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HENRY CORT'S CHILDREN AND DESCENDANTS
Gosport 1776-1790
Henry and Elizabeth Cort arrive in
Gosport with five children, all baptised at St Olaves
Hart Street, London, the church across the road from Henry's first known
address.
Seven more children are baptised at Gosport Holy Trinity. The first of these, John Hamer
Cort (not John Harman Cort,
as has been supposed), is the only child to die in
infancy: buried at Alverstoke, 26 July 1780.
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Henry Bell, the oldest, appears as a witness to the
specification of his father’s Scottish patent in May 1784, when he is at Fontley. By 1786
he is back in the St Olave Hart Street parish,
London, helping his father sort out Thomas Morgan’s estate. William, according to Mott, helps his father build puddling furnaces at Cyfarthfa in 1787. Overseas ventures,
1791-1807 During this period, six of Henry Cort’s
children venture to India or Guiana. Henry, the eldest, goes to both.
He is the first of the family to arrive in
India. Judging by the evidence at
the 1802 hearing, he is there by 1793, moving up country from Calcutta with a
view to planting indigo. Coningsby arrives in India with Sir James Watson in
April 1796. Harriet is probably one of
the party, since she marries Capt Thomas Dowell in
August 1797. Coningsby witnesses the wedding, but probably
leaves India soon afterwards (judging from a later
letter to Robert Dundas).
Back in England, Maria dies in June 1797. The news of her death may help to trigger young Henry’s illness the
following March. Meanwhile it appears that William has taken
off for Berbice (Guiana), probably before his
father’s death in 1800. Charlotte and
Frederick also arrive in Guiana, probably a few years after William. Henry, having returned to England, recovered from his illness
and married his illegitimate second cousin Frances
Burges (Coningsby, Caroline and Louisa have all
witnessed the wedding) leaves with her for Berbice
in February 1805. A letter from Henry, written shortly before leaving England,
talks of "Fanny" and of prospective bequests to his siblings,
including "Con", "Betsy" and "Kitty". Probably Henry doesn’t realise that his wife is pregnant. The baby arrives 11th September, while the
family is in Berbice. Henry doesn’t live much longer.
By July 1806 the family in England is sorting through his belongings. |
HENRY CORT m
Elizabeth
1740/1-1800 1744-1826 Children Henry Bell 1769-1806 m
Frances Burges dtr Frances Coningsby Francis "Con" b 1770 m
Ann several children William Thomas b1771 m
Mary Ann Several children Elizabeth Jane "Betsy" b 1773 Harriet Ann b 1775 m
Capt Thomas DOWELL at least 5 children John Hamer 1777-1780 Maria 1778-97 Charlotte b 1779 m
John WILSON at least 1 child Frederick John 1781-1835 illegitimate children Caroline b 1783 Richard b 1784 m
Mary Caroline Kendall Louisa b 1786 m
Joseph POWELL at least 2 children Catherine Frampton "Kitty" b 1790 m
Christopher LIDDON 2 children |
Richard, meanwhile, has become a partner of W Kirkpatrick in Bread
Street, Cheapside: "Merchants, Warehousemen, Dealers and Chapmen".
Baptism of Frances Cort
Henry’s widow has returned to England with her
infant daughter Frances in 1806. It
may be that there is a problem with baptising a child born abroad whose father
has died. Why else should the ceremony,
in November, be performed in Upton (now part of Slough)?
One possibility is the influence of cousin Michael
Thomas Becher, now head at Bury St Edmunds
Grammar School. As a former pupil at
Eton, Michael may be using his links there to arrange the ceremony – possibly
the favour earning the “gratitude” subsequently expressed in Frederick Cort’s will. Upton
is one of the nearest churches to Eton on the same side of the river (the
Buckinghamshire side in those days).
Research has revealed periodic links between Upton Church (St
Laurence) and Eton College over the years.
Most promising in this context is provided by John Staples Hand: like Becher, an Eton Scholar (1765-74), thence to King's
College, Cambridge. On leaving in 1781,
he becomes a private tutor at Eton for the next seven years.
