Crawshay, George, 1821-1896.

Person

Crawshay, George, 1821-1896.

George Crawshay, ironmaster and politician, was born in London, the son of George Crawshay, iron merchant (1794-1873), and grandson of the south Wales 'Iron King' William Crawshay (1764-1834). The family of Crawshay's mother, Josephe Louise Dufaud (1802-1883), owned the largest ironworks in France, at Fourchambault. Crawshay was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and, although he did not graduate, subsequently entered the Inner Temple. However, the death of his brother-in-law, Francis William Stanley, obliged Crawshay and his younger brother Edmund to take over the management of the Hawks, Stanley & Co. ironworks at Gateshead. By the mid-1840s the factory had become the largest ironworks on Tyneside, employing over a thousand workers and producing a vast range of iron goods, many of which were exported to India and the Far East. Crawshay was also prominent in both local and wider-ranging social and political issues. He was elected town councillor for West Gateshead in 1854 and served as mayor three times, in 1856, 1859 and 1863. A Radical and Dissenter who advocated religious tolerance, he was very much involved in the Anti-Corn-Law League, the Chartist movement and foreign nationalist issues, including the oppression of the Turkish people during the 1870s. In 1889, disaster struck Crawshay when the 'New Greenwich' ironworks of Hawks, Crawshay & Sons at Gateshead suddenly closed amid accusations of neglect and incompetency - claims which were never fully verified. Crawshay retired to his daughter Florence's home in Sussex, where he died leaving an estate of just £25. George Crawshay was a man of eclectic interests, an able scientist and mathematician, with a flair for foreign languages. He also demonstrated literary talents in poetry, prose and drama: his semi-autobiographical romance A Silver Shape (see note under 581, below) was finally published in 1980. In 1847 George Crawshay married Elizabeth Fife (1826-1889), daughter of surgeon and prominent Tyneside politician Sir John Fife (1795-1871). Their daughter, Florence (1849-1936), married James Kennedy Esdaile (d. 1918).

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