John Cockerill
John Cockerill (1790-1840) was a Belgian (born British) entrepreneur. Brought by his father William Cockerill to Belgium where he continued the family tradition of building wool processing machinery. He founded an ironworks and a mechanical engineering company John Cockerill & Cie
1790 August 3rd. Born at Haslingden, Lancashire, the son of William Cockerill and his wife Elisabeth Charles
c1802 Brought to Verviers, Belgium, by his father who was successful as a machine builder there.
1807 He and his brother Charles James Cockerill took over the management of a factory in Liege.
1813 His father William retired in leaving the management of his business to his sons.
1813 September. Married Jeanne Frederique Pastor, the same day her sister Caroline married Charles James Cockerill.
1815 After the victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, the Prussian Minister of Finance, Peter Beuth, invited the Cockerill brothers to set up a woollens factory in Berlin.
1814 The brothers bought the former palace of the Prince Bishops of Liege at Seraing. The chateau became the plant headquarters and the ground behind it the factory site (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.
1819 A machine manufacturing plant was added
In 1823 his brother Charles James retired, having been bought out by John in 1822.
1826 (begun 1823) a coke fired blast furnace.
By 1840 the plant had sixteen steam engines producing total power 900 hp (670 kW) in continual work and employed 3000 persons.
1830 After the Belgian Revolution the new Kingdom of Belgium claimed the property of William I, and in 1835 John Cockerill made himself the sole owner of the works. He also was a founder of the Bank de Belgique, in 1835.
During John Cockerill's lifetime, the factories produced not only spinning machinery and steel, but steam engines (including air-blowers, traction engines, and engines for ships); in 1835 Belgium's first steam locomotive 'Le Belge' was made. He also had interests in collieries and mines, as well as factories producing cloth, linen and paper.
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. With debts of 26 million francs on assets of 15 million, he travelled to St. Petersburg to make arrangements with Nicholas I of Russia with the hope of raising funds. On his return he contracted typhoid and died in Warsaw on 19 June 1840, leaving no heirs.
1840 John Cockerill died on June 9th. 'A Brussels letter, in mentioning the death of Mr. John Cockerill, says that he arrived at Warsaw from St. Petersburgh on the 10th inst., and was immediately attacked with brain fever. After suffering till the 19th, he died in the arms of his wife. He was in the 48th or 49th year of his age. Mr Cockerill is said to have made a will, bequeathing the whole of his property to his widow, who was a native of Aix-la-Chapelle, but by whom he had no children. The factory at Seraing is to be sold for the benefit of the creditors, but after all the debts are paid, it is expected there will be a surplus of between one and two millions of francs.'[1]. Note: see below regarding Cockerill's will.
On his death he had a reputation as a humanitarian employer and as the founder of the Belgian manufacturing industry. His body was returned to Seraing in 1867 and a memorial was unveiled there in 1871. 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). The steelmaking activities of the firm continued through various mergers, eventually becoming part of Cockerill-Sambre in 1981; the Cockerill name was retained until a 1998 merger with Usinor. Some mechanical engineering activities continued as Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie, which was split off as a separate company in the late 20th century.
John Cockerill's Will
His bequest to his eldest brother William Cockerill and to his legitimate children included the works of Cottbus, his possessions at Guben, the factory at Grünberg, and all his buildings, machinery and furniture at Berlin. Regarding some of his other industrial activities, small bequests were made to to Monsieur Scheide, Manager of the factory of Cottbus, to Charles Yates, Manager of the factory at Andenne, to Georges Preston at Aachen, 'at present employee with my brother Charles James Cockerill'. 'I bequeath the factory of Charles James and John Cockerill situated at Liege, between the rue de l'Etuve, the rue de Plate Pierre and the rue de la Regence with the buildings of the inhabited houses and of the factory, ground and appendages, machinery and utensils of every kind, material such as steel, iron, copper, wood, leather and generally all which is employed in the manufacture of carding machines and cards, machines finished as weil as unfinished, the finish and unfinished cards and generally all which belong to the said factory on my death. The foundry of Tilleur with appendages, ground residential house, garden and machinery, tools and all which will belong to the said foundry. The active debts of every kind which are due to Charles James & John Cockerill free of all debts or burden of any kind whatever. The deposits lying either in Russia, Poland, Prussia, France, Spain, ltaly or elsewhere owned by the firm Charles James & John Cockerill at Liege and generally all that concerns that firm to the sons of Monsieur Yman Dirck Christian Suermondt who will take possession of same and who will undertake to continue the said firm under the same name of Charles James & John Cockerill by themselves as weIl as by their heirs and also not to seIl or rent the said business before 20 years after my death, leaving to them however the option to transfer the said business elsewhere and even abroad.'. For a full translated transcript, see here.[2]
The Cockerills, from the Kendal Mercury, 20 July 1839
'THE COCKERILLS.
The name of "John Cockerill" comes frequently into notice in connection with the locomotive machines on the Belgian railways, and is otherwise frequently heard of in all parts of the Netherlands, as well as in France and Prussia. This eminent individual, who may be styled the Buonaparte of continental mechanism, is an Englishman by birth and parentage. He was not precisely the founder of his own fortune, though it is owing to his own singular genius that he has attained the rank he now holds. The first important man of his family, was his father William Cockerill, of whose biography a few particulars may be here stated:— William Cockerill was, at the outset of his career, a working blacksmith in England, but not one of that order, necessarily the most numerous, to whom limited gifts and limited wishes assign the not honoured lot of passing the whole of life in daily toil. Endowed with an understanding which could calculate great results from certain combinations of moving powers, he was constantly bent upon important mechanical designs, which he longed have the means and opportunity of putting into execution. He was a fine specimen of those intelligent artisans who have been the improvers of machinery in England, and ultimately its principal employing manufacturers — the class to which may perhaps be said that we owe all the distinction possess a manufacturing nation.
