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John Wilkinson (industrialist)
Encyclopedia
John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson (1728 – 1808) was an English
industrialist who pioneered the use and manufacture of cast iron
and cast-iron goods in the Industrial Revolution
.
, Bridgefoot, Cumberland
(now part of Cumbria
), the eldest son of Isaac Wilkinson
and Mary Johnson. Isaac was then the potfounder at the blast furnace
there, one of the first to use coke
instead of charcoal, which was pioneered by Abraham Darby
.
John and his half-brother William, who was 17 years younger, were raised in a non-conformist Presbyterian family and he was educated at a dissenting academy
at Kendal, run by Dr Caleb Rotherham. His sister Mary married another non-conformist, Joseph Priestley
in 1762. Priestley also played a role in educating John's younger brother, William.
In 1745, when John was 17, he was apprenticed to a Liverpool merchant for five years and then entered into partnership with his father.
When his father moved to Bersham furnace
near Wrexham
in 1753 John remained at Kirkby Lonsdale in Westmorland where he married Ann Maudesley on 12 June 1755.
, near Broseley
in Shropshire
. Later he built another furnace and works at New Willey. He made his home in Broseley in a house called ‘The Lawns’ which became his headquarters for many years. He had houses either side of ‘The Lawns’ which served for administration, one being named ‘The Mint’ used for distribution of the thousands of tokens nicknamed ‘Willys’, each valued equivalent to a halfpenny. In East Shropshire he also developed iron works at Snedshill, Hollinswood, Hadley and Hampton Loade. He and Edward Blakeway also leased land to build another at Bradley
works in Bilston
parish, near Wolverhampton
. He became known as the Father of the extensive South Staffordshire iron industry with Bilston as the start of the Black Country
. In 1761, he took over Bersham Ironworks as well. Bradley became his largest and most successful enterprise, and was the site of extensive experiments in getting raw coal
to substitute for coke in the production of cast iron
. At its peak, it included a number of blast furnace
s, a brick works, potteries, glass works, and rolling mills. The Birmingham Canal was subsequently built near the Bradley works.
Bersham became well known for high-quality casting and a producer of guns and cannon. Traditionally, cannons had been cast with a core and then bored to remove imperfections, but in 1774 Wilkinson patented a technique for boring iron guns from a solid piece, rotating the gun barrel rather than the boring-bar, which made them more accurate and less likely to explode. While bronze cannon were already being bored from the solid, the boring of large naval iron cannon was novel. The patent was quashed in 1779 (the navy saw it as a monopoly and sought to overthrow it) but Wilkinson still remaining a major manufacturer. The navy’s victories over the French, especially at the Battle of Trafalgar
in 1805, were largely due to the fact that the crews were confident that their cannon would not explode and kill them but would send the cannon balls far, fast and accurately.
In 1792 Wilkinson bought the Brymbo Hall
estate in Denbighshire, not far from Bersham, where furnaces and other plant were installed. After his death and the decline of his industrial empire, the ironworks lay idle for some years until in 1842. It became once again an important works and eventually became Brymbo Steelworks, which continued to operate until 1990.
's first commercial engine, and was given an exclusive contract for the provision of cylinders.
While the main market for steam engines had been for pumping water out of mines he saw much more use for them in the driving of machinery in ironworks such as blowing engines, forge hammers and rolling mills, the first rotary engine being installed at Bradley in 1783. Among his many inventions was a reversing rolling mill with two steam cylinders that made the process much more economic.
John Wilkinson took a key interest in obtaining orders for these more efficient steam engines and other uses for cast iron from the owners of Cornish copper mines. As part of this interest he bought the shares in eight of the mines to help provide capital.
