Acton Bridge Zinc Works & John Budd (1808-53)

caution !! this is an initial draft ... these notes are on my server for safe keeping !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Budd (1808-53) was Christened on the 9th of July 1808 at St Mary's Wesleyan, Truro, Cornwall. His father, Edward Budd (1774-1835) married Isabella Palmer (-), at some stage as a widow, Isabella lived at No 13 Lemon Street, Truro ... they were Wesleyan Methodists. Edward was a well respected force in the Truro Humane Institution in 1815, John Vivian in the chair and Edward Budd a fellow subscriber. In the same year Rev Edward Budd was letting his house & school rooms in Truro ... why?

 Edward was the first editor of the 'West Briton', a Whig newspaper. In 1830 the launch of The West Briton involved an investment from the son of his friend John Vivian of Vivian & Sons.

Edward Budd senior made his mark as a reformer and maker of the Whig history of liberty & enlightenment.

Edward was buried on December 29th 1835 at Truro.

In 1835 at the time of his father's death, John was a young metal broker in Liverpool. The Liverpool Mercury carried one of his adverts for Bianca tin and zinc sheets ... available at the Vivian & Sons Copper Warehouse, 16 Water Street, Liverpool ... John was also importing zinc ingots from Holland ... The Liverpool Mercury reported the 'Jean de Locquenghien' of Antwerp, carrying 632 ingots for J Budd at Q dock ...

In 1836 the Royal Cornwall Gazette reported that young John Budd was a mover at The Wheal Falmouth Consolidated Copper Silver Tin & Zinc Mining Company ... the rich Cornish ores were about to be favoured with a capital injection of £50,000 for the recommencement of workings abandoned in 1833 when adverse price movements prevailed. This was typical of the changing economic fortunes of the Cornish mines as the prices of imports moved. Interestingly the price of the zinc had scuppered things earlier in 1825 when all the Cornish Spelter Mines were suspended. John Budd from his home in Truro well understood the economics of mining, and he had a famous elder brother who was making it big time with the Vivians in Swansea. And now he was up in Liverpool drumming up investment funds for a new Cornish mining company, selling Vivians copper and at the same time making his commission on imports. comparative advantage was no stranger to John Budd ...

In 1835 John Budd had developed a patent which involved the use of a zinc alloy (zinc 100/tin 10) for the manufacture of printing cylinders for cotton, calico, silk and other fabrics. This alloy was considerably cheaper in material and manufacturing costs than the established copper alternative. John Budd was pioneering the use of zinc in the printing industry; the start of developments described by Lewis S Somers of The Imperial Type Metal Company, Philadelphia in 1959 -

lithography was established in Bavaria in 1798

careful control of spelter and the zinc alloys to deliver the optimum grain structure

melting & moulding into slabs of the alloy to establish the appropriate width and surface

progressive reduction of the thickness through hot rolling to the appropriate gage

cold rolling to a smooth finish

guillotining and trimming to final dimensions

degreasing, painting, annealing, grinding, polishing & preservation for the perfect surface

later developments included rotary printing in 1889 and offset printing in 1904 ...

In 1838 The Liverpool Mercury was advertising a Budd & Ewbank partnership at Water Street, Liverpool. They were acting as agents for Llewellyn & Son from South Wales and apparently manufacturing their own zinc products ... a year later in 1839 The Liverpool Mercury advert was more specific. John Budd and Cooper Ewbank had taken over The Acton Forge and were processing scrap iron and rolling zinc ... the facilities at Acton Bridge were ideal for the production of the zinc tin alloy and the rolling of it into cylinders for the printing trade in and around Manchester.

The date 1838 was significant, this was the year John Palmer Budd left Vivian & Sons for the Ystalyfera Iron Works, see below. It seems John Budd also embarked on his own project with Cooper Ewbank around this time. He was well aware of the new importance of smelting zinc at Hafod which started in 1835. Furthermore as early as 1758 William Champion had been attracted to the waste heaps of Halkyn, just across in Flintshire, and was producing zinc by his patented process. Still sufficiently attractive to tempt Crokford to invest there in 1842.

No doubt the diversification strategy credited to Henry Hussey around 1842 had been hotly debated. Both the Vivians and John Budd went into printing cylinders ... and chemical manures. In the case of the Vivians the printing cylinders were copper and the chemical manures involved the recovery of sulphuric acid, the phosphate works & acid phosphates.

