The Snuff Tobacco Reference

John Thomas Illingworth and the Illingworth Tobacco Concerns

John Thomas Illingworth (d. 1888) was a Kendal tobacco manufacturer who established himself in 1867, having previously worked as a commercial agent for the Gawith tobacco concern.1 Two of his sons certainly, namely George Rumney Illingworth and James Rumney Illingworth (d. 1937), became involved in the Illingworth tobacco firm;2 the latter persisted in the trade and during the First World War on 1916-09-12 incorporated as James Illingworth Limited.3 Parts of the James Illingworth company were subsequently spun-off and took the forms of Illingworth’s Snuffs Limited and Illingworth’s Tobaccos Limited, and by 1937 James Illingworth Limited was acquired by Gallaher Limited, who further spun-off the foreign interests into James Illingworth (Overseas) Limited and divested this to British-American Tobacco Company Limited.4 5 The two Illingworth’s companies were acquired in 1964-02 by Singleton and Cole Limited,6 who shortly thereafter was in turn acquired by the Canvenham group. All Cavenham tobacco operations were acquired by Imperial Group circa 1984-07,7 and Illingworth production was soon assumed by their Joseph and Henry Wilson Limited subsidiary, Aynam Mills, the Illingworth tobacco works, having been lost to fire in 1983-02.8 9 The Illingworth legacy is today the Dr. Rumney snuff tobacco brand, named for Dr. John Rumney relative of the Illingworth family,10 which is produced by Wilsons & Co. of Sheffield the good will and recipes having been acquired in 2016 from Imperial. (J. Hanson, personal communication, 2023-01-12.)

References

  1. Snuff Yesterday and Today. Cecil William Shepherd. Page 38. 1963. Digitised version
  2. Record of probate for Illingworth, John Thomas. Carlisle District Probate Registry. 1888.
  3. Stock Exchange Year-Book. James Illingworth, Limited. Edition of 1924; Page 2,586. 1924. Digitised version
  4. Untitled document. Page 170. Digitised version
  5. Letter from The Monopolies Comission to the British-American Tobacco Company Limited. Digitised version
  6. The Economist. Singleton & Cole Ltd.: Encouraging Current Sales Figures. Volume 212; Issue 6307; Date 1964-07-11; page 198. 1964. Digitised version
  7. Tobbaco Reporter. Markets are ‘up to snuff’. Jacques Cole. Volume 111; Number 7; Issue 1984-07; pages 25–28. 1984. Digitised version
  8. Tobacco. Triump Over Adversity. Issue 1983-05; Pages 3–4. 1983. Digitised version
  9. Tobacco. Sniffles and Snuff. Sonia Roberts. Issue 1983-12; Pages 9–13. 1983. Digitised version
  10. Tobacco. The techniques and the statistics of snuff selling in 1979. Sonia Roberts. Issue 1979-07; Pages 9–15. 1979. Digitised version