Since Becher starts at Eton in 1774 and
arrives at King's in November 1781, there isn't much of an overlap at either
establishment. Nevertheless one can
surmise that Becher is more than aware of Hand's
existence. If he maintains links with
his old school, he will realise the opportunity it offers of doing a good turn
for his cousin, since Hand's father has been vicar at Upton from 1759 to 1806 -
including all Becher's time at Eton.
Although Hand senior's term as vicar probably finishes before
Frances Cort's baptism (9th November), it is reasonable
to assume he can ensure that it takes place.
Who actually performs the ceremony is not recorded. It is not until 1813 that the parish's
baptism record includes the name of the officiating priest, though names of
likely candidates can be deduced from marriage records.
A record of the younger Frances’s baptism can be found in the Hertfordshire archives. Evidently it has been transcribed from the
Upton parish records by the curate at the time (1826), Henry Slingsby. (At one
point I misread the information, thinking that Slingsby
performed the ceremony.)
Slingsby is another with an Eton link. He and his brother John have also passed
through and proceeded to King’s. In
addition, their father’s will refers to “property in
the parish of Eton... bought of Mrs Hardy & held on loan from Provost &
College of Eton”. In 1805 Slingsby’s half-sister Elizabeth starts to run one of
Eton’s boarding houses: a job that passes in turn to her sisters Mary and Susan
after her death in 1839.
Peregrinations of Coningsby
Cort
Henry Cort’s second son, Coningsby, seems to be most active on behalf of the
family. His name crops up in a variety
of documents, but with a disconcerting variety of addresses.
When vouching for the document accepted as his brother
Henry’s will in 1806, he is “of Wexham in the county
of Berkshire”. Over the next few years,
it appears that he has different addresses for business and home.
The business address is evidently 21 Mount Road, Lambeth. From here he writes to Lord Sheffield's
secretary, John Weale,
early in 1808. He gives the same address
in 1811, when signing documents concerning the disposal of the family’s Hertfordshire property.
For a while the home address is 14 Surrey Street, Strand (London),
whence he writes a letter to Robert Dundas in March
1808. We can assume that his children
Eliza Ann and Henry Hannam Cort
were born there: the 1861 census identifies Henry Hannam’s
birthplace as Surrey Street, while the IGI shows both children baptised at the
local church, St Clement Dane, in June 1806 and November 1807
respectively. The record gives their
mother’s name as Ann.
An agreement in August 1809 for sale of the Hertfordshire property
places Coningsby Cort in
Kentish Town. Then comes
the baptism of daughter Charlotte across the river in Southwark in December
1813. An anomaly here, however: her
mother’s name is recorded as Elizabeth Mary.
Has he married again? If so, why
does the baptism of Louisa at St Pancras in March 1822 record her
mother’s name as Ann? Three
marriages, including two Anns?
As Frances Cort’s guardian, Coningsby witnesses the final release of her share in the
property from an address in Grays Inn Square in 1827; while 1837 documents
locate him at Union Row, Stratford, Essex (presumably the same Stratford now
established in East London). They also
reveal that the four children whose baptisms are recorded in the London IGI are
not the only ones: there are also son John Haysham Cort and daughter Caroline – both younger than Henry Hannam but older than Louisa, judging from the order in
which they appear. Daughter Charlotte,
however, is absent, presumed dead.
Family snapshots 1809-13
There is clear evidence that William has returned to England in
1809, leaving brother Frederick in Berbice. Next evidence comes from documents relating
to the Hertfordshire property’s disposal around
1811, providing a useful snapshot of the whole family including their mother
and young Frances.
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Mother is living in Reading with three unmarried daughters:
Elizabeth, Caroline and Catherine (who reaches age 21 early in 1811). William and his partner Mary Ann are not far away, in Yattendon (no record yet of their marriage). Baptism of three daughters is registered at
Yattendon.
In 1811-12 he helps Coningsby (evidently at
Mount Road) to present the petition to Parliament
about recompense for their father’s misfortunes. But by April 1814 William in back in Berbice. Harriet's husband Thomas Dowell having retired in February 1810,
they are living in Exeter. Of several
children in India, some may not have survived. At least one more is baptised in Exeter. Louisa is also in Exeter, where she has married Joseph
Powell. One son has been baptised
there. Frederick is now in Berbice: did he go out there as a replacement for his
brother Henry? Charlotte is in
Demerara, married to John Wilson. Richard has become bankrupt.
