Background
John Pender was born in the Wale of Leven, Scotland, on the 10th of September 1816.
John Pender was born in the Wale of Leven, Scotland, on the 10th of September 1816.
He attended school in Glasgow.
He became a successful merchant in textile fabrics in Glasgow and in Manchester. He was one of the 345 contributors who each risked a thousand pounds in the Transatlantic Cable in 1857, and when the Atlantic Telegraph Company was ruined by the loss of the 1865 cable he formed the Anglo-American Telegraph Company to continue the work, but it was not till he had given his personal guarantee for a quarter of a million pounds that the makers would undertake the manufacture of a new cable. But in the end he was justified and telegraphic communication with America became a commercial success.
He died at Footscray Place, Kent, on the 7th of July 1896.
He represented Wick Burghs in parliament from 1872 to 1885 and from 1892 to 1896.
His name is chiefly known in connexion with submarine cables, of which on the commercial side he was an important promoter. He established the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, fostered cable enterprise in all parts of the world and controlled companies having a capital of 15 millions sterling and owning 73, 640 nautical miles of cables.
He was made a K. C. M. G. in 1888 and was promoted in 1892 to be G. C. M. G.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Pender was married twice: firstly in 1840 to Marion Cairns; in 1851 he married Emma Denison (d. 1890).
His eldest son James (b. 1841), who was M. P. for Mid Northamptonshire in 1895-1900, was created a baronet in 1897; and his third son, John Denison (b. 1855), was created a K. C. M. G. in 1901.
