Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 (or 1554) – 29 October 1618), also spelled Ralegh, was an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. He was cousin to Sir Richard Grenville  and younger half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. He is also well known for popularising Tobacco in England. Raleigh was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era. 

Brown Williamson

B&W was founded in Winston (today's Winston-Salem), North Carolina, as a partnership of George T. Brown and his brother-in-law Robert Lynn Williamson, whose father was already operating two chewing tobacco manufacturing facilities. Initially, the new partnership took over one of the elder Williamson's factories.  In February 1894, the new company, calling itself Brown & Williamson, hired 30 workers and began manufacturing in a leased facility.

Skill Two

In 1927, the Brown and Williamson families sold the business to London-based British American Tobacco.  The business was reorganized as the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Manufacturing and distribution were expanded, and work on a new B&W factory in Louisville was begun.
In 1925 Brown & Williamson bought the J. G. Flynt Tobacco Company  and its Sir Walter Raleigh pipe tobacco brand, which had been manufactured since 1884. The firm expanded further in April 1926 by buying R. P. Richardson Jr. & Company of Reidsville, which manufactured the Old North State brand of smoking tobacco, dating to 1873. Richardson also made cigarettes with the brand name of Old North State. With the purchase of this company, then, Brown & Williamson entered the field of cigarette manufacturing.