who though separated by distance am with you often in thought and in spirit also when i read your prayers and sermons in the christian chronicle will you pray sometimes for my perfect consecration to the service of our lord i want to be a thorough christian in every thought word and act although at the time not an abstainer he worried about the alcohol in his beef and iron wine melbourne september 14 82 to joseph cook esquire your advice may help me out of a difficulty among a number of preparations which we supply to the medical profession is one containing wine and called beef and iron wine while it has been found to be a useful stimulant medicine i feel anxious unless it should be a cause of stumbling to some i've been thinking of dropping it all together or as it is considerably prescribed of putting in some caution in the directions it has been found to be useful in dipsomania i'll send you a copy of the lancet with remarks upon it your advice will be highly appreciated and he had an eye for pretty girls dear miss susie what shall a fellow do there are miss a and msb the lovely daughters of two of the principal medical men here in bombay miss a is a real indian beauty with those two soft bright eyes and such a lovely complexion and a pretty face melbourne march 83 it was a lovely evening with a fresh breeze and the rippling blue sea several ships we overtook with all their sails set and they did look splendidly there were some other very nice looking young ladies aboard and i would so much have enjoyed their acquaintance oh dear they are so wonderfully attractive the lovely opposite sex sydney november 83 whatever the weather might be if she with her smiles were near the place would be a paradise i found a pretty basket in the marketplace and sent it to her full of flowers i wonder if she'll guess who sent it all this time of course welcome was running the business in london and there are occasional signs that burroughs was becoming irritated with him dear welcome received your letter here saying that 500 lots of samples etc had been sent to madras i'm rather surprised that part of them were not sent to calcutta and bombay i think that a hundred pounds worth of our goods would have been consumed in bombay alone if they had been there in the market unless you're going to pay some attention to such matters of vital importance calcutta march 28 82 in rather ill humor on account of welcome who is in one of a dose of liverpills a turkish bath and shampoo sleep diet pilfus nux iron and quinn and zinc and a thorough reorganizing in fact for i believe he's got the jaundice bad and sees things green and black with no ends of snakes in the grass and blue devils everywhere boris left england in 1881 and completed his round-the-world trip in 1883 in america where he married olive chase in the following january and he brought her back to england and they took up residence in serbiton they had two daughters anna and francis and a son stanley who was named after maybelle's very dear friend stanley the explorer he continued to travel and was a very devoted father because he sent his family postcards nearly every day some of which are addressed to his wife with her pet name trixie which he always called her the business with his headquarters in snow hill hoban prospered the name tabloid was registered and welcome fought off competitors the firm's first factory at wandsworth was burned down and replaced in 1889 by a larger one at dartford where borough's radical liberal political principles were given full reign he campaigned for free trade and free travel across frontiers and supported the political reformer henry george he was a well-known lecturer and a prolific writer publishing many political pamphlets and articles to support his utopian dreams and in lighter vain a comic opera entitled the good pirates he championed women's rights and was one of the first employees in britain to introduce an eight-hour day for his staff he provided a share of the company's profits and sports facilities was himself a keen cyclist and in 1893 bought a bicycle for 15 pounds which he used to travel between dartford and snow hill he entertained generously welcome thought too generously and a great party with fireworks was held at dartford at the opening of the new factory his staff loved him he gave them christmas presents and mementos of his frequent travels he gave large sums to charity and was the chief fundraiser for the livingston memorial hospital in dartford opening the appeal with a personal gift of a thousand pounds dear mr searle this paper will constitute an order for one thousand pounds for the purpose of starting a hospital fund for the building of the proposed hospital in dartford let this be as a christmas present from me or rather from the prosperity which providence has bestowed i have more pleasure in doing this than i would in spending the money on a house for myself because the sick poor need a house in care more than i do a memorial can be seen in the silas ward of the hospital which is still very active today but he quarreled with welcome burras was a politician brilliant impetuous a romantic of a completely different temperament from the more practical welcome burus was determined to remain in charge and tried to get rid of his partner bitter disagreements led to legal battles that were only resolved by barrow's early death in 1895. in the autumn of 1894 he set forth on a european cycling tour with his sister lena they went through the black forest and the tyrol on one day they went 110 kilometers on his return he developed a cough and he was advised to winter in the riviera where he and his sister lena spent christmas the postcards to his children showed that the weather was bad and that it was snowing his last card to stanley written from san remo on january the 28th says last night there was snow here and everyone was surprised for it is unusual to see the palm branches white we expect to cycle to border today but instead he contracted pneumonia and died in monte carlo a week later it was a tragedy it caused widespread shock and messages of condolence came in from every side his will shows that his widow olive received four twenty fourths each of his children three twenty fourths and his employees 1 24th of his estate the rest went to his favored missions and charities a plaque was placed in the city temple near his offices in snow hill the employees of barrow's welcome and company have erected this tablet to place on record the esteem and affection in which they hold his memory their grateful recognition of his constant desire to promote their happiness and welfare and their deep sorrow at his death in accordance with the original deed of partnership welcomed bought borough's share of the company olive was very bitter and angry and after her death in 1901 the children were brought up by guardians stanley went to america and became a lawyer the two girls were educated in germany they traveled in europe and america and finally in 1913 they settled in england and bought the limes fortunate that they kept their father's possessions and papers we can now get much closer to this remarkable victorian gentleman enthusiastic bursting with ideas his tireless pursuit of quality style and new methods for marketing his goods were way in advance of his time and so were his staff relations he was kind friendly and generous and did his best to make the world a better place for everyone his name lives on in america in the grants given by the borough's welcome fund and and i think it would please him also in his own little community in dartford where his factory a hundred years on is still known to those who live there as bursas you