Ignatius Cockshutt (August 24, 1812 – March 1, 1901) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. The son of James Cockshutt and Mary Nightingale, he was born in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

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, England. He came to Canada with his parents in July 1827.

Biography

In 1828, his father established himself as a general merchant in York, and soon opened a branch in

Brantford Brantford (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River (Ontario), Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by County of Brant, Brant County, but is politically separate with ...

, Canada West which Ignatius clerked for his father. After a rocky start at the branch location, it was ultimately successful to the point that the York business was closed and the operation consolidated in Brantford. In 1840, Ignatius and his sister Jane purchased the business from their father and operated it until 1846 when Ignatius purchased his sister's share. He operated the business very successfully until 1882 as his main occupation. Along with his son

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

, in 1877 he founded the original Cockshutt factory, the Brantford Plow Works at Brantford, Ontario. In 1882, the business was incorporated as the Cockshutt Plow Company, with James G. Cockshutt as president and Ignatius as vice-president. At that time, they employed about 50 workers. After James' death in 1885, the company was operated by three of Ignatius' sons in succession and by a Cockshutt family member until 1957, when outside interests gained control of the company. After his withdrawal from his active businesses, he spent considerable time and money on various charity and philanthropic causes. He was a devout Inghamite

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

and remained committed to its teachings of charity and evangelism. He married Margaret Gemmel on September 22, 1846 with whom he had one child named Mary. Margaret died in 1847. Three years later, on September 9, 1850, he married Elizabeth Foster and had eight more surviving children with her. In total he had nine children that survived into adulthood, and three who died in infancy.

References

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

Brantford Library Records
Memoirs of Ignatius Cockshutt, consisting chiefly of his own reminiscences (1903) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cockshutt, Ignatius 1812 births 1901 deaths Businesspeople from Ontario 19th-century Canadian businesspeople English emigrants to Canada 19th-century Canadian philanthropists