John Cockerill (industrialist)

At the age of twelve, John Cockerill was brought to Verviers (subsequently part of Belgium) by his father William Cockerill, who was successful as a machine builder there. In 1807, aged 17, he and his brother Charles James Cockerill took over the management of a factory in Liege.{{Cite DNB|wstitle=Cockerill, William|volume=11|page=200}} Their father retired in 1813, leaving the management of his business to his sons.Chamber's Edinburgh Journal, Vol.8

In September 1813, he married Jeanne Frédérique Pastor, the same day her sister Caroline married Charles James Cockerill.{{Cite web|url=http://www.albrecht-blank.de/ahnenblan/pafg342.htm|title=Ausgewählte Familien und Personen|at=John COCKERILL|work=abrecht-blank.de|author=Dr. Albert Blank|language=German|access-date=2 September 2010|archive-date=7 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407083526/http://www.albrecht-blank.de/ahnenblan/pafg342.htm|url-status=dead}}

After the victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Prussian Minister of Finance, Peter Beuth, invited the Cockerill brothers to set up a woollens factory in Berlin.{{Cite book|title=Germany, 1789-1919: a political history|author=Agatha Ramm|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1981|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsIOAAAAQAAJ|pages=152–3|isbn=9780416339901}}{{Cite book|title=World economic primacy: 1500-1990|author=Charles Poor Kindleberger|publisher=Oxford University Press US|year=1996|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fa37GqGoW6EC|page=153|isbn=9780198025931}}

In 1814, the brothers bought the former palace of the Prince Bishops of Liege at Seraing.Industria: architecture industrielle en Belgique, pp.28-31 The chateau became the plant headquarters and the ground behind it the factory site{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jdQ_AAAAYAAJ|at=SERAING, p.172|title=A handbook for travellers on the continent: being a guide to Holland, Belgium, Prussia, northern Germany, and the Rhine from Holland to Switzerland.|publisher=John Murray|year=1860}} (founded 1817); it was to become a vertically integrated iron foundry and machine manufacturing factory. William I of the Netherlands was joint owner of the plant. A machine manufacturing plant was added in 1819, and in 1826 (begun 1823A dictionary, geographical, statistical, and historical, of the various countries, places, and principal natural objects in the world, p.159) a coke fired blast furnace. By 1840, the plant had sixteen steam engines producing total power {{convert|900|hp|kW|abbr=on}} in continual work and employed 3000 persons.

In 1823, his brother Charles James retired,{{Cite book|title=The Iwakura mission in America and Europe: a new assessment|author=Ian Hill Nish|publisher=Routledge|year=1998|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rFntG3WUvR4C|pages=103–5|isbn=9781873410844}} having been bought out by John in 1822.{{Cite book|title=A concise economic history of the world: from Paleolithic times to the present|author=Rondo E. Cameron|publisher=Oxford University Press US|year=1993|page=233}} After the Belgian Revolution of 1830, the new Kingdom of Belgium claimed the property of William I, and in 1835, John Cockerill made himself the sole owner of the works. He also was a founder of the Banque de Belgique, in 1835.{{Cite book|title=The Encyclopedia of world history: ancient, medieval, and modern, chronologically arranged|author=Peter N. Stearns|author2=William Leonard Langer|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MziRd4ddZz4C|at=1835 Bank of Belgium, p.451}}

File:Koning Willem I ontmoet de industrieel Cockerill, 1829, Jean-Louis Van Hemelryck, 1829 (cropped).jpg pictured with Cockerill in 1829 in the propaganda publication Les Rencontres historiques (1829-30). The original caption reads: "Continue without fear your great enterprises and remember that the King of the Netherlands always has money at the service of industry." Cockerill's chateau at Seraing is in the background.]]

During John Cockerill's lifetime, the factories produced not only spinning engines and steel, but steam engines (including air-blowers, traction engines, and engines for ships); in 1835, Belgium's first steam locomotive Le Belge was made.{{Cite web|url=http://www.tassignon.be/trains/Vapeur%20Belge/Vapeur_Belge.htm|title=La Construction des LOCOMOTIVES à VAPEUR en Belgique|language=French|work=tassignon.be}}{{Cite web|url=http://users.skynet.be/tintinpassion/VOIRSAVOIR/Locos/pages_Locos/06_Locos.html|title=1835. " Le Belge " des ateliers Cockerill|language=French|work=users.skynet.be|access-date=3 September 2010|archive-date=13 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013141228/http://users.skynet.be/tintinpassion/VOIRSAVOIR/Locos/pages_Locos/06_Locos.html|url-status=dead}} He also had interests in collieries and mines, as well as factories producing cloth, linen and paper.

In 1838/9, military tensions between Belgium and the Netherlands caused a rush on the banks for hard currency; as a result of the crisis, John Cockerill's company became bankrupt.{{Cite web|title=Central banking in 19th-century Belgium: was the NBB a lender of last resort?|author=Erik Buyst|author2=Ivo Maes|url=http://economix.u-paris10.fr/pdf/seminaires/H2S/Buyst.pdf|work=economix.u-paris10.fr|at=3.1. The crisis of 1838: the government comes to the rescue, pp.8-10}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} With debts of 26 million francs on assets of 15 million, he travelled to St. Petersburg to make arrangements with Nicholas I of Russia, with the hope of raising funds.The new American cyclopædia, Vol.5 , p.420 On his return, he contracted typhoid and died in Warsaw on 19 June 1840, leaving no heirs.

