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Thomas Harvey (Quaker)

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Thomas Harvey
Born1812 (1812)
Barnsley, Yorkshire, England
Died25 December 1884(1884-12-25) (aged 71–72)
Leeds, England
Resting place
Friends Burial Ground, Adel, Leeds
Occupationschemist, abolitionist
Known forManufactured the first commercially available clinical thermometer, developed by Clifford Allbutt
SpouseSarah Grace Fryer
Children3

Thomas Harvey (1812-1884) was a Quaker from Leeds. He was an abolitionist, Chemist and businessman and founded the company Harvey & Reynolds with fellow Quaker Richard Reynolds. They began to manufacture the first small, practical and commercially available clinical thermometer developed by Clifford Allbutt in 1867.[1][2]

Early life and career

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Apprenticeship indenture as 'druggist and chemist' of Thomas Harvey to David Doncaster of Sheffield for six years, 1826 (Thackray Museum of Medicine collection)
Apprenticeship indenture of Thomas Harvey to David Doncaster[3]

Harvey was born in 1812 to a prominent Quaker family in Barnsley where his father made linen.[4] He attended Barnsley Grammar School and the Quaker schools at Ackworth and York but left in 1826 at the age of 14 to became an apprentice druggist and chemist in Sheffield and Birmingham. Following his apprenticeship, Harvey moved to Leeds to start his own chemist and druggist business, first on Commercial Street, moving to Briggate in 1841.[1]

He married Sarah Grace Fryer in 1845 with whom he had three sons. The eldest, Joseph, died when he was 6 in 1852, and the youngest, Thomas, in 1867, who was studying at University College London when he drowned in a skating accident at the age of 17.[5][6] The Leeds Mercury reported that thirty people drowned when they fell through the ice in "The Fearful Disaster in Regent's Park".[7]

Harvey became an expert in his field, advising doctors on correct dosage. He was interested in medical and scientific advances and his company with business partner and fellow Quaker Richard Reynolds, specialised in early photographic equipment.[4] They also manufactured a thermometer developed by English physician Clifford Allbutt. Previously, thermometers had been large and impractical to use but Allbutt's as made by "Messrs. Harvey and Reynolds, of 3, Briggate, Leeds...is scarcely six inches in length, and, being slipped into a strong case, not much thicker than a stout pencil, is carried in the pocket easily and safely."[8]

Harvey and Reynolds Improved 1285 clinical thermometer, 1880s, Thackray Museum of Medicine
Harvey and Reynolds Improved 1285 clinical thermometer, 1880s, Thackray Museum of Medicine[9]

Anti-slavery activism

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Like many Quakers in 19th Century Britain, Harvey was an abolitionist and anti-slavery campaigner.[10][1] He travelled to the West Indies in 1836 with fellow Quaker and founder of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Joseph Sturge.[11] Though slavery had been officially abolished in the British Empire in 1834, the freed slaves were reclassed as "apprenticed labourers" and were still required to work long hours for basic subsistence.[1][4] Upon returning, they published a book The West Indies in 1837, Being the Journal of a Visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, and Jamaica, which they described as being "undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the actual condition of the negro population of those islands".[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Wright, Jen (2025-03-27). "Thomas Harvey: The Remarkable Life of a Humble Leeds Chemist". Thackray Museum of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-05-03.
  2. ^ Grodzinsky, Ewa; Sund Levander, Märta (2020), Grodzinsky, Ewa; Sund Levander, Märta (eds.), "History of the Thermometer", Understanding Fever and Body Temperature: A Cross-disciplinary Approach to Clinical Practice, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 23–35, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-21886-7_3, ISBN 978-3-030-21886-7, PMC 7120475, retrieved 2026-05-03{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  3. ^ "2012.0020 | Collections Online". collections.thackraymuseum.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-05-09.
  4. ^ a b c "Thomas Harvey (1812-1884)- They Lived In Leeds – The Thoresby Society". www.thoresby.org.uk. Retrieved 2026-05-03.
  5. ^ "Papers relating to the Harvey family of Leeds - Library | University of Leeds". explore.library.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2026-05-03.
  6. ^ "Papers relating to Thomas Harvey and other members of the Harvey family - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 2026-05-03.
  7. ^ "THE FEARFUL DISASTER IN REGENT'S PARK. GREAT LOSS OF LIFE". Leeds Mercury. 17 January 1867.
  8. ^ "Yorkshire Almanac Clifford Allbutt of the Leeds Infirmary writes to the Medical Times praising his five-minute Celsius pocket clinical thermometer". Retrieved 2026-05-03.
  9. ^ "1782.023 | Collections Online". collections.thackraymuseum.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-05-09.
  10. ^ "Quakers & slavery - Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York". www.york.ac.uk. Retrieved 2026-05-03.
  11. ^ Haight, Austin (2021). "Richard Cobden and the Quakers: a study of mid-nineteenth century liberalism". sussex.figshare.com (University of Sussex. Thesis.). Retrieved 2026-05-03.
  12. ^ "The West Indies in 1837 : being the journal of a visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbadoes, and Jamaica; undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the actual condition of the Negro population of those islands / By Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 2026-05-03.
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