"The Hungerhill Allotment Gardens "
May 2010 Meeting Report
Speaker - Chris Weir
The May 2010 meeting of The Keyworth & District Local History Society was held in The Centenary Lounge, Keyworth on 7th May. The guest speaker for the evening was Chris Weir and his topic was ‘The Story of Jesse Boot & the Boots Company’.
Jesse Boot was born in Nottingham in 1850 into a poor, working class family. His father, John Boot, had been an agricultural labourer working at Radcliffe-on-Trent but he was dogged by ill health and decided to relocate in Nottingham and try his luck as a purveyor of herbal medicines. Jesse’s mother was Mary, nee Mills and together the family embarked on this new enterprise.
In the first half of the 19th Century the town of Nottingham was an overcrowded, dirty, unpleasant and unhealthy place to live in but it was here that John Boot decided to open a small shop. Premises were obtained in Goose Gate, Hockley and John Boot, with the help of his wife, commenced to sell herbal medicines and remedies. The shop was only a short distance from where the Boot family lived. The ingredients for these potions were often made from plants that grew locally in such places as The Meadows (then unspoilt fields and pasture). John and Mary would collect the plants together and they would then be used in the various concoctions that were sold in the shop.
Sadly John died in 1861 and, at the tender age of 10 years old, Jesse was fatherless. However Mary continued with the business and Jesse began to help her. Jesse left school at 13 years of age and devoted himself to, what was now, the family business. One of Jesse’s jobs was to help in the collection of the wild plants and flowers, a job that was usually done barefoot as Jesse only had one pair of boots and these were strictly ‘Sunday Best’ only. As Jesse grew older he took a more active part in the business, helping to prepare the concoctions, stacking the shelves, serving behind the counter and counting the money at the end of the day’s business. At the age of 21 Jesse became a partner with his mother and the business became known as ‘Mary & Jesse Boot – Herbalists’.
It would seem that from an early age Jesse had a vision for expanding the business far beyond the narrow confines of Goose gate and Nottingham. Jesse had a sound grasp of business principles. He understood that Nottingham’s poorer residents could not afford to pay for medical services from a doctor but that they still required medicines for their ailments. His ethos was to sell as cheaply as possible but to sell a lot. His biggest and best selling item was Boots ‘No Name Ointment’. This remedy was cure-all for a great many different complaints. However, Jesse did not restrict himself solely to medicinal products. He was always ready to procure any items that he thought would sell well in the shop, be they tins of salmon or sponges for washing. The tins of salmon were a particular success. One Saturday 1,440 tins were sold although not without incident. It transpired that tin openers were in short supply amongst the poorer customers and tins were returned to the shop in order to be opened! In this way the company prospered and Jesse was always keen to re-invest his profits in order to expand the business. Jesse was a devout Methodist and he applied the same zeal to his business activities as he did to his religious life.
Towards the end of the 1870’s his mother, Mary, decided that she wanted to retire from business life. She had, after all, had endured a life of hard work and wished to live a more relaxed manner during the latter years of her life. So it was that Jesse took on the sole responsibility for running the business. In 1883 Jesse moved the company shop into larger premises. These were in the form of three adjacent shops, all of which Jesse acquired. These premises had space for the shop itself but also offices and lodging for the Boot family. This new shop also boasted of an elevator to take customers to the higher floors, a sign that Jesse was always keen to invest in ‘new technology’ if he thought that there was money to be made in it. Further shops were opened in Nottingham and then, in 1884 Jesse opened his first shop outside Nottingham, in Sheffield. By the advent of the 20th Century Boots could justifiably be called a nationwide company.
However, in today’s parlance Jesse could be described as a workaholic and this took it’s toll on his health. Jesse was very much a ‘hands-on’ businessman and involved himself in every aspect of the business. In an attempt to obtain some ‘rest & relaxation’ Jesse was persuaded by his sister to go to St Helier, Jersey, for a holiday. It was there that he met his future wife, Florence Rowe. Florence was the daughter of a stationer and was accustomed to the business world. Jesse fell in love immediately and it was not long before they married. Eventually the couple would have three children, two daughters Marjorie and Dorothy, and a son John. Florence has a sound business brain and brought new ideas into the business. Thus it was that the company began to sell such items as picture frames, books and fancy goods. All this time the business was expanding and becoming more and more profitable. These profits were constantly ploughed back into the business though Jesse did allow himself the luxury of moving into a more palatial residence in The Park Estate, Nottingham.
