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- John
Brogden & Sons of Manchester
- Brogdens
in Oxfordshire
- Brogdens
in Yorkshire
- Brogdens
in Lancashire
-
Brogdens in London
- Brogdens
in New Zealand
- Brogdens
in the USA
- Australian
Brogdens
- Brogdens
in Canada
- Norfolk
Brogdens
-
Lincolnshire Brogdens
- Warwickshire
Brogdens
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John
Brogden & Sons of Manchester
The story
of John Brogden (1798 – 1869) is of an energetic entrepreneur
who progressed from being the son of a Lancashire farmer (who himself
progressed from tenant farming to owner-occupancy) via horse breeding,
street cleaning contracts in Manchester and London (using a patent machine),
constructing and promoting railways, mining and iron production in Staffordshire,
Bristol and South Wales, other civil engineering projects at home and
abroad (including Holland, Australia, South America and New Zealand)
and forming in 1846 a trading partnership with several of his sons that
was very successful for several years. All this was achieved without
formal training as an engineer although he did receive grammar schooling
in Clitheroe. He seems to have had the knack of choosing his workers
well and of being well trusted by his backers. Smiles (1872) writes
of his energy, drive and daring. Even allowing for Smiles’ Victorian
hyperbole, John Brogden’s funding and construction of the Ulverston
to Lancaster railway with its difficult route around Morecambe Bay (a
project which even the great George Stephenson contemplated but did
not proceed with) marks a high point in his career. It enabled his own
iron ore to be transported more easily from Barrow and paved the way
for Barrow’s prosperity. John Brogden’s is not quite a rags
to riches story but it is a remarkable one, never-the-less.
John’s
death in 1869 preceded the company’s decline in fortunes but the
high levels of borrowing to finance expansion began to be problematic
when the expected profits from the New Zealand enterprises, the depression
in the iron and coal industries and expensive litigation, some within
the family itself, took their toll. In fact, cash flow may already have
become a problem before John’s death as his will provided for
delays in the payments of his daughters’ inheritances for five
years. In the event, the younger daughter had to sue the brothers to
gain her dues.
John’s
second son, Alexander (JP; MP) had become company chairman. By 1878
the South Wales interests were in receivership; the company was dissolved
in 1880 and two of the sons filed for bankruptcy in 1884. Fourth son
James rescued the Brogden’s reputation in South Wales after the
bankruptcy by continuing to work with his wife Mary on the development
of Porthcawl as a port and town. The Brogdens are remembered fondly
in the area, including in street names and the Brogden Hotel. There
are also commemorative street names in the Manchester area, such as
Brogden Grove in Sale.
The fifth
son, George, being too young to join the partnership when it was established,
later made his own way as a successful civil engineer and colliery owner
and was thus not drawn into his brothers’ downfall.
John Brogden
had seven grandchildren and four of these were males to carry the surname
forward. It has not yet proved possible to find any male great-grandchildren.
Grandson *Arthur John seems to have had no children;
James had a daughter, Edith; **Duncan Dunbar, who spent a few years
in the army in India and died relatively young, appears not to have
married; George Alexander who became a family doctor in Southampton
married Grace Elizabeth but it is not known if they had any children.
For the moment, it would appear that the branch of the Brogdens that
produced John Brogden and his enterprising sons, had run out of male
heirs by the end of the 1930s.
Of the
female lines, little is currently known, other than through the descendants
of Samuel Budgett who married John Brogden’s elder daughter, Sarah
Hannah. His agreement to act as a trustee to John Brogden’s will
brought him financial disaster. His descendant, David A Budgett and
David’s cousin, Robin E Brogden Budgett, have maintained a strong
interest in the John Brogden history.
Currently
under preparation and awaiting archeological exploration (and thus only
open at present to pre-arraged visitors) is PARC TONDU, where
John Brogden's ironworks near Porthcawl in South Wales can be seen.
The lift, engine houses, coke ovens, kilns, blast stoves and furnaces,
rolling mills and offices are available to view as part of a guided
tour. It is planned for the site to be fully open to visitors. Parc
Tondu is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Phone 01656 727810 or email tonduironworks@groundworkbnpt.com to arrange
a visit.
*
The 1881 Census lists Arthur John as a landowner, living at 13 Hereford
Square, London with his wife and three staff. Tom Metcalfe's memoire
says that “After the “great loss of money, Arthur took to
the church.” Alumni Cantabrigienses notes that he was ordained
Deacon in 1883 and Priest in 1884 at the church of St Barnabas, Cambridge.
He died a year later, aged only 31. The Furness Masons website (www.FurnessMasons.org)
describes Arthur John as a founder member of the Grange-over-Sands Lodge
which is named after him and where hangs a portrait donated by a fellow
mason in 1916. He had been a mason whilst at Cambridge. Arthur John
nominated his uncle, Alexander, to be a member in 1877. Alexander resigned
in 1879 and Arthur John in 1882. It is not known if Arthur John had
any children. Click
here to see the photo.
Many
thanks to John Martin for calling attention to the link with the Masons
and for supplying the photograph and to the Lodge Committee for their
permission to add the photo to this website
**For a photo of Duncan
Dunbar Brogden, taken in 1886 with a group of fellow officers
of the 2nd Royal Sussex Regiment, possibly in India, please click
here.
