John Sutton Nettlefold (23 September 1792 – 12 April 1866) was a British

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

and entrepreneur.

Early life and family

Nettlefold was born in London. Nettlefold was a Unitarian; he married a co-religionist, Martha Chamberlain (1794–1866). Hers was a family of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

manufacturers and politicians: her brother's son, Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914), was a radical Liberal and a leading imperialist. They lived in

The Grove, Highgate The Grove, Highgate, N6 is a short tree-lined street in north London, running north from Highgate West Hill to Hampstead Lane, known for the notable residents who have lived there over several centuries. Early development The line of The Grov ...

. They had three sons: Edward John Nettlefold (1820–1878), Joseph Henry Nettlefold (1827–1881) and

Frederick Nettlefold Frederick Nettlefold (6 April 1833 – 1 March 1913) was a British industrialist, one of the Nettlefolds in Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. He was a leader in the Unitarian Church, ending up as lay president of the international organisation. ...

(1833–1913). One of Edward John's sons was named after him, John Sutton Nettlefold, who was a social reformer.

Career

In 1823, he opened a hardware store at 54

High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and Sou ...

. This was followed in 1826 by a workshop to make woodscrews based in

Sunbury-on-Thames Sunbury-on-Thames (or commonly Sunbury) is a suburban town on the north bank of the River Thames in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, centred southwest of central London. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, in 1965 Sunbury and other ...

. The Sunbury factory was powered by a

waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...

and Nettlefold saw the importance of motive power when he took advantage of

steam power A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

in a new factory in Baskerville Place, off Broad Street, Birmingham. He renamed the business Nettlefold and Sons, Ltd., and it expanded rapidly in London and Birmingham.Smith (2004) In 1854, Nettlefold acquired the opportunity to purchase a licence to manufacture to a U.S.

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

for a novel woodscrew. The licence, and the establishment of a new factory, demanded an investment of £ 30,000. Nettlefold sought and obtained the involvement of his brother-in-law as equal partner for an investment of £10,000 and the two established a factory in

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider bu ...

, leaving its management to their sons, Edward John and Joseph Henry Nettlefold, and Joseph Chamberlain. In later years, the management of the partnership, Nettlefold and Chamberlain, was passed to Joseph and

, and later was absorbed into Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds, now GKN plc, a multinational engineering company headquartered in

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

References

Bibliography

* *Smith, B.D.M (2004)
Nettlefold, Joseph Henry (1827-1881)
, rev., ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', Oxford University Press, accessed 27 July 2005 1792 births 1866 deaths History of Birmingham, West Midlands 19th-century English businesspeople {{UK-business-bio-stub