John at the age of sixteen was placed as a clerk in a house in Walbrook, trading with Newfoundland, a job he had for ten years.
Between 1830 and 1840 he made his fortune through the 'magic razor strop' which bears his name After the Crimean War and a fashion for beards, sales declined.
The press acknowledged the services he had rendered to agricultural science by the introduction of modern processes into his model farm.
The failure of the Unity Joint Stock Bank in 1866, of which he was a governor, and an unfortunate connection with the Unity Fire and General Life Assurance Office, caused him such heavy losses that, instead of becoming Lord Mayor of London, he was in August 1866 obliged to resign his aldermanic gown.
Many bad seasons followed at Tiptree farm, particularly that of 1879, and at last, worn out with diabetes and broken-hearted, his affairs were put in liquidation on 14 December 1880.