This photo is reproduced
by kind permission of the County Archivist, West Sussex Record Office
(Ref: RSR PH 2/10).
Updated
24/05/2008
Further
articles on John Brogden and his family to be found in this website:
Click on
the title to view the article
*Adobe
Acrobat Reader required for his article. To download a free copy,
go to:
www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
This
will take a few minutes to load but the Reader will enable you to
view other documents on this website that use the format.
See also the
article on John Brogden & Sons in www.wikipedia.org (compiled
and contributed by his descendant, David Budgett)
Updated 08/11/2007
Brogdens
in Oxfordshire
Our study
of the Brogdens began with the Oxfordshire Brogdens and their descendents.
The big, unanswered question is whether they were direct migrants from
Yorkshire where the name originated or whether the Oxfordshire Brogdens
have a different ancestry. Much further work needs to be done to trace
the name before it appears in the Bampton, Oxfordshire, church records
in 1709 and the Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, church records in 1710.
The Stanton Harcourt registers refer to a George Brog(den)'s death in
1740. Perhaps it was the same George who married Elizabeth Brown in
Bampton on 1 October 1709. This George is the first recorded Brogden
to be found in Oxfordshire (so far) - assuming George Brog was a Brogden.
Did his parents live in the area or did he move here, perhaps at the
time of his marriage?
The Stanton
Harcourt church records go back to 1566 but the first mention of George
is the birth of a daughter, Mary, in 1710. It is not clear whether the
George who died in 1740 was the father or the son who was born in 1719.
The records do not tell us. Another question is raised by the record
that Elizabeth Brogden ("wife of George") died in 1718. Elizabeth
Brown married George the elder in 1709 so this is most likely the Elizabeth
who died in 1718 - but, if this is the case, who was the mother of George
the younger (1719), Richard (born 1721 and from whom all subsequent
Oxfordshire Brogdens seem to descend, Hannah (1723) and Benjamin (1726)?
We do know that George was a blacksmith, a trade that would have been
much in demand on the Stanton Harcourt estate, but where was he employed?
Several
hundred Brogden descendents of George have been found, not only in records
in Oxfordshire and neighbouring counties in England but also in New
Zealand, Australia and the USA.
One theory
is that George came from neighbouring Warwickshire where Brogdens are
found in various records that pre-date the Oxfordshire Brogden records
- see, for example, the information on Edward
Brogden in this website, who was a Member of Parliament in the 1550s.
A discovery
in the Warwickshire County Record Office database (see www.a2a.pro.gov.uk)
is that a John Brogden of Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire, received a quitclaim
(renunciation of any claim against a right to land) from Thomas Denton
of Besselsleigh on 28 March 1547. Besselsleigh was then in Berkshire
but now in Oxfordshire and is close to the area in which the Oxfordshire
Brogdens flourished. This may be a simple co-incidence but Warwickshire
borders Oxfordshire and there are other intriguing references in the
database to Brogdens in the Warwickshire area: Thomas Brogden, a draper,
in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1574; Sir John Brogden, minister, who won
a dispute with King Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries
and had property reinstated; Edward Brogden, "gent" (of Worcester,
who may be related to the MP mentioned above) in 1547. A visit to the
Warwickshire record Office is called for.
Further
articles on the Oxfordshire Brogdens to be found in this website:
Click on
the title to view the article:
Brogdens
in New Zealand
Many of
the New Zealand Brogdens are related to emigrants from Oxfordshire but
others came from various places in the UK. See the Oxfordshire Brogdens
Family Tree for NZ connections. The railway contractor, John Brogden
& Sons, built some railways in New Zealand but lost money in the
process. His efforts to ship railway labourers to NZ are described in
"The Brogden Navvies" in the links below.
Articles
on the New Zealand Brogdens to be found in this website:
Click on
the title to view the article
Link to "The Farthest Promised Land:"
For
a website transcript of Rollo Arnold's book, "The Farthest Promised
Land - English villagers, New Zealand Immigrants of the 1870s"
published in 1981 and now out of print, click on the link below. This
book has the chapter on the Brogden Navvies which is summarised in the
article above (see John Brogden and Sons of Manchester). Rollo Arnold
also includes a reference to John Bragden, an immigrant
to NZ from Oxfordshire. This is in fact John Brogden,
a member of the Oxfordshire branch and not directly related to John
Brogden of Manchester.
www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-ArnFart.html
Brogdens
in the USA
There were
no Brogdens on the Mayflower but plenty of Brogdens from various parts
of England found their way to America on other ships. Most of the Brogden
contacts in the USA have been unable to trace records of the arrival
of their ancestors but some are able to pinpoint their roots in England.
Some spell the name with DEN and about as many use DON.
One group
of contacts has been pooling their researches, although the various
branches of Brogdens/dons do not always fit together. They have produced
a large collection of information and memories. The first reference
in the list below holds examples from some of their researches, reproduced
with their kind permission. To make contact with the research, email
Bill Brogdon in
the USA. Their website is at www.genealogy.com/users/b/r/o/Khatrain-Brogdon
Articles
on the Brogdens in the USA to be found in this website:
Click on
the title to view the article
Australian
Brogdens