Correspondence of William Pare

Scope and Content

This series of letters concerns James Rigby carrying out various tasks on Pare's behalf. From August 1845 to December 1846 Rigby appears to be employed by Pare in some capacity relating to railways. From 1846 to 1851 Rigby is employed at the London office of The Irish Engineering Company. Throughout the letters Pare refelcts on various social issues and comments on the activities of their mutual friends such as Robert Owen and Henry Travis.

Administrative / Biographical History

William Pare (1804-1873) was a Birmingham tobacconist and was one of the founders of the first Birmingham Cooperative Society. Pare converted to the teachings of Robert Owen after reading William Thompson's Inquiry into Principles of Distribution of Wealth, which he later edited. He left Birmingham in 1842 to become acting governor of Robert Owen's community at Queenswood, Hampshire, from 1842-1844, and published numerous works on co-operation. In 1844 he moved to London to become a railway statistician. From 1846 to 1865 he lived near Dublin employed in the management of ironworks at Clontarf, Liverpool, and Chepstow. On Owen's death in 1858 he became his literary executor.

Geographical Names