Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Joseph Gillott was born in Sheffield in 1799 and apprenticed to a scissors grinder. The post-war slump after the Battle of Waterloo sent him to seek work in Birmingham, which he found with a firm making buckles for shoes, belts, and other things. These buckles were produced by a new process, being stamped out on presses. Young Gillott also found a girl friend Maria Mitchell, whose brothers William and John were manufacturers of steel pens. The layman, not the trade, invented the word “nib”. Originally nib and holder were made out of a single piece known as a pen, which was fitted on to a wooden stem. The layman’s nib came later, known to the manufacturer as a “slip pen” to be fitted on to the metal tip on a wooden pen stick. This was normally of beech, more expensively of cedar and most rarely of amboyna or ginger wood.
As Joseph Gillott watched his brother–in-laws making each pen individually for sale at around 2s, his active mind saw the possibility of adapting the buckle press to the pen trade, so in his attic in Broad street, now Cornwall Street, he set about the adaptation. Soon he was in production, though initially he had to temper his pens in a frying pan over the fire. He was able to cut the Mitchells’ price by half, and the virtue of his pens was the consistency in their thickness of writing compared to the variations in individually made pens.
On the morning of 15 september 1823 the industrious Joseph rose eearly and made a gross of pens, Then, changing from his working clothes, he went and married Miss Mitchell, but took his pens with him and sold them at a shilling each to the wedding guests. “Questionable taste, but good business” said his relatives.
Such was Joseph’s business acumen that he opened accounts in all of Birmingham’s Banks, as his trade expanded. Around 1828 he moved to Church street, and in 1833 he had premises for the first time resembling a factory, in Newhall street. Then between 1838 and 1840, he built a big new works on the corner of Graham street and Frederick street, Hockley, just in time to cash in on Rowland Hill’s penny post. The steel pen and the penny post trades were complementary. Each florished because of the other, with widening education to cause them to prosper still farther. The 1860s saw the apex of the pen trade’s firunes, and of Joseph Gillott’s. The young scissors grinder became a million aire.
Graham strret, which saw Joseph’s rise gets it’s name from one of Wellington’s Peninsular war Generals, who fought at the Battle of Vittoria, commemorated in Vittoria Street. Six years later, after this battle, in 1819, a story was published which attains and manitained world wide fame. It was written in the house on the Graham street-Frederick Street corner which in those days belonged to henry Van Wart, whose wife Sarah, was the sister of the American writer, Washington Irving. While staying with the Van Warts in 1816, inspiration overtook Irving, who sat up throught one entire night, and by candle light, wrote Rip Van Winkle, which he read to the Van wart children at breakfast.
Thus it was an encouraging family atmosphere that Joseph Gillott produced the pens from which so much literature was to flow all over the world.As his business grew so did his family, numbering ten in all. Montague Road, Edgbaston, was named after the ninth of these. One of Joseph Gillott’s property deal was concluded in 1853, when he bought part of Ladywood for £90,000. This, with his Rotton Park Estate, made his boundaries generally along Hagley Road from Stirling Road to City Road, and Dudley Road to the north. Today he is perpetuated in Gillott Road.
From his earliest years as an employer he spared no cost or pains to benefit his workpeople to the utmost of his power. His works afforded all convenience and comfort to the persons employed. He established a benevolent society among the workpeople, to which he subscribed liberally. He seldom changed his managers, and never had a dispute with his `hands'. He was also a great collector of beautiful objects and plants...
An extract from `Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men' by E.Edwards published in 1877 states :- ` Soon after he had purchased the beautiful estate at Stanmore, near Harrow-on-the-Hill, which he loved so much, and where, in company with his old friend, Pettitt, the artist, he spent so much time in his latter years, he resolved to adorn the grounds with the rarest and most beautiful shubs and trees obtainable. The trustees of the Jephson Gardens, at Leamington, about this time, advertised for sale some surplus plants of rare kinds, and Mr.Gillott paid the gardens a visit. He selected a number of costly specimens, when his eye fell on a tree of surpassing beauty. He inquired its price, and was told that it was not for sale. He was not a man to be easily baffled, and he still tried to make a bargin. He was at length told that an offer of 50 pounds had already been made for the tree, and refused. His reply was characteristic: ``Well, I've made up my mind to have that tree, and I'll give 100 pounds for it. This offer, with the amount of those I have selected, will make my morning's purchases come to three or four hundred pounds. If I don't have this tree, I won't have any." He had it, and it still adorns the magnificent lawn at Stanmore (1877).