The Budd Ewbank partnership prospered with their metal applications at Acton Bridge Mills. The firm 'Budd & Ewbank' was funded by another partnership 'Ewbank & Cordes', owned by Henry Ewbank (1787-1859), Cooper's uncle, and James Jamieson Cordes (1798-1867), they had had considerable success with the manufacture of the Ewbank nail.

In 1837 zinc applications had been given a fillip with the invention of galvanised iron. This invention led to new markets for the zinc works. Clearly the young partners had printing cylinders and galvanised nails in mind when they started their partnership around 1836. But in 1840 there was trouble at the mill ...

Obviously tempted by the rosy prospects of cheap zinc and attractive products, in 1840 Henry Ewbank sued John Budd for bankruptcy in the vain hope of unseating him and leaving the Acton Bridge riches in sole possession of his nephew. Also recorded in Perry's Gazette a month later there was an interesting cross petition against Cooper Ewbank by creditor, Samuel Palmer Budd of Liverpool.

However on Jan 20th 1841 at the court of bankruptcy Sir J Cross found with costs against the petitioning creditor. Bankruptcy laws were designed to protect creditors from loss, they didn't enable them to usurp the profits!

The London Standard also summarised the landmark judgment.

In the 1841 Census, John Budd, a 39 year old Merchant, was living at Mt Pleasant, Liverpool (perhaps this was a lodging house as 15 people were resident). The 1851 Census records John Budd, aged 41, born at Truro, Cornwall in 1810, unmarried, a merchant in metals and visitor at Kenyon Terrace, Birkenhead. With him in Birkenhead was his mate & partner, Thomas Bevan, 45 years old born in Morriston, Glamorgan. A native of Swansea it was probable that Thomas teamed up with the Budd family when they moved from Cornwall to work with Vivian & Sons ... was Thomas a member of the renowned Welsh Quaker family into copper ... and Lloyds bank.

John Budd died in 1853 but Thomas Bevan continued with the metal broking business living Cambridge Terrace, Bidstone, Birkenhead and in the 1861 census he was with his wife Elizabeth F C (1824-) from Bristol and daughters Elizabeth F J (-) & Lucy Mary D (1853-) and son Llewellyn William (1860-) together with servants and a relative Francis P Pryce (1825-) from Bristol. The 1871 census records the family still at Cambridge Terrace, Birkenhead, with a new son, Franklyn (1863-) and a visitor from Middlesex, Laura H J Crummelin (1850-)?

Gore's Directory of Liverpool of 1853 lists John Budd & Thomas Bevan's metal brokerage. Thomas was a solicitor and a long time friend & colleague of John Budd, helping him in the court case against Henry Ewbank in 1841.

Cooper Ewbank (1815-) was born in Yorkshire and in 1841 he was a Merchant in Liverpool living at Toxteth Park. Married to Louisa (1816-) with a young son George (1838-) born in Liverpool. After all the turmoil at Acton Cooper and family had moved to Kensington by 1851. The census confirms George (1838-); Alfred (1840-) & William (1840-) were born in Liverpool but by 1845 daughter Mary (1845-) was born in Acton, Cheshire. Cooper described his occupation as a Commission Agent. By 1861 the family were still in Kensington but now with Charles (1851-) & Albert (1852-), both born in London. They remained in Kensington in 1871.

Significantly Slater's Trade Directory of 1850 confirmed that the Zinc Works also had an agent and representative in Bristol, Edward Grevile, who helped to promote and sell the products from the Acton Bridge Mills nationally. He was also an agent for a 'Slate Quarry', a 'Black Paint Company', the 'Scottish Union' and the 'Guarantee Society'. In addition he was involved in building societies and investment companies. Obviously Edward was a force. At 19 the 1841 census found him studying at St John's, Oxford. He had married Agnes in 1844 and by 1851 the pair were in Clifton with a flourishing family; Frances (1848-) and twins, Florence (1850-) & Frank (1850-). Edward was described as a 'Public Accountant & Commission Agent'. Son Frank went on to be a successful surgeon in Salford.

Bristol was an established centre for the metal trades in the early days and students of the 'industrial revolution' should ponder why it was that Bristol in the south west, after an initial promising start, did not maintain its dominant position as a trade centre and was usurped by Liverpool and Manchester in the north west and Birmingham in the midlands?

