JOB, THOMAS BULLEY, businessman and politician; b. near Teignmouth, Devon, in 1806, fifth son of John Job and Sarah Bulley; d. in Liverpool, England, 30 Nov. 1878.

Thomas Job’s father was one of the founding partners of the firm of Bulley and Job, which had branches in St John’s, Newfoundland, and Teignmouth, England; by 1809 the centre of the English branch had moved to Liverpool though strong links were maintained with Devon. The Bulley connection with the firm had ceased by 1839, and in that year four of John Job’s sons formed a co-partnership – Samuel and John Jr in Liverpool, and Robert and Thomas Bulley in St John’s. The Liverpool house carried on a considerable timber trade with Canada, but the St John’s branch – assuming its present name of Job Brothers and Company – continued its exclusive concern with Newfoundland. Among the largest in 19th-century Newfoundland, the firm supplied extensively for the cod and seal fisheries, and carried on a large export trade with Europe and Brazil.

Both Robert and Thomas Job were active in public affairs. Prominent members of the local merchant society, they were associated with the campaign to gain a constitution for the island – a concession made in 1832. The association is symbolized by Thomas’ marriage on 8 July 1834 to Jessy Carson, daughter of one of the most radical agitators for this reform, Dr William Carson*. Job himself was not a radical, however, and from 1846 until his defeat in 1852 he sat in the assembly with the Conservative minority as a member for Trinity Bay, a constituency along the southern shore where his firm did a considerable business. Always a quiet Conservative never associated with the famous political battles of the period, Job was appointed to the council in 1852 and resigned on the introduction of responsible government in 1855.

In 1859 his only son Thomas Raffles Job joined the partnership and, together with the more experienced Stephen Rendell as co-partner and manager, took over the St John’s business when his father with the rest of the family (four daughters) moved to Liverpool. Thomas Raffles joined his father in 1866, and it was another branch of the family which returned to run the Newfoundland business later in the century. Thomas Bulley Job became prominent in Liverpool as a town councillor from 1858 to 1864, and as a borough justice and member of the Dock Board. There, as in St John’s, however, the activity of the firm was of more lasting importance than its senior partner.

J. K. Hiller