Samuel Tertius Galton

Samuel Tertius Galton was a British businessman and scientist, born on 23 March 1783 in the Duddeston area of Birmingham and died on 23 October 1844. He was the son of Samuel John Galton, a prominent member of the scientific Lunar Society, and the father of the Victorian scientist Francis Galton, and he continued his family's tradition of scientific endeavour. In 1799 he published Experiments on Colours, a work on colour theory, and Mary Gartside mentioned his work in her 1808 book An Essay on a New Theory of Colour. He inherited his father's considerable business interests and made changes to them, discontinuing the family armaments business in 1815. Fascinated by economics, he wrote papers on the subject, but he preferred a less hands-on role in the business than his father and lived largely on the income of his estate. Brought up a Quaker, he converted to Anglicanism in 1807 and married Violetta Darwin, a daughter of Erasmus Darwin, with whom he had four daughters and three sons.