The Zinc operations at Acton Bridge worked by John Budd & Cooper Ewbank were a consequence of the investments of the lead smelters in Flintshire who took advantage of new technology for the smelting of zinc ores pioneered in Bristol. They produced 'the spelter of commerce' which was traded and exploited by merchants like Budd & Bevan in Liverpool. This was a story of enterprise in science ...

Industrialised lead smelting in Flintshire was started by the London Lead Company at Gadlys and by 1849 one quarter of all lead mined in the UK was smelted in Flintshire in coal fired reverberatory furnaces concentrated at Bagillt and Flint. But by 1840 lead smelting had fallen on hard times ... cheap importation was a constant threat.

 Lead and zinc ores were found together in Flintshire limestones but the local practice had always been to reject the zinc ores as useless waste because zinc smelting was a problem. The production technology for the extraction of zinc metal was unknown in Europe and other countries in the western world, until William Champion produced zinc from its ore in Bristol in 1750.

William Champion (1709–1789) unwittingly offered the lead smelters of Flintshire a life line ... and, significantly, Thomas Pennant records that as early as 1758 in the valley from Holywell to the sea 'Edward Pennant Esq granted a lease of it to Mr Champion, partner in the Warmley Company of Bristol, who there calcined 'black jack'. He was the first who engaged in such a concern in this country, which carried on under the protection of a patent'.

Champion's invention led to opportunities for new zinc works which could exploit the accumulated waste dumps from centuries of lead mining. As foreign competition started to erode profitability in the lead industry, the mining and preparation of zinc provided fruitful employment for capital which was ceasing to be productive. Profitable zinc could now be recovered from waste dumps!

Following the lead of The London Lead Company and bankers like John Freame, a new breed of capitalists opened up new scale & techniques of production in Flintshire. One industry after another responded to the inputs of capital & technology which characterised the industrial revolution and typical were two new zinc works were opened in Greenfield and Bagillt in the 1840s.

In 1842 William Crockford (1775-1844) opened a new spelter process at Greenfield. Was the Greenfield Spelter Works, Holywell, Flintshire supplying spelter through the Liverpool brokers to the Acton Bridge zinc works.

Or was it one of the other zinc smelters operating at that time -

Bagillt Zinc Smelting Co Ltd, Mold, Flintshire??

Minera mine, Wrexham where the Vivians were involved from 1896-1901? And John Wilkinson was involved?

Alfred Courage & Co, Bagillt??

Walker, Parker & Co, Bagillt??

But it was far more likely that John Budd was linked to the zinc interests of his elder brother's company Vivian & Sons in Swansea. In fact the link was explicit in one of the Budd & Bevan adverts in 1835 and it was clear that Vivian & Sons were chasing opportunities for brass and zinc smelting from 1832.

The Liverpool brokerage would, of course, be interested in metal supplies originating from anywhere home or abroad. Certainly the 'waste' zinc ores from Halkyn were converted in the furnaces of these Flintshire companies into 'the spelter of commerce' ... zinc metal ingots ... some of which may have been shipped via the Flintshire wharfs on the Dee to the rolling mills at the Acton Bridge factory site on the Weaver.

'The Northwich Tonnage Book of Goods & Coals', records of the River Weaver Navigation, indicated that in 1842/43 The Anderton Carrying Company were regularly shipping zinc and bones in the Weaver flats 'Bee', 'Despatch', 'Davenham', 'Pigott', 'Shamrock', 'Thistle' and 'Yankee' up the river to the Acton Bridge wharf. The Anderton Carrying Company ran a fleet of Weaver flats from the Anderton basin, Daisy Bank Lane, opposite the Winnington Works, right on the Anderton boat lift site.

But what was the shipping route from the smelters to John Budd's mill around 1840? Round the peninsular to Liverpool and then Weston Point on the Weaver or via silts of the Dee to Chester and the canal of 1795 to Ellesmere Port and then the Weaver?

For sure road transport was not on. With impoverished and ineffective central governments, the North Wales roads were a joke. Even in less remote Cheshire, the roads had never been satisfactory since the times of Roman elegance. Inspired land owners, and even enterprising innkeepers, had tried their best and from 1750 the Turnpike Trusts also tried to tackle the job. But serving the needs of local farmers and through traffic to & from London proved difficult ... and there remained a stolid Anglo Saxon resistance to 'state control' and the inevitable intrigue and corruption as London bureaucrats spent other folks' money ... in spite of Telford's expertise and showers of money the roads never really made it ... although eventually by the 19th century, pack horses and sledges had slowly given way to wagons and even scheduled coaches ...

