Sir George Elliot, 1st Baronet

Sir George Elliot 1st Baronet, MP, JP
"Geordie": Elliot as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, November 1879
Born	18 March 1814 Gateshead, England
Died	23 December 1893 (aged 79)
Resting place	Houghton Hillside Cemetery
Occupation	Businessman Member of Parliament
Organization	Conservative Party
Known for	Philanthropy
Children	Sir George Elliot, 2nd Baronet, MP

Sir George Elliot, 1st Baronet, JP (18 March 1814 – 23 December 1893) was a self-made businessman from Gateshead in the North-East of England. A colliery labourer who went on to own several coal mines, he later bought a wire rope manufacturing company which manufactured the first Transatlantic telegraph cable. He was also a Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP).

Early life

Elliot was born in Gateshead, the eldest son of Ralph Elliot, a coal miner. He started work at the age of 9 as a trapper boy at Whitefield Pit, Penshaw, and eventually owned this colliery later in his life.

Business developments

In 1840 Elliot entered into a partnership and purchased Washington Colliery. In 1849, he purchased Kuper & Co, wire rope and telegraph cable manufacturer and formed a partnership with Richard Atwood Glass. Elliot purchased Whitefield Colliery, where he had worked as a boy in 1864 and in 1866 Elliot & Glass's Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company laid the first Atlantic cable. In 1868 he was president of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers.^[1] In the 1870s he further developed the West Cliff area of Whitby and had a house called "The Crescent" built there.^[2]

Political career

At the 1868 general election, Elliot was elected Member of Parliament for North Durham.^[3] In 1873, with William Hunter of Sandhoe, he opened Kimblesworth Colliery. He lost his seat at Durham at the 1874 general election but regained it later in the year. He was created a baronet on 15 May 1874 in recognition of his work for public services. He advised Benjamin Disraeli to invest in the Suez Canal, which provided a faster shipping route to India. He was a financial advisor to the Egyptian Khedive (the viceroy under the Ottomans), and also received an honour from the King of Portugal – the grand cross of the military order of Our Lady of Villa Viciosa. As an MP made arrangements for the new tongue of Big Ben, in Westminster, London, to be forged at Hopper’s Iron Foundry in Houghton-le-Spring.

In 1874/5 he was president of Durham University Society and in 1876 he was Provincial Grand Master of the Freemasons in South Wales. In 1877 Elliot donated the 130 foot tall tower and spire of St Mary’s Church, West Rainton, in memory of his daughter, Elizabeth, and in 1878 he erected a stone tomb in the churchyard of All Saints’ Church, Penshaw to his father, mother and brothers and also to his son Ralph Elliot who had died in 1873 aged 35 at the Cape of Good Hope.

In 1880 Elliot lost his seat at North Durham but regained it in a by-election in 1881. In 1882 he purchased land in Aberamman as a gift in memory of his wife and daughter Elizabeth. Work commenced on the construction of St Margaret’s Church and it was completed in 1883. In 1883 Elliot was president of the Association of Mining Engineers. In 1885 the North Durham constituency was reorganised under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 and at the 1886 general election Elliot was elected MP for Monmouth Boroughs. He held the seat until 1892.^[4]

Elliot established the Elliot Home for Seamen, in Temple Street, Newport, Monmouthshire in 1886, and in 1889 donated the stained glass window of the Baptism, Resurrection and Ascension to All Saint’s Church, Penshaw, in memory of his brothers and son. Elliot was visited at his residence at the Royal Crescent in Whitby by Bram Stoker. Elliot owned an Egyptian princess mummy and which may have inspired Stoker to write the Jewel of the Seven Stars, a horror novel, in 1903.

Elliot worked on a plan to amalgamate the all the coalfields of Great Britain. He proposed that, to improve the working conditions of the miners, a proportion of the coal industry profits should be paid into a fund for retired miners.

Elliot died at the age of 79 and was buried at Houghton Hillside Cemetery on 28 December 1893.

George Hudson

When George Hudson was arrested for his debts in 1865 and imprisoned in York Prison it was Elliot who paid off the debt to enable his release.^[5]

Elliot and Hugh Taylor (MP) were both friends of the Railway King George Hudson. By 1871 Hudson was deeply in debt, in bad health and living in exile so Taylor and Elliot started a subscription fund which they launched with donation of 100 Guineas each. When this closed it was converted into a trust fund (legally protected from Hudson's creditors) and provided Hudson with an income.^[6]

Family

Elliot married Margaret Green of Shiney Row in 1836. Their son George was MP for Northallerton and Richmond and succeeded to the baronetcy.

References

1. Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers Volume XVII 1868 page xiii
2. Bailey, Brian (1995). George Hudson - the rise and fall of the Railway King. Stroud UK: Alan Sutton Publishing Limited. p. 171. ISBN 0 7509 0493 3.
3. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 2)
4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "M" (part 3)
5. Beaumont, Robert (2003). The Railway King. London: Headline. p. 192. ISBN 0 7472 3236 9.
6. Beaumont, Robert (2003). The Railway King. London: Headline. pp. 195–200. ISBN 0 7472 3236 9.

Sources

• Lanagan, Paul; (2004). Houghton Hillside Cemetery Guide Book & Map, Houghton-le-Spring. ISBN 978-0-9543253-5-0
• Rushford, Frank H; (1950). Houghton-le-Spring: A History, Durham

External links

• Sir George Elliot Atlantic Cable Pioneer
• The Elliot Baronets' Vault at Houghton-le-Spring Hillside Cemetery
• George Elliot's home at Houghton Hall
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Sir George Elliot