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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. |
A NAVY
AGENT’S BUSINESS
The
earliest records mentioning Henry Cort by name are found in pension books for
Navy widows at the PRO (ADM22/75 et seq).
Widow's
remittances are paid once a year, each year's remittances being recorded in a
separate book (sometimes two).
Some
widows delegate collection of their remittances to an
"attorney". One column in
the book is reserved for the names of these attorneys.
In
October 1757, aged 16 or 17, Cort is cited collecting widows' remittances on
behalf of attorney T Bell & Co.
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Paid to Henry Cort 12 October 1758 for T Bell &
Company for son James Administrator. Admiralty record of last
remittance for pension of Ann Hackman,
carpenter’s widow. |
Such records
are not suspected by earlier commentators, who rely on London
trade directories. They cite 1765
for the start of Cort's career as a navy agent.
You can
trace Henry Cort's rise from clerk to agent through PRO half-pay records
(ADM25).
Officers,
and those in special posts such as surgeons, go on "half pay" (not
always half of full pay) between spells of service on ship. Once retired, they are permanently on half
pay.
Those on
half pay receive remittances twice a year.
Each half-pay book covers one six-month period.
You find that half-pay
clients of Thomas Bell move to Thomas Batty by 1761. Full-pay (ADM33) clients are then with "Batty &
Cort". Later Cort describes
himself as Batty's "copartner" during this period.
Though no
evidence has been found, it is probable that Cort has paid for his advancement,
or someone has paid on his behalf. By 1763 he is sole proprietor of the agency.
This year
marks the end of The Seven Years War, when many ships are laid off and officers
put on half pay. Half-pay rolls rise
rapidly to around 1200.
The
number of Cort's half-pay clients rises from 19 to 91. For the next ten years of peace it remains
above 70; in some it exceeds 100.
It is
apparent from the Navy's pay records that he is
collecting pay on behalf of ships' officers and some other ranks.
It is
also apparent from chancery files that he is
acting as a banker. He keeps accounts
for his clients and honours their "bills of exchange" (effectively
cheques).
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Related pages |
henrycort.net
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