Grace's Guide
British Industrial History
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 137,331 pages of information and 220,558 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
Francis Morton and Co
From Graces Guide
of Naylor Street Ironworks, Liverpool, and Hamilton Works, Garston, Liverpool.
See Francis Morton for founder
1853 Francis Morton and Co - Fire Annihilator Machines. Manufacturers of Corrugated Galvanised Iron, Fire-proof Roofs for Mills, Boiler-houses. [1]
1853 Moved from 10 North John Street to 13 James Street, Liverpool.[2]
1859 Advertising Francis Morton's Patent Strained Fences. Address: 27 James Street[3]
1859 Patent. 'August 23- Francis Morton, Liverpool, for improvements in the construction of fences, and the posts or pillars for the same, parts of which improvements are also applicable to the construction of gate posts or poles for telegraph purposes, or for signal posts.'[4]
1860s Provided corrugated iron roofing for a cotton ginning factory in Zifta, on the Nile in Egypt[5]
1888 'The great movement of important industrial works to the seaside is witnessed at Liverpool. Messrs Francis Morton and Co. have resolved on a change from that city to Garston. There the extensive Hamilton iron-works have both railway communication, a special siding, and dock accommodation.'[6]. This was the site previously occupied by Hamilton's Windsor Ironworks Co.
1890 The O.S. map shows an 'Iron Foundry (Disused)' at the eastern end of Naylor Street, bounded on the east by Marybone and to the south by Freemasons' Street.[7]
1891 For description of works see 1891 The Practical Engineer
1898 Incorporated as a Limited Company.
1898 John Thomas Wood and several other prominent Liverpool and Manchester gentlemen purchased the business of Francis Morton and Co., Ltd.
1898 Petition for winding up. 'In the Matter of Francis Morton and Company Limited...petition for the winding up of the above named Company by the Court of Chancery of the County Palatine of Lancaster was on the 10th day of March 1898 presented to the Chancellor by the Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Company Limited of Warrington in the county of Lancaster creditors of the said Company....'[8]
1901 Advertising fencing, railings, sheds, roofs, galvanized sheets, general castings. Output 30,000 tons p.a.[9]
1914 Constructional Engineers. Manufacturers of bridges and girders, roofing, steel-framed buildings, steel telegraph poles, fencing, gates and ornamental iron work. Employees 600 to 700. [10]
c1920 Francis Morton, Junr and Co? of 22/23 Laurence Pountney Lane, London, E.C.4.
1937 Constructional engineers. [11]
Company Archives
The company archives are held by the Liverpool Museum Maritime Archives & Library.[12]. See link for a summary of the firm's history. It is stated that the business took over the works of Hamilton's Windsor Ironworks Co. One of the first contracts fulfilled from here was for the main girders of the Liverpool Overhead Railway.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Liverpool Mercury - Friday 03 June 1853
- ↑ Liverpool Mercury - Friday 16 December 1853
- ↑ Farmer's Gazette and Journal of Practical Horticulture,Saturday 9 July 1859
- ↑ Liverpool Mercury - Friday 26 August 1859
- ↑ Liverpool Mercury, 1 February 1865
- ↑ Cornishman, 26 July 1888
- ↑ The Godfrey Edition Old Ordnance Survey Maps: Liverpool (North) 1890 Lancashire Sheet 106.10
- ↑ The London Gazette Publication date:11 March 1898 Issue:26946 Page:1513
- ↑ Lincolnshire Chronicl, 15 November 1901
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- ↑ Liverpool Museum, Business Records Centre Archives Department, Francis Morton archives webpage