[PDF]The London Lead Company Was It A Quaker Co?

THE LONDON LEAD COMPANY-
WAS IT A QUAKER COMPANY?


Published by the Northern Mines Research Society in Memoirs 2020, British
Mining No. 109


THE QUAKERS

George Fox founder and religious leader of the Society of Friends, began preaching
in about 1650, he had been imprisoned at Derby on a charge of blasphemy, and it is
whilst in front of the magistrates that it is said that he told them to “tremble before the
Word of the Lord”, whereupon one of the magistrates became the first person to call
the society members “Quakers”. This was used initially as a term of abuse but became
accepted as a name for the members of the Society of Friends.


Quakers believe that ‘there is that of God in everyone’ and ‘everyone is known by God
and can know God in a direct relationship.”

They don't have a fixed system of religious belief because they understand that the
search for truth can lead to new expressions of values as well as confirming existing
ones. They call these values ‘testimonies’. These testimonies are to equality, peace,
truth/integrity, justice and simplicity, and how they relate to one another.”


Quakers became known for integrity both in personal relations and in business affairs;
they maintained fixed prices for goods, rather than using bargaining methods, and
honoured contracts.° As a ‘Society of Friends’ they developed a first-class network of
contacts and business intelligence from all parts of the country. This meant access to
financial and technical help, trading contacts and introductions, transferable credit
worthiness and reliable information about the state of distant markets and
opportunities. Clarks of Street were saved on three occasions in the early nineteenth
century—by a trusting bank on one occasion and twice, in 1844 and 1863, by
relatives.*


THE GOVERNOR AND COMPANY FOR THE SMELTING DOWN LEAD WITH PIT
COAL AND SEA COAL.

The company was granted its charter by William and Mary on the 4" October 1692. It
was formed initially as a smelting company; the Company Minute book shows that the
first meeting took place on Thursday the 13'" October 1692, when Richard Owen was
sworn in as the first Governor as dictated by the Charter. On the following day (Friday
the 14'" October) the other members of the Court were sworn in. The Company
encountered many difficulties and as a result of which it proved to be unsuccessful
and it closed down on Monday the 27" May 1695. At the Rummer Tavern, Charing
Cross on Monday the 23'¢ March 1696 the last meeting was held at which the
Company’s finances were finalised and the books, papers, Charter and seals were to
be delivered to Mr Renda.


A NEW START

Edward Wright and a group of Friends (Society of Friends - Quaker’s) had carried out
experiments in the smelting of lead and construction of furnaces, but before they could
set up in business they had first to acquire the Charter of the Governor and Company.
They could achieve this by becoming members of the Company. The difficulty they
had, was, that the conditions of the Charter demanded that each member had to swear
an oath of allegiance.


The Affirmation Act of 1696 enabled Quakers to affirm rather than swear an oath, so
the company sought legal advice regarding Quakers being admitted by making an
affirmation instead.


On February the 10" 1704/5, a Court meeting of the Governor and Company was
called by the Deputy Governor Thomas Addison.


“Mr Thomas Renda acquainted the Court that neither Sir Talbot Clerke or any
others for him have ever since the last Court thought fit to take on them the Patent
and pay the £110 8s as ordered by the said Court, and that severall Gentlemen
have proposed to pay two shillings per share to each person that shall think fit to
transfer them. And severall Adventurers in the joint Stock having already done
it, & others inclining to do the same, he desires the opinion & resolution of the
court therein.


“Whereupon this Court is of opinion that every member hath a liberty to dispose
of & transfer his own shares at what price and to whom they please.


“This court next under their consideration the Oath usually taken by each person
on their admittance into this company, and for the ease & satisfaction of such as
may hereafter be admitted He is hereby unanimously agreed to and.


“Ordered. That the oath to be taken by all members admitted into the Joynt
Stock of this Corporation or that shall be elected Governor, Deputy Governor or
Assistant besides the Oaths to the Government shall (instead of the former oath
of fidelity to the company) be in the words or to the effect following, Viz".


“|. A.B. do sincerely promise & swear That | will be faithful to the Governor &
Company for Smelting down Lead with Pit coal & Sea coal during my
continuance in the Joynt Stock of the said Company.”®


Their first business was to admit as members of the Company and then elect to the
Court seven Non-Friends, who could take the oath; Samuel Davies was elected
Governor, Urban Hall Esq., Peter de Lannoy Esq., Mr. Richard Matthews, Mr. Enoch
Floyd, Mr. Thomas Kirby, and Mr. John Clark were elected as the Court of Assistants.


