Person:Charles Binns (6)

RELIGION: Christian - Religious Society of Friends

BIRTH: By interpolation from item below - 1813 [or very early 1814]

DEATH Article in Lancashire Guardian for 8th April, 1911, Old Time Worthies No. 59, gives 12 Jan 1887, aged 73 at Clay Cross Hall.

OCCUPATION: Company Secretary [to George Stephenson - see below]George Stephenson and Company of Clay Cross, Derbyshire Clay Cross CompanyFILE [no title] - ref. IMS 454/2 - date: 25 March 1847|_ [from Scope and Content] Cheque for £5, drawn on Messrs James and George Robinson and Company, Bankers of Chesterfield, fort the Midland Railway Company. Signed by Charles Binns for the Clay Cross Company 2p., manuscript and printed.

Manager of the limeworks at Ambergate, Derbyshire, England. 1881 - Manager of Clay Cross Iron Works, Derbyshire, England.George Stephenson and Company of Clay Cross, Derbyshire, England.

RESIDENCES: 1813 - (from birth) Leach House, Nr Lancaster, Lancashire, England. 1881 - The Hale Market Street, Clay Cross, Derbyshire, England. 1887 - (at death) Clay Cross Hall, Clay Cross, Derbyshire, England.

DOMESTIC_SERVANTS: (1881 Census) Hannah Marsden, cook, 29, of Bakewell, Derbyshire, England. Elizabeth Pichard (sic), housemaid, 26, of Tamworth, Stafford, England. Rose Shepherd, parlour maid, 33, of Stableford, Staffod, England.

BIOGRAPHY: Charles Binns (1813-1887) was a member of the Liverpool Branch of the Quaker Binns (with a seventeenth century origin at Clough Hey on the moors west of Keighley). His grandfather Jonathan II (1747-1818] practised medicine in Liverpool from 1781-1794, then became Supervisor of Ackworth [Quaker] School in Yorkshire until 1804. Retiring to Lancaster, he died there in 1812 and is buried in the yard of the Friends' Meeting House. Jonathan III (1785-1871), the father of Charles, was a land surveyor, who made a survey of Lancashire published