Henry Cort

		Henry Cort Inventor - Creator of puddled iron - Father of iron trade
		This page is part of a website based on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. The creator and owner of the site was Eric Alexander who passed away. The site is now hosted by Hans Weebers Please contact me with any comments or queries.

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Daniel Guion and family

Other publications

Samuel Jellicoe's legacy

Aftermath of business collapse

The collapse of Cort's business in 1789 leaves his partner Samuel Jellicoe with a debt of £9,000 to pay off.

Compared with Cort, he is in a fortunate position.

He has the support of his father's lawyers, Ambrose and James Weston. Adam's superiors at the Navy Office are reluctant to cause difficulties for him. There is even a possibility of help from Richard Crawshay.

I hope of placing him in a situation of providing for himself & family in a trade that he is now experienced in.

From letter of Richard Crawshay to Richard Lee about Samuel Jellicoe, 15 September 1789

There is also his brother-in-law, William Carter, Mayor of Portsmouth.

So it is not so surprising that Samuel overcomes his problems and takes sole control of the business and the works at Fontley and Gosport. Nor that the Navy's ironmongery order for 2 August 1792 specifies supply by "Jellicoe & Weston".

Soon he re-establishes control of the business, continuing contracts with the Navy. Judging from recently unearthed material showing two consignments of iron bars despatched to him in 1796 by William Reynolds at Ketley, his capacity for puddling iron at Fontley is sometimes insufficient to meet the Navy's demand - or could it be that the Navy's supply of recycled iron (charcoal-smelted cast iron ballast) has dried up?

Mother and siblings

Samuel's mother and some of his siblings appear to be in London at this time. Thus when Mary Chitty dies in 1791, the execution of her 1762 will, originally allotted to Adam Jellicoe, devolves upon his second surviving son, Adam James Jellicoe, rather than on Samuel.

Location of Samuel's home

Some websites claim that the house at Uplands, Fareham, was built for him around 1780. It would be interesting to see what evidence they can advance.

On 12 January 1789 he has been proposed as a Gosport trustee (HRO 123M96/DT1-2). Thanks to business difficulties, he does not attend a meeting until July 1793.

Meanwhile the register of Portsmouth High Street (Presbyterian) chapel, where the children of his first marriage (to Catherine Lee) are baptised (1788-95), records the family as living in Gosport.

An 1801 document in Hampshire Record Office (38M80/E/T29.30) talks of a house in High Street, Gosport "late of William Attwick Esq but now of Samuel Jellicoe Esq"; probably occupied by Cort and his family in an intervening period.

After the death of his first wife (buried 6th September 1799) Samuel marries Mary Ann Curry at Gosport Holy Trinity (8th December 1800), where children of this marriage are baptised.

By 1802 he has become a Gosport juror.

Even if he does own a house in Fareham, it is clear that he doesn't spend much time there! And 1780 is a most unlikely time for it to be built, as this is when his partnership with Cort begins. What's more, an unconfirmed local legend identifies Samuel's home in the partnership's early days as Fontley House Farm, adjacent to the ironworks.

The only contemporary evidence I have seen linking the name Samuel Jellicoe with Uplands, Fareham, refers to his son Samuel. I note that Uplands is close to Roche Court, a property of the Gardiner family. In 1819 the younger Samuel marries one of that family. Has he met her because she lives nearby? Or has he chosen to live at Uplands after his marriage?

Subsequent career

On 10 November 1804 the elder Samuel Jellicoe is called before the Commission of Naval Enquiry during the hearings leading to their Tenth Report. What can he tell them about his father's financial affairs?

He says that Adam was "Chief Clerk of the Pay Branch in town" and Deputy Paymaster of the Navy from 1777; that he knew nothing of his father's debts, but did know that Henry Cort owed Adam "a debt of considerable magnitude"; that Adam owned houses in Islington and Portsea, and a wharf and warehouse in Gosport leased to Cort & Jellicoe. He thinks a further house at Shedfield was mortgaged to a Mr Bennett as security.

This evidence seems to satisfy the commissioners. He is not asked to testify by the Select Committee or at Melville's trial.

In 1807 we find an order issued by him as Justice of the Peace.

In due course he disposes of the facilities at Fontley and Gosport.

Following Cort's bankruptcy, and a period of tenure by Samuel Jellicoe during the profitable war period, the works were sold in 1815 to John Bartholomew, Cort's former finery-man.

From Singer's contribution to Titchfield, a History (1982).

In 1823 Samuel's confidential clerk and assistant for twenty years, Samuel Rogers, and son William Jellicoe took over the running of the Gosport Foundry. This partnership lasted until 1831 when Rogers became the sole proprietor. He advertised the business as iron founders, anchorsmiths and smiths in general, producing iron, nails, anchors, cast iron goods, plough hooks etc.

From Philip Eley, The Gosport Iron Foundry and Henry Cort.

Descendants

Son Samuel "of Uplands, Fareham", baptised in 1788, dies in 1861: late enough for him to be around in 1859 for the birth of his grandson, Admiral (and later first Earl) Jellicoe, commander of the fleet at the battle of Jutland in 1916. 67 years after the death of the first earl in 1935, I have correspondence with his son.

Not many people alive in the 21st century whose great-grandfather was born in the 18th. A great feat of longevity and lasting reproductive potency!

Related files

Life of Adam Jellicoe

Death of Adam Jellicoe

Cort's work as a navy agent

Cort's Navy Office associates

Henry Dundas and Alexander Trotter

Gosport in Cort's day

Gosport administration

Cort's links with Titchfield

Cort's links with Fareham

Refutation of allegations of conspiracies against Cort

Life of Henry Cort

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.