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

Cort's links with Fareham

Fareham's first connection with Cort is as a point on his route from Gosport, where he already rents a wharf.

He needs to take raw materials to his mill at Fontley, and bring back the material he makes there.

By the creek at Fareham he finds "a large and commodious quay" built by the last of the Gringos on "two acres of mudlands" in 1737. This quay, which Cort rents at £25 per year, now belongs to Peter Barfoot (who may be the same Peter Barfoot who later retires to nearby Droxford and combines with Hampshire Chronicle proprietor John Wilkes to produce the Universal British Directory).

From Barfoot's quay the goods travel overland some three miles through Fareham. The route can still be traced, though the last mile passes along an exceedingly muddy track and requires a detour to cross the M27.

In the 1780s Cort is dragged into a dispute over the quay. Barfoot accuses the trustees of the Fareham turnpike of encroaching on his land while widening the causeway over Fareham Creek from 15 to 38 feet.

This land includes the quay that Cort has been renting: the encroachment has discouraged him, Barfoot says, from accepting renewal of the lease.

In June 1785 Barfoot's workmen attempt to demolish part of the causeway, provoking the trustees to take legal action against him.

After much wrangling, an "inquisition" is held in September 1786. Cort, "the ingenious and celebrated iron founder", is called to testify.

His evidence is hardly helpful to Barfoot. Having paid £25 per year during the lease's five-year term, he is faced with an increase. He declines to renew.

Whether this decision is really influenced by loss of amenity due to the trustees' encroachment is not evident.

Barfoot's own account of this dispute is held at Hampshire Record Office. It is the only document seen so far containing the names of both Cort and Samuel Marshall, said by Barfoot to be a turnpike trustee. Marshall's latest command, the Pegase, is anchored near Portsmouth most of the time the dispute is running.

Meanwhile Cort's sister-in-law Ann Becher has moved to Fareham (probably to the house in High Street where Thackeray meets her some 30 years later. Around the same time Cort moves from Gosport to Catisfield (now on the western fringe of Fareham, about a mile from the Fontley works). An inventory of the Catisfield house appears among the properties investigated by the inquisitions of 1789.

It is likely that Cort's partner Samuel Jellicoe and his family move into the Gosport property vacated by Cort.

The next link we know of is late in the 20th century, when Hampshire County Council renames the Fareham school closest to the Fontley site "Henry Cort Community School" (now "Community College").

As the millennium approaches, Fareham Borough Council seeks a project to win money to support the refurbishment of West Street. They plan to commemorate Henry Cort with work in wrought iron, made by blacksmiths.

The Millennium Commission agrees to support the project.

Artists from all over Europe are invited to submit designs. Eleven entries are accepted.

So begins my connection with Henry Cort. I have been writing about blacksmiths' work, and have served three years as magazine editor for the British Artist Blacksmiths Association. I know some of the artists chosen.

I ask the council: would they like a book about the project?

The result, West Street Trail, emerges in June 2000.

And I set off on my own trail down the Henry Cort road.

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.