Henry Peto

Henry Peto (1780-1830) was a British building contractor and uncle to Thomas Grissell and Morton Peto.

Henry Peto (1780 - 1830) was in partnership with another building contractor, John Miles, as Miles and Peto.

Thomas Grissell (1801 - 1874) had been apprenticed to his uncle, Henry Peto in 1815. About the time Miles died, in 1825 Grissell was invited into the partnership.

Samuel Morton Peto (1809 - 1889), normally known as Morton Peto, had also been apprenticed at age 14 to his uncle, Henry Peto, with his apprenticeship finishing soon after his 21st birthday and a short time before Henry Peto died.

Henry Peto was considered strict with his nephews.

Others besides the nephew were objects of Henry Peto's kindness. One day Henry Peto asked William Woods (an old waiter at his favourite lunch-time dining room, the Rainbow Chophouse in Fleet Street) whether he would like to keep a hotel. Woods replied there was nothing he would like better, but that he could not afford it. Henry Peto installed Woods at a hotel in Furnival's Inn which he had just built and which he owned. Woods Hotel was so successful that William Woods retired with pension savings of £180,000. (equivalent to £15,170,000 in 2015).

Miles and Peto had tendered to rebuild the Custom House in the City of London. The original estimate hade been for £209,000 but Miles and Peto won the contract by giving the lowest tender at £165,000.

John Miles died in the early stages of construction, leaving Peto to deal with the difficulties. To cut costs Peto dramatically reduced the specification of the work he undertook with the outcome that part of the building collapsed. The ensuing investigation found the true extend of the poor workmanship, prompting questions in Parliament in 1825. The Chancellor of the Exchequer declared the most scandalous frauds had been practised. Peto wes censured for neglect and poor workmanship that a good builder would carefully have avoided.

The stress of the Customs House contract lead to the death of Henry Peto on 15 September 1830.

Although he left a considerable estate, with income of about £12,000 per annum, there were mortgages of between £7,000 and £8,000 per annum and some annuities (i.e. pensions) of about £3,000 per annum, leaving only a small balance. There was also a continuing lawsuit regarding the Customs House. In his will he left his building business to his two nephews, Thomas Grissell and Morton Peto.

The will was contested by Henry's widow on the grounds of undue influence by the two nephews as they and the solicitor were the only people present when Henry signed the will just a few days before his death. Henry's widow eventually lost in the courts and the two nephews, now in partnership as Grissell and Peto were free to begin building up the business.

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