|
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. |
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.
Lack of evidence for the baptism of the youngest, Catherine, is one of
the mysteries covered in later on this page.
|
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.
|
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
The IGI holds no record of either baptism or marriage of
Henry Cort’s youngest daughter. Yet
there can be no doubt that Catherine Frampton Cort existed, while the birth
date given by Webster of 21 February 1790 is
confirmed by one of the documents concerning the Hertfordshire
property.
As for a story that Henry denied paternity, no evidence has yet
appeared. Catherine is always treated
as a family member on a par with the others.
A line of inquiry is opened by 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). In the 1841 census
Catherine, described as “Chemist”, is living with them at 7 Strand,
Dawlish. We may deduce that her husband
(registered as alive in one of the 1837 documents) is dead by this time, and
that she is carrying on the same business, which he probably began under the
tutelage of his apothecary uncle/godfather.
Surprisingly, the census says she is 40 years old! Bearing in mind that her husband was born in
1799 (i.e. nearly ten years her junior) one may wonder if she has lied
systematically about her age.
The 1841 record is the latest one found specifically for Catherine
Liddon: she does not appear in the census of 1851. But the 1856 records quoted earlier imply she is then still
alive.
Powell-Carpenter line
|
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 four examples of people claiming to be descendants of Henry Cort. Two 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.”
Most recently (March 2010) I am emailed
by Robert Tod, born in England but now living in 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.”
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
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. Some or all of these sons
may have been black.
The likely lines of descent from Henry to Frank and Michael Cort therefore
pass via Coningsby, William or Frederick.
|
Related pages Cort’s
promotion efforts1783-86 Guiana
and the Cort-Gladstone connection Significance of the Melville trial What happened to Cort’s patents |
henrycort.net
p29