Contemporary sources

This page is part of a website based on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. Please email site controller Eric Alexander with any comments or queries.

CONTEMPORARY SOURCES

Apart from the main sources, navy documents and chancery files listed elsewhere, there is a wealth of eighteenth-century documents each providing a small clue about the Henry Cort story.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES (PRO)

Wills

The PROB11 series includes wills of Jane Cort, Thomas Morgan, Hyde Mathis, and navy clients Valentine Nevill and Dandy Kidd, all of whom name Henry Cort as an executor.

One of the voided wills of Coningsby Norbury (PROB20/1918) also names Cort as executor.

Wills of John Attwick and some of him family, John Becher, George Hamilton and David Parry are also in PROB11.

Exchequer records

Inventories on Cort's properties (E144/31) were taken when his business collapsed in 1789. Exchequer records also shed light on Cort's activities as a navy agent.

Kings Bench records

KB101/4/15 contains all the information about the illness of Cort's eldest son.

Pitt correspondence

The 1791 petition to William Pitt, and related documents, can all be found in PRO30/8/221.

Bankruptcy records

Applications for bankruptcy from Henry Cort, and from the company Cort & Jellicoe, can be found in the register B4/23.

Certificate B6/7 notifies Cort's "effective discharge" from bankruptcy, 14 April 1790.

GUILDHALL LIBRARY, LONDON

Eighteenth-centure London trade directories, stored on microfilm, list Henry Cort from 1765 to 1775. Some of his London associates are also listed.

The record of Cort's second marriage (St Thomas the Apostle, 17 March 1768) is also on microfilm.

BRITISH LIBRARY

Stocks parliamentary records relevant to Melville's impeachment, notably the tenth Report of the Commission of Naval Enquiry, 1805.

HAMPSHIRE RECORD OFFICE

There are references to Henry Cort among Gosport's court (11M59/BP5) and trustees' (123M96/DT1,2) records.

Cort's name crops up in Peter Barfoot's account of his dispute with the trustees of Fareham Turnpike (4M79/Z1). Cort was renting a quay from Barfoot to transport materials between Gosport and Fontley.

Involvement of Thomas Haysham and the Attwick family in ownership of a property in Gosport is evident from the deeds (38M48/83/7-12,21)

A lease of Fontley Iron Mill by James Stares in a deed of 1771 (94M84/3)

HERTFORDSHIRE RECORD OFFICE

The series A903-928 from the Giles-Puller collection covers transactions for the land at Standon that Cort purchased in 1763.

SURREY RECORD OFFICE

The record of Cort’s first marriage is held in the Crowhurst parish register.

BIRMINGHAM CITY ARCHIVES

The Boulton-Watt collection for 1782-4 includes a few letters from Cort, and one from Watt to Boulton (14 December 1782).

There are also letters relating to Cort from Joseph Black, Sir John Dalrymple and James Hutton (May-Aug 1784); and John Wilkinson (Oct-Nov 1783).

STAFFORDSHIRE RECORD OFFICE

Among records are one (D695/1/12/36) relating to a demonstration of his process given by Cort in November 1784. There is also an intriguing reference in an account book (D1046, 1779-1805) to John Becher, suggesting he may have been buying ironmongery on Cort's behalf in Staffordshire in 1782.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF SCOTLAND

The Melville collection, together with the 1790 memorandum, includes a covering letter (GD51/2/10/1) and an "abstract" (GD51/10/17) with figures on production of iron at Fontley and Cyfarthfa.

There is also an interesting letter (GD51/4/1307) from Coningsby Cort to Melville's son Robert Dundas in 1808.

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The Cramond works near Edinburgh supplied nails to the Gosport business for a while. Relevant documents are in acc 5381 Box 31.

There is also some interesting material about Alexander Trotter in Ms20268.

GWENT "COUNTY" ARCHIVES

The best source of information about Richard Crawshay's experience with puddling is collection D2.162. Much of this has been published under the title The Letterbook of Richard Crawshay, available in many libraries of technology.

INFORMATION ON BECHER FAMILY

Record offices at Bristol and Dudley contain useful family information.

John Becher's marriage is listed in an index at the Local Studies centre is Worcester: the original record is kept at Hagley.