IRISH LIVES:SIR THOMAS TOBIN (1807-81), factory owner and Cork public figure, was born in Liverpool, eldest son of six sons and six daughters of Thomas Tobin (1775-1863), businessman, and Esther (nee Watson). The family was of Irish origin, descended from a periwig maker in Dublin who moved to the Isle of Man; his son Patrick Tobin (1735-94) prospered as a privateer and slave-trader, moved to Liverpool and established one of the most important mercantile dynasties of the 18th and 19th centuries. The family owned huge estates in the West Indies, and when slavery was abolished (1807) moved into the palm-oil trade. The firm soon surpassed all others in the volume of its trade with Africa. Patrick's son, Thomas Tobin snr, decided to start manufacturing gunpowder – a very important trading commodity in west Africa – and acquired from the government the huge Ballincollig powder mills near Cork.
His son, Thomas jnr, arrived in Cork in 1834 to manage the business. It expanded from a workforce of 200 in 1837 to more than 500 in the 1850s and was one of Cork’s biggest employers. At the end of the American Civil War he visited the US; Kelleher speculates that, in the tradition of armament makers, he tried to sell to both sides.
Tobin was a member of the harbour commissioners from 1839 and acted as chairman until his death. In 1849 he was on the committee that made arrangements for the visit of Queen Victoria, and he helped organise Cork’s 1852 National Exhibition, surplus funds from which were used to build the Athenænum (later the city’s opera house). As president of the board of directors and a considerable benefactor to the project, Tobin was knighted in May 1855. He founded Victoria Hospital and was a governor of the local psychiatric hospital. He married, in Liverpool, Catherine, daughter of Lister Ellis of Crofthead, Netherby, Cumberland, in September 1835. One son died (1858) in the army in India; it is not known if there were other children. He died on January 9th, 1881.
Linde Lunney
