John Henry Pelly (1777 - 1852), was one of several notable merchants who lived in West Ham and was influential in both local affairs and held offices of national importance.

John Pelly was born at Upton Manor on 31^st March, 1777 and baptised at St Margaret's Church, Westminster. The Pelly's were an old Channel Islands family who came to Dorset in the reign of Elizabeth I and one of whom married into a wife from Barking, thus connection the them to south-west Essex. In 1807 he married Emma Boulton and together they had eleven children. John became a Captain in the navy of the Hon. East India Company, to which he was elected Deputy Governor in 1812 and Governor in 1822. That same year he was elected to the Court of the Bank of England and holding various offices over the next thirty years and serving as Governor 1841-42.

He was sworn in as Elder Brother of Trinity House (the lighthouse authority for England, Wales, Ireland and Gibraltar) on 8 May 1823; elected Deputy Master on 26th. May 1834, and every year subsequently until his death in 1852. (The Deputy Master was responsible for exercising all the jurisdiction of the Master). He was on friendly terms with the Duke of Wellington, who became Master.

Perhaps his most important position was as Director and Governor of the Hudson Bay Company. He was an organiser of the expedition to the Far North which was despatched in 1837 that headed for the Arctic Circle above Canada, proving the existence of a channel between the north coast of that continent and the great Arctic Islands: thus, in his day, did much to develop the northern part of Canada. As a result of this Queen Victoria created him first baronet of Upton in 1841. Several places in Canada are named after him: Pelly Mountain, Pelly River and Pelly Lake.

In 1848 Earl Grey offered to recommend Pelly for a KCB but Sir John replied that, "I am not ambitious of this World's Honours and am content with that which Her Gracious Majesty conferred on me in 1840."

Other offices he held included: Chairman of the Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust and of the Committee that built the second Bow Bridge; a Commissioner of Sewers for south-west Essex; on the Commission of the Lieutenancy for London; the Loan Office for Public Works and Fisheries; Deputy Lieutenant of London and active County magistrate for Essex; a member of the Royal Geographical Society and Fellow of the Royal Society. He had ownership of an extensive timber plantations in Norway.

Locally, he held the lordship of four Manors; was first Chairman of the West Ham Poor Law Union; and also Treasurer of two important local charities - that of West Ham Parish and of Sarah Bonnell.

John Henry Pelly died on 13^th August 1852 aged 75 at Upton manor House and was buried in St Mary's Church, Plaistow. Pelly Road, Pelly Bridge and the former Pelly memorial School were named after him.

This is a photograph of a framed portrait that originally hung in Pelly School.

Sources: West Ham 1886-1986, Publ. by London Borough of Newham; 'The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street', volume 24, March 1948 and information supplied by Trinity House.