GEORGE RICHARDS ELKINGTON

1801 - 1865

 

Born on 17th October 1801 in Birmingham in St, Paul's square. His parents were James Elkington, a Gilt Toy and Spectacle Maker,and Lydia Richards. In 1815, at the age of 14, he was apprenticed to his uncles Josiah and George Richards of St. Paul's Square. He showed remarkable business capabilities and was soon taken into partnership with his uncles. On the death of his uncles he came into sole possession of the company.

His whole life was spent in Birmingham where he was governor of King Edward's Grammar School and made a Borough Magistrate in 1856. He was a quiet, unostentatious and unobtrusive man.

He married Mary Auster Balleney in 1825 and had seven surviving children, Frederick, George, James, Alfred, Howard, Hyla and one girl, Emma. Mary Auster died in 1858 and was buried in St. Mary's churchyard, Selly Oak, Birmingham. In 1860 he married secondly Margaret Morgan Jones. This union remained childless.

George Richards Elkington had 6 sons although only five are mentioned in most records. George the second son was born in Birmingham in 1828 to George Richards Elkington and his wife Mary Auster [Balleney]. At this time George was living with his family in the middle of Birmingham but as his father’s fame rose through his work in the silver plating industry, the moved their house in keeping with their increasing social improvement. In 1841, by the time the boys were at school, George Richards and Mary were living in Woodbrook House, Nr. Selly Oak., on the outskirts of Birmingham.

Woodbrooke was a beautiful house built in 1830 set in Ten Acres of grounds with a lake and beautiful woodland walks with a lake.

When he was 14 years old George was sent to a private Tutor, Thomas Hill Bakewell and his wife Matilda, at Hamstead Row in Handsworth.. There were only three other Pupils and three servants, but none of his brothers. The other boys were educated at various other schools including King Edwards School, Birmingham. Unfortunately George died at a very young age. A family historian of the period who knew the family well, stated that he died of a cold brought on by sitting around too long in damp clothes after hunting, but his official birth Certificate states that he died of an acute attack of epilepsy and that at the time he was in the presence of Ann Elkington in the next village called Erdington. Perhaps his education in a small unit and the fact that he did not die at home may point to the fact that he was an epileptic, a fact which the family wished to keep hidden from the rest of the world. Perhaps it was this event and the fact that eight years later, Mary his wife died whilst on a holiday in Edinburgh, that encouraged George to contribute to the Building of St. Mary’s church at Selly Oak where in lie several memorials to his wife..

 

During the 1830s George Richards took his cousin Henry Elkington into his business with him. Henry was the son of John Elkington and Mary Russell. Like George Richards, when Henry Elkington left School, he was apprenticed to his uncle James Elkington who carried on the business of Gilt Toy and Spectacle maker in St. Paul's Square Birmingham.

Afterwards Henry set up his own business in Camden Street as a dealer in fictile wares and a caster of Bronze figures. In this latter capacity, he had the opportunity for developing his full artistic talents. So successful were his statues that his fame as a bronze caster spread throughout the country and he received many orders from far and near. The famous statues all over England which were executed by him are a permanent memorial to his work; they include the statue of the Knight of the Magna Carta in the House of Lords.

Henry eventually married Emma Elkington, the daughter of James Elkington and Lydia Richards. They were cousins sharing the same gt. grandfather. They had one son who sadly died in his fifth year. There were no more children and Henry left a considerable estate with after large donations to local hospitals and charity, left everything to his wife.
[Please refer to the Wills section].

 

Up to 1840, silver plated goods were made only by rolling and soldering thin sheets of Silver on Copper. This was a process which had been used in Sheffield for some years and was known as 'Sheffield Plate'. In 1840, John Wright, a Birmingham Surgeon, discovered what has since proved to be the best of all liquids for electro-plating - solutions of cyanides and of gold and silver in cyanide of potassium. The Elkingtons took out a patent embodying this process for which they paid John Wright [dec.1844] a royalty, and afterwards an annuity to his widow. They also bought a process invented by J.S.Woolwich in August 1842, depending on Farraday's discovery [1830] of magneto-electricity. In 1842, Josiah Mason, became a partner in the firm and the large Works in Newhall Street, Birmingham, were completed in 1841 and after seven years struggle against the opposition of the older systems, commercial success was attained.