Jeremiah Colman

Jeremiah Colman (1777–1851) was an English miller who founded Colman's Mustard, a business which merged into the conglomerate Reckitt & Colman, and is now owned by Unilever. Jeremiah Colman (1771-1851) who began the milling of mustard at Magdalen Gate, Norwich, in 1804. J. &J. Colman is named after Jeremiah and his nephew James. Life He was born in Norfolk in 1777 to Robert Colman (1749-1807) and Mary (née Harmer). Trained as a miller, Jeremiah Colman managed a mill at Bawburgh before buying his own mill at Pockthorpe in 1803.

In 1814 he bought the mustard business of Edward Ames and moved it to a mill at Stoke Holy Cross where he started crushing mustard seed.

Colman died aged 74 in 1851. He had married Anne but had no children. Within 20 years of his death his mustard business had become a Victorian household name.