| George Sitwell | |
|---|---|
| Born | c.1601 Eckington, Derbyshire |
| Died | 1667 |
| Resting place | Eckington, Derbyshire |
| Residence | Renishaw Hall |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Derby School |
| Known for | Ironmaster |
| Spouse | Margaret (born, Childers, died 1658) |
| Children | seven |
| Parents | George and Mary (born Walker) Sitwell |
| Website | |
| www.sitwell.co.uk | |
George Sitwell (c.1601–1667) was the leading ironmaster in North Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire in the seventeenth century.[1]. He built Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire in 1626.[2] He mined, forged, and rolled iron for use in Britain and overseas. His company exported a complete rolling mill to the West Indies.[3]
George Sitwell was baptised in 1601 by his parents, George and Mary Sitwell of Eckington in Derbyshire. George's father died whilst he was still a child and he attended Derby School.[4] However when an adult he was able to acquire the freehold of land in the area of Eckington[5] and exploited this by mining iron ore. Whilst Sitwell was still in his twenties he was living in the new ancestral home of Renishaw Hall.[3]
After mining the ore, Sitwell vertically integrated his business by constructing a blast furnace at Plumbley in partnership with his stepfather. (His mother had remarried locally to Henry Wigfall). By 1652, Sitwell had built his own furnace at Foxbrooke near Renishaw. Over the next twenty years Sitwell built a furnace at North Wingfield, forges at Pleasley, Clipstone and Cuckney; and at Pleasley he built another furnace, a forge and power saws. However the novelty of his business empire was the East Midlands' first rolling and slitting mill near Renishaw.[3]
Sitwell rose in the community when his family were granted its own arms in 1660. He was made a Justice of the Peace and in 1653 he became the High Sheriff of Derbyshire.[6] He remained in charge of the business that made Derbyshire a source of exports and himself the leading ironmaster in north Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.[1] Sitwell would regularly visit London to supervise sales of products from nails to castings, bar and pig iron.[7] Sitwell employed two of his sons and a cousin as his representatives in London and abroad. He started his own transport business as well as sub-contracting his transport needs by road and via the canal at Bawtry. The transport business had to cope with exports to Spain and Syria,[7] and an entire rolling mill which was sent to the West Indies.[3]
Sitwell established his family as gentry in Derbyshire as well as establishing their family seat at Renishaw Hall. Three of his sons took roles in the business, but by the 1690s the family had retired to be merely landowners and were collecting rents from others who ran the enterprises.[3] The Sitwells were to go on to be baronets and to be members of the intelligentsia in the twentieth century i.e. Osbert, Edith and Sacheverell Sitwell.. Unlike many ancient families the family still own Renishaw Hall, although it is no longer owned by the Sitwell baronet.[2]