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.
Pages
  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

    87. ****************
  87. Daniel Guion and family

    88. ****************
  88. Other publications

 


Other publications
Published on Aug 17, 2018


Draft
Henry Cort by Samuel Smiles - Grace's Guide to British Industrial History

Wikitree Early Life of Henry Cort by Jeremy Greenwood
    Jeremy Greenwood comes in this publication to the conclusion that Henry Cort must have been born illegitimate at Jamaica.
    His main argument is that the "capital which would have been necessary for his apprenticeship/entry premium, purchase of a partnership and providing the necessary working capital of his own business as well as his purchase of an estate in Hertfordshire; the last costing nearly £6000, was that of the West Indies planters who could amass huge cash fortunes from their endeavours".
    I see in his publication several facts that doesn't support this conclusion.
    He makes several statements that without mentioning a source, such as
    "Details of Henry Cort's birth and parentage have been deliberately withheld by the family."
    All together I qualify the these he describes on the first page of his publication as a unproven construcion

The end justifies the means

 Following articles fits to my opinion in the contamporary efforts to miscredit anyone who has whatever connection to slavery and is, also to my opinion, a complete falsification of history. Maybe the idea of removing carbon impurits also was developed in africa but te first efforts were made abt 1700 in England, thus a long time before slaves came to Jamaica. See the article of Samuel Smiles herebefore. Henry Cort was the inventor of a industrial method to produce iron with high quality and his innovations and patents were truly his earnings. Jenny Bulstrode should be extremely ashamed of herself to call Henry Cort a thieve,just as the 4 girls in the second article below, who demonstrate their lack of critical evaluation of Bulstrodes publication.

Bad academic work and bad journalism!!!

 The article of Jenny Bulstrode is pure guessing and is disturbing unprecise. I have following comments:
The Black metallurgists’ innovation
    Nowhere is the process of making bar iron described. In the article only "the skill of enslaved Black artificers" is mentioned. What skill this is doesn't Jenny describe.She doesn't know herself I'm afraid
The Black metallurgists’ actions, through which Henry Cort learned of the innovation
    In 1780 John Cort was master on the ship Abby who brought luxury goods to Jamaica. When returning in Portsmouth he should have informed His cousin Henry about the Iron foundry at Jamaica. This is no more than a tale without any academic foundation-
Black metallurgists and the making of the industrial revolution by Jenny Bulstrade.

Henry Cort stole his iron innovation from Black metallurgists in Jamaica


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.

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