The Dee estuary was another problem. Canalisation in 1737 had been a flop, expensively pushing a new port at Connah's Quay at the expense of Flint, Bagillt, Greenfield and Mostyn. The investors in the Dee canal made their money, not from the canal but from reclamation of vast areas of marsh land around the new cut which now became available for rental. The London Lead Company had opposed the improvements to the Dee, they already had a reliable shipping route for their lead from Bagillt via the cheese ships of Parkgate. The Bagillt creek retained traffic and a daily Bagillt to Liverpool steam packet was established in 1821.

Long before 1840 the Dee and Chester had lost out to the flourishing deepwater facilities in Liverpool. Thomas Pennant recorded that the Greenfield Valley hosted the 'great behemoths of commerce' like Thomas Williams, and he confirmed the dominance of the Greenfield to Liverpool route, 'the number of vessels immediately employed by the copper companies on the river (our little Jordan), to convey the several manufactures, or materials, to and from Liverpool, and other places connected with them, amounts to between 30 and 40, from 30 to 50 tons burden'.

 Clearly as John Budd was a Liverpool metal broker and the sands of the Dee were impassable, he would have sourced his spelter through the exchanges in Liverpool and shipped it across the Mersey to the Weaver Navigation and up to Acton Bridge.

Liverpool and Liverpool merchants dominated the development of the riparian sites on the River Weaver. And from 1837 the Acton Bridge Mill Site claimed another fortuitous advantage ... it was only a mile or so from the new Birmingham, Crewe to Warrington railway via Acton Station ...

The Acton Mills functioned 10 hors a day six days a week. Perhaps unhealthy by today's standards but they gave good work and good prospects for the inhabitants of Acton Bridge. The spelter with up to 1% lead impurities was heated to 100 - 150 degrees C where it was malleable and ideal for rolling into sheets and cylinders. Iron increased the hardness of the zinc and was undesirable. The Halkyn ores were <0.15% iron and ideal but the merchants of Liverpool would have sourced their 'spelter of commerce' from a variety of competing sources. 

Thus the commercial rationale for the 'zinc works' at Action Bridge involved cheap waste from the lead spoils of Halkyn as input and the valuable zinc products for the Manchester cotton printing industry as output ... it was a successful business. The essential business strategy was the application of patentable technology for the exploitation of waste material to produce innovative products serving a growth industry. John Budd was a smart cookie ...

John Budd resided in Liverpool but was a Gentleman of Cheshire, where he owned land alongside the Aston Estate at Dutton. The Manchester Courier recorded an hilarious episode in bachelor Budds colourful life as a suspected 'gentle' poacher. It seems the magistrates at Daresbury were not impressed!

The Manchester Weekly Times reported that a Budd bankruptcy was annulled in 1841, also in The Perry Gazette, where John Budd was described as a commission agent and zinc manufacturer.

The Liverpool Mercury reported John Budd's death in London in 1853. John Budd aged 43, son of Edward Budd of Truro died at 8 Moorgate Street, London and Richmond. John Budd left a will, dated 13th September 1853.

The will identified John's brother Edward Budd (1815-86) and his cousin Edward Latrobe Budd (1817/8-). Both these younger Budd relations were into Metal broking.

Father Edward Budd (1774-1835) and his wife Isabella (-) had 3 sons, 3 daughters & nephew Edward - John Budd (1808-53) was their second son.

The daughters - Isabella Palmer Budd (1806-), Elizabeth Budd (1809-) married Jonah Jenkin Milford in 1842, Hannah Budd (1817-1832) died at 15, & Matilda (1819-).

Father Edward Budd worked with and befriended, John Vivian a Cornish mining entrepreneur. And through this connection the Budd boys in the family began to tangle with the big guns of the industrial revolution in Swansea ... the 3 boys were -

1 James Palmer Budd (1803-83) was the eldest son Christened on the 31st of August 1803 at Mary Magdalene, Wesleyan, Launceston Cornwall. He had a remarkable business career in metallurgy which has been admirably recorded in the webpage by George Graham.

On 17th of September 1828 J P Budd married Amy Anne Bevan, daughter of William Bevan junior of Morriston ... and the sister of Thomas Bevan who was John Budd's partner in Liverpool.