As soon as he had money to spare he began to buy pictures. The collection constantly grew both in quality and size, until at last his house in the Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, and his residence at Stanmore, near London, were crowded with gems of English art.
The great strength of the collection lay in Turner's and Etty's, the last-named artist being a special friend of the collector. He appreciated Turner's talents before they had been generally recognised, and puchased his paintings when others doubted. The collection was also very rich in examples of Linnell, Naclise, Mulready, David Roberts, Prout, and other English artists. Here can be seen two paintings by Joseph Turner once owned by Joseph Gillott.
After the Joseph Gillott's death his collection of paintings were sold for 173,310 pounds. Webster's `Roast Pig', a picture painted on commission, for which Joseph Gillott gave 700 guineas, realised 3,550 guineas. His collection of violins, on which he much prided himself, was also disposed of, producing 4,000 pounds.
For many years Joseph Gillott's face was familiar at the Birmingham Theatre, where he attended nearly every evening, and then adjourned to the Hen and Chickens Hotel to smoke his `churchwarden' and converse with his friends. Until about ten days before his death failing eyesight was the only sign he gave of old age.
On the day after Christmas day 1871 he entertained as usual some of his children and their friends; the next morning he was attacked by a complication of pleurisy and bronchitis, and died at Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, 5th January 1872.
After his death in 1872 Joseph Gillott’s art collection realised £164,530 at Christies, and his collection of muusical instruments included six Stradivarius violins. Precious stones also fascinated him, he would produce costly gems casualy from his pockets. Shrubs, too, interested him, and he was able to indulge this interest in the grounds of ‘the Grove’, Great Stanmore, Midlesex, where he lived after his retirement. This move accounts for the name of Stanmore Road, parallel with Gillott Road. His property he left to his twelve grandchildren. Of these six were the offspring of his second son, Joseph II , who inherited the business and built as his residence Berry Hall beside the River Blythe at Solihull. Joseph II was succeeded in the business by his second son, Jospeh III, though his eldest son, Algernon Sydney, is remembered in Algernon Road. Algernon’s only son, Bernard, became the last of the Gillott to have his own road – Bernard Road, off City Road.
As Joseph Gillott watched his brother–in-laws making each pen individually for sale at around 2s, his active mind saw the possibility of adapting the buckle press to the pen trade, so in his attic in Broad street, now Cornwall Street, he set about the adaptation. Soon he was in production, though initially he had to temper his pens in a frying pan over the fire. He was able to cut the Mitchells’ price by half, and the virtue of his pens was the consistency in their thickness of writing compared to the variations in individually made pens.
On the morning of 15 september 1823 the industrious Joseph rose eearly and made a gross of pens, Then, changing from his working clothes, he went and married Miss Mitchell, but took his pens with him and sold them at a shilling each to the wedding guests. “Questionable taste, but good business” said his relatives.
Such was Joseph’s business acumen that he opened accounts in all of Birmingham’s Banks, as his trade expanded. Around 1828 he moved to Church street, and in 1833 he had premises for the first time resembling a factory, in Newhall street. Then between 1838 and 1840, he built a big new works on the corner of Graham street and Frederick street, Hockley, just in time to cash in on Rowland Hill’s penny post. The steel pen and the penny post trades were complementary. Each florished because of the other, with widening education to cause them to prosper still farther. The 1860s saw the apex of the pen trade’s firunes, and of Joseph Gillott’s. The young scissors grinder became a million aire.
Graham strret, which saw Joseph’s rise gets it’s name from one of Wellington’s Peninsular war Generals, who fought at the Battle of Vittoria, commemorated in Vittoria Street. Six years later, after this battle, in 1819, a story was published which attains and manitained world wide fame. It was written in the house on the Graham street-Frederick Street corner which in those days belonged to henry Van Wart, whose wife Sarah, was the sister of the American writer, Washington Irving. While staying with the Van Warts in 1816, inspiration overtook Irving, who sat up throught one entire night, and by candle light, wrote Rip Van Winkle, which he read to the Van wart children at breakfast.
Thus it was an encouraging family atmosphere that Joseph Gillott produced the pens from which so much literature was to flow all over the world.As his business grew so did his family, numbering ten in all. Montague Road, Edgbaston, was named after the ninth of these. One of Joseph Gillott’s property deal was concluded in 1853, when he bought part of Ladywood for £90,000. This, with his Rotton Park Estate, made his boundaries generally along Hagley Road from Stirling Road to City Road, and Dudley Road to the north. Today he is perpetuated in Gillott Road.
From his earliest years as an employer he spared no cost or pains to benefit his workpeople to the utmost of his power. His works afforded all convenience and comfort to the persons employed. He established a benevolent society among the workpeople, to which he subscribed liberally. He seldom changed his managers, and never had a dispute with his `hands'. He was also a great collector of beautiful objects and plants...
An extract from `Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men' by E.Edwards published in 1877 states :- ` Soon after he had purchased the beautiful estate at Stanmore, near Harrow-on-the-Hill, which he loved so much, and where, in company with his old friend, Pettitt, the artist, he spent so much time in his latter years, he resolved to adorn the grounds with the rarest and most beautiful shubs and trees obtainable. The trustees of the Jephson Gardens, at Leamington, about this time, advertised for sale some surplus plants of rare kinds, and Mr.Gillott paid the gardens a visit. He selected a number of costly specimens, when his eye fell on a tree of surpassing beauty. He inquired its price, and was told that it was not for sale. He was not a man to be easily baffled, and he still tried to make a bargin. He was at length told that an offer of 50 pounds had already been made for the tree, and refused. His reply was characteristic: ``Well, I've made up my mind to have that tree, and I'll give 100 pounds for it. This offer, with the amount of those I have selected, will make my morning's purchases come to three or four hundred pounds. If I don't have this tree, I won't have any." He had it, and it still adorns the magnificent lawn at Stanmore (1877).
As soon as he had money to spare he began to buy pictures. The collection constantly grew both in quality and size, until at last his house in the Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, and his residence at Stanmore, near London, were crowded with gems of English art.
The great strength of the collection lay in Turner's and Etty's, the last-named artist being a special friend of the collector. He appreciated Turner's talents before they had been generally recognised, and puchased his paintings when others doubted. The collection was also very rich in examples of Linnell, Naclise, Mulready, David Roberts, Prout, and other English artists. Here can be seen two paintings by Joseph Turner once owned by Joseph Gillott.
After the Joseph Gillott's death his collection of paintings were sold for 173,310 pounds. Webster's `Roast Pig', a picture painted on commission, for which Joseph Gillott gave 700 guineas, realised 3,550 guineas. His collection of violins, on which he much prided himself, was also disposed of, producing 4,000 pounds.
For many years Joseph Gillott's face was familiar at the Birmingham Theatre, where he attended nearly every evening, and then adjourned to the Hen and Chickens Hotel to smoke his `churchwarden' and converse with his friends. Until about ten days before his death failing eyesight was the only sign he gave of old age.
On the day after Christmas day 1871 he entertained as usual some of his children and their friends; the next morning he was attacked by a complication of pleurisy and bronchitis, and died at Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, 5th January 1872.
After his death in 1872 Joseph Gillott’s art collection realised £164,530 at Christies, and his collection of muusical instruments included six Stradivarius violins. Precious stones also fascinated him, he would produce costly gems casualy from his pockets. Shrubs, too, interested him, and he was able to indulge this interest in the grounds of ‘the Grove’, Great Stanmore, Midlesex, where he lived after his retirement. This move accounts for the name of Stanmore Road, parallel with Gillott Road. His property he left to his twelve grandchildren. Of these six were the offspring of his second son, Joseph II , who inherited the business and built as his residence Berry Hall beside the River Blythe at Solihull. Joseph II was succeeded in the business by his second son, Jospeh III, though his eldest son, Algernon Sydney, is remembered in Algernon Road. Algernon’s only son, Bernard, became the last of the Gillott to have his own road – Bernard Road, off City Road.
Last edited by a moderator:
