John Vaughan, known as Jacky, was born in
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
on "St Thomas' Day" in 1799, the son of Welsh parents.
[Institution of Civil Engineers, ''Obituary'', 1869.] He worked his way up the iron industry, becoming an ironmaster and co-founder of the largest of all the Victorian iron and steel companies,
Bolckow Vaughan
Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd was an English steelmaking, ironmaking and mining company founded in 1864, based on the partnership since 1840 of its two founders, Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan (ironmaster), John Vaughan. The firm drove the dramat ...
. Where
Henry Bolckow
Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow, originally Heinrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Bölckow, (8 December 1806 – 18 June 1878) was a Victorian industrialist and Member of Parliament, acknowledged as being one of the founders of modern Middlesbrough.
In a ...
provided the investment and business expertise, Vaughan contributed technical knowledge, in a long-lasting and successful partnership that transformed
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
from a small town to the centre of ironmaking in Britain.
Vaughan is best known for his discovery of
ironstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be con ...
in the
Cleveland Hills
The Cleveland Hills are a range of hills on the north-west edge of the North York Moors in North Yorkshire, England, overlooking Cleveland and Teesside. They lie entirely within the boundaries of the North York Moors National Park. Part of the ...
, on an exploratory walk with his mining engineer,
John Marley
John Marley (born Mortimer Marlieb, October 17, 1907 – May 22, 1984) was an American actor who was known for his role as Phil Cavalleri in '' Love Story'' and as Jack Woltz—the defiant film mogul who awakens to find the severed head ...
in June 1850.
Early life
Vaughan began his working life, like his father before him, at Sir John Guest's
Dowlais Ironworks
The Dowlais Ironworks was a major ironworks and steelworks located at Dowlais near Merthyr Tydfil, in Wales. Founded in the 18th century, it operated until the end of the 20th, at one time in the 19th century being the largest steel producer in ...
in South Wales. His first job "at an early age" was in the scrap mill; from there, he became a puddler, then a furnaceman, then foreman.
[
After Dowlais, he worked in Staffordshire, then Carlisle as factory manager, then Walker-on-Tyne near Newcastle where he became the works manager for the ]Losh, Wilson and Bell
Losh, Wilson and Bell, later Bells, Goodman, then Bells, Lightfoot and finally Bell Brothers, was a leading Northeast England manufacturing company, founded in 1809 by the partners William Losh, Thomas Wilson, and Thomas Bell.
The firm was ...
Ironworks.[ While doing business in Newcastle, he met ]Henry Bolckow
Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow, originally Heinrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Bölckow, (8 December 1806 – 18 June 1878) was a Victorian industrialist and Member of Parliament, acknowledged as being one of the founders of modern Middlesbrough.
In a ...
, who at that time was a corn merchant looking to get into the iron business.[
]
Partnership
In 1839, Bolckow and Vaughan decided to form a business partnership. They looked at Stockton, on the pioneering Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Darl ...
, as it had good communications, but could not find a suitable site for an ironworks. However, the railway had run to Middlesbrough since 1833, and the partners started their ironworks there on a cheap plot of land, most of which flooded at high tide. Their iron ore consisted of iron nodules in the coal measures
In lithostratigraphy, the coal measures are the coal-bearing part of the Upper Carboniferous System. In the United Kingdom, the Coal Measures Group consists of the Upper Coal Measures Formation, the Middle Coal Measures Formation and the Lower Coal ...
, or of imported hematite. As this was limiting their growth and profitability, they decided to make their own pig-iron.[
In 1846 they built blast furnaces at ]Witton Park
Witton Park is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated to the west of Bishop Auckland. In 2001 it had a population of 384.
Famous people born in Witton Park
* Brigadier General Roland Boys Bradford VC—youngest ever Brigadier G ...
, County Durham for smelting iron ore; the Stockton and Darlington Railway, seeking to exploit the coal and iron trade, was conveniently extended past Witton to several of the Durham collieries; limestone could arrive from Stanhope, and coke from Crook, so the site appeared ideal.[ But in 1847 there was "a commercial panic" (an economic crisis), and the Witton Park Ironworks suffered both from difficult trading conditions, and from a continual shortage of iron nodules.][
]
Cleveland Ironstone
Knowing of earlier attempts at extracting ironstone in Cleveland, Vaughan suspected a more abundant supply of ironstone could be found close to hand. He instructed his mining engineer, John Marley
John Marley (born Mortimer Marlieb, October 17, 1907 – May 22, 1984) was an American actor who was known for his role as Phil Cavalleri in '' Love Story'' and as Jack Woltz—the defiant film mogul who awakens to find the severed head ...
, to study Cleveland's geology.
On 8 June 1850, the two of them walked the Cleveland Hills
The Cleveland Hills are a range of hills on the north-west edge of the North York Moors in North Yorkshire, England, overlooking Cleveland and Teesside. They lie entirely within the boundaries of the North York Moors National Park. Part of the ...
and quickly found a plentiful source, in the shape of the main seam of Cleveland Ironstone "above sixteen feet" (about five metres) thick. Bolckow and Vaughan moved rapidly: within 12 weeks, they had signed agreements with the landowners, started the first mine, built a tramway to carry the ironstone, and delivered the first load of seven tones to Witton Park.[
From that moment, their business grew swiftly. They opened more mines at ]Eston
Eston is a Village in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England. The ward covering the area (as well as Lackenby, Lazenby and Wilton) had a population of 7,005 at the 2011 census. It is part of Greater Eston, which include ...
and added blast furnaces at Middlesbrough. The combination of Vaughan's technical skills and Bolckow's financial skills was effective and long-lasting. The partnership grew into steelmaking giant Bolckow Vaughan
Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd was an English steelmaking, ironmaking and mining company founded in 1864, based on the partnership since 1840 of its two founders, Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan (ironmaster), John Vaughan. The firm drove the dramat ...
& Co., Ltd., formed with capital of £2,500,000 in 1864: the largest company in existence at that time.[
]
Wealth
In 1855 Vaughan became Mayor of Middlesbrough
The Mayor of Middlesbrough is the executive mayor of the borough of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, England. The incumbent since 2019 is Andy Preston.
Referendums 2001
2013
Election results 2002
2007
2011
201 ...
. He was a Borough Magistrate and a member of the Tees Conservancy Board.[
After the death of his first wife, Vaughan married widow Ann Hughes of Newcastle, daughter of Joseph Poole and sister of Bolckow's first wife.][
With increasing wealth, he and Bolckow "both moved from Cleveland Street to Marton: Bolckow built Marton Hall in 1853 and moved there in 1856, and John Vaughan moved to Gunnergate Hall in 1858.L. Polley: Middlesbrough in 1853.]
Vaughan died in London on 16 September 1868.
Bibliography
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan, John
1799 births
1868 deaths
19th-century Welsh businesspeople
Businesspeople from Yorkshire
Mayors of Middlesbrough
British ironmasters
Business people from Worcester, England
Welsh industrialists
19th-century English businesspeople