James Palmer Budd, of full age, a Merchant & widower of South Hill Toxteth Park married Emily Rawson (1815-80), of full age, a Spinster of The Elms Toxteth Park on the 13th of July 1837 at St John the Baptist, Toxteth, Lancashire, England. Edward Budd, the groom's father was described as a Gentleman. The bride's father was Thomas Samuel Rawson, a Merchant. The witnesses were T S Rawson & S Rawson.

A letter dated 1824 was written by James' father (Edward) to John Henry Vivian, the son of his good friend John Vivian, requesting them to find James a position in their concern Vivian & Sons of Swansea. James was offered his first job, a bookkeeper. He was 22 years old. From 1824 he worked for Vivian & Sons Copperworks, a British metallurgical & chemicals business based at Hafod, Swansea. By 1831 J P Budd was flying high with Sir R H Vivian & J H Vivian as partners ... the firm was founded in 1810, manufacturing ingot & sheet copper, with sulphuric acid & artificial manures as by-products.

Developments in 1832 were of considerable interest to John Budd. Mr George Frederick Muntz of Birmingham had taken out a patent for the manufacture of brass, 60% copper 40% zinc, plus a small proportion of iron. The great merit of this alloy was that in addition to being easily hot rolled and capable of accommodating impurities from the copper it was corrosion resistant and ideal for the sheathing of wooden ships. Zinc had become considerably cheaper in price following the Champion process and brass was cheaper than pure copper. Vivian & Sons saw the threat arising from this new alloy and took out a licence from Muntz and started the manufacture of brass at Hafod.

The immediate consequence was that the manufacture of zinc became important and in 1844 production started using the 'English Process'.

Vivian & Sons went from strength to strength and by 1870 they owned - Hafod Alkali Works, Hafod Copper Mills, Hafod Copper Works, Hafod Iron Foundry, Hafod Phosphate Works, and Hafod Silver Works. The firm also owned brick works and the old Forest Spelter Works at Morriston; they were colliery proprietors at Mynydd Newydd, Pentrefellen and Pentre; and had their own shipping offices at 6 Cambrian Place, Swansea.

But it appeared that John Palmer Budd wanted to develop independents means. In 1839 he left Vivian & Sons to make his mark and leave a considerable legacy.

In 1839 Edward Budd, Sir Thomas Brancher & Joseph James Hegan from Liverpool invested in a new project in the Upper Tawe Valley just north of Swansea; the Ystalyfera Iron & Tinplate Works. This was John Palmer's new project, it was not clear why Edward's name was attached to the new works; he remained with the Vivians.

By 1845 J P Budd was hard at it as the prime mover and manager of the iron works at Ystalyfera. Although a year later in 1846 he was the Vice Chairman of the Welsh Midlands Railway and still described himself as a Manager of copper works & coal mines.

2 John Budd (1808-53) 'our' John of Liverpool and Acton Bridge was the second son.

3 Edward Budd (1815-86) was the third son, born on the 24th of April 1815 and Christened at St Mary's Wesleyan, Truro. He was identified in the 1851 census, a Copper Smelter & Merchant, born in Truro, Cornwall, and living in St John's, Paddington with wife Antoinette Sandeman (1828-1922), the daughter of Hugh Fraser Sandeman Esq (1799-1882). They were married in 1849 in Thanet.

Edward followed his elder brother James Palmer into copper smelting in the Vivian empire. In 1843 The Repertory of Patent Inventions reported an Edward Budd patent.

In 1861 Edward was a Copper, Silver & Zinc Merchant of 104 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington. Children Juliet A (1851-); Palmer (1852-); Edward Fraser (1853-); Hugh Sandiman (1856-); Isabel (1857-); Ellen M (1858-); John Evelyn (1860-) with a host of servants.

In 1871 a Copper& Silver Merchant and Manufacturer, they were at Vale Lodge House, Leatherhead, with Mable E (1862-); Norman A (1865-); Cicil L (1866-); Hilda L (1868-); Ethel S (1870-) ... and unsurprisingly a Governess and 10 servants!

In 1881 a Copper Smelter etc, still at Yale Lodge, Leatherhead. Servants were now up to 12.

Edward Fraser Budd was a Metal Broker and Hugh Sandiman went into Law and John Evelyn was a Commercial Clerk.

Edward left a will when he died in 1886. Interestingly he still had a share in the West Briton.

Edward & Antoinette were buried in Leatherhead, Surrey. Their son Edward Fraser Budd (1853-94) and daughter Mabel Edith Budd (1861-1915) were buried with them.