He has legal representation from Manchester solicitors James Quin and Robert Barnes. Young Frances Cort is living at
Hammersmith. A more limited family snapshot is provided by their mother's
will in August 1813. She has moved to Axminster in Devon. Her estate is divided between unmarried daughters Elizabeth,
Caroline and Catherine. The will is
witnessed by Harriet and Louisa, whose husbands are named as executors. Changes 1818-1831 In 1819 Charlotte’s husband John Wilson becomes a partner of
Liverpool merchant John Gladstone (whose son later becomes Prime Minister),
while Frederick becomes Gladstone’s agent in Demerara. Both posts last until 1829. Mother Elizabeth evidently dies in 1826. Her will is proved on 5th October "by
oath of Thomas Dowell surviving executor". So Joseph Powell is also dead. 1831 sees the death of Thomas Dowell (11 November) and the
marriage (18 December) between Frances Cort and
George Frederick Westbrook at Portsea (just north
of Portsmouth): you have only to look at the bride’s signature
on the marriage register to see she is the granddaughter of Henry Cort. There is a tantalising IGI entry for
the baptism of a daughter, Adelaide Hocking Cort,
to “William and Mary Ann” on 5th September in Devonport (Plymouth). The original record shows, however, that
this William is a shoemaker, not a plantation owner in Berbice! Possibly the plantation owner’s son. Family snapshots 1833-37 Another snapshot is provided by Frederick's will. It is long, difficult to read, and I
couldn't find the date it was made. It
begins by revoking an earlier will made at Demerara, 27 July 1831 and left
there "on the eve of departure for England". The will is obviously made after 1st July 1833, date
of the baptism in Lancashire of an illegitimate daughter, Eliza Ann Cort. Frederick is
now Liverpool partner in the firm Wilson & Cort,
and sure enough brother-in-law John Wilson is named as one executor. |
Cort children Henry Bell 1769-1806 m
Frances Burges dtr Frances Coningsby Francis "Con" b 1770 m
Ann several children (5 alive in 1837) William Thomas b1771 m
Mary Ann Several children (7 alive in 1837) Elizabeth Jane "Betsy" b 1773 Harriet Ann b 1775 m
Capt Thomas DOWELL at least 5 children John Hamer 1777-1780 Maria 1778-97 Charlotte b 1779 m
John WILSON at least 1 child Frederick John 1781-1835 3 illegitimate children Caroline b 1783 Richard b 1784 m
Mary Caroline Kendall Louisa b 1786 m
Joseph POWELL 2 daughters Catherine Frampton "Kitty" b 1790 m
Christopher LIDDON 2 sons |
Wilson's wife Charlotte is also mentioned, and their son
Lieutenant Mackenzie Wilson (identified in the 55th Regiment of
Foot, where he rises to the rank of captain in 1836).
Also mentioned in the will are brothers Coningsby,
William, and Richard and sisters Caroline, Louisa
Powell and Catherine Liddon. No mention of sisters Eliza and Harriet
Dowell: presumably dead. There is a
“Betsy Cort of Demerara”, but she is probably
William’s daughter.
The will causes problems by specific bequests to unnamed children
of Coningsby, William, Louisa and Catherine; the
residue to be divided between Frederick’s own illegitimate three. In 1837 it becomes necessary to establish a
fair distribution: the task is undertaken by Coningsby
as “next friend” of the three bastards, despite naming his own children among
the defendants.
Whatever the difficulty caused for the family by this situation,
it is helpful to historians in naming all Coningsby’s,
Louisa’s and Catherine’s children alive at the time. Some of William’s (notably William van Batenburgh Cort) are missing.
Possibly Coningsby has not been able to keep
fully informed about William’s family in Berbice. Possibly the omission is deliberate, because
the younger William is illegitimate.
Changes after 1837
Nothing further is heard of Coningsby. Guiana records show William dies there 2nd
September 1853.
Of Henry Cort’s children, one son and
three daughters are alive in July 1856, according to the petition to Parliament published in the Journal of
the Society of Arts.
Parliamentary records state that all these children are under 73, so
they ought to be Richard and his sisters Caroline, Louisa and Catherine.