As often happens, nevertheless, Wm. Cockerill met with little encouragement in the scene of his early labours ; and towards the close of the last century, when he had attained middle life, and surrounded himself with family, he migrated the continent. The immediate reason for this step has been variously stated, and it is not of material consequence. Along with some other skilful mechanics, he proceeded, the permission of our government, to St. Petersburg, with the view of following out certain plans of the Empress Catherine, for establishing manufactures in her dominions. The death of the Empress, and the accession of the madman Paul, ruined his prospects in Russia, and after a time he was fain to make his escape to Sweden. Here, under the protection of the British envoy, William Cockerill was employed as engineer on some public works, which no native Swedes could undertake. Engineering, however, did not suit his genius; and, hearing of the manufactures of Liege and Verviers in Belgium, which were flourishing in despite of defective mechanism, he imagined that, if he were in either of these places, he should be certain to succeed as a constructor of machines. Luckily from his economical habits, he possessed the means of removing from Sweden.
He proceeded, first, we are told, to Hamburg, where he disclosed the plan of his proposed operations to Mr Crawford, the English consul - at the same time stating, " that if he could obtain a small pension from the British government, he would return to England, not wishing to do any injury to his country, by introducing machinery into a foreign one." From what appears as to this overture, we cannot deem it creditable to Cockerill; but it is probable that we do not know enough of the facts to be entitled to speak decisively the subject. Mr Crawford, it appears, approved of the proposal, and communicated it to the ministry ; but no answer being returned at the end of six months, Cockerill proceeded to the Netherlands, there to seek fortune with his own head and hands.
The settlement of this mechanical genius in the province of Liege was perhaps the most important event in the social history of Belgium. Not only did the country possess abundant supplies of coal, iron, and other elements of manufactures, but the people were generally animated by a keen anxiety to bring all these resources into active service. Of the Liegeois, in particular, who have been for centuries a busy people, it might be said that they required nothing, in order to compete with the English, but a knowledge of the fabrication of those mighty mechanical agents which had been planted in Lancashire and other parts of England. In such circumstances, the arrival of William Cockerill was exactly the most auspicious event that could have happened. He made offers to some extensive woollen manufacturers of Verviers, a town within the province of Liege, to construct for them new machines of his own invention for the carding and spinning of wool, and for other purposes connected with the production of cloth fabrics. The offers were accepted, and William Cockerill forthwith brought his family from England, and settled with them in Belgium. At this time his stock of cash was very slender, and those who ordered machines from him had to supply him with the necessary metal; but Cockerill's sons were growing up, and, with the assistance of their hands and his own, he speedily executed all orders, and founded thriving establishment.
The workshop of the Cockerills at Liege became a famous one, and the quantity of machines made for various manufactures was soon very considerable.— In the year 1813, the elder Cockerill retired from business, with a handsome fortune, leaving his two sons, James and John Cockerill, to follow out his trade. They did for several succeeding years, and at length James also retired with a competency.
John, who was now left alone, and who is said to possess the most enlarged mind of them all, erected, in 1815, the first manufactory for steam-engines which had been seen, on large scale, at least, in Belgium. His machines were soon distributed over the whole continent; but this was done far more extensively afterwards, when he erected new ironworks of vast size at the village of Seraing on the Maese, distant a few miles from the city of Liege. The magnitude of this establishment may be conceived from the fact, that it keeps in continual motion sixteen steam-engines, of the collective force of nine hundred horses' power, and employs three thousand workmen.
This establishment was organized by John Cockerill between the years 1821 and 1823. Yet, immense as are the operations here conducted, numberless as are the railway projects here perfected, and the steam-engines and machines of all sizes and descriptions here constructed, the establishment of Seraing is but one of the many great concerns which John Cockerill superintends, and of which he is wholly or in part proprietor. He still keeps in action the extensive foundry, originally possessed by his father in Liege; holds large shares in mining and colliery establishments; and possesses large cotton-spinning factories, as well as linen manufactories, where these stuffs are put into all forms, weaving and printing included. He is also the proprietor of a paper manufactory. All these establishments he in a measure superintends in person ; but, at the same time, it is especially remarked of him that he takes care to have the best of servants and overseers, sparing no expense in bringing such persons from all countries of Europe to his various works.— Such are the concerns of John Cockerill, and such are the sources of capital and material which lately enabled him to come forward, unassisted and unrivalled, to offer himself as the contracting party with the French government for the laying down of a railroad between Paris and Brussels ; perhaps the most stupendous enterprise of the kind ever undertaken by an individual.
This remarkable man, if we may trust to the accounts given of him, is not stimulated in his career of enterprise merely by a desire of personal emolument or aggrandisement, but seemingly regards himself, and acts, one who has great mission to execute, - that, namely, of peopling the world with machines for the spreading of wealth and comfort among its inhabitants. He is said use his wealth most generously on private occasions. To a young man whose father had once done service to the elder Cockerill, the present inheritor of that name made on one occasion an advance of machinery to the value of 15,000 francs, in order to establish the youth in the line of business to which he had devoted himself. For this liberal aid he refused all security or guarantee, willing to risk any thing for the gratification simply of his filial gratitude.— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.