A family of English business entrepreneurs and philanthropists. Joseph (1801–59) a grocer, established several Quaker schools. His son Henry Isaac (1838–83) founded the family cocoa and chocolate manufacturing firm in York; Henry’s brother Joseph (1836–1925) became a partner in 1869 and subsequently founded three Rowntree trusts (1904) to support research into social welfare and policy. The latter’s son B(enjamin) Seebohm (1871–1954), chairman of the firm from 1925 to 1941, conducted surveys of poverty in York (1897–98; 1936).