Business continued to prosper; new shops were constantly being opened throughout the country. Rival chemists’ companies were taken over and Boots went from strength to strength. The next important milestone in the company’s history occurred in 1892 with the acquisition of new premises on Island Street in Nottingham. It was here that the factories that manufactured the company’s products were situated. Ultimately this would become known as the Island Street Works.
Jesse and Florence also took a keen interest in the welfare of their employees. Activities were organized for the workers outside working hours. This took many forms, various clubs catering for different hobbies and pastimes such as cycling and tennis or day-trips to the seaside or other locations. Florence made sure that all the workers had a cup of cocoa before they started work and works canteens were installed where Boots employees could obtain food at reasonable prices.
In 1909 Jesse Boot received a knighthood in recognition of his outstanding success and became Sir Jesse Boot. Nevertheless, Sir Jesse was never one to rest on his laurels and he continued to expand his empire. By the outbreak of the Great War there were over 560 Boots shops throughout the United Kingdom, a remarkable figure. However, Jesse’s health, which had never been strong, continued to deteriorate. He had been plagued with arthritis since he was a child and the condition was gradually deteriorating. This may have been a factor in Jesse deciding to retire from business and sell the company. Though Jesse had a son, John, and it would be reasonable to assume that he would hand over the reins to him when he retired, this proved not o be the case. For some, unknown, reason Jesse did not think that his son John was sufficiently skilled to run the business successfully. Whatever the reason Jesse sold the entire company in 1920 to an American millionaire, Louis K. Liggett, for £2,250,000. Louis K. Liggett was the founder of the drug company Rexall and, in American parlance, was a drug store magnate. This caused considerable unrest in the Boot family; Jesse hadn’t consulted any of the rest of his family when he conducted negotiations for the sale of the company. What Jesse did do for John however was to secure him a directorship in the company under the new owners.
In 1920, no doubt with some of the money from the sale of the company, Jesse donated £50,000 to the Nottingham General Hospital. He also bought 20 acres of land on Victoria Embankment, alongside the River Trent, to build playing fields and erect a suitable memorial to those sons of Nottingham who had lost their lives during the Great War. Oddly, whilst Jesse did not have sufficient faith in his son’s ability to run the company Louis Liggett did and he left John to manage the business. This same year Jesse was given the Freedom of the City of Nottingham.
Jesse’s next act of generosity to the City of Nottingham took the form of a donation of land at Highfields, between Lenton and Beeston. This land would be the site for the new University of Nottingham. Jesse took a very active part in the development of the new campus. In 1928 Sir Jesse Boot was further honoured by becoming a peer of the realm, assuming the title of Lord Trent. Jesse was also instrumental in the construction of University Boulevard, Highfields Lido and the croquet courts in the same location.
Meanwhile, John had been running the company very successfully, acquiring more and more of the company’s shares via the Stock Market. With the Wall Street Crash in the United States the value of shares dropped considerably and John was able to secure sufficient by 1933 to gain a controlling share of the company. Thus, in 1933 Boots was once more a truly British company. Unfortunately Jesse had died in 1931 and never lived to see the success that his son achieved. Evidence of this success was the opening of the 1,000th Boots store in 1933.
Sadly, the company is no longer in British hands, now being a part of a multinational drugs conglomerate, but the name of Boots is renowned worldwide. Over the years tens of thousands of persons have been employed by the company, greatly adding to the wealth of the city. The benefit that the City of Nottingham has derived from donations from Jesse Boot is incalculable but evidence of it is to be found all around the city. Many thanks to Chris for presenting such an interesting and informative presentation on one of Nottingham’s most famous sons.