File:John Cockerill - statue and tomb.jpg]]

File:Belgique - Bruxelles - Monument à John Cockerill - 01.jpg on the Place du Luxembourg/Luxemburgplein in Brussels]]

On his death, he had a reputation as a humanitarian employer and as the founder of the Belgian manufacturing industry. His body was returned to Seraing in 1867, and a memorial was unveiled there in 1871.

His company became the Société pour l'Exploitation des Etablissements John Cockerill (1842) and later Societe Anonyme Cockerill-Ougree (1955).Société Anonyme John Cockerill, Albert Gieseler The steel-making activities of the firm continued through various mergers, eventually becoming part of Cockerill-Sambre in 1981; the Cockerill name was retained until a 1998 merger with Usinor. Some mechanical engineering activities continued as Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie, which was split off as a separate company in the late 20th century.

A monument to him and the industrial workers of Belgium stands in the centre of the Place du Luxembourg/Luxemburgplein in Brussels. On 1 February 2024, this monument was vandalised during a farmers' protest that took place in front of the European Parliament.{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Benedict |last2=Samuel |first2=Henry |last3=Barnes |first3=Joe |date=2024-02-01 |title=Farmers protest live: Angry farmers tear down statue of British industrialist outside EU parliament |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/01/french-farmer-tractor-protests-live-updates-paris-brussels/ |access-date=2024-02-01 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}{{Cite web |last=Times |first=The Brussels |title=Farmers topple statue from John Cockerill monument in Place du Luxembourg |url=https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/904547/farmers-topple-statue-from-john-cockerill-monument-in-place-du-luxembourg |access-date=2024-02-01 |website=www.brusselstimes.com |language=en}}

• Knight of the Order of Leopold.RD of 23.10.1836

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite journal|journal=Chambers's Edinburgh Journal|volume=8|author=Robert Chambers|author2=William Chambers|publisher=W. Orr|year=1840|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVUZAAAAYAAJ|title=The Cockerills|pages=165–166}}

:Similar biography also at either:

:*{{Cite journal|journal=Iron: An Illustrated Weekly Journal for Iron and Steel Manufacturers, Metallurgists, Mine Proprietors, Engineers, Shipbuilders, Scientists, Capitalists...|volume=31|year=1839|title=The Cockerills of Liege|pages=335–336|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2HI4AAAAMAAJ|last1=Nursey|first1=Perry Fairfax}}

:*{{Cite journal|journal=The Mechanics' Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal and Gazette|date=6 April – 28 September 1839|volume=31|title=The Cockerills of Liege|pages=335–336|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DBEFAAAAQAAJ}}

• {{Cite book|title=Industria: architecture industrielle en Belgique|author=Adriaan Linters|publisher=Mauad Editora Ltda|language=French, Dutch, English|year=1986|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTKgYgWoKtUC|isbn=9782870092842}}
• {{Cite web|url=http://www.albert-gieseler.de/dampf_de/firmen0/firmadet861.shtml|title=Société Anonyme John Cockerill|work=abert-gieseler.de|language=German|author=Albert Gieseler}}
• {{Cite book|title=A dictionary, geographical, statistical, and historical, of the various countries, places, and principal natural objects in the world|author=John Ramsay M'Culloch|year=1866|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zm0DAAAAQAAJ|at=Liege, pp.158-159}}
• {{Cite book|title=Pioneers for profit; foreign entrepreneurship and Russian industrialization, 1885-1913|author=John P. McKay|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJHxs-MtU2oC|chapter=9. A Pioneering Inventor: The John Cockerill Company in Southern Russia 1185-1905|pages=297–317|isbn=9780226559926}}
• {{Cite book|title=The new American cyclopædia: a popular dictionary of general knowledge|volume=5|author=George Ripley|author2=Charles Anderson Dana|publisher=D. Appleton|year=1869|at=COCKERILL John, p.420|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2AAoAAAAYAAJ}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Fremdling |first1=Rainer |title=John Cockerill: Pionierunternehmer der Belgische-Niederländische Industrialisierung |journal=Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte |date=1981 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=179–193 |doi=10.1515/zug-1981-0303 |s2cid=168721137 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zug-1981-0303/html |language=de |issn=2367-2293}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{Cite web|url=http://www.industriemuseen-emr.de/industrialisierung/metall/kapitel_1.html|title=Die Region Lüttich|language=German|work=industriemuseen-emr.de}}
• {{Cite web|url=http://www.erih.net/index.php?id=217&no_cache=1&user_biographie_pi1%5bshowUid%5d=6013&L=0|title=John Cockerill (1790-1840)|work=erih.net|publisher=European Route of Industrial Heritage}}
• {{in lang|en}} [https://www.hiddenmonuments.com/belgium/john-cockerill-monument-european-quarter Hidden Monuments: John Cockerill Monument in the European District].
• {{in lang|en}} [https://www.hiddenmonuments.com/belgium/john-cockerill-monument-seraing Hidden Monuments: John Cockerill Monument in Seraing].

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Category:1790 births

Category:1840 deaths

Category:People from Haslingden

Category:19th-century Belgian businesspeople

Category:English industrialists

Category:Manufacturing in Belgium

Category:Naturalised citizens of Belgium

Category:Cockerill Company (Belgium)

Category:Deaths from typhoid fever

Category:British emigrants to France

Category:19th-century English businesspeople

Category:Belgian industrialists