John Cockerill (industrialist)

John Cockerill
Born 1790
Died 1840
Citizenship British, later Belgian
Occupation Industrialist

John Cockerill (3 August 1790 Haslingden, Lancs, England – 9 June 1840, Warsaw) was a British born entrepreneur. He was brought by his father William Cockerill to Belgium where he continued the family tradition of building wool processing machinery, and founded an ironworks, and mechanical engineering company John Cockerill & Cie. (John Cockerill Co).

Contents

Biography

At the age of twelve he was brought to Verviers, Belgium by his father William Cockerill who had made a success as a machine builder there; in 1807, aged seventeen, he and his brother Charles James took the management of a factory in Liege.[1] His father William retired in 1813 leaving the management of his business to his sons.[2]

In September 1813 he married Jeanne Frédérique Pastor, the same day her sister Caroline married Charles James Cockerill.[3]

After the victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 the Prussian Minister of Finance, Peter Beuth invited the Cockerill brothers to set up a woolens factory in Berlin.[1][4][5]

In 1814 the brothers bought the former palace of the Prince Bishops of Liege at Seraing,[6] the chateaux became the headquarters, and the ground behind the factory site[7] (founded 1817); it was to become a vertically integrated iron foundry and machine manufacturing factory. William I of the Netherlands was joint owner of the plant.[1] The machine manufacturing plant was added in 1819, and in 1826 (begun 1823[8]) a coke fired blast furnace.[9] By 1840 the plant had sixteen steam engines of total power 900 hp (670 kW) in continual work, and employed 3000 persons.[2]

In 1823 his brother Charles James retired,[9] having been bought by John in 1822.[10] After the Belgian Revolution of 1830 the new Kingdom of Belgium claimed the property of William I,[8] and in 1835 John Cockerill made himself the sole owner of the works.[1] He also was a founder of the Bank de Belgique,[8] in 1835.[11]

During John Cockerill's lifetime the factories produced not only spinning engines and steel, but steam engines (including air-blowers, traction engines, and engines for ships);[12] in 1835 Belgiums first steam locomotive Le Belge was made.[13][14] He also had interests in collierys and mines, as well as factories producing cloth, linen and paper.[2]

In 1838/9 military tensions between Belgium and the Netherlands caused a rush on the banks for hard currency, as a result of the crisis John Cockerill's company became bankrupt.[15] With debts of 26million francs on assets of 15million her travelled to St. Petersburg to make arrangements with Nicholas I of Russia with the hope of raising funds.[16] On his return he contracted typhoid and died in Warsaw on 19 June 1840 leaving no heirs.[1]

Legacy

On his death he had a reputation as a humanitarian employer, and as the founder of the Belgian manufacturing industry.[8] His body was returned to Seraing in 1867 and a memorial unveiled in 1871.[1] A statue of him and the industrial workers of Belgium also stands in the Place du Luxembourg in Brussels.

His company became the Société pour l'Exploitation des Etablissements John Cockerill (1842) and later Societe Anonyme Cockerill-Ougree (1955),[12] eventually becoming part of Cockerill-Sambre, now part of the Arcelor Mittal steel group.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Stephen, Leslie (1887). Dictionary of national biography (1885). 11. New York Macmillan. Cockerill, William (1759-1832), p.200. http://www.archive.org/details/dictionaryofnati11stepuoft. "His son, JOHN COCKERILL (1790-1840).." 
  2. ^ a b c Chamber's Edinburgh Journal, Vol.8
  3. ^ Dr. Albert Blank. "Ausgewählte Familien und Personen" (in german). www.abrecht-blank.de. John COCKERILL. http://www.albrecht-blank.de/ahnenblan/pafg342.htm. 
  4. ^ Agatha Ramm (1981). Germany, 1789-1919: a political history. Taylor & Francis. pp. 152–3. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PsIOAAAAQAAJ. 
  5. ^ Charles Poor Kindleberger (1996). World economic primacy: 1500-1990. Oxford University Press US. p. 153. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fa37GqGoW6EC. 
  6. ^ Industria: architecture industrielle en Belgique , pp.28-31
  7. ^ A handbook for travellers on the continent: being a guide to Holland, Belgium, Prussia, northern Germany, and the Rhine from Holland to Switzerland.. John Murray. 1860. SERAING, p.172. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jdQ_AAAAYAAJ. 
  8. ^ a b c d A dictionary, geographical, statistical, and historical, of the various countries, places, and principal natural objects in the world, p.159
  9. ^ a b Ian Hill Nish (1998). The Iwakura mission in America and Europe: a new assessment. Routledge. pp. 103–5. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rFntG3WUvR4C. 
  10. ^ Rondo E. Cameron (1993). A concise economic history of the world: from Paleolithic times to the present. Oxford University Press US. p. 233. 
  11. ^ Peter N. Stearns; William Leonard Langer (2001). The Encyclopedia of world history: ancient, medieval, and modern, chronologically arranged. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1835 Bank of Belgium, p.451. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MziRd4ddZz4C. 
  12. ^ a b Société Anonyme John Cockerill, Albert Gieseler
  13. ^ "La Construction des LOCOMOTIVES à VAPEUR en Belgique" (in french). www.tassignon.be. http://www.tassignon.be/trains/Vapeur%20Belge/Vapeur_Belge.htm. 
  14. ^ "1835. « Le Belge » des ateliers Cockerill" (in french). users.skynet.be. http://users.skynet.be/tintinpassion/VOIRSAVOIR/Locos/pages_Locos/06_Locos.html. 
  15. ^ Erik Buyst; Ivo Maes. "Central banking in 19th-century Belgium: was the NBB a lender of last resort?". economix.u-paris10.fr. 3.1. The crisis of 1838: the government comes to the rescue, pp.8-10. http://economix.u-paris10.fr/pdf/seminaires/H2S/Buyst.pdf. 
  16. ^ The new American cyclopædia, Vol.5 , p.420

Sources

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