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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. |
HENRY CORT'S
HERTFORDSHIRE PROPERTY
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9 and 10 May 1763: Draft lease and release, Henry Trott of Standon,
farrier, to Henry Cort of Crutched Friars, gent., farm in Colliers End for
the sum of £825. From Henry Cort:
The Great Finer, quoting Hertfordshire Record Office A903. |
What prompts Henry Cort to
buy this farm in Hertfordshire is not established.
The Mott/Singer book suggests
it is connected with Henry Cort's "sister Jane Cort of Standing in Herefordshire,
spinster" mentioned in the will of Jane Cort of
Lancaster. Only two errors in place
names!
We can be pretty sure that
Cort has no intention of farming it himself.
There are tenant farmers who pay him rent. It's an investment.
The next entry is on the
occasion of Cort's second wedding,
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16 March 1768: Copy marriage settlement: Elizabeth Haysham of London,
spinster, and Henry Cort of Crutched Friars, London, gent. Hertfordshire document quoted in
Mott/Singer, Henry Cort: The Great Finer. |
The date of the bride's move
from Gosport to London has not been revealed, but the record
of the marriage ceremony places her in the parish of St Thomas The Apostle
(close to Mansion House Station).
The Mott/Singer book quotes
the bride's portion of the settlement (£3000) and the groom's (£2000 and the Standon
property), but does not mention that these items are vested in a trust for the
benefit of the bride and any children "of both their bodies".
Trustees are named as William Attwick of Gosport and John
Becher "of Shut End in the county of Staffordshire". John and Ann Becher are among the witnesses,
showing that they have come to London for the wedding.
Because the property is held
in trust, it cannot be taken to settle any of Henry's personal or business
debts after his business collapses.
The family can still draw on
the income it generates.
The next documents in the
series are dated 1802, after Cort's death.
This document goes on to
register the widow's legal entitlement to the property.
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To
this court cometh Coningsby Cort Gentleman bearing a Deed of Settlement dated
the sixteenth day of March 1768 and Elizabeth Cort widow. From Hertfordshire record A910, dated 9
July 1802 |
The next record is of a sale
by auction on 11 August 1809. The
successful bidder is Daniel Giles of Youngsbury (parish of Standon).
Documents at the PRO
establish that the Giles family has a big role in the City of London, with a
family vault in a church in Bishopsgate.
On 12 August Giles and
Coningsby draw up an agreement of sale.
The next document is undated,
but we get some idea from its reference to the youngest daughter, born 21
February 1790.
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Catherine Cort a Minor at the time the accompanying agreement
was entered into is now of age. From Instructions
for conveyance of the property. |
Please also to prepare Deed of Conveyance with as much
expedition as convenient. Instruction from
Daniel Giles to his agent Thomas Nicholson. |
Giles's instructions also
tell that Henry Bell Cort's share of the property has passed to his five-year-old daughter Frances.
And a further revelation.
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Wm Attwick one of the Trustees in the
Settlement of 1768 is still living. From
Instructions for conveyance of the property. |
William
Attwick's will reveals that he dies around the end of September 1812.
A document dated 31 January
1810 authorises "Assignees of Kirkpatrick & Cort" to act on
behalf of the bankrupt Richard Cort.
In May documents
appear giving the assent of members of the family, and showing where they
reside.
But Frances Cort is still too
young to give a valid signature.
Giles is appointed one of her
trustees until she becomes twenty-one.
In April 1827 she is able to release her share of the property.
Meanwhile he has a spell as
county sheriff.
He still has to wait until
Christmas Eve 1831 before his full entitlement is legally accepted.
This series of documents
features in the "Giles-Puller collection", donated to the county
record office by one of his descendants.
henrycort.net
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