Introduction
Jonathan Scarth was a partner in one of Manchester's early steam powered cotton mills in the late 18th century, and was an entrepreneur of the English Industrial Revolution
Life
Jonathan Scarth was born in Whitby, Yorkshire, England, the son of Thomas Scarth, a Quaker ship owner. (His father did not remain a Quaker however, having been disowned by the Society in 1781 for refusing to sail his ships without guns for protection). With funds from his father Thomas and brother-in-law Robert Moorsom, Jonathan, Richard Percival Moulson and Robert Owen (later to become the "father of English socialism") formed the Chorlton Twist Company to set up a state of the art steam powered cotton mill at Chorlton near Manchester.
The partners bought a Boulton and Watt rotary steam engine for £1,492 from James Watt in 1796. The 31 inch cylinder was cast and bored by John Wilkinson, and the machine weighed 99,000 pounds. James Watt Jr. wrote to Robert Owen that it was "one of the most perfect that ever passed through our hands". Robert Owen's description of Jonathan and his partner Richard was less flattering: "two young men, inexperienced in the business, although they had capital".
Trouble started in 1796 just as the factory was starting production. The fear of French invasion caused an international credit squeeze. Creditors could not borrow funds to pay. In January 1798 Moulson left the company, and in August of the same year Jonathan Scarth and another partner Matthew Chitty Marshall followed suit. Undeterred, he and Marshall, with Benjamin Naylor, James Byfield and Theodore Rupp set up another cotton spinning company, "Scarth Marshall Rupp and Co." That company purchased a slightly smaller steam engine from Boulton and Watt, however it wound up in August 1801.
In late 1807 Jonathan was declared bankrupt.
Later life
After the birth of his second daughter Frances in Manchester in 1808, Jonathan, then 36 years old, and his family moved to County Cork in Ireland. He and his wife Frances had a total of ten children, including a son Robert Moorsom Scarth, named after Jonathan’s brother-in-law. Jonathan recovered financially to the point that he was living on "independent means" at the time of his death in Shropshire on 14 December 1850.
Family Connections
- Sir Robert Moorsom was Jonathan's brother-in-law, having married his sister Eleanor.
- Vice-Admiral Timothy Laurence, second husband of Princess Anne, is Sir Robert Moorsom and Eleanor Scarth's 3x great grandson. and therefore Jonathan's 3rd great grand nephew.
- Jonathan's second cousin, Mary Chapman, was the daughter-in-law of John Walker, who taught Captain James Cook to sail.
- Katherine Margaret Scarth, his niece, married Sir Frederick William Frankland (Baronet) at the British Embassy in Paris on 21 August 1821. They are the great great grandparents of Sir James Assheton Frankland, 18th Baron Zouche of Haryngworth.