Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Lipton, Sir Thomas Johnstone 1899-

Merchant; born in Glasgow of Irish parentage. He owns vast tea estates in Ceylon; is president of the Thomas J. Lipton Company, pork packers, in Chicago, and proprietor of the Lipton Refrigerator Car lines of that city. These interests often bring him to the United States, but he is best known here as the owner of the yachts Erin and Shamrock, and especially in connection with the latter, with which he competed in the fall of 1899 for the America's cup (q. v.) with the American yacht, Columbia, by which the race was won. During this contest he won hosts of American friends by his fairness and geniality. In October, 1900, he sent another challenge to the New York Yacht Club for a race to take place in the fall of 1901. Sir Thomas is a man of unbounded generosity to British benevolent interests. In 1898 he sent a check for $10,000 for the relief of the sick and wounded American soldiers of the war with Spain, and in 1900 he gave the New York Yacht Club $1,000 for a prize cup for the season's races.