1. Homepage
2. Life of Henry Cort
3. Cort's processes in iron manufacture
4. Cort's patents
5. Refutation of allegations of conspiracies against Cort
6. Adam Jellicoe's death
7. Henry Cort's birth
8. A navy agent's business
9. Early life of John Becher
10. Attwick & Burges families
11. "Cortship" of second wife
12. Thomas Morgan
13. Henry Cort's hoops contract
14. 1856 Accolade
15. Generosity of friends 1789-94
16. James Watson
17. Illness of Cort's son
18. Main sources of information
19. Contemporary sources
20. Navy sources
21. Chancery files
22. Publications about Cort
23. Assessment of Cort's character
24. Images of Henry Cort

25. Impeach-tranferred to 05

26. Parliamentary inquiry 1811-2
27. The furore of the 1850s
28. Society of Arts
29. Cort's first marriage
30. Henry Cort's children
31. Cort family pensions
32. Henry Cort's Hertfordshire property
33. 1791 signatories
34. Guiana and the Cort-Gladstone connection
35. Cort's twilight years
36. Memorials to Henry Cort


37. Smelting of iron
38. Fining before Cort
39. Shropshire & Staffordshire ironmasters
40. Cumbrians: Wilkinson etc
41. Early works at Merthyr Tydfil
42. The Crowley business
43. London ironmongers
44. Scottish iron
45. Cort's promotion efforts 1783-6
46. Later Merthyr connections
47. Puddling after Henry Cort


48. Gosport in Cort's day
49. Gosport administration
50. Gosport worthies
51. The Amherst-Porter network
52. James Hackman, murderer
53. Samuel Marshall
54. Samuel Jellicoe's legacy
55. Links with Titchfield
56. Links with Fareham


57. Fact, error and conjecture
58. 18th century politics
59. Law in the 18th century
60. 18th century finance
61. Religion and sexual mores
62. Calendar change of 1752
63. Shelburne, Parry and associates
64. John Becher's family
65. The Becher-Thackeray lineage
66. Thomas Lyttelton: a fantastic narrative
67. Eighteenth-century London
68. Abolition and the Corts
69. The Burges will tangle


70. Navy connections
71. Navy agent's business
72. Cort's clients
73. Ships' pursers
74. History of Adam Jellicoe
75. Dundas & Trotter
76. Cort's navy office associates
77. Toulmin & other agents
78. Sandwich & Middleton
79. The Arethusa
80. John Becher's war
81. Thomas Morgan's war
82. The 1782 Jamaica convoy
83. Sinking of the Royal George

84. Rickman & Scott: two contrasting naval careers-Missing



85. Visitors 2006-2009
86. Developement of the site 2006-2009

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87. Daniel Guion and family
88. Extremely bad academic work and extremely bad journalism

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.

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.

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

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.

The pages on this site are copied from the original site of Eric Alexander (henrycort.net) with his allowance.
Eric passed away abt 2012
If you use/copy information from this site, please include a link to the page where you found the information.