Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Mappin, Frederick Thorpe
MAPPIN, Sir FREDERICK THORPE, first baronet (1821–1910), benefactor to Sheffield, born at Sheffield on 16 May 1821, was eldest son of Joseph Mappin, cutler, of Broomgrove, Sheffield, by his wife Mary Ann (d. 25 Aug. 1841), daughter of Thomas Thorpe of Haynes, Bedfordshire. Receiving his early education at Sheffield, young Mappin at the age of fourteen entered his father's cutlery business, and was only twenty when his father's death threw upon him the sole burden of its management. He afterwards took his younger brothers into partnership, but in 1859 retired himself from the firm, which continued to flourish, in order to become the senior partner in the works of Thomas Turton & Sons, steel manufacturers. He showed his interest in the progress of mechanical science by joining as a member the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1862, and the Institution of Civil Engineers as an associate on 7 Feb. 1865. He was president of the File Manufacturers' Association in 1870. He retired from active business in 1885, but became a director when the Turton firm was converted into a limited liability company, and held the office until almost the close of his life.
Largely released from business responsibilities in middle life, Mappin threw himself with much energy into public and local work. He was a member of the Sheffield town council in 1854, chairman of the town trustees (a wealthy and important Sheffield body dating from the thirteenth century), and mayor of Sheffield in 1877-8. Mappin was a prominent member of the Cutlers' Company (of Hallamshire), serving as assistant (1846-9 and 1857-60), searcher (1850-1853), senior warden (1854-5), and master cutler (1855-6).
Greatly interested in education, he was chief founder of the Sheffield Technical School and its munificent supporter. He also liberally contributed to Firth College and university College, which with the technical school was incorporated into the new university of Sheffield in 1905. To the funds of the university, of which he became the first senior pro-chancellor, he contributed 15,000l., besides founding various scholarships and exhibitions. From 1873 to 1903 he was chairman of the Sheffield United Gas Company ; he was a director of the Bridgwater navigation, was a working director of the Midland railway (1869-1900), and as juror at the Paris exhibition of 1878 was made an officer of the legion of honour. Mappin, who was an early supporter of the volunteer movement, joined the 4th (Hallamshire) York and Lancaster regiment in March 1861, and retired as captain in March 1872.
An influential leader of local liberalism, he was president of the Hallamshire Liberal Association, and of the Sheffield United Liberal Association. He entered parliament in 1880 as member for East Retford, and in 1885 was elected for the Hallamshire division of the West Riding, which he represented until 1906. Although he was an advocate of home rule and free trade, his liberalism was of a pronounced whiggish type. On 27 Aug. 1886 he was created a baronet. His lifelong devotion to the interests of his native city was recognised in 1900 by the bestowal on him of the first presentation of its honorary freedom. He retired from public life in 1905, having been for many years familiarly known as the 'grand old man' of Sheffield. Mappin was brought up as a congregationalist, but became later a member of the Church of England, and was a generous supporter of church work.
A lover of art, he added (in two gifts) eighty pictures to the Mappin Art Gallery at Western Park, Sheffield, founded under the will of his uncle, John Newton Mappin of Birchlands in 1887. His own collection of pictures consisted almost exclusively of works by artists of the mid-Victorian period. They were dispersed at two public sales which began respectively on 5 May 1906 and 17 June 1910 ; the prices realised at the former sale were much below those originally paid for the pictures, owing to change in public taste.
He died at his residence, Thornbury, Sheffield, on 19 March 1910, and was buried at the Ecclesall burial-ground. He left an estate valued for probate at 931,086l. Besides his Sheffield residence, he had a town house, 32 Prince's Gate. Mappin married on 25 Sept. 1845 Mary Crossley (d. 10 April 1908), daughter of John Wilson of Oakholme, Sheffield, by whom he had three sons, Frank, who succeeded to the baronetcy, Wilson, and Samuel Wilson.
His portrait was frequently painted for presentation by public bodies. In October 1892 his portrait by Ouless was placed in the Mappin Art Gallery, and a portrait of Lady Mappin by Mr. J. J. Shannon was presented to him, both being paid for by public subscription. His bust in bronze was placed in the Botanic Gardens, Sheffield, in November 1903 as a public recognition of the part he took in securing the transfer of the gardens to the town trustees. In October 1905 his portrait by Mr. Ernest Moore, presented by the town trustees, was placed in their rooms at the court house ; a replica was subscribed for in 1906 by the directors and chief officials of the gas company, to be placed in their board-room. There are portraits also at the Sheffield Reform Club and in the council-room of the Sheffield University.
[Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1910; Sheffield and District Who's Who, 1905, p. 14; Thomas Asline Ward's Peeps into the Past, 1909, pp. 326, 328; Robert E. Loader's History of the Cutlers' Company of Hallamshire, ii. 41; Sheffield University Calendar, 1911–12, p. 598; Debrett's House of Commons, 1905; Pike's Contemporary Biographies, no. 4, Sheffield, 1901; Mappin Art Gall. Cat., 1887, 1892; Athenæum, 25 June 1910; The Times, 21 and 24 Mar. 1910, 16 May 1910; Sheffield Daily Telegraph, and Sheffield Daily Independent, 19 Mar. 1910.]