On the 20th of April 1847 Edward Budd (1815-86) was called before the select committee inquiring into the Navigation Laws and his evidence was illuminating - 2,500 tons of coal per week were used smelting large volumes of ores in Swansea and Liverpool ... since the 1842 Navigation Laws and tax rises output had declined considerably as global volumes had very largely increased ... ore had been imported for many years but there was inadequate data, nobody knew what was going on however -

 'by the obstacles which we have thrown in the way of the free importation of copper ore into this country, we have compelled or induced other foreign countries to convert their copper ore into copper themselves, and then to find a market for their copper' ...

On the Select Committee in 1847 was John Lewis Ricardo (1812-62), MP for Stoke-on-Trent ... the nephew of David Ricardo who first wrestled with the mysteries of comparative advantage in 1817 ... Edward Budd's testimony confirmed just how prescient was Ricardo's insight ... and 30 years later, how little it was understood.

John Lewis Ricardo wrote in 1847 in 'The Anatomy of the Navigation Laws' -

'When we shut foreigners out, they follow the example and shut us out. There was nothing for them to carry from or to us and nothing for us to carry to and from them. Their ships and ours were useless, their merchants and ours idle'.

Also on the Select Committee was Sir Robert Peel, who knew a thing or two about business! The Navigation Acts and The Corn Laws were repealed in 1849 ... clearly Edward Budd had done his bit for free trade!

Palmer Budd (1852-86), Edward's eldest son was admitted to a 1/147 share in the Vivian & Sons firm in 1879 and also drew a salary of £600 pa for his work.

John Evelyn Budd (1860-), Edward's fourth son also went into the Vivian business. After Palmer's premature death, John Evelyn rose to prominence quickly, earning the considerable salary of £3,000 in 1892. He replaced his father in the London office, looking after all sales and and purchases. He represented the firm in various capacities such as talks with the government, and as Chairman of the Manufactured Copper Association. When the firm became a limited company in 1914 John Budd was appointed one of the two Managing Directors. John E married Constance Annette Manicol in Leatherhead in 1890.

Cousin Edward Latrobe Budd (1816/20-) was the son of Tobias Budd (-) and Mary Latrobe Wright (-) from Waterford. He was indentified in the 1851 census, a Merchant in Metals, born in Waterford, Ireland, and living in Hanover Square, Westminster with wife Margaret Douglas (1827-) and son Harrington E (1850-).

In 1861 they were at Poplars, Wimbledon with Harrington E and Elisa M (1852-); father & mother-in-law Robert Douglas (1780-) & Doreen Douglas (1786-) and nephew Louis A Budd (1837-)

James Palmer & Edward Latrobe were in partnership together trading as Tin Plate Agents in London. This partnership was dissolved in 1848. Edward traded as Edward L Budd & Co and John Budd was also involved in his cousin's company at 8 Mooregate Street, London as well as the Budd & Bevan operation in Liverpool.

The partners were involved in an interesting court case in 1853, reported in the Morning Post. On October 7th 1952 Thomas Bevan had offered some pig iron to the plaintiff, J & J Stitt who made confirmed their interest at 52s per ton. John Budd in London telegraphed a price of 52/6d for 1000 tons which Stitt accepted and signed Bevan's contract. On the 9th of October, Bevan announced the iron could not be delivered as the principal in London had not received confirmation of the contract on October 7th. Prices move quickly and between October the 7th & 8th the pig iron price had run up 1/6d and likely to rise further! Oh dear, who was liable the agent or principal? Meanwhile the principle had sold the pig iron elsewhere. The court found for John Budd, the defendant.

A complex case which was misrepresented in the press and drew a sharp response from the maligned but innocent defendant, John Budd ... just 6 months before he died ...

E L Budd & Co continued to make regular authoritative reports to the newspapers on the metal trade, until 1867 when the partnership with Edward Hoblyn was dissolved. The bankruptcy was announced in 1868. Edward Hoblyn continued to operate on his own account.

Thomas Bevan continued with the metal broking business and in 1868 he was importing pig iron into Liverpool ... and losing some of it!

'a brief review of the Development of the Copper, Zinc and Brass Industries in Great Britain from AD 1500 to 1900' by W O Alexander. The Old Copper Website.

'Vivian & Sons, 1809-1924: A Study of the Firm in the Copper and Related Industries' by Robert R Toomey, Garland, 1985.

 

 

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