William J. Tipping Portrait of Philippe de Commines

Portraits Historiques: William J. Tipping (1816–1897)

William J. Tipping (1816–1897) was a wealthy, successful railway magnate as well as being a man of academic brilliance and a respected amateur artist and archaeologist, who was elected a member of the Society of Antiquaries in 1864.

Born in Liverpool to John Tipping, a Quaker corn merchant, he was educated privately in Tottenham. From 1839 he spent seven years in the Near East exploring ancient ruins, including lesser known sites such as Jarash (now in Jordan) and Masada. Some of his resulting drawings were published in Punch; a number are now in the collection of the V&A, London.

In 1844 Tipping married Maria Walker, the daughter of a Quaker flax mill owner from Leeds, and together they had four sons. Their youngest, Henry Avray Tipping (later an esteemed garden designer and Architectural Editor of Country Life magazine), was born at the Château de Ville-d'Avray near Versailles in 1855. The family returned to England in 1857, where William Tipping became director of the London and North Western Railway and purchased Brasted Park, at Brasted, Kent. He went on to help restore dilapidated cottages, paying for the widening of local roads and supporting local community institutions.

In the 1860s and 1880s Tipping served as MP for Stockport and was also appointed JP for Kent, Lancashire, and West Riding of Yorkshire. Tipping died at the age of eighty in 1897 and was buried at the parish church in Brasted.