Charles Hulbert

Charles Hulbert (1778–1857) was an English businessman and writer.

Life

The son of Thomas Hulbert of Hulbert Green, near Cheadle, Cheshire, he was born in Manchester on 18 February 1778, and educated at the grammar school of Halton, Cheshire. After learning cotton-weaving he became manager, at the age of twenty-two, of large print works at Middleton, near Manchester, and subsequently began business with his elder brother at Swinton, also near Manchester.

In 1803 he moved to Shrewsbury, and in conjunction with others leased some large factories at Coleham near the town. He entered into Sunday school and other religious work, carrying on classes and services at the factory. He applied, but unsuccessfully, for ordination in the church.

At the request of William Wilberforce and Henry Grey Bennet in 1808 he drew up a report on the management of factories, as an answer to a claim made in parliament that manufactories were hotbeds of vice. Soon afterwards he declined an offer to move to St. Petersburg, made to him, it is said, by an agent of the emperor of Russia.

In 1813, his business as a cotton manufacturer having fallen off, he opened a bookshop and printing-office at Shrewsbury, where he published the Salopian Magazine (1815–17), and printed many small books, most of them written by himself. In 1827 he built a house at Hadnall, near Shrewsbury, which he called 'Providence Grove,' and here he continued to print and publish his writings. His house burned down, and his large library destroyed, on 7 January 1839; but he was able by a public subscription and a grant from the Royal Literary Fund, to rebuild his residence and to purchase an annuity. He died there on 7 October 1857.

Works

His works include:

• Candid Strictures ... on Thoughts on the Protestant Ascendency, Shrewsbury, 1807.
• Memoir of General Lord Hill, 1816.
• African Traveller, 1817.
• Museum of the World, 1822-6, 4 vols.
• Christian Memoirs, 1832.
• Religions of Britain.
• History of Salop, 1837.
• Cheshire Antiquities, 1838.
• Manual of Shropshire Biography, &c., 1839.
• The Sunday Reader and Preacher, 1839–42.
• Biographical Sketches, 1842.
• Memoirs of Seventy Years of an Eventful Life, 1848–52. Of this autobiography he published an abridgment entitled The Book of Providences and the Book of Joys, 1857.

Family

In 1805 he married Anna, daughter of Thomas Wood, proprietor of the Shrewsbury Chronicle. His eldest son, Charles Augustus Hulbert (1804–1888), was also a writer, and instrumental in the restoration of Almondbury Church.

References

•  Sutton, Charles William (1891). "Hulbert, Charles". In Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co.  [Memoirs mentioned above; Obituary of C. Hulbert, by C. A. Hulbert, 2nd edit. 1860; Manchester Guardian, 7 March 1888; Brit. Mus. Cat,]

External links

• Open Library page

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Hulbert, Charles". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

Persondata
Name	Hulbert, Charles
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Date of birth	1778
Place of birth
Date of death	1857
Place of death