1. Homepage
2. Life of Henry Cort
3. Cort's processes in iron manufacture
4. Cort's patents
5. Refutation of allegations of conspiracies against Cort
6. Adam Jellicoe's death
7. Henry Cort's birth
8. A navy agent's business
9. Early life of John Becher
10. Attwick & Burges families
11. "Cortship" of second wife
12. Thomas Morgan
13. Henry Cort's hoops contract
14. 1856 Accolade
15. Generosity of friends 1789-94
16. James Watson
17. Illness of Cort's son
18. Main sources of information
19. Contemporary sources
20. Navy sources
21. Chancery files
22. Publications about Cort
23. Assessment of Cort's character
24. Images of Henry Cort

25. Impeach-tranferred to 05

26. Parliamentary inquiry 1811-2
27. The furore of the 1850s
28. Society of Arts
29. Cort's first marriage
30. Henry Cort's children
31. Cort family pensions
32. Henry Cort's Hertfordshire property
33. 1791 signatories
34. Guiana and the Cort-Gladstone connection
35. Cort's twilight years
36. Memorials to Henry Cort


37. Smelting of iron
38. Fining before Cort
39. Shropshire & Staffordshire ironmasters
40. Cumbrians: Wilkinson etc
41. Early works at Merthyr Tydfil
42. The Crowley business
43. London ironmongers
44. Scottish iron
45. Cort's promotion efforts 1783-6
46. Later Merthyr connections
47. Puddling after Henry Cort


48. Gosport in Cort's day
49. Gosport administration
50. Gosport worthies
51. The Amherst-Porter network
52. James Hackman, murderer
53. Samuel Marshall
54. Samuel Jellicoe's legacy
55. Links with Titchfield
56. Links with Fareham


57. Fact, error and conjecture
58. 18th century politics
59. Law in the 18th century
60. 18th century finance
61. Religion and sexual mores
62. Calendar change of 1752
63. Shelburne, Parry and associates
64. John Becher's family
65. The Becher-Thackeray lineage
66. Thomas Lyttelton: a fantastic narrative
67. Eighteenth-century London
68. Abolition and the Corts
69. The Burges will tangle


70. Navy connections
71. Navy agent's business
72. Cort's clients
73. Ships' pursers
74. History of Adam Jellicoe
75. Dundas & Trotter
76. Cort's navy office associates
77. Toulmin & other agents
78. Sandwich & Middleton
79. The Arethusa
80. John Becher's war
81. Thomas Morgan's war
82. The 1782 Jamaica convoy
83. Sinking of the Royal George

84. Rickman & Scott: two contrasting naval careers-Missing



85. Visitors 2006-2009
86. Developement of the site 2006-2009

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87. Daniel Guion and family

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88. Other publications

"CORTSHIP" OF SECOND WIFE

Who is Cort's second wife?

She is Elizabeth Haysham, daughter of lawyer Thomas Haysham and his wife Anne (née Attwick).

The name is spelt "Heysham" by some sources. But in all the documents I've seen, Thomas and all members of his family spell it "Haysham". It's possible that he deliberately changed the spelling of his name (just as Richard Crawshay started with the surname Crawshaw).

Some sources say Thomas hails from Staffordshire, but no confirmation has been found. He is steward for some or all of the Hampshire estates of the Duke or Portland, probably including the Titchfield estate before its sale to the Delmé family in 1741. A lucrative post. But, judging from records of his burial and the baptism of his children, he lives in Gosport.

He and Anne have six children. It appears that all but two die young. Ann, the eldest of the six, who marries John Becher, lives to the age of 88, and gets to know her great-grandson William Makepeace Thackeray quite well. Elizabeth, the youngest, makes it to 81.

"Cortship" of Elizabeth Haysham

The story is apparent from a chancery lawsuit at the PRO.

It begins with the will of her uncle Jeremiah, a ship's purser.

Jeremiah's financial affairs are managed by his Portsmouth-based brother-in-law Samuel Dawson, and Dawson's London agent Eustace Kentish. Dawson is named as executor in the will.

Elizabeth's brother-in-law, John Becher, is a client of navy agent Henry Cort.

In 1770 John and Ann Becher, Henry and Elizabeth Cort will launch an action against Dawson and Kentish.

Their complaint is that Dawson and Kentish have grabbed a slice of Jeremiah's estate for themselves by exaggerating Jeremiah's debt to them.

Among Jeremiah's heirs are his sisters Elizabeth Attwick and Ann Haysham. They both die in 1766, leaving most of their estates to Ann's daughters.

At this point Elizabeth Haysham is 21 years old. Her sister Ann Becher is living in Staffordshire with husband John and three children.

Elizabeth wins administration of her mother's and aunt's estates. Can she trust her uncle's executors?

Kentish is a near-neighbour of Henry Cort, and in the same line of business.

We can conjecture that John seeks Cort's help.

"My sister-in-law needs to know, is this man Kentish reliable?"

So Becher's sister-in-law meets Cort. She is impressed. Doubtless feels sorry for him, after what happened to his first wife.

The wedding of Henry Cort (widower) to Elizabeth Haysham (spinster) on 16 March 1768 is recorded in the register of St Thomas The Apostle, London.

A Haysham connection

Information discovered recently (March 2009) on the Web suggests that Thomas Haysham has a sister Elizabeth, who marries "John Ward, born in 1690, the elder son of Captain William Ward, of Crabborn (should this be Crabthorn?), Titchfield, Hants." They have a son "John Ward, born in 1735, who married Elizabeth Young and left descendants".

Do we find one of these descendants in 1799, when Henry Bell Cort, eldest son of Henry and Elizabeth, is confined to a mental hospital in Calcutta? He is visited by one Rev Dr James Ward, who claims to be a distant relation. James turns out to be the son of "John Ward, of Newport, Hants" (i.e. Isle of Wight), who seems to have held the post of Deputy Comptroller at the Custom House in nearby Cowes, and could easily have been born in 1735.

The pages on this site are copied from the original site of Eric Alexander (henrycort.net) with his allowance.
Eric passed away abt 2012
If you use/copy information from this site, please include a link to the page where you found the information.