In 1775 John Wilkinson was the prime mover initiating the building of the Iron Bridge
connecting the then important industrial town of Broseley with the other side of the River Severn
. His friend Thomas Farnolls Pritchard
, had written to him with plans for the bridge. A committee of subscribers was formed mostly including Broseley businessmen to agree the use of iron rather than wood or stone and obtain quotations and an authorising act of parliament. Wilkinson’s persuasion and drive held together the group support through several problems during the parliamentary process. Had Wilkinson not succeeded in this and also drawn support from influential parliamentarians the bridge might not have been built or might have been made of other materials. Consequently the name ‘Ironbridge’ would not have been coined for the district in Madeley, the area would not have attained the status of a World Heritage Site. . Abraham Darby III
was chosen as the preferred builder after quoting to build the bridge for £3,150/-/-. When building started Wilkinson sold his shares to Abraham Darby III
in 1777, leaving the latter to steer the project to its successful conclusion in 1779 and be opened in 1781.
In 1787 he launched the first iron barge
, constructed in Broseley
. He patented several other inventions.
with copper sheet to reduce the growth of marine biofouling and prevent attack by the Teredo shipworm. The drag of long fronds of growth cut the speed and the shipworm caused very severe hull damage, especially in tropical waters. After the success of this work the Navy decreed that all ships should be clad and this created a very big demand for copper that Wilkinson noted during his visits to shipyards. He bought shares in eight Cornish copper mines and met Thomas Williams
, the ‘Copper King’ of the Parys Mountain
mines in Anglesey
. Besides supplying Williams with large quantities of plate and equipment Wilkinson also supplied scrap for the process of recovery of copper from solution by cementation. Wilkinson bought a 1/16th share in the Mona Mine at Parys Mountain and shares in Williams industries at Holywell in Flintshire, St Helens, near Liverpool and Swansea, South Wales. Wilkinson and Williams worked together on several projects. They were amongst the first to issue trade tokens (‘Willys’ and ‘Druids’) to alleviate the shortage of small coins. Jointly they set up the Cornish Metal Company in 1785 as a marketing company for copper. Its aim was to ensure both a good return for the Cornish miners and a stable price for the users of copper. Warehouses were set up in Birmingham, London, Bristol and Liverpool.
To help his business interests and to service his trade tokens, Wilkinson bought into partnerships with banks in Birmingham, Bilston, Bradley, Brymbo, Shrewsbury
. To use some of the lead produced, Wilkinson had a lead pipe works at Rotherhithe
, London. This factory lasted for many years eventually making the solder filler alloys used in the car factory at Dagenham
.
John married Ann Maudsley in 1759. Her family was wealthy and her dowry
helped to pay for a share in the New Willey Company. After the death of Ann, his second marriage , when he was 35, was to Mary Lee, whose money helped him to buy out his partners. When he was in his seventies, his mistress Mary Ann Lewis, a maid at his estate in Brymbo Hall, gave birth to his only children, a boy and two girls.
By 1796, when he was 68, he was producing about one-eighth of Britain's cast iron. He became "a titan" - very wealthy, and somewhat eccentric. His "iron madness" reached a peak in the 1790s, when he had almost everything around him made of iron, even several coffin
s and a massive obelisk
to mark his grave, which still stands in the village of Lindale-in-Cartmel in Lancashire
(now part of Cumbria
).
He died on 14 July 1808 at his works in Bradley
, probably from diabetes. He was originally buried at his Castlehead estate at Lindale.
He left a very large estate in his will (more than £130,000), to which he intended to make his three children the principal heirs, with executors to manage the estate for them. However his nephew Thomas Jones contested the will in the Court of Chancery
. By 1828, the estate had largely been dissipated by lawsuits and poor management. His corpse, in its distinctive iron coffin, was moved several times over the next decades, but is now lost.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
industrialist who pioneered the use and manufacture of cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
and cast-iron goods in the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
.
Early life
John Wilkinson was born in Little CliftonLittle Clifton
Little Clifton is a civil parish in the Allerdale district, in the county of Cumbria, England. In 2001 it had a population of 391.- External links :* http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=6227...
, Bridgefoot, Cumberland
Cumberland
Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....
(now part of Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
), the eldest son of Isaac Wilkinson
Isaac Wilkinson
Isaac Wilkinson was an English industrialist, one of the founders of the iron industry and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. However, his business ethics were precarious and his commercial affairs frequently chaotic. He became much addicted to litigation.-Early life:Wilkinson was born in...
and Mary Johnson. Isaac was then the potfounder at the blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
there, one of the first to use coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
instead of charcoal, which was pioneered by Abraham Darby
Abraham Darby I
Abraham Darby I was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal...
