A Bristol businessman we can be proud of

Kingswood-based Samuel Budgett was a gifted businessman, and a very generous benefactor to both individuals and the community, on whom Bristol can look back with pride.

From a boy selling a discarded horse-shoe, he went on to owning and running a Kingswood-based wholesale business serving customers as far apart as Penzance and Haverford West, with sales of around £96m a year, (in 2017 terms).

His practical and considerate kindness was extraordinary, including finding better and better methods of working, so the day’s orders were completed earlier and earlier and his team could take their families out to enjoy God’s creation.

In 1842/3, when food was scarce, Samuel took on 100 extra employees, (that he didn’t need), so they could earn money to feed their families, and when he heard of some folk going to make a new life in America, he gave them money, “Buy some land for me. I might come and inspect it one day”. (He didn’t go, and likely never intended to).  

The biography of this hugely successful businessman, and keen Christian, was re-printed 42 times in the next 20 years. The 1852 original has now been shortened by 40% to make it easier to read today, and to inspire another generation of entrepreneurs, and "Samuel Budgett, The Successful Merchant", is available from Amazon, as both paperback and e-book.