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

CHANCERY FILES

A warning to anyone wishing to view any of these files. You need patience and dexterity.

The files are composed of large sheets of paper, rolled together in bundles. Separating the sheets you want can be a problem. So can reassembling the bundles.

Reading from the sheets can also be a problem. Partly physical: sheets sometimes get crumpled, so it is difficult to follow a line of text across the width of a sheet.

But the big trial is following the narrative. It is written in the most appalling legalistic jargon, with heaps of repetition and few, if any, punctuation marks.

After viewing a number of files, you will probably get into the habit of skipping certain areas. Occasional passages are worth copying verbatim, but it is usually better to make notes on relevant points.

That said, there is a lot of useful information to be found, and occasionally something really juicy comes up.

Norbury suits

C12/1698/55 1787 Penrice v Fisher

C12/1713/30 1790 Penrice v Fisher

C12/453/19 1794 Norbury v Hill

C12/208/9 1794 Norbury v Meredith

C12/218/5 1796 Norbury v Attorney General

To appreciate the story of the three wills of Coningsby Norbury, you need to read the whole sequence. If you're just studying Cort, you can make do with two.

Norbury v Attorney General is quoted elsewhere as one of the three major sources on Cort. It arose because Coningsby's brother Richard, who had to administer the estate, suspected Cort owed it money.

But Cort's assets were forfeited to the Crown, so the Attorney General had to tell Richard he was second in the queue. The file includes an affidavit from Cort explaining his involvement in Coningsby's financial affairs.

The value of Penrice v Fisher (1787) is that it contains one of the few passages shedding light on Cort's character: generous, at least where his friends were concerned.

Attwick suits

C12/707/20 1751 Attwick v Attwick

C11/2517/3 1753 Attwick v Peachy

C12/540/17 1770 Becher v Dawson

C12/552/9 1770 Becher v Kentish

These suits deal with disputes within the Attwick family. The last two bring Cort into the story.

C12/2220/7 1724 Macartney v Attwick

C11/666/7 1739 Macartney v Attwick

C12/1487/7 1764 Getheridge v Attwick

C12/1664/50 1781 Neal v Attwick

C12/2122/3 1781 Attwick v Wickham

C12/2122/3 1781 Attwick v Adams

These suits deal with disputes outside the family, and are largely of academic interest. The last three involve William Attwick, disproving a fanciful notion that his niece, whom Cort married, inherited the Attwick business in 1775.

Navy agent suits

Five groups of actions involving Cort illustrate the legal wrangles in which navy agents became involved.

C12/1922/33 Duez v Kidd(?)

C12/1922/32 1758 Duez v Hankey

C12/1570/13 1759 Duez v Hartley

C12/1923/33 1765 Duez v Kidd

C12/1922/33 1772 Duez v Cort

This sequence covers the attempts made by Ann Duez to recover money she thought was due on an investment made by her brother, and involves navy captain Dandy Kidd, who names Cort as executor in his will.

C12/565/35 1775 Parry v Cort

E140/65/12 Parry v Cort

E140/1/23 Cort & Guyon v Parry

The two Exchequer (E140) files should help anyone interested in Cort's relationship with David Parry.

C12/1034/17 1771 Clarke v Cort

C12/2404/40 1778 Waller v Cort

C12/1685/2 1784 Cort v Seibert

Cort's agency involved him in related activities that could lead to disputes such as these.

Other suits

C12/940/8 1774 Delmé v Missing

Sheds light on some of Cort's contemporaries in Titchfield

C12/591/19 1784 Bacon v Homfray

By far the juiciest of relevant files, though remote from the Cort story. Set in Cyfarthfa before Crawshay took over.

C12/1721/41 1792 Chitty v Parker

A pointer to the source of some of Adam Jellicoe's wealth. His wife was a Chitty.

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.