.
John and his half-brother William, who was 17 years younger, were raised in a non-conformist Presbyterian family and he was educated at a dissenting academy
Dissenting academies
The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and nonconformist seminaries run by dissenters. They formed a significant part of England’s educational systems from the mid-seventeenth to nineteenth centuries....
at Kendal, run by Dr Caleb Rotherham. His sister Mary married another non-conformist, Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
in 1762. Priestley also played a role in educating John's younger brother, William.
In 1745, when John was 17, he was apprenticed to a Liverpool merchant for five years and then entered into partnership with his father.
When his father moved to Bersham furnace
Bersham Ironworks
Bersham Ironworks were large ironworks at Bersham, near Wrexham, North Wales. They are most famous for being the original working site of John Wilkinson...
near Wrexham
Wrexham
Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...
in 1753 John remained at Kirkby Lonsdale in Westmorland where he married Ann Maudesley on 12 June 1755.
Iron master
From 1755 John Wilkinson became as a partner in the Bersham concern and in 1757 with partners, he erected a blast furnace at WilleyWilley, Shropshire
Willey is a small village south west of the town of Broseley, Shropshire, England, within the civil parish of Barrow. It is made up of about 4 farms and the majority of land is owned and leased by the Forrester family...
, near Broseley
Broseley
Broseley is a small town in Shropshire, England with a population of 4,912 . The River Severn flows to the north and east of the town. Broseley has a town council and is part of the area controlled by Shropshire Council. The first iron bridge in the world was built in 1779 to link Broseley with...
in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
. Later he built another furnace and works at New Willey. He made his home in Broseley in a house called ‘The Lawns’ which became his headquarters for many years. He had houses either side of ‘The Lawns’ which served for administration, one being named ‘The Mint’ used for distribution of the thousands of tokens nicknamed ‘Willys’, each valued equivalent to a halfpenny. In East Shropshire he also developed iron works at Snedshill, Hollinswood, Hadley and Hampton Loade. He and Edward Blakeway also leased land to build another at Bradley
Bradley, West Midlands
Bradley was originally a village in the Manor of Sedgley, England. Nowadays it is situated in the Bilston East ward of Wolverhampton City Council....
works in Bilston
Bilston
Bilston is a town in the English county of West Midlands, situated in the southeastern corner of the City of Wolverhampton. Three wards of Wolverhampton City Council cover the town: Bilston East and Bilston North, which almost entirely comprise parts of the historic Borough of Bilston, and...
parish, near Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
. He became known as the Father of the extensive South Staffordshire iron industry with Bilston as the start of the Black Country
Black Country
The Black Country is a loosely defined area of the English West Midlands conurbation, to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton. During the industrial revolution in the 19th century this area had become one of the most intensely industrialised in the nation...
. In 1761, he took over Bersham Ironworks as well. Bradley became his largest and most successful enterprise, and was the site of extensive experiments in getting raw coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
to substitute for coke in the production of cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
. At its peak, it included a number of blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
s, a brick works, potteries, glass works, and rolling mills. The Birmingham Canal was subsequently built near the Bradley works.
Bersham became well known for high-quality casting and a producer of guns and cannon. Traditionally, cannons had been cast with a core and then bored to remove imperfections, but in 1774 Wilkinson patented a technique for boring iron guns from a solid piece, rotating the gun barrel rather than the boring-bar, which made them more accurate and less likely to explode. While bronze cannon were already being bored from the solid, the boring of large naval iron cannon was novel. The patent was quashed in 1779 (the navy saw it as a monopoly and sought to overthrow it) but Wilkinson still remaining a major manufacturer. The navy’s victories over the French, especially at the Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
in 1805, were largely due to the fact that the crews were confident that their cannon would not explode and kill them but would send the cannon balls far, fast and accurately.