Thomas Addison, Sir Henry Marwood, Thomas Renda, Capt. Thomas Nix, John
Henly, Sir Talbot Clerk, Richard Adams, George Moore, and Matthias Cupper sold
their shares, so forfeiting all offices in the Company.


At the next meeting, three days later, Davies informed the Court that, Sir Symon
Harcourt (Solicitor General) agrees that the affirmation of a Quaker is admissible in
place of the oaths for entry into the Company. Then Edward Wright, Cornelius Mason,
John Haddon, Jacob Franklin, and Thomas Cooper took the affirmation in lieu of oaths
and were admitted to the Company. They then proceeded to elect a Deputy Governor,
Enoch Ffloyd and five assistants; Dr Edward Wright, Cornelius Mason, John Haddon,
Jacob Franklin, and Thomas Cooper.


THE AFFIRMATION taken by the Members of the Corporation of the Governor
and Company for the Smelting down Lead &c. appointed by their Charter.

|. A.B. do solemnly and sincerely promise and declare, that | will be true and
faithful to King GEORGE; and do solemnly, sincerely, and truly profess, testify,
and declare, that | do from my heart abhor, detest, and renounce, as impious and
heretical, that wicked Doctrine and Position, That Princes excommunicated or


deprived by the POPE, or any Authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or
murdered by their Subjects, or any other whatsoever.

AND | do declare that no foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State or Potentate,
hath, or ought to have, any Power, Jurisdiction, Superiority, Preeminence, or
Authority, Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm. And further | do solemnly
declare, that | will be true and faithful to the Governor and Company for the
smelting down Lead with Pit-Coal and Sea-Coal, during my continuance in the
said Joint-Stock.®


The Quakers were already members of the Ryton Company (Ryton smelt mill) which
was closely associated with the company of Royal Mines Copper. These two
companies were incorporated into the London Lead Company, The Royal Mines
Copper on 27" February 1704/5 and the Ryton Company on the 15"" May 1705.


This company being based in London became known as the ‘London Lead Company,’
and by some ‘The Quaker Company’. The records of the Blackett Lead Company
frequently refer to the ‘Quaker Company, for example in a letter written to Isaac Hunter
dated 3" April 1764, “../ find the Quaker Co have already got some of their lead from
Joblings yard. ...””


It is understandable that the company would have been called the ‘Quaker Company’,
as a number of its founders had belonged to the Society of Friends, what is
questionable is whether it really was a Quaker Company that is to say a company
owned and run by Quakers. In order to examine this, we need to look at who the
shareholders were, the members of the Court, and the way the company conducted
its affairs.


It is useful to take a brief look at some of those businesses that were without question
owned and run by Quakers for the sake of comparison.


e Cadbury, Started by John Cadbury in 1824, as a family business remaining under
Cadbury family control until 1969.

e Rowntree started 1862 by Henry Isaac Rowntree, joined by his brother Joseph in
1869. Became a public liability company in 1897.

e Darby lronworks, started by Abraham Darby, in 1709 produced Iron at
Coalbrookdale, a family company.

e Huntsman Steel, Benjamin Huntsman set up as a steel maker in Sheffield in 1751,
he and his son developed a thriving business.

e Clark’s founded in 1825 by brothers Cyrus and James Clark, a family company.

e Reckitts, Isaac Reckitt in 1840 he took over a small starch-making factory in Hull
and founded Reckitt & Sons. In 1862 Isaac Reckitt died. The firm was left equally
to three of his sons, George, Francis, and James. Then, in 1879, the business
became a limited company; it was now called Reckitt & Sons Ltd.

e Carr's Biscuits founded in 1831 by Jonathan Dodgson Carr in Carlisle remained
in family to 1931.

e Barclays Bank, traces its origins back to 1690 when John Freame, and Thomas
Gould (both Quakers) started trading as goldsmith bankers in Lombard Street,
London. The name "Barclays" became associated with the business in 1736, when
Freame's son-in-law James Barclay became a partner. In 1896 several banks
notably Backhouse's Bank of Darlington and Gurney's Bank of Norwich (both of


which also had their roots in Quaker families), united under the banner of Barclays
and Co., a joint-stock bank.


These companies all have a common factor in that they were owned and run by
Quakers. The London Lead Company from its very beginning was a Joint Stock
Company, (as is clearly stated in the last paragraph of the Affirmation) therefore owned
by shareholders who elected the Court of Assistants.


