Person Page 405

The following biography is copied directly from the Dictionary of Irish Biography under a under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license:

Gamble, Josias (or Josiah) Christopher
Contributed by
Lunney, Linde

Gamble, Josias (or Josiah) Christopher (1778–1848), presbyterian minister and chemical manufacturer, was born in August 1778, fourth of five sons of David Gamble, farmer, from near Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, whose wife's maiden name was Rutherford, and who also had a daughter. There were several Gamble families locally: it is not known how David Gamble, a leader of the United Irishmen in Fermanagh, was connected, and it is uncertain if another Josias Gamble, also related to a David Gamble who was one of the pioneers after 1781 of what became the new state of Tennessee, was of the same family.
Josias's elder brother George emigrated to America, where his son James Gamble (qv) founded the firm of Procter & Gamble. In 1794 Josias entered Glasgow University, where he was an exact contemporary of William Hamilton Drummond (qv). He studied medicine and was particularly interested in chemistry. (According to the Glasgow matriculation albums, a Josias C. Gamble graduated MD in 1787 – clearly impossible for the subject of this essay, and even 1797 would be unlikely). Josias Gamble from Fermanagh, intending to become a presbyterian minister, graduated with an MA (1797), was licensed to preach (1798) by Clogher presbytery, and was ordained minister of Enniskillen (24 December 1799). He continued chemical experimentation, and kept up to date with the rapid developments of bleaching and allied technologies; for local linen manufacturers, he was able to prepare chlorine gas, whose bleaching properties had been demonstrated in 1785. In February 1804 he resigned from his congregation and spent some time in Belfast. A textile business in Dublin was owned by Baptist Gamble (probably a relative), and Josias seems to have moved to Dublin to establish a chemical manufactory in Meath St. about 1806, and in new premises in Lurgan St. from 1815; he produced chlorine-based bleaching powder, sulphuric acid, and also alum, used as a mordant in the textile industry. He married (16 September 1820) Hanna, daughter of Henry Gower, a Dublin solicitor; they had a son, David (b. 3 February 1823, in Dublin), and three daughters who died young. The Gambles moved to England shortly after David's birth, and in 1828 Josias entered a partnership with James Muspratt (qv) to establish in St Helens, Lancashire, a soda factory which used the Leblanc method. Gamble continued to develop his enterprise there after the partnership ended in 1830, and from 1836 was in partnership with local soapboilers to establish a successful soap, alkali, and sulphuric acid industry. The partnership ended acrimoniously when his design for a tower to condense and recover hydrochloric acid was rejected by his colleagues. He patented several improvements to chemical processes, and designed his own factories, but was in poor health for the last years of his life. He died 27 January 1848 in St Helens.
After he studied chemistry at University College, London (1839–40), and at the Andersonian College, Glasgow, David Gamble (1823–1907) joined the business in 1843; it was known as J. C. Gamble & Son – having had some minor changes of name and short-lived partnerships – even after Josias Gamble died. For the rest of the century, David Gamble oversaw the development of the business and of St Helens; Gamble's firm became one of the biggest in the British chemical industry. He was instrumental in setting up (1891) the United Alkali Company, which merged several firms to challenge more effectively a newly introduced manufacturing process which threatened their markets and profitability. He encouraged a young inventor named Weldon, who as a result patented an important new process of chemical decomposition of salt. David Gamble was the most important person in St Helens in his day: he was its first mayor (1869–70; again 1882–3 and 1886–7), and was lieutenant-colonel in a Volunteer regiment which he had founded. In 1893, to promote technical training, he gave £25,000 to the town for an institute and library, the nucleus of St Helens College. Gamble also supported primary education, and for three years gave a tenth of his income to the Anti-Corn Law League, but was defeated by fifty-seven votes when he stood as a liberal for parliament in 1885. He gave large amounts of money to local collections for the victims of the Irish famine in the 1840s. He was created baronet (31 August 1897) and KCB (1904). He married (26 January 1847) Elizabeth Haddock (d. 1899), daughter of a local coalmine owner; they had six sons and five daughters, most of whom survived him at his death in St Helens on 4 February 1907.
Sources
The Treble Almanac (incorporating Wilson's Dublin Directory). . ., 1804–22; C. Potter, The monthly record of eminent men (1890), reprinted in BBI; W. Innes Addison, Matriculation albums of the University of Glasgow (1913); WWW; Stephen Miall, A history of the British chemical industry (1931); McConnell, Fasti (1951); L. F. Haber, The chemical industry during the nineteenth century (1958); Dict. Bus. Biog.; DNB MP; Biographical encyclopedia of scientists, i (1994); information from Liz Nemeth, family historian (LizNRN@aol.com), citing Robert A. Sherrard, The Sherrard family of Steubenville (1890); website of St Helens College (accessed Mar. 1999.)¹

The following biography is copied directly from the Dictionary of Irish Biography under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license:

Gamble, James
Contributed by
Lunney, Linde

Gamble, James (1803–91), soap manufacturer in the USA, was born 3 April 1803 in the Graan, near Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, eldest among four sons and two daughters of George Gamble and his wife Mary Norris. They were related to prosperous farmers, merchants, and linen bleachers – Josiah C. Gamble (qv) was George's younger brother – but business difficulties may have decided George Gamble in 1819 to emigrate to the USA with his family. He was a methodist preacher, but probably not ordained, as he did not follow a ministerial career in America. James was educated at Portora Royal School; at the age of 16, he left the port of Derry and sailed for forty-seven days to reach St John's, New Brunswick. The family travelled to Pittsburgh by boat and wagon, then went on flatboat down the Ohio river to Cincinnati, where they had to interrupt their journey in November 1819 when James became seriously ill. His father gave up plans to travel to Shawneeville, Illinois, and set up instead a horticultural nursery in Cincinnati. After his recovery James was apprenticed to a soap-maker. For his first six months he received no pay, only his board and lodging; thereafter he received $9 a month. He set up his own business in 1828/9, and had several partners, but from 1837 was in partnership with William Procter, an English-born candlemaker. They had met while courting two sisters, Elizabeth Ann and Olivia Norris, who had recently emigrated from Belfast; James married Elizabeth on 21 March 1833. Alexander Norris, the girls' father, is credited with recognising the compatibility of the businesses run by his sons-in-law: both soap and candles used the same raw materials, notably tallow and other animal oils, which were in plentiful supply in Cincinnati because of the meatpacking carried on in the town. The company sold its products widely, thanks to the expansion of the railways: in 1859 its sales exceeded $1 million. It was awarded contracts to supply the union armies with soap and candles during the American civil war, and in 1879 began the manufacture of Ivory soap, which became one of its most important products. The name of Procter & Gamble has been known worldwide ever since; family members, especially James's eldest son, James Norris Gamble (1836–1932), oversaw its great expansion and diversification. James and Elizabeth Gamble had ten children: seven sons and three daughters, of whom a son and a daughter died in childhood. Elizabeth Gamble died in 1888, James Gamble on 29 April 1891 at his residence in Cincinnati.
Sources
Internment record no. 50757, Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati, OH, USA (downloaded May 2012 from www.springgrove.org); Editors of Advertising Age: The house that IVORY built (1988), 5–8; information provided (July 1999) by Nancy Frank, family historian in Atlanta, GA (includes reprints of articles from the Procter & Gamble corporation house journal, cuttings from Cincinnati newspapers, and genealogical tables); material downloaded (28 July 1999) from Procter & Gamble website.¹