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

ASSESSMENT OF CORT'S CHARACTER

Evidence from others

Cort is named as executor in at least six wills: Valentine Nevill calls him his "trusty friend". He is agent for over a hundred navy clients, including the King's brother. Someone that other people like and trust. Someone with clerical and financial skills. And the enterprise to find and promote new processes.

Generous, too. Take his close relationship with Coningsby Norbury, who continues as client when others have passed on, and allows Cort to draw on his account.

Two other pointers to his character. First, the preponderance of religious books in the 1789 inventory taken of his house in Catisfield, near Fareham: he takes his religion seriously. Second, the occasional reference to illness - gout in particular - in his correspondence with Richard Crawshay. A bon viveur, perhaps.

Secretive

There is also evidence of a secretive streak in Cort's nature. Only two hints of his origins come down to posterity via his family: birth at Ellell near Lancaster, father "a builder". Is that all his children know about his early life? Nothing about his first marriage?

Maybe there are episodes he prefers to keep to himself.

Suspicious nature?

Ignore Hulme's theory about "the stages in the decay of the inventor's mentality", based on false inferences. Hulme would be on firmer ground if he cited "agitation" observed by Crawshay. Or if he knew about the younger Henry's bout of paranoia.

Other people trust Henry Cort. Does he trust them?

"Ingenuous" says Dalrymple. "Not very knowing" says Watt. At first glance it seems that Cort trusts other people too much.

But where is the origin of tales of Cort's "illiberal treatment" by the iron trade, of conspiracy by the hoop manufacturers, of suspicions that his inventions are being pirated? Where if not from Cort himself?

He seems like a snail repeatedly creeping out of its shell, then retreating back into it. Alternating between excessive trust and excessive suspicion.

There is an explanation for this erratic behaviour. Not conclusive, but it does explain other things, such as erratic behaviour sometimes observed in his children.

An explanation

Henry Cort is indeed a trusting sort of person. But he has a companion of a suspicious disposition. She worries that he is too trusting, and periodically nudges him into acting on her suspicions.

And she inculcates this feeling of suspicion in her family. Where do notions of conspiracy and persecution come from? From the children. And see the effect they have on young Henry and Frederick.

Elizabeth Cort is a grandchild of John Attwick. Is suspicion of others an Attwick family characteristic?

She suspects that she and her sister Ann have been robbed of part of their inheritance by the machinations of her uncle, Samuel Dawson. Reading through other Attwick lawsuits, you can see further evidence of their suspicious nature. Another of John Attwick's grandchildren, Thomas Burges, reacts to defeat in a byelection in 1796 (to fill the seat left vacant when his brother-in-law, Sir James Watson, is appointed to the Bengal judiciary) by accusing his successful opponent of "bribery and corruption and other illegal Practices".

Not conclusive, but...

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.