All members of the London Lead Company were either required to take an oath, in
open Court, or in the case of a Quaker, who for religious reasons could not take an
oath, an affirmation. These are recorded in the minutes of the Court; therefore, it is
possible to differentiate between members who were Quakers and those who were
not. Unfortunately, the minutes of the Court only give the names of the shareholders
up to 1729. Another problem was that in 1792 changes were made to the rules
regarding the taking of oaths and affirmations. The minutes of 27'" September 17928
reported:


“The Governor acquainted the General Court that an amendment to the Charter
had been obtained.

1. To dispense with the usual oaths on the first admission of any person by
purchase or otherwise, but such admission doth not entitle such person to vote
in General Courts or otherwise.

2. No person born out of the King’s allegiance can become a proprietor of any
share or shares.”


This means that from this date it cannot be determined how many Quakers were
shareholders, but members of the Court being voting members still took oaths or
affirmations, so it is possible to determine the make-up of the Court up until 1867. In
November of 1867, a change in the Parliamentary Act relating to oaths was passed
which enabled the company to do away with the need to take oaths, in its place a
declaration was made. So, from this time monitoring the number of Court members
who were Quakers, is not possible; fortunately, up until 1872 the membership of the
Court did not change, so that a record exists of those who had taken oaths or
affirmations in the past.


In 1706, 68% of the shareholders were Quakers holding 70% of the shares, in 1707
this fell to 61% of shareholders were Quakers holding 64.8% of the shares. This
decline continued and by 1720 only 40.5% of the shareholders were Quakers but they
did hold 55.4% of the shares. This majority shareholding was not to last, in 1725 only
26.3% of shareholders were Quakers holding 41.1% of the shares. 1729 is the last
year that it is possible to use this data by which time 23.8% of the shareholders were
Quakers who held 34.7% of the shares. On this basis it does not seem appropriate to
call it a ‘Quaker Company’.


In the early years a number of the senior agents belonged to the Society of Friends.
Charles Alsopp was the steward at the Ryton Cupola, when the Ryton Company was
amalgamated with the London Lead Company; he became their Northern agent, when
the Ryton works were taken over by the Blackett Company. In around 1725, he was
replaced by Abraham Watson also a Quaker. The Northern agent who replaced
Abraham Watson in 1742, was Thomas Wesitgarth, whose son William (both Quakers)
worked for the company until 1763, when he left to work for the Blackett company at
Coalcleugh. When Thomas Wesigarth died in 1748 he was replaced by John Smith


who was also a Quaker, who on his death in 1759 was replaced by Thomas Tweedale
the first agent not to be a Quaker (He is recorded as having taken the oaths). It follows
therefore that the company would during this period have been strongly influenced by
the philosophy of the Society of Friends. During the period when Robert Stagg Jnr.
was the Chief agent of the company a great number of improvements were carried
out, for this reason it has been thought by some that he was a member of the Society
of Friends. This idea is not supported by the evidence. Arthur Raistrick in his books
never suggested that Robert Stagg was a Quaker, and when we look through the
Stagg family records we find that Robert Stagg was baptised and married in an
Anglican church, and his family baptised in Anglican churches; Robert Stagg was
buried at St Columba, Topcliffe in 1864.


The percentage of members of the Court who were Quakers


0.00 : i : : i : : : :
1700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880
Year


The graph showing the percentage of Court members, who were Quakers, gives a
good indication of the strength of influence of the Quakers on the company over the
years. It was after all the Court who determined the activities of the company, not the
agents. Being a Quaker was no guarantee of a job as Peter Hodgson the
superintendent of the company’s White Lead works (and shareholder) found out, he
was appointed in 1754, but sacked in 1757, as the court were not happy with his work.?


In the period between 1706 and 1872 there were only eleven occasions when there
were an equal number of Quaker and non-Quaker members in the Court and only one
occasion, 1737 when they held a majority vote. It was not until 1734 that the first
Quaker was appointed as Governor to the Court, this was John Freame, he remained
Governor until 1742. In the history of the company there were only four Governors
who were Quakers. Thomas Hyam 1753 - 1763, Jacob Hagen 1812 - 1817, Thomas


How Masterman 1823 - 1824. The graph shows that from the point of view of the
Court, by the late 1820’s the influence of the Quaker members was quite limited.


Despite being noted for their integrity etc., in business not everything was perfect as
the following Court minutes for 12th June 1739 minutes show:'°


“The secretary reported that on the 28th and 30th days of May last past and the
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