John Vaughan (Ironmaster)
| John Vaughan | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
December 21, 1799 Worcester |
| Died | 16 September 1868 (aged 68) London |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Ironmaster |
| Employer | Bolckow Vaughan |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Eleanor Downing (2) Widow Ann Mills Hughes, previously Brown, nee Poole |
| Children | (1) John, Joseph, Thomas, John (2) Adopted Ann Poole's children Ann Jane, Mary Ann, William |
| Parent(s) | John, Mary |
John Vaughan, known as Jacky, was born in Worcester on "St Thomas' Day" in 1799, the son of Welsh parents. He worked his way up the iron industry, becoming an ironmaster and co-founder of the largest of all the Victorian iron and steel companies, Bolckow Vaughan. Where Henry Bolckow provided the investment and business expertise, Vaughan contributed technical knowledge, in a long-lasting and successful partnership that transformed Middlesbrough from a small town to the centre of ironmaking in Britain.
Vaughan is best known for his discovery of Ironstone in the Cleveland Hills, on an exploratory walk with his mining engineer, John Marley in June 1850.
Vaughan began his working life, like his father before him, at Sir John Guest's Dowlais Ironworks in South Wales. His first job "at an early age" was in the scrap mill; from there, he became a puddler, then a furnaceman, then foreman.
After Dowlais, he worked in Staffordshire, then Carlisle as factory manager, then Walker-on-Tyne near Newcastle where he became the works manager for the Losh, Wilson and Bell Ironworks. While doing business in Newcastle, he met Henry Bolckow, who at that time was a corn merchant looking to get into the iron business.
In 1839, Bolckow and Vaughan decided to form a business partnership. They looked at Stockton, on the pioneering , as it had good communications, but could not find a suitable site for an ironworks. However, the railway had run to Middlesbrough since 1833, and the partners started their Ironworks there on a cheap plot of land, most of which flooded at high tide. Their iron ore consisted of iron nodules in the coal measures, or of imported hematite. As this was limiting their growth and profitability, they decided to make their own pig-iron.
In 1846 they built blast furnaces at Witton Park, County Durham for smelting iron ore; the Stockton and Darlington Railway, seeking to exploit the coal and iron trade, was conveniently extended past Witton to several of the Durham collieries; limestone could arrive from Stanhope, and coke from Crook, so the site appeared ideal.
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