of Newark Foundry, Bath, maker of agricultural machinery and cranes.
The seeds of the company were sown in the late 1790s by George Stothert, Senior.
By 1823 George's son Henry Stothert was in partnership with his half brother George.
1827 Henry Stothert took control of Stothert's Philip Street foundry. In that year he took out Stothert's first patent (no. 5481), relating to ploughs.
By 1830 the foundry in Philip Street had been named the Newark Foundry
c.1834 Took on Robert Pitt as an apprentice
1844 Henry Stothert took his then managing engineer, George Rayno, and also Robert Pitt, into partnership; the firm became Stothert, Rayno and Pitt.
1852 Partnership change. '...the Partnership heretofore subsisting between Henry Stothert, George Rayno, and Robert Pitt, as Engineers and Iron Founders, at the city of Bath, in the county of Somerset, under the firm of Stothert, Rayno, and Pitt, was dissolved upon and from this day, so far as regards the said Henry Stothert. That all debts due and owing to and from the said copartnership will be received and paid by John Lum Stothert, the said George Rayno, and Robert Pitt, who will in future carry on the said trade or business at Bath aforesaid....'[1]
1855 Rayno retired through ill-health; the firm became Stothert and Pitt; the business was carried on under that title by the two partners.
Became Stothert and Pitt