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

Ships' pursers

Not all Cort's clients are officers: other ranks and post-holders appear, notably pursers.

Read Rodger's account of a purser's tasks in The Wooden World, and you will be struck by the scale of their responsibilities, which include maintenance of ship's stores and distribution of items such as tobacco to the ship's company.

Pursers have to keep records of stores and purchases, and advance money from their own accounts to cover costs. Their records are submitted for scrutiny, leading to long delays in recouping these advances. On a bad day they may suffer huge financial loss.

True, there are also opportunities for profit-making, but that in turn leads to mistrust from their shipmates. You may well wonder why anyone should wish to be a purser.

Nevertheless they crop up regularly in the Cort story, showing that people are willing enough to take on the job. Jeremiah Attwick, Thomas Morgan and Valentine Nevill are all pursers.

Captain Michael Becher (not Richard - someone's handwriting must have been misread) of the Goree sloop takes on the purser's job too: it being wartime, and the ship rather small, a separate purser is a luxury not available to her.

There is a revealing entry in the Guernsey's paybook for 1762.

William Dixon is the purser, and uses Batty & Cort to collect his pay. Incidentally, he has a servant named Thomas Morgan.

The book shows his income from sales of tobacco to crew members: the cost will be deducted from their pay, and credited to his account with his agent. When he needs to buy tobacco, the cost is drawn on this account. If all goes well, income will exceed expenditure.

The Valentine Nevill story is also illuminating, particularly his attitude to his wife.

His will includes several small bequests, including two to former commanders who have since become admirals.

Most of his money is left to his son John and his cousin Thomasin, who has been his housekeeper for several years. Her portion is dependent on her remaining unmarried. Ten guineas are left to "my trusty friend Henry Cort of Crutched Friars, my sole agent for several years". Cort and Thomasin are named as executors.

After Nevill's death she manages to win administration of the estate. Cort raises a complaint against her under her married name of Seibert.

Ignoring the terms of the will, she has claimed her share despite having married in the meantime. She compounds the villainy by failing to hand over money owed to Cort by Nevill at the time of his death. I leave to others the task of discovering whether the court upholds Cort's complaint (PRO, C12/1685/2).

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.