Subsequently, according to Henry Cort: The Great Finer,
“Richard Cort was granted a pension of £50 in the
Civil List and his two unmarried sisters had their pensions
increased…” We may query the “two
unmarried sisters”. Louisa had certainly
married Joseph Powell, though she may be widowed by this time. If Catherine is alive, she will also be a
widow.
I am grateful to researcher Paul Luter
for passing on the content of a notice from an 1859 newspaper (Wolverhampton
Chronicle, 7th September, though it was doubtless carried in
most other papers at the time), announcing the death of Cort’s
daughter Louisa, “relict of Joseph Powell”, aged 73.
Mysteries of Catherine Cort
I am grateful to Julia Crawley, descendant of a relative of
Catherine’s husband, for passing on (May 2011) the location she had discovered
for Catherine’s baptism: St George The Martyr, Queens
Square, London. Really the obvious
place, as the family was living just
off Queens Square
at the time (26 March 1790): yet it had been a mystery to me up to that
point. The St George register cites a
birth date of 24 February, three days later than the one quoted in the Mott-Singer biography, which is presumably derived from Webster.
A mystery remains about the “Frampton” in her name: could there be
a link with the second husband of John Becher’s sister (or sister-in-law) Ann?
Her brother Henry’s “will” refers to her as Kitty, but there is
little clue to her life before her mother’s death. In 1813, at the time of her mother’s will,
Catherine is unmarried. Her first child
arrives in 1829, when she is 39. Reading
between the lines of available documents, one can piece together some details
of her marriage. When I first
encountered her married name, I misread it as
Sisson. I later found a document that
made it clear the name was Liddon.
Husband is Christopher Amos Liddon, a
native of Axminster where mother Elizabeth is living
when she makes her will. It’s likely
that Catherine meets him while living or staying with Elizabeth. His parents are William and Hannah, while it
seems likely that “Amos Liddon, Surgeon and
Apothecary” of Axminster (to quote from Devon Record
Office’s online catalogue) is an uncle or godfather or both.
Catherine’s sons, Henry and Frederick, are baptised in Dawlish
(1829 and 1830). The 1841 census lists
Catherine (described as “Chemist”) as head of family at 7 Strand, Dawlish,
while her husband (this information also from Julia) appears as a surgeon in St
Leonards, Devon. The 1851 and 1861
censuses show the family living at addresses in Bristol: however, Henry has
died in 1852. Catherine’s death in
Bristol is recorded in 1869, her husband’s the following year, by which time
their surviving son Frederick has moved to Liverpool.
Powell-Carpenter line
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By a wonderful coincidence the
Professor of Metallurgy at Manchester in the period 1906-1913 was H.C.H.
Carpenter, a great great grandson of Henry Cort. From monogram on Henry Cort
prepared for University of Manchester Open Day, 20 May 1978 |
The author records his thanks for
assistance to Sir Harold H. Cort Carpenter, F.R.S.,
great great grandson of Cort… From H.W. Dickinson’s presentation to Newcomen Society on occasion of Cort
bicentenary, 1940 |
Mott traced the
ancestry of Sir Harold (originally christened Henry Cort
Harold Carpenter) back to Cort’s daughter Louisa
Powell. Her daughter Louisa marries a
noted biologist, William Benjamin Carpenter.
He and two of their sons, as well as their grandson Harold, all appear
in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
The signature "William B. Carpenter, M.D., F.R.S."
appears on the petition to Parliament by the Society of Arts in 1856 on behalf of “the only surviving representatives of the
late Mr. Henry Cort, being one son and three
daughters”. Not so surprising, since one
of these daughters is his mother-in-law Louisa Powell!
Latter-day descendants
Apart from the traceable line to Sir Harold
Carpenter, I have encountered five examples
of people claiming to be descendants of Henry Cort. Three of
these have been investigated further.
In a letter seen in the Local Studies Centre at
Gosport and transcribed from Hampshire County Magazine of December 1964,
Frank Cort of South Brook, Brook House, Newport, Isle
of Wight, identifies himself as Cort's great great grandson.
During the commemoration at Fareham in 2000, I meet soi-disant
descendant Michael Cort, living in Brighton at the
time. One of his sons, I discover, is
named Dominic. Michael gives me
encouragement at first, but we fall out and lose contact when my research exposes
as myth some of his cherished ideas about his ancestor.
