John Hutchinson (industrialist)

John Hutchinson
John Hutchinson aged 28
Born	1825 Liverpool
Died	14 March 1865 Widnes, Lancashire
Residence	England
Nationality	English
Fields	Chemist
Known for	Alkali manufacture
Notes
Opened the first alkali factory in Widnes

John Hutchinson (1825 – 24 March 1865) was a chemist and industrialist who established the first chemical factory in Widnes, Lancashire, England. He moved from working in a chemical factory in St Helens and built his own chemical factory in 1847 in the Woodend area of Widnes near to Widnes Dock by the junction of the Sankey Canal and the River Mersey. In this factory he manufactured alkali by the Leblanc process.

He later opened a second alkali factory nearby and developed a number of other business interests. He died at the early age of 40 by which time a number of other chemical factories had opened in the town.

The Hutchinson family came from Durham but moved to Liverpool where John was born. His father, John, had held a commission in the Royal Navy and served under Nelson during the Napoleonic Wars. In Liverpool he was a shipbroker and he acted as a Lloyd's agent. Nothing is known of John junior's early education until he was a student in Paris where he met Andrew George Kurtz, the son of Andrew Kurtz who owned an alkali factory in St Helens. Hutchinson was subsequently given a post at this factory.

In 1847 Hutchinson, at the age of 22, obtained a lease of land in Widnes, where he established his first factory, Hutchinson's No 1 Works. This was built between the terminus of the Sankey Canal where it entered the River Mersey and the terminus of the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway where Widnes Dock, the first railway dock in the world, had been established. This area was later to form part of what was later known as Spike Island. By 1851 Hutchinson was employing 100 men. His first works manager was Henry Deacon but Deacon left to found his own alkali factory nearby in 1853. When Hutchinson arrived in Widnes there was plenty of available labour, partly because of the immigration of Irish unskilled men due to the potato famine.