Henry Overton Wills I

Henry Overton Wills I (2 March 1761 – 1826) was a British merchant who founded the firm of W.D. & H.O. Wills in Bristol, England, which eventually became one of the largest tobacco companies in late 19th-century Britain, and later became the largest constituent part of Imperial Tobacco. The 1966 Guinness Book of Records named the Wills family, descended from him, as containing the largest number of millionaires in the British Isles, of which 14 left estates in excess of one million pounds since 1910, totalling 55 million, of which 27 million was paid in death duties. Wills is said to have been a non-smoker, despite the fact that he is regarded as one of the founders of the British tobacco industry. became the first chairman of Imperial Tobacco. Henry Overton Wills II ( 1800–1871), with his brother was a co-founder of W.D.& H.O. Wills. His son Henry Overton Wills III founded the creation of the University of Bristol and became its first Chancellor, and two of his other sons Sir Edward Payson Wills and Sir Frederick Wills became baronets. Another son, Sir Frank William Wills became a noted architect, who was knighted for his accomplishments.

Henry Overton I