John Roby
John Roby Limited of Prescot and St. Helens
See also John Roby Ltd: An Overview
John Roby (1817-1884) established a Foundry in Prescot (then Lancashire) later moving his business to Rainhill (known as the birthplace of British railways) to exploit developing transport links. His company John Roby, Rainhill became John Roby Limited and then Roby and Utley Limited. Initially customers were local industries, institutions and individuals but as orders for ships’ sidelights, bells, belfries, and other ship fittings grew the business became more specialised and it continued to supply shipbuilders nationally and internationally for 130 years.
1842 John Roby established his own business at Toll Barr, Prescot and advertised his services as ‘Brass Founder and Copper Smith, Brass Steps, Cocks and Valves etc, Old Metal Taken in Exchange’. A slightly later business card shows the business adapting: ‘Brass Caster in General - Manufacturer of Chandeliers and Gas Fittings of Every Description - Dealer in Lancashire and Sheffield Files - Brass Steps for Mills and Collieries'. The Foundry fulfilled orders for local chemical companies, glass works, collieries, gas works and farms as well as for domestic and institutional customers.
1843 John Brownbill started an apprenticeship at the Foundry on December 25th. This is the earliest surviving apprenticeship agreement made with John Roby. Members of the Brownbill family were still recorded as employees ninety years later and another John Brownbill was Foundry Foreman in 1913.
1857 He purchased land to the north of Rainhill Railway Station and negotiated the right to use the road between the station and the neighbouring Iron Foundry in return for a contribution towards its maintenance. His new Foundry was built, along with nine workmen’s cottages (known as Roby’s Cottages or Roby’s Row - probably the first industrial houses built in Rainhill) and a family home named Railway View. John’s older brother, Roger Roby was employed as a Finisher and as Foreman of the Foundry, remaining in employment until his retirement in 1889.
1860 Business cards printed in Liverpool for the newly located business show the Foundry alongside the station and railway line on one side and on the other details of ‘John Roby late of Prescot Manufacturer of all kinds of Brass Work used by Iron and Wood Ship Builders, Engineers, Glass and Alkali Manufacturers etc Also all kinds of Gas Fittings & Plumbers Brass Work, Rainhill near Prescot’. A stock account was taken on June 30th valuing the Works buildings and contents at £5836-16-6 3/4d.
1862 Over Christmas a further stock account valued items in the Finishing Room, the Metal Warehouse (which included metal patterns, lamps and gas fittings, bells, dolphins and guns), the Chandelier Room and the Sales Room (which supplied kitchen ranges, bedsteads, grates, basins, brackets, sidelights, spittoons, wringing machines, lawn machines and numerous smaller items).
1867 The first surviving Wages Book lists 19 men employed in February working as Finishers, Moulders or Labourers. This number had risen to 34 in February 1873.
1868 St Ann’s Church, Rainhill was closed for building work so John Roby offered the use of a large room (originally the showroom, later the pattern store) at the Foundry for 11 months. The Vicar recorded that ‘Mr Roby not merely lent us the room but he also prepared it for our reception and warmed and lighted it for us during our tenancy’. When the church reopened John Roby made a gift of new gas fittings. The following year an illuminated address with over 100 signatures was produced by the clergy, wardens and congregation of St Ann’s Church, Rainhill offering ‘hearty thanks’ to John Roby for his kindness and generosity.
1870 Over the next decade orders were supplied to Lairds of Birkenhead for ships with Yard Numbers from 377 to 439. These were cargo and passenger ships, barges, tugs, ferries and naval gunboats intended for owners in the United States, Africa, Argentina, Paraguay, Portugal, China, Ireland, London, Liverpool, and Glasgow as well as for the Admiralty. Other customers included Alexander Stephen & Sons (Glasgow), Greenway & Co. (Birmingham), and shipbuilders in Barrow, Whitehaven and the Liverpool docks. Smaller account were held by customers in St Helens (and its surrounding towns and villages), Bristol, Cardiff, Newcastle, Greenwich, and New Brunswick. Around this time Mr Robert France (draper) of Eccleston Street, Prescot painted a view of Rainhill with the station in the foreground and the Foundry in the background.
1871 John David Roby, John Roby’s eldest son, began his apprenticeship at the Foundry on December 26th.
1872 Goods sold this year totalled £11854-0-2d which was £3609-4-2d more than the previous year.
1873 Thomas Spruce Roby, John Roby’s second son, began his apprenticeship at the Foundry on July 6th.
1877 Bricks marked J. R. Rainhill from John Roby’s brickfield were used to build nine Derby Cottages on Warrington Road and thirteen Fir Grove Cottages on Holt Lane, Rainhill. In 1876 nine cottages had been built at Fairs Row following the construction of six at the Holt.
In 1879 work began on six pairs of villas on Prescot Road near Thatto Heath, St Helens. When completed these were added to John Roby’s tenanted properties until they were offered for private sale in 1913. The road along side the villas is called Roby Street.
1882 William Henry Roby, John Roby’s third son, began his apprenticeship at the Foundry on February 13th and Albert Wallace Roby, John Roby’s youngest son, began his apprenticeship with Charles Foulger, Nautical Ironmonger and Plumber, 56 Wapping, Liverpool on June 18th.
1883 Employment records for June show 23 Finishers were employed along with 22 Moulders resulting in a total wages bill £47-6-11 ½ d. Employees worked either at the Foundry, in the brickfield, building or repairing their employer’s properties, and could be loaned to local businesses as required.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Sources St Helens Archive Service where most of the records relating to the Roby Foundry (from the 1840s onwards) are held (reference RO/Roby Collection) National Museums Liverpool: Maritime Archives B/ROB/1/1-4