Hinton

The Hinton family, English by nationality, settled in Madeira more than 90 years ago. In 1838 William Hinton, then a student at the University of Oxford, came to this island for the sake of his health. At that time the British subject Robert Wallas was living in Funchal; he owned a steam-powered flour mill, set up on the same site where the Torreão (‘turret’) Factory (Fábrica do Torreão) stands today. In 1839 William Hinton married Mary Wallas, daughter of Roberto Wallas and Mary Wallas. He sold the properties he owned in England and settled permanently in Madeira in 1841. Some years later he founded the Torreão sugar factory. William Hinton, who was the representative of an entailed house (casa vinculada) (esquire) at Greenhill House, in the county of Wiltshire, England, was born in Naples in 1817 and died in Funchal on 15 June 1904. He was the father of Harry Hinton, the present owner of the Torreão Factory.

In the article on the parish (freguesia) of Camacha, on p. 196 of volume I, we set out the origin of the important wickerwork industry. We must add here that it is due chiefly to William Hinton, who had a skilled craftsman from that parish build a piece of furniture using Madeiran osier, taking as his model a chair of English make that this British subject and energetic industrialist had brought from England.

This is a fitting occasion to present a brief profile of the present representative of this distinguished family, whose name is closely linked with Madeira through the great development it has given to the sugar industries, through the many generous acts of benevolence it has performed here, and above all through the devoted support it has given to every charitable institution on this island. To this end we shall reproduce some passages from an article published in a Funchal daily newspaper when Henrique Hinton was honoured by the Portuguese government in just recognition of the services he had rendered to this land.

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Today we have news for our readers that is, in every respect, particularly pleasing: our well-loved friend Mr Henrique Hinton, who was already, by his high merits, a Commander of the ancient Order of Christ (Ordem de Cristo), has been proposed for the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of Agricultural and Industrial Merit.

Seldom have we felt such satisfaction as today in making news of this kind public, for we need not strain our conscience and our mind in search of merits, so often fictitious, with which to gild the proposed royal grant. They are there, plain to see before our eyes and in the minds of all who know the agricultural and industrial life of Madeira. Upholding the traditions of his distinguished family, which settled on this island exactly a century ago this year, as one may read in the Elucidário Madeirense, and adding lustre to that tradition with constant, intelligent and honest work towards the development and improvement of his great industry, the present head and soul of the Torreão Factory is to receive the new honour conferred on him by the Portuguese Government as a tribute of the clearest and most absolute justice. For some years now Madeiran agriculture, prey to various vicissitudes, has lived chiefly through the mechanism that the factory of the firm William Hinton & Sons represents in our economy.

English in name, the firm has at its head that noble and manly figure of a gentleman, Mr Harry Hinton, born on this island, married here and residing here, who holds for the land of his birth a love and affection shown hour by hour in many expressions of the heart. These range from works of charity, many of them hidden, to a bibliographical and artistic interest in every publication, Portuguese and foreign, old and modern, that concerns Madeira. But this, though very important to our feelings and to our gratitude, is not the aspect we must focus on especially at this moment, when speaking of the high honorific distinction proposed for Mr Harry Hinton’s breast by the Minister of Commerce and Industry.

That aspect is his industrial activity among us. By stimulating and developing sugar-cane growing, it has considerably increased the value of Madeiran land and given farmers a sure return for their produce – which did not and does not happen with any other crop. It has also made it possible to maintain cattle-rearing and the production of the milk from which one of the most reputable, if not the most preferred, brands of Portuguese butter is made. And all this goes hand in hand with the production of one of the finest sugars in the world, and of the alcohol used to fortify our precious wines, under conditions of such rare manufacturing perfection that they have always earned the most honourable awards at the exhibitions in which they have competed.

Mr Hinton owns and equips the most advanced factory of its kind in the world: so say those who know; and with it he is able to develop, for its raw material, a form of agriculture that is the best source of Madeiran wealth.

We may further add that large-scale Madeiran banana growing, as we all know, owes much to the initiative and efforts of this public-spirited industrialist, who in this respect is also a great and intelligent farmer.

The proposed decoration, the Grand Officership of the Order of Agricultural and Industrial Merit, is therefore his with every propriety and every justice. Applying the English expression to the occasion, we may well say that, in this honorific rank, Mr Hinton will truly be “the right man in the right place”.