The Cheeryble Brothers Ned and Charles from Charles Dickens’s novel ‘Nicholas Nickleby,’ as imagined by Harold Copping (1863-1932). Although Dickens never said who the models of Ned and Charles were, it is generally accepted that they were the Scotsmen William (1769-1842) and Daniel (?1780-1855) Grant, of Ramsbottom in Lancashire, calico printers and manufacturers of various goods. The Cheerybles share the Grants’ mannerisms, above all a delight in appearing abrupt and curmudgeonly only to shower unexpected gifts on the needy.
Part 1 of 2
‘HE’ll live to regret it!’ That was the judgment of William Grant, the Lancashire industrialist, when a Ramsbottom warehouseman wrote a scurrilous pamphlet designed to damage the reputations of William and his brother Daniel.* ‘I suppose’ sneered the author when he heard it ‘that he thinks I’ll be in his debt one day. Well, I’m too careful for that!’
Yet business fell off, and eventually the warehouseman was bankrupted. As he gloomily scanned the names of his creditors he was astonished to see, despite all his care, the name of Grant Brothers, of Ramsbottom. One of his creditors had himself been bankrupted, and by a twist of fortune the Grants now held those debts.
To resume business, a bankrupt had by law to come to an accommodation with all his creditors, and obtain their signatures upon a certificate. And so there came a day when the warehouseman knocked tremulously on the door of the offices of Grant Brothers, and found himself standing before Mr William.
‘Shut the door, sir!’ growled Mr William.
* William and Daniel were just two of eight children born to William Grant (1733-1817) and his wife Grace (née McKenzie). The elder William was a struggling Scottish farmer from Speyside east of Inverness, who in 1783 brought his family to Manchester in the hope of a new life in the burgeoning textile industry. They settled in Ramsbottom, which was just then growing up around the mills of Sir Robert Peel (1750-1830), whose son would later be Prime Minister and establish the Metropolitan police force. William and Daniel became extremely successful manufacturers of textiles and other goods, founding the Square Mill around a simple but pioneering concept: raw goods entering at one end, and finished products exiting at the other. They were assisted in their business by their brothers James and John.
Précis
After a rival in the warehousing business directed a smear campaign against him, Ramsbottom industrialist William Grant swore to make him regret it. Not long afterwards, his rival found himself in financial trouble, and as luck would have it he was unable to resume his business without approval from the very man he had tried to ruin, William Grant. (59 / 60 words)
Part Two
The remains of Grant’s Tower, overlooking Ramsbottom in Lancashire. When William Grant Sr (1733-1817) first arrived with his wife and seven children (one a babe in arms) on the outskirts of Manchester in 1783, they were penniless and homeless; but as he looked out over the Irwell at Ramsbottom, he exclaimed “What a beautiful valley! May God Almighty bless it!” Then, with night coming on he pitched camp, gave the children the last oatcake, and commended them all to God. Next morning some men out shooting stumbled across them, and gave them two sovereigns — enough to save their lives. In 1828-9, William Jr and Daniel erected a fifty-foot Norman-style tower to mark the spot. It collapsed in 1944.
WITH hope dead in his breast, the former warehouseman exhibited his certificate. William twitched it from his fingers. ‘You wrote a pamphlet against us once’ he observed, scrawling across the paper in a bold hand. The man took it back dully. What could he expect to read? ‘Rogue’ perhaps. ‘Scoundrel, libeller.’ But what he read through misty eyes was the company signature. ‘We never refuse an honest tradesman,’ beamed William. ‘I said you would live to repent writing that pamphlet. Some day, I said, you would know us better.
‘Well, my dear fellow, you know us now. What are you going to do?’ The warehouseman expressed fresh optimism. ‘But how are you off in the meantime?’ insisted William. Eventually he wormed it out of him that he was struggling to put food on the family table. ‘My dear fellow,’ William cried ‘this will not do!’ and pressed a ten-pound note into his hands.* Too choked to speak, his visitor pulled out a handkerchief, put it to his face, and ran from the room.
* According to the website Measuring Worth’, £10 in 1839 (the year that Nicholas Nickleby came out) would as a measure of income or wealth be roughly equivalent to £886 in 2019. Like the Cheerybles, William liked to indulge in theatrical bluster before any act of charity. On another occasion, he was asked to donate money to a poor widow. He harrumphed that her late husband had cost the firm some £200, but when it was put to him that the widow was not any the less needy William serenely handed over £5, and said there was another £5 waiting for her if she ever needed it.
Précis
When the bankrupt warehouseman presented himself at Grant Brothers, William indulged himself in a display of grumpy resentment, before gaily approving the debtor’s return to business. Indeed, on learning of the shocking state of his domestic finances, William gave him ten pounds, at which the man who once tried to ruin him broke down in tears. (56 / 60 words)
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