Gideon Acland (1777–1819) was an English merchant and commodity broker. His surname was commonly spelled Ackland.
Contents
Life
The son of Gideon Acland of Tiverton, Devon, he was educated at Blundell's School from 1787 to 1792. His father, a mercer, died in 1799.
Acland joined the Unitarian Society in 1803, address Peckham. That year Gideon Acland & Co., grocers and sugar-factors, were in business at 57 Cannon Street, London. In 1805 Acland was a commodity broker. He fell victim to James Elkin Daniels, later a notorious fraudster, in a forward bargain deal over saltpetre. He ended as a creditor, money he had paid on behalf of Daniels being treated as a forced loan.
In 1812 Acland was one of a group of petitioners against the 1807 Orders in Council, restricting trade with continental Europe, asked to give evidence to a parliamentary committee. The Alumni Cantabrigienses entry for his son Charles indicates that he was at some point a merchant at Antwerp. In his testimony, Acland said that the effect of the 1806 Berlin Decree, in which Napoleon restricted trade with the United Kingdom, was via strict enforcement in Dutch ports to tie up much shipping, including vessels under his direction, during 1807, and also at Bremen.
