The Enlightened Paternalist in Action: William Hesketh Lever at Port Sunlight Before 1914

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Abstract
This article argues that religion as an instrument of company welfare and entrepreneurial control survived into the twentieth century. At Port Sunlight, Cheshire, in 1907 William Hesketh Lever, later first Viscount Leverhulme, employed over 3,000 in his soap factory and housed 3,600 in his adjacent company village. Among the numerous and relatively splendid welfare benefits he supplied was a church building, Christ Church, Port Sunlight. Significantly Lever determined the style of worship and conditions of membership. Moreover he personally selected the first minister, a Wesleyan and a Christian Socialist. By appointing the minister as his company welfare officer Lever obviously hoped to control all the religious instruments of value formation in the company village. If church membership was a reliable indicator, Lever failed miserably. After a decade of experiment he turned increasingly to the instrumentality of the masonic lodge.

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