THE GOTT COLLECTION THE GOTT FAMILY BUSINESS

Transcription

1 THE GOTT COLLECTION The Gott Collection was assembled in the 19 th century by members of the Gott family of Leeds industrialists, probably William Gott ( ) and his son John Gott ( ), Vicar of Leeds and later Bishop of Truro. It was presented to Wakefield Art Gallery in 1930 by Frank Green, a Yorkshire industrialist and philanthropist. The collection, bound in ten volumes, includes 1,200 images consisting of watercolours, drawings and prints in the form of maps, sketches, plans and detailed architectural drawings. In all, it documents over 200 Yorkshire villages, towns and cities. The Gott Collection is an important regional and national resource since many of the buildings, architectural remains and landscapes represented within its pages no longer exist. John Goodchild, M Univ, gave two talks on 19 and 26 March 2015 at Wakefield Chantry Chapel on the background to the Gott business and family, followed by a visit to see the Gott Collection at the Hepworth on 2 April THE GOTT FAMILY BUSINESS The Gott family of Leeds were to become very wealthy leaders of the industrial revolution through the development of mass production of woollen cloth using the latest technology. Large collections of Gott papers have survived, partly in the John Goodchild Collection and partly at Leeds University, but they remain largely unexplored. Benjamin Gott, who was to head the Gott empire, was born in His family lived at Calverley and he attended Bingley Grammar School. By 1779 he was working as a junior clerk in a firm of Leeds cloth merchants, Wormald & Fountaine, where he was apprenticed for a premium of 400 for a four year term. Only two years after completing his apprenticeship, his father bought him a partnership in the business for 3660, approximately 9% of the capital of the partnership. Benjamin s grandfather, father and uncle were master stonemasons and builders. In 1743 the Gotts became contractors for all the West Riding bridges for 11 ½ years; from 1755 the brothers John and William Gott held the contract; in 1763 a further contract was signed for 7 years at a salary of 230 a year. The younger son, John (the father of Benjamin) was also appointed in 1760 to the part time post of Surveyor of the Works to the Aire & Calder Navigation, which paid 260 a year in 1791; in 1777 he was also appointed to the post of Surveyorship of the West Riding bridges and county buildings, at a salary of 250 a year. These two offices stayed in the family, with John s older son, William, being appointed joint Surveyor to the Navigation in 1792, and his nephew to the County Surveyorship in Benjamin rose faster than would have been expected at Wormald & Fountaine, as both partners died prematurely, leaving Benjamin at the head of the company by He soon expanded from being a cloth merchant to also being a cloth manufacturer and dyer. By February 1791 he was already planning to build a range of substantial buildings for expansion into cloth finishing and dyeing, and he was later to expand further into carding, spinning and weaving to provide all processes under one roof. He wasn t quite the first to bring together processes under one roof: Benjamin Hallas of Ossett had built a double storey weaving mill for master weavers in 1790 and

2 soon after introduced steam power, fulling and spinning; the Ossett Mill Company had introduced wool processing and cloth fulling in c by water power and subsequently spinning and dyeing using steam power. Benjamin himself told a Parliamentary committee later in 1825: I was brought up as a merchant and became a manufacturer rather from possessing capital than from understanding the manufacture I paid for the talents of others in the different branches of manufacture To build his new mill, Benjamin bought land just outside Leeds at Bean Ing on Wellington Street, close to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. The funds for the project were raised by loans, primarily from family and local lenders, 43, being raised from Benjamin employed an architect and engineer, John Sutcliffe, to design and build his new building and work began in Sutcliffe and Gott fell out over what steam engine to employ: Gott insisted on having a Boulton & Watt steam engine. Gott was a cautious businessman and he developed his huge factory at Bean Ing in stages in the 1790s. He also tenanted Armley Mill by 1800, would rebuild it after a fire in 1805 and purchase it in Burley Mill was being built to lease to him in 1799 for blanket weaving. The unprecedented size of these mills can be seen from the number of employees: in were employed at Bean Ing Mill, in workers were employed at all three mills, nearly 40% of them women and children, in 1868 the firm was said to employ 900 hands. Bean Ing Mill (Leeds Industrial Museum) This huge enterprise brought great profits. In the years Gott averaged 19% profit on outlay, while in the trading profits averaged 35,000 a year. In the 1820s and 1830s John Gott (Benjamin Gott s son) recorded annual returns on his capital of up to 54%. Gott traded in woollen as against worsted cloths, and these ranged in quality from blankets, cloth for uniforms, up to the finest costume cloths. Although he manufactured cloth at his own factories,