In 1792 Wilkinson bought the Brymbo Hall
Brymbo Hall
Brymbo Hall, one of Britain's lost houses, was a manor house located near Brymbo outside the town of Wrexham, North Wales. The house, reputed to have been partly built to the designs of Inigo Jones, was noted as the residence of 18th-century industrialist and ironmaster John "Iron-Mad"...
estate in Denbighshire, not far from Bersham, where furnaces and other plant were installed. After his death and the decline of his industrial empire, the ironworks lay idle for some years until in 1842. It became once again an important works and eventually became Brymbo Steelworks, which continued to operate until 1990.
Boring machine for steam engines
James Watt had tried unsuccessfully for several years to have an accurately bored cylinder for his steam engines, and was forced to used hammered iron, which was out of round and caused leakage past the piston. In 1774 John Wilkinson invented a boring machine with the shaft, which held the cutting tool, supported on both ends, extending through the cylinder, unlike the then used cantilevered borers. With this machine he was able to bore the 50 inch diameter (1.27 meter) cylinder for Boulton & WattBoulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
's first commercial engine, and was given an exclusive contract for the provision of cylinders.
While the main market for steam engines had been for pumping water out of mines he saw much more use for them in the driving of machinery in ironworks such as blowing engines, forge hammers and rolling mills, the first rotary engine being installed at Bradley in 1783. Among his many inventions was a reversing rolling mill with two steam cylinders that made the process much more economic.
John Wilkinson took a key interest in obtaining orders for these more efficient steam engines and other uses for cast iron from the owners of Cornish copper mines. As part of this interest he bought the shares in eight of the mines to help provide capital.
Ironbridge
The Iron Bridge
The Iron Bridge crosses the River Severn at the Ironbridge Gorge, by the village of Ironbridge, in Shropshire, England. It was the first arch bridge in the world to be made out of cast iron, a material which was previously far too expensive to use for large structures...
connecting the then important industrial town of Broseley with the other side of the River Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
. His friend Thomas Farnolls Pritchard
Thomas Farnolls Pritchard
Thomas Farnolls Pritchard was an English architect and interior decorator who is best remembered for his design of the first iron bridge in the world....
, had written to him with plans for the bridge. A committee of subscribers was formed mostly including Broseley businessmen to agree the use of iron rather than wood or stone and obtain quotations and an authorising act of parliament. Wilkinson’s persuasion and drive held together the group support through several problems during the parliamentary process. Had Wilkinson not succeeded in this and also drawn support from influential parliamentarians the bridge might not have been built or might have been made of other materials. Consequently the name ‘Ironbridge’ would not have been coined for the district in Madeley, the area would not have attained the status of a World Heritage Site. . Abraham Darby III
Abraham Darby III
Abraham Darby III was an English ironmaster and Quaker. He was the third Abraham Darby in three generations of an English Quaker family that played a role in the Industrial Revolution....
was chosen as the preferred builder after quoting to build the bridge for £3,150/-/-. When building started Wilkinson sold his shares to Abraham Darby III
Abraham Darby III
Abraham Darby III was an English ironmaster and Quaker. He was the third Abraham Darby in three generations of an English Quaker family that played a role in the Industrial Revolution....
in 1777, leaving the latter to steer the project to its successful conclusion in 1779 and be opened in 1781.
In 1787 he launched the first iron barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
, constructed in Broseley
Broseley
Broseley is a small town in Shropshire, England with a population of 4,912 . The River Severn flows to the north and east of the town. Broseley has a town council and is part of the area controlled by Shropshire Council. The first iron bridge in the world was built in 1779 to link Broseley with...
. He patented several other inventions.
Copper Interests
John Wilkinson made his fortune selling good quality goods made of iron and reached his limit of investment expansion. His expertise proved useful when he invested in many copper interests. In 1761 the Royal Navy clad hull of the frigate HMS Alarm (1758)HMS Alarm (1758)
HMS Alarm was a 32-gun fifth rate Niger-class frigate of the Royal Navy, and was the first Royal Navy ship to bear this name. Copper-sheathed in 1761, she was the first ship in the Royal Navy to have a fully copper-sheathed hull....
with copper sheet to reduce the growth of marine biofouling and prevent attack by the Teredo shipworm. The drag of long fronds of growth cut the speed and the shipworm caused very severe hull damage, especially in tropical waters. After the success of this work the Navy decreed that all ships should be clad and this created a very big demand for copper that Wilkinson noted during his visits to shipyards. He bought shares in eight Cornish copper mines and met Thomas Williams
Thomas Williams
Thomas Williams may refer to:* Thomas Williams * Williams, Gresham Professor of Astronomy from 11 November 1613* Thomas Williams , signatory of the Mayflower Compact...
, the ‘Copper King’ of the Parys Mountain
Parys Mountain
Parys Mountain – in the Welsh language Mynydd Parys – is located south of the town of Amlwch in north east Anglesey, Wales. It is the site of a large copper mine that was extensively exploited in the late 18th century.-History:...
mines in Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
. Besides supplying Williams with large quantities of plate and equipment Wilkinson also supplied scrap for the process of recovery of copper from solution by cementation. Wilkinson bought a 1/16th share in the Mona Mine at Parys Mountain and shares in Williams industries at Holywell in Flintshire, St Helens, near Liverpool and Swansea, South Wales. Wilkinson and Williams worked together on several projects. They were amongst the first to issue trade tokens (‘Willys’ and ‘Druids’) to alleviate the shortage of small coins. Jointly they set up the Cornish Metal Company in 1785 as a marketing company for copper. Its aim was to ensure both a good return for the Cornish miners and a stable price for the users of copper. Warehouses were set up in Birmingham, London, Bristol and Liverpool.
To help his business interests and to service his trade tokens, Wilkinson bought into partnerships with banks in Birmingham, Bilston, Bradley, Brymbo, Shrewsbury
Lead Mines and Works
Wilkinson bought lead mines at Minera, five miles from Bersham, Llyn Pandy at Soughton and Mold, also in Flintshire. He installed steam pumping engines to make them viable again. His lead was exported through the port of ChesterChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
. To use some of the lead produced, Wilkinson had a lead pipe works at Rotherhithe
Rotherhithe
Rotherhithe is a residential district in inner southeast London, England and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is located on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping and the Isle of Dogs on the north bank, and is a part of the Docklands area...
, London. This factory lasted for many years eventually making the solder filler alloys used in the car factory at Dagenham
Dagenham
Dagenham is a large suburb in East London, forming the eastern part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and located east of Charing Cross. It was historically an agrarian village in the county of Essex and remained mostly undeveloped until 1921 when the London County Council began...
.
Philanthropy
Wilkinson had a good reputation as an employer. Wherever new works were established, cottages were built to accommodate employees and their families. He gave significant financial support to his brother-in-law, Dr Joseph Priestly. He became a church warden in Broseley and was later elected High Sheriff of Denbeighshire. In schools that had no slates he was able to provide iron troughs to hold sand for the practice of writing and arithmetic. He provided a cast-iron pulpit for the church at Bilston.Family life, and death
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
helped to pay for a share in the New Willey Company. After the death of Ann, his second marriage , when he was 35, was to Mary Lee, whose money helped him to buy out his partners. When he was in his seventies, his mistress Mary Ann Lewis, a maid at his estate in Brymbo Hall, gave birth to his only children, a boy and two girls.
By 1796, when he was 68, he was producing about one-eighth of Britain's cast iron. He became "a titan" - very wealthy, and somewhat eccentric. His "iron madness" reached a peak in the 1790s, when he had almost everything around him made of iron, even several coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...
s and a massive obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
to mark his grave, which still stands in the village of Lindale-in-Cartmel in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
(now part of Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
).
He died on 14 July 1808 at his works in Bradley
Bradley, West Midlands
Bradley was originally a village in the Manor of Sedgley, England. Nowadays it is situated in the Bilston East ward of Wolverhampton City Council....
, probably from diabetes. He was originally buried at his Castlehead estate at Lindale.
He left a very large estate in his will (more than £130,000), to which he intended to make his three children the principal heirs, with executors to manage the estate for them. However his nephew Thomas Jones contested the will in the Court of Chancery
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
. By 1828, the estate had largely been dissipated by lawsuits and poor management. His corpse, in its distinctive iron coffin, was moved several times over the next decades, but is now lost.