One of the emails I receive in response
to material on the website comes from Linda Sherlock (née Veck),
living in Wallasey near Liverpool.
“My late paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Helen Veck,
née Cort, told me we were directly descended from
Henry Cort… She was born on July 4th 1880.”
More recently
(March 2010) I am emailed by Robert Tod, born in
England but now living near New York. “My mother, Diana Bond (she remarried), was born Diana Cort in 1928, one of 5 children of William & Minnie Cort (nee Edmunds) who lived in Southend… I remember her mentioning her great x5 or 6
grandfather to me as a child as the man who invented the Puddling
process and how he lost everything, but without really going into detail.”
Yet more recently I hear from Farouk Samaroo, a prominent New Yorker born in Guyana with a
remarkable pedigree.
Lineage of Robert Tod
Success has
been achieved in tracing Robert’s lineage back to Henry Cort. It’s clear from his son Frederick’s will that
grandson William was born in Berbice, the illegitimate coloured son of a slave named
Louisa, and that Frederick took his son with him when he returned to England,
and sent him to school in Liverpool.
William’s son Francis Alfred was born in Liverpool, and the line down to
Diana’s parents has been traced through census and birth records.
Lineage of Farouk Samaroo
Farouk names his
great-great-grandfather as Francis Alfred Cort, but
though he has the same name as Robert’s great-grandfather he was born in Berbice. I suspect
he is the link for Farouk’s evident African ancestry, and is probably descended
from Henry Cort’s
son William through a liaison with a slave girl:
were he descended from
Frederick, I would have expected a link with Demerara rather than Berbice. Francis
Alfred’s wife came from a noble Indian family: deprived of their inheritance by
the British, probably because of participation in a rebellion. Her parents had
moved or been transported to Berbice as indentured
servants.
Lineage of Linda Sherlock
My investigations through census records and the
IGI raise a query whether Linda is indeed descended from Henry Cort. In 1881 census
returns I could find no Elizabeth Helen Cort, but
there was an Elizabeth Ellen Court born in 1880 in Caton,
Lancashire. Her father Robert was born
in Liverpool, the son of John, but the “Court” spelling remains consistent in
all records. John’s origin is unknown,
but it’s possible that he changed the spelling of his surname. Henry’s son William had a son called John,
probably born in Berbice (date unknown), listed in
the documents relating to the 1837 complaint and registered as a planter in
British Guiana in 1855. However, the
John Court listed in 1841 census returns is described as a smith. One of Coningsby Cort’s sons is John Haysham Cort, but he is described as “of the Bank of England” in
his 1853 obituary. In 1851 census
returns Robert’s parents are both missing, and he is living with his maternal
grandmother Mary Ann Williams in Liverpool.
Possible lines of descent
Looking overall at possible lines of
descent for twentieth/twenty-first century descendants named Cort, we note that the inventor had six sons, of whom we
can rule out John (died in infancy) and Henry (one daughter, no sons,
acknowledged in Hertfordshire documents of
1811). No record I have seen mentions
any children of Richard. Frederick’s two
sons, both taking the Cort name, although
illegitimate, are black (though with a recessive white gene, which could give
rise to white descendants).
The complaint raised
on behalf of Frederick’s children in 1837 purports to name all the children of Coningsby and William alive at the time.
Coningsby’s sons are named
as Henry Hannam and John Haysham. The 1861 census shows Henry Hannam, aged about 54, living in St Marylebone (London)
with wife Elizabeth Ann and 14-year-old daughter Marianne: could there be older
children who have left home? No
information yet about John Haysham Cort’s family.
William’s sons are named as Frederick
& John; but there is known to be an earlier one, William, who may have been
dead by 1837. Judging
from Farouk Samaroo’s likely lineage, at least one of
these must have been black.
The likely lines of descent from Henry to Frank and
Michael Cort should
therefore pass via Coningsby, William or Frederick.
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Related pages Cort’s promotion
efforts1783-86 Guiana and the Cort-Gladstone
connection Significance of the Melville trial Refutation of allegations of conspiracies
against Cort |
henrycort.net
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