3 he continued to buy others cloths at the cloth halls, and supply town and village shopkeepers. He also had a growing international trade. Benjamin Gott died in 1840 and the business passed to Benjamin s son, John, who continued the business. When John Gott died childless in 1867 he left a personal estate of 350,000. He had intended to leave the business to his younger brother William, but William had predeceased John, so it went to William s son, another Benjamin, who was to die in an asylum. After some litigation, the firm was sold by tender. The tender documents described the business as: A. The goodwill, with the right to use the words Successors to or late B Gott & Sons; the trade mark for China goods, consisting of the Gott crest in various combinations. The goodwill and trade mark would belong to the purchasers of lots B and D below. B. Stock in trade at Leeds, London and Glasgow, valued and consisting of goods manufactured and in process of manufacture, and raw materials, cost value 83, C. Consignments and shipments of goods to China and India at invoice prices: To Shanghai 47, To Calcutta 1, TOTAL 48, D. The firm s book debts E. Machinery, plant etc about Bean Ing or Park Mills in Wellington Street, valued Manufacturing: eleven sets, with spinning, weaving and other machinery 10, Cloth finishing: 18 gigs and presses, with additional presses and brushing for refinishing 4, Dyeworks: 16 vats, 7 dye pans, with piping, shafting etc. 1, Steam engines: with boilers, shafting etc, water and gas piping, smith & joiner s shops, stable, office, etc. 8, Trade utensils in warehouse: tables, floor scrays, pattern stamps, blocks etc Trade fixtures: presses, weighing machines, boiler, hot water and gas piping, etc Office furniture: desks, stools, letter and book cases, safes etc The successful tenderers were Kinnear, Holt & Co. Kinnear was a relative of the Gotts, but by 1881 he seems to have left the company. The connection with the Gott family ceased, except that they kept the freehold of Bean Ing Mill. THE GOTT FAMILY HOME LIFE AND OTHER INTERESTS Outside his great business empire, Benjamin Gott (and other members of his family) led a busy life in politics, charities and cultural affairs in Leeds. Benjamin married an heiress in 1790, whose money assisted in financing the great new factory in the 1790s. They lived at Armley House in Kirkstall, not too far from the business. His mother- in- law moved in to live with them, and they often had members of the extended family to dine or stay. They do not seem to have lived a lavish lifestyle; letters refer to a coachman, a butler, a cook and a

4 15 year old servant. In 1809 the great landscape gardener, Humphrey Repton, stayed with them and in the following year prepared a Red Book for the layout of the grounds at Armley House. They had four sons and six daughters. The eldest boy, John, went to Edinburgh University where he studied science subjects, before going to work in the business. Benjamin hoped that his second son, Ben, would follow John into the business, but Ben went on a grand tour of Europe, visiting France, Switzerland and Italy, before dying in Greece in 1817 at the age of only 24. The third son, William, was born in 1797, and the fourth son, Henry, in William ultimately went into the business, but Henry died in Paris in 1826, leaving only John and William to run the business with their father, who retired in In politics Benjamin was a Conservative. He was chosen in 1791 by Leeds Corporation, a self- elective body, to become a common councilman and as an alderman and mayor of the borough in He didn t invest much in speculative shares in canals or banks; the only large block of shares he held at his death were in the Leeds & Selby Railway. Benjamin Gott ( ) He took part in and contributed to a wide range of cultural and charitable organisations, although sometimes his wife was involved instead. In 1819 he presided at the formation of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, putting up 500 and laying its foundation stone. In 1823 Benjamin and both his sons were directors of the Northern Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts. After the fire at York Minster, in 1829 he donated 300 to the restoration, and his sons both subscribed 100. He was a trustee of the Leeds Zoological & Botanical Gardens and both sons subscribed.

5 He founded a school and almshouses for twelve poor widows at Armley in While he donated 10 to the Leeds Infants School in 1827, his wife and Mrs John Gott were on its Visiting Committee. John was a vice president of the Leeds Hospital for Women and Children and his wife a patroness. Mrs John and Mrs William subscribed in 1827 to the Leeds Lying in Hospital for Poor Married Women. His wife and Mrs John Gott also subscribed a guinea each to the Leeds School of Industry in With his son John, he was supporting the Yorkshire Agricultural Society in In 1835 Benjamin was on a committee to consider improved water supplies for Leeds. The Gotts attended the chapel of ease of the Church of England at Armley and Benjamin built a chancel aisle to the chapel for his family, household and tenants. He was buried there when he died in His obituary praised his support for charitable institutions and his patronage of the arts. His sons, John and William, continued their father s interests in politics, charitable institutions and the arts. Both brothers were councillors on the Corporation and John was a magistrate in Both were Tory in their politics. John had interests in railways, like his father, but in his case it was the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway of which he was a director. One of John s greatest achievements was to be appointed as one of the 24 of Her Majesty s Commissioners organising the Great Exhibition in 1851 under the presidency of Prince Albert. Gott & Sons were to win a prize medal for woollen cloths for export. John had married in He and his wife lived in Park Square in Leeds, in spite of the smoky atmosphere there, caused mainly by the Gott s own Bean Ing Mill. They had no children. In 1835 they began to build a new house, called Wyther, designed by architect C P Cockerill, not far from Armley House. Eventually, after his widowed mother died, they moved to Armley House by William also married in 1821 and had three sons and four daughters. They lived at Denison Hall, Hanover Square, Leeds and moved to Wyther when John moved from Wyther to Armley House. William died in 1863, so his eldest son was to become the head of the Gott family when John died. The youngest son, another John, was to become Vicar of Leeds and later the Bishop of Truro. John was interested in church affairs: he was involved in discussions to provide extra church accommodation as the population of Leeds expanded to the west, and he contributed largely to the building of the new Leeds parish church and to the new Leeds St George s, St Andrew s and St Philip s. He also contributed to various missionary bodies, like the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. William s obituary said that his love of the fine arts formed his chief recreation at home, where he delighted to surround himself with those objects of taste which he had collected from boyhood upwards. He contributed specimens to the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society museum. And he commissioned marble sculptures of two groups of children and also a set of nine terracotta medallions of family members from a Joseph Gott of Rome. As well as collecting paintings, books, manuscripts and ceramics, members of the family brought together a collection of Yorkshire watercolours, drawings and prints, which is now at the Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield.