User:PotentPotables/Crawshay

The Crawshay family is a British business family known primarily for their ownership of various ironworks in the 18th and 19th century.

Origins - William Crawshay (1713–1766)
William Crawshay was born in 1713. He worked as a farmer.

He married Elizabeth Nicholson, and they had three daughters (Susannah,, and ) and one son (Richard).

Susannah Crawshay
Susannah Crawshay was the daughter of William Crawshay and Elizabeth Nicholson. She married Joseph (John) Bailey of Wakefield, and had multiple children:
 * Joseph Bailey (later Sir Joseph Bailey, 1st Baronet; 1783–1858), ironmaster and Member of Parliament for Worcester and Brecknockshire.
 * Crawshay Bailey (1789–1872), ironmaster and Member of Parliament for Monmouth Boroughs.

Richard Crawshay (1739–1810)


Richard Crawshay was born in 1739 in Normanton, West Yorkshire, to William Crawshay and Elizabeth Nicholson. According to family tradition, the 16-year-old Richard began an apprenticeship with an ironwares merchant in London after falling out with his father. By 1763, he was the sole owner of this business. Following the death of Anthony Bacon in 1786, he became the sole owner of Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil. As well as his iron business, he was interested in agricultural development and road/canal infrastructure across South Wales.

He died on 27 June 1810 and was buried at Llandaff Cathedral.

Richard married Mary Bourne (1745–1811) on 13 June 1763. They had one son (William), and three daughters:
 * Anne Crawshay


 * Elizabeth Crawshay


 * Charlotte Crawshay (1784–1839) was the daughter of Richard Crawshay and Mary Bourne. In 1801, she married Benjamin Hall, a barrister and future business partner of Richard Crawshay. They had four children, including Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover.

William Crawshay (1764–1834)
William Crawshay I (William Sr.) was born in 1764, the only son of Richard Crawshay and Mary Bourne. He joined his father's ironworks business, but there was often tension between the two. Following his father's death in 1810, he received a three-eights share of the business, and eventually became the full owner through bluff and intimidation of the other shareholders. He maintained London's George Yard as the sole outlet for Cyfarthfa's iron, and often fought with his London partners and son/successor William Crawshay II over this.

He married Elizabeth "Eliza" Couzens (1760–1825) in the 1780s. They had three sons (Richard, William, and George) and two daughters (Elizabeth and Mary). William Sr. died on 11 August 1834 at his mansion in Stoke Newington.

William Crawshay (1788–1867)


William Crawshay II (William Jr.) was the second son of William Sr. and his wife Eliza Couzens.

He became manager of Cyfarthfa Ironworks at the age of 22, during the height of the Welsh iron trade. Following his father's death in 1834, he took ownership of the works and the house in George Yard. Politically, William Jr. was involved in the anti-truck movement and parliamentary reform, leading to his involvement in the 1831 Merthyr Rising. In 1847, he semi-retired from the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. He was behind the construction of Cyfarthfa Castle in the 1820s, but later lived at the Caversham Park estate in Oxfordshire (now Berkshire).

He was married three times:
 * His first wife was Elizabeth Homfray, the daughter of Stourbridge ironworker Francis Homfray. They married in 1808 and had three sons (William, Francis, and Henry); she died while giving birth to a daughter in 1813.


 * His second wife was Isabel Thompson, who he married in 1815. She was the sister of William Thompson, who was a partner at Penydarren Ironworks as well as being Lord Mayor of London. Isabel died in 1827, after having two sons (Robert Thompson and ) and seven daughters.


 * He married his third wife Isabella Johnson in 1828, having one daughter. Isabella's brother, Thomas Johnson, was a partner at Bute Ironworks. She died on 12 January 1885.

William Jr. died at Caversham on 4 August 1867, with Cyfarthfa passing to his son Robert Thompson.

William Crawshay (1810–1839)
William Crawshay III was born in 1810, the first son of William Jr. and his first wife Elizabeth Homfray. He drowned in the River Severn on 1 September 1839 while crossing from Monmouthshire to Gloucestershire.

Francis Crawshay (1811–1878)
Francis Crawshay was born in 1811, the second son of William Jr. and his first wife Elizabeth Homfray. He was the owner of an ironworks at Trefforest.

He lived in Bradbourne Hall near Sevenoaks, Kent.

He died in 1878.

He had several children:
 * Francis Richard was the son of Francis, born in 1849. He was a magistrate at the Pontypridd petty sessions, and was proposed as a parliamentary candidate in 1885.


 * Tudor was the fourth son of Francis. He became High Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1887. He married Marie Augusta Hester Ayres, and had at least one son (Owen Tudor Richard).


 * Isabella was the daughter of Francis. She married a man with the surname Fothergill.


 * Laura was the daughter of Francis. She married a man with the surname Fothergill.

Henry Crawshay (1812–)
Henry Crawshay was born in 1812, the third son of William Jr. and his first wife Elizabeth Homfray. He was the owner of Cinderford Ironworks.

He lived in Oaklands Park, a mansion situated near Awre. As well as the mansion, he owned a large yacht named The Arrow. Following his father's death in 1867, he received shares in the Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad.

He married and had children:
 * Eva Julietta Crawshay was the youngest daughter of Henry Crawshay. In June 1874, she married Captain Hervey Talbot, grandson of Charles Chetwynd-Talbot.

Robert Thompson Crawshay (1817–1879)


Robert Thompson Crawshay was born on 8 March 1817 in Cyfarthfa. He was the second of the nine children of William Jr. and his second wife, Isabel Thompson. Following the death of his half-brother William, he became acting manager at Cyfarthfa Ironworks. After his father's semi-retirement in 1847, he took on full managerial control. During this time he suffered from poor health, becoming half-paralysed from a stroke and completely deaf by 1860. His health continued to deteriorate, but he took ownership of Cyfarthfa in 1867; a series of coal strikes and advancements in the production of steel caused the works to decline under his leadership. In 1879, he visited Cheltenham for health reasons and died at the Queen's Hotel on 10 May after suffering from bronchitis.

He married Rose Mary Yeates (1828–1907) on 15 May 1846. Their marriage was an unhappy one following his health issues, and she was an advocate of both marriage reform and women's suffrage. The couple had three sons and two daughters:


 * William Thompson Crawshay was born in 1847, the oldest child of Robert Thompson Crawshay and Rose Mary Yeates. He worked with his brothers Robert Thompson and Richard Frederick in joint control of Cyfarthfa Ironworks under the name Crawshay Brothers & Co., until it was absorbed by Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds in 1902. In October 1870, he married Florentia Mary Wood. Following his father's death in 1879, he gained ownership of the Caversham Park estate, and the couple moved there in 1889.


 * Rose Harriette Thompson "Trotty" Crawshay was born in 1848. She was controlled by her father and kept an extensive diary detailing her prison-like experience while living in Cyfarthfa Castle. On 5 December 1877, she married Arthur John Williams, a lawyer and future Member of Parliament.


 * Henrietta Louise Crawshay was born in 1851, the second daughter of Robert Thompson Crawshay and Rose Mary Yeates. In 1871, she married Captain W. C. Ralston at Cyfarthfa Castle. Following his death, she married Major Harvey Spiller on 1 November 1879. She died in 1883, but she had multiple children with Spiller: their daughter Amy married George Bettesworth Piggott in 1904.


 * Robert Thompson Crawshay was born in 1853, the second son of Robert Thompson Crawshay and Rose Mary Yeates. He worked with his brothers William Thompson and Richard Frederick in joint control of Cyfarthfa Ironworks under the name Crawshay Brothers & Co., until it was absorbed by Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds in 1902.


 * Richard Frederick Crawshay was born in 1859, the third son and last child of Robert Thompson Crawshay and Rose Mary Yeates. He worked with his brothers William Thompson and Robert Thompson in joint control of Cyfarthfa Ironworks under the name Crawshay Brothers & Co., until it was absorbed by Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds in 1902. He died in Bournemouth on 25 October 1903.

Sarah Louise Crawshay
Sarah Louise was the daughter of William Jr. She was alive in 1867 at the time of his death.

Eliza Crawshay
Eliza was the daughter of William Jr. She was alive in 1867 at the time of his death, and the widow of George Thomas, a priest.

Amelia Crawshay
Amelia was the daughter of William Jr. She was alive in 1867 at the time of his death, and was married to Captain T. F. Sandeman.

Jessy Crawshay
Jessy was the daughter of William Jr. She was alive in 1867 at the time of his death, and the widow of Alfred Crawshay.

Agnes Crawshay
Agnes was the daughter of William Jr. She had died by the time of his death in 1867. She was married to a man with the surname Dolphin, and had four children.

Annette Crawshay
Annette was the daughter of William Jr. She was alive in 1867 at the time of his death, and married to Captain Parland.

Isabel Crawshay
Isabel was the daughter of William Jr. She had died by the time of his death in 1867. She was married to a man with the surname Ralston, and had a son called William Crawshay Ralston.

George Crawshay (1794–1873)
George Crawshay (George Sr.) was the son of William Sr.

He married the Parisian Josephe Louise Dufaud (1802–1883), whose family owned the Fourchambault ironworks, the largest of its kind in France.

He lived in Colney Hatch, and died on 27 November 1873.

Edmund Crawshay
Edmund Crawshay was the son of George Sr. and Josephe Dufaud.

Alfred Crawshay (died before December 1873)
Alfred Crawshay was the son of George Sr. and Josephe Dufaud. He died before his father in 1873, and had children.

Louise Constance Crawshay
Louise Constance Crawshay was the daughter of George Sr. and Josephe Dufaud.

Her first husband was Francis William Stanley, the owner of the ironworks at Gateshead. They had children:
 * Francis William Crawshay Stanley married Caroline Maria Galaher on 7 January 1864.

Her second husband was John Graham, a priest from Monmouthshire, who she married in Gateshead in 1847.

Juliet Crawshay
Juliet Crawshay was the daughter of George Sr. and Josephe Dufaud. She married a man with the surname St. Clair.

Emma Crawshay
Emma Crawshay was the daughter of George Sr. and Josephe Dufaud. She married a man with the surname St. Clair.

George Crawshay (1821–1896)
George Crawshay (George Jr.) was born on 5 February 1821 in London to George Sr. and Josephe Dufaud. He studied classics at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1839 until 1842 but never graduated, as he may have been a dissenter. After leaving Cambridge, he read for the bar at the Inner Temple. However, the death of his brother-in-law Francis William Stanley disrupted his legal career, and George Jr. and his brother Edmund took over the Hawks, Stanley & Co. ironworks at Gateshead. By the 1840s, Hawks, Crawshay & Sons had become the largest ironworks on Tyneside, hiring more than 100,000 workers and producing a range of goods, including the High Level Bridge in 1849. The works suddenly closed in 1889, and George Jr. was accused of incompetence and neglect in failing to specialise and adapt.

Outside of business, he became involved in politics, becoming leader of the local Anti-Corn Law League branch by 1845. He supported the Chartists in 1848, and took an interest in nationalist movements across Europe, becoming an associate of the anti-Russian politician David Urquhart. In 1854, he set up the Newcastle foreign affairs committee and became its leading spokesman. He often spoke in defence of the oppressed Turkish people, and became a close friend of the Ottoman statesman Midhat Pasha. He acted as Turkish consul in Newcastle, and may have introduced Turkish baths to Britain. He was elected town councillor for West Gateshead in 1854, and appointed mayor in 1856, 1859 and 1863.

George Jr. wrote poetry, romantic drama, and prose, some of which was published in the Newcastle Chronicle. He published the manuscript of a semi-autobiographical work, A Silver Shape, in 1890.

On 25 February 1847, he married Elizabeth (1826–1889), the youngest daughter of Sir John Fife. They had two sons and one daughter, and lived at Haughton Castle. He later retired to his daughter's home at Hazlewood in Horsted Keynes, where he died on 13 March 1896.

Walter Crawshay (c. 1823–1898)
Walter Crawshay was born around 1823, the son of George Crawshay and Josege Dufaud. He lived at Le Chasnay in Fourchambault, where his maternal family had an ironworks.

He died in London on 12 April 1898.

He was married and had at least one child:
 * A daughter was born on 28 October 1859 in Fourchambault.

Herbert Crawshay (1830–1907)
Herbert Crawshay was born on 22 March 1830 in London, the fourth son of George Crawshay and Josephe Dufaud. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1851. He lived at Stormer Hall in Leintwardine, Herefordshire.

He was engaged in hunting hares using harriers, and arranged his local hunts.

He died in January 1907, and his wife died on 24 November 1892. They had one or more children:
 * A daughter was born on 13 February 1861.
 * Mary Louise Crawshay was the eldest daughter of Herbert Crawshay. She died in Leintwardine on 14 November 1869, around the age of nine.

Sydney Crawshay (died 1892)
Sydney Crawshay was the fifth son of George Crawshay and Josephe Dufaud. He began studying at Trinity College Cambridge in 1850, and received his Bachelor's in 1854. He began reading at Lincoln's Inn in the same year, and was called to the bar in 1857.

He lived in Putney and died in January 1892.

He was married, and had children:
 * Walter Sydney Crawshay married Annie Bryant on 23 December 1893.

Estates
The Crawshays owned a variety of houses and estates over two centuries of prominence. In 1873, the fifteen members of the dynasty owned at least eight landed country houses, with another six most likely being rented. The eight houses owned by the family at this time were: • Bradbourne Hall

• Caversham Park

• Cyfarthfa Castle

• Dany Park

• Haughton Castle

• Hingham Hall

• Oaklands Park

• Scole Lodge

Other family members
Geoffrey Crawshay (1892–1954) was the son of Codrington Fraser Crawshay, and the great-great-grandson of William Crawshay I.