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on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. Please email site controller Eric Alexander
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Twilight years 1789-1800
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Sacred to the Memory of MR HENRY CORT of Devonshire
Street, St. George The Martyr QUEEN SQUARE, LONDON, who departed this Life 23rd
May 1800 in the 60th Year of his age. He passed away a broken hearted man. Near this place lieth the Body of Miss MARIA CORT
Daughter of the said HENRY CORT, departed this Life 6th June 1797,
Aged 19 years. Inscription on Cort's tomb in Hampstead |
In view of the collapse of his business in 1789 and his description as
"broken hearted" at the time of his death, it is tempting to assume
that the intervening period was one of unrelieved gloom. Closer study reveals a more interesting
picture.
After Adam
Jellicoe's death, an "inquisition" into the resulting debt is
held on 1st September 1789. This finds
that the partnership of Cort & Jellicoe owes £9,000 to The Crown, and an
extent for recovery is despatched to the Sheriff of Hampshire, authorising him
to arrest Cort. The Sheriff replies
that Cort is "not in my bailiwick".
In all probability Cort has
gone to London for Adam's funeral on 6th September. He does not wish to return to Hampshire to
face arrest, and on the 26th files for bankruptcy, which the
partnership has already done on the 17th. Both applications are made via Adam's lawyers, Ambrose &
James Weston (who, coincidentally, also act for James Watt in enforcing his
patents). Meanwhile Cort notifies his
main customers, the Navy, of his withdrawal from the partnership, leaving Adam's son Samuel free to raise money to cover this
part of the debt. Cort is still deemed
to owe £27,500 to The Crown.
Further inquisitions are held
to determine which of Cort’s assets can be seized, and inventories are drawn up
of his properties in Fontley and Catisfield.
(According to an affidavit in the National Archives file covering the
financial implications of Adam Jellicoe’s death, the goods seized from Cort
“were sold by the Sheriff of Hants about Jan 1790”.)
Meanwhile, in October 1789 a
bankruptcy order is issued, putting Cort's affairs in the hands of bankers John
Hollingsworth and Thomas Hankey.
One can assume that Cort has
been in London throughout this time, probably at the Devonshire Street
address. How soon his family join him
is a matter for conjecture. There is
little they can salvage from their Catisfield home. Elizabeth Cort's sister Ann Becher is
not far away in Fareham: her home in High Street should be big enough to house
most of the Corts.
Some clue to the family's fortunes may be found in the name
Catherine Frampton Cort given to the daughter born
on 21 February 1790. No record of the
baptism has yet been found, so one cannot entirely dismiss a rumour that Cort
denied paternity. Although the name
Frampton is common in Hampshire at the time, the only one with any sort of link
to the Corts is the Robert Frampton who married John
Becher's sister (in law?) in 1773.
There is no evidence that
Cort leaves London at any time between 1789 and 1800. Indeed he declines to go to Lancaster to act as executor when Jane Cort dies in 1798.
One can understand that he has little financial means, while The Letterbook of Richard Crawshay suggests he is
already ridden by gout and other ailments at the time his business collapses.
But there is no reason for
complete inertia. London is a busy
place, with the British Museum only three blocks away from Devonshire
Street. His
wife's cousin Joanna is living with her husband James
Watson round the corner in Powys Place, while William
Attwick in Portman Square can easily be reached. Cort’s former clerk John Kendrick is
just off The Strand, and lawyer John Eames from
Gosport (who signs the 1791 petition) can't be that
far away. Rev.
Moses Porter at Clapham is a much less likely acquaintance!
Cort's application for a certificate
of conformity (in meeting debts other than those to the Crown) is advertised in
the London Gazette in March 1790, and the certificate's issue on 14 April
relieves the most severe financial pressures.
The following month sees an attempt at reconciliation with the Navy,
with Cort writing to Trotter on the seventeenth and
Watson sending off his memorandum to Henry Dundas. There is no immediate response, however.
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Mr. Cort on 17th May 1790 wrote to Mr Trotter offering his
services to procure such necessary information to render the patents
productive but not receiving any Answer Mr. Cort of course cd not
proceed to procure such information and ye only step he cd take
under his circumstances were to procure information from a Master Roller (Jn
Swaine) whom Mr. C had planted at Coalbrook Dale in ye works of Mr. Reynolds
for the purpose of setting a going ye Rolling of Bars… July 1791 H.C.
From Weale collection, quoted in Henry Cort; The Great Finer. |
Around August 1791 comes the petition to William Pitt, which apparently does not
bear fruit until 1794, when Cort is granted a pension. Meanwhile eldest son Henry has left for
India. In 1802 Michael
Cheese will testify to meeting him "about eight years ago in
Dinapore", while other testimony suggests he may have arrived as early as
1792.
Elizabeth
Cort Becher is Henry's niece and his (and/or his wife's) goddaughter. Surely the Corts make the effort to attend
her wedding at St George, Hanover Square, on 9th November 1792. Whether they manage her brother Alexander's
wedding the following year (location unknown) is more doubtful.
In March 1794, Richard
Norbury raises the complaint about implementation of his
brother Coningsby's will, leading Cort to make an affidavit
the following year. In departing for
India in June 1795, James Watson is accompanied by Cort's son Coningsby: and probably by daughter Harriet
as well, since she marries in Calcutta barely two
years later.
Some time around the
beginning of 1796, Hyde Mathis arrives in London,
taking up residence in Tottenham Court Road - five or six blocks away from
Cort. One can only conjecture how they
meet. Maybe Mathis is informed of Cort's
presence before he arrives. Maybe he
contacts his former fellow-trustee at Gosport, William Attwick, who tells
him. Maybe they meet accidentally at
the British Museum. Whatever the
occasion, Mathis is pleased to renew the friendship and to name Cort as a
further executor in a codicil to his will in July. He dies just over a year later, but meanwhile Cort has been
saddened by the death of daughter Maria.
It appears from subsequent
correspondence that Coningsby returns from India in 1798, doubtless bearing
tidings of Harriet's marriage. But news
of young Henry's confinement probably arrives later,
doubtless contributing to the broken heart.
The Hampstead churchyard
where Cort is buried contains the graves of many other notables. Clockmaker John Harrison, subject of the
acclaimed book Longitude, has already been interred there. Doubtless one of Cort's admirers reckons he
deserves an equally auspicious resting place; but one must note that he has
been preceded by his daughter Maria three years earlier. Was any special influence wielded to achieve
this?
We may note also that James
Watson's widow Joanna lives her last years in Hampstead, and is buried in 1811 in
the same churchyard as Henry Cort; also that her daughter Arabella's will
speaks of a "family vault at Hampstead Old Church". We may wonder if there is a Watson influence
in the choice of Cort's burial place.
But it could hardly be Joanna: she is in India at the time of Maria's
death.
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Related pages Children and
descendants of Henry Cort |
henrycort.net
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