View source for Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent

{{Short description|English businessmsn (1850–1931)}}
{{redirect|Jesse Boot|the cricketer|Jesse Boot (cricketer)}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Lord Trent
| honorific-suffix = [[Knight bachelor|Kt]]
| image = Jesse Boot 1909.jpg
| caption = Boot in 1909 by [[Noel Denholm Davis]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1850|6|2}}
| birth_place = [[Nottinghamshire]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1931|6|13|1850|6|2}}
| death_place = [[Jersey]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php?title=Jesse_and_Florence_Boot|title=Jesse and Florence Boot – theislandwiki|website=Theislandwiki.org|access-date=11 April 2018}}</ref>
| spouse = [[Florence Boot|Florence Anne Rowe]]
| children = Dorothy Florence Boot<br>Margery Amy Boot<br>[[John Boot, 2nd Baron Trent]]
| parents = [[John Boot]] (father)<br>Mary Wills (mother)
}}
'''Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent''' (2 June 1850 – 13 June 1931) transformed [[The Boots Company]], founded by his father, [[John Boot]], into a national retailer, which branded itself as "Chemists to the Nation".

==Biography==
{{Moresources|section|date=December 2022}}
Jesse Boot sold his controlling interest to American investors in 1920. Boot offered his close friend and business associate John Harston, the opportunity of going into business with him, but Harston declined, feeling the venture was not worth investing in. Boot was a great benefactor to the [[Nottingham|City of Nottingham]].

In 1920, Boot purchased, and presented to the City of Nottingham, 36 acres of open land that lay along the northern side of the Victoria Embankment alongside the River Trent, opposite Plaisaunce, Jesse Boot's summer house which was demolished in 1961. 

Initially named the 'New Park', it was laid out with grass and trees, and provided a barrier against flooding as well as a pleasant walkway alongside the river. As part of the development an imposing war memorial gateway was built, with the aid of funds from Jesse Boot. He also donated land for the new University College at Highfields, now the [[University of Nottingham]], which opened in 1928. and was presented with the Freedom of the City of Nottingham in 1920. He was also a significant benefactor to his wife's home, [[Jersey]].

Boot was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1909,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28321 |date=24 December 1909 |pages=9763–9764 }}</ref> created a [[baronet]] in 1917,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=29982 |date=13 March 1917 |page=2512}}</ref> and announced in the New Year's Honours of 1929 was elevated to the peerage, and created '''Baron Trent''', of [[Nottingham]] in the [[County of Nottingham]] on 18 March 1929.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33479 |date=22 March 1929 |page=1968}}</ref> 

These latter honours probably owed as much to his solid support of the Liberal Party as to his [[philanthropy]] to the city of his birth.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Oxbury|first=Harold|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9coZAAAAYAAJ&q=Jesse+Boot,+1st+Baron+Trent:+philanthropy|title=Great Britons: Twentieth-Century Lives|date=1985|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-211599-7|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Jesse Boot memorial - geograph.org.uk - 680917.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Memorial in Highfields Park]]
He died in [[Jersey]] in 1931. The Sir Jesse Boot Chair in Chemistry at the [[University of Nottingham]] was named in his honour. His widow commissioned the French glass artist [[René Lalique]] to refit the church of [[St Matthew's Church, Millbrook|St Matthew, Millbrook]] (popularly known as the "Glass Church") as a memorial to him.

In 1935 a Primary school was built in Nottingham, Jesse Boot's home town. The School was titled [[The Jesse Boot Primary School]] and was located in Bakersfield, Nottingham. The School closed in 2009 after becoming an academy school. There is a pub named after him in the nearby Nottinghamshire town of Beeston, around 1 mile from Highfields Park.

His portrait, by [[Noel Denholm Davis]], is in the collection of the [[University of Nottingham]].<ref name="YP">{{cite web|url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sir-jesse-boot-18501931-bt-jp-46629|title=Sir Jesse Boot (1850–1931), Bt, JP (later 1st Baron Trent)|work=[[Art UK]]|access-date=15 July 2014}}</ref> Another, by the same artist, is on loan to the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]].<ref name="NPG">{{cite web|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw206648/Jesse-Boot-1st-Baron-Trent?LinkID=mp127848&role=art&rNo=0|title=NPG L247; Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent|publisher=[[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]]|access-date=15 July 2014}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
*''Jesse Boot of Boots the Chemist: A study in Business History'' by [[Stanley Chapman]] (Detail from a copy of the book with black and white plates of Jesse Boot and published by Hodder and Stoughton [[UK]] as a special edition for [[The Boots Company]] [[Nottingham]] in 1973 with an {{ISBN|0-340-17704-7}}.)

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg|centre|150px]] [[File:Trent Escutcheon.png|centre|200px]]
|escutcheon = Argent a chevron between in chief two galleys Sable and in base a rose Gules barbed and seeded Proper.
|crest = A lion passant Proper ducally gorged and resting the dexter fore-paw on a burning lamp Or.
|supporters = Dexter a stag reguardant; sinister a lion also reguardant; each charged on the shoulder with an acorn leaved and slipped all Proper.
|motto = Droit Et Avant<ref>{{cite book|title=Burke's Peerage |date=1949}}</ref>}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw206648/Jesse-Boot-1st-Baron-Trent?LinkID=mp127848&role=art&rNo=0 Portrait] by [[Noel Denholm Davis]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030823050106/http://www.boots-plc.com/information/info.asp?Level4ID=12 Biography – on Boots corporate website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030820000424/http://www.boots-plc.com/information/info.asp?Level3ID=37 Boots family philanthropy – on Boots corporate website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040310070321/http://www.pharmj.com/pdf/xmas2002/pj_20021221_boots.pdf Chemists to the Nation – article in Pharmaceutical Journal]

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{{s-ttl |title=[[Baron Trent]] |years=1929–1931}}
{{s-aft |after=[[John Boot, 2nd Baron Trent|John Campbell Boot]]}}
{{s-reg|uk-bt}}
{{s-new |creation}}
{{s-ttl |title=[[Boot Baronets|Baronet]]<br>'''(of Nottingham)''' |years=1917–1931}}
{{s-aft |after=[[John Boot, 2nd Baron Trent|John Campbell Boot]]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Trent, Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent}}
[[Category:1850 births]]
[[Category:1931 deaths]]
[[Category:Barons Trent|1]]
[[Category:Boot family|Jesse]]
[[Category:British retail company founders]]
[[Category:English businesspeople in retailing|Boot, Jesse]]
[[Category:English pharmacists|Boot, Jesse]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor|Boot, Jesse]]
[[Category:People associated with the University of Nottingham]]
[[Category:People educated at Nottingham High School]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Nottingham]]
[[Category:Barons created by George V]]
[[Category:Businesspeople awarded knighthoods]]