The Martineau family is an intellectual, business (banking, breweries, textile manufacturing)[1] and political dynasty associated first with Norwich and later also London and Birmingham, England. Many members of the family have been knighted. Many family members were prominent Unitarians; a room in London's Essex Hall, the headquarters building of the British Unitarians, was named after them. Martineau Place in Birmingham's central business district was named in their honour.[2]
Harriet Martineau (1802–1876), the sociologist and abolitionist, is the family's most celebrated member.
In Birmingham, several of its members have been Lord Mayor. They worshipped at the Church of the Messiah.[3] As Unitarian, they married into families of the same denomination, such as the Kenricks and the Chamberlains,[4] though Harriet eventually became an atheist in contrast to her brother, the religious philosopher James Martineau. Several of the Martineaus are buried in Key Hill Cemetery Birmingham, either in the family vault or separately.[5]
...the Martineau family had been in banking until 1793.
Martineau Street has vanished to become Martineau Place, the family of that name having been among the 'movers and shakers' of an earlier Birmingham.