Conrad Wilkinson
(1823-1914)
25 April 1861

Volume 3, page 150, sitting number 3292.

Born at Grove Place in Hackney on 10 April 1823, Conrad Wilkinson was the second son of the railway magnate and stockbroker William Arthur Wilkinson, by his first wife Esther née Ricardo (died 1823), daughter of Abraham Israel Ricardo and sister of the political economist David Ricardo. The Wilkinsons were a Quaker family and the Ricardos were a Jewish family of Portuguese descent. Several members of the Ricardo family converted to Christianity when they married into the Wilkinson family. 

Like his father, Conrad became a stockbroker. He was in business at 56 Threadneedle Street with his older brother Horace and his younger half-brother David. Conrad and David were also cousins, since their mothers were sisters. After the death of his first wife Esther in 1823, William Arthur Wilkinson had married her sister Rachel. 

Conrad Wilkinson appears on the 1861 census, aged 37, living at Shortlands, his father's house near Beckenham in Kent. Wilkinson père described himself as ‘Justice of the Peace, Magistrate for [the] County [of] Surrey / Retired Member [of the] Stock Exchange.’ Wilkinson fils described himself as ‘Member [of the] Stock Exchange.’ In addition to the family, the household also comprised eight servants, including a butler, a footman and two grooms.

Conrad Wilkinson died, aged 91, on 8 October 1914 at Frankfield House in the village of Seal Chart near Sevenoaks in Kent. He left an estate valued at £17,917. 

The following obituary appeared in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph (10 October 1914): 'The death was announced yesterday of a very old and greatly respected member of the Stock Exchange, who, we believe, was well entitled to be regarded as the "Father of the House," viz. Mr Conrad Wilkinson, of the firm of W.A. and N. Wilkinson and Co. Mr Wilkinson was in his 90th year [sic], and had been a member of the Stock Exchange for 67 years, having joined in 1847. He was one of the "old school," with essentially conservative habits, for it is believed that from the moment he started business each day he remained at his "stand" until the House closed, whilst he regularly walked the four miles from the railway station to his house. His father carried on the business before him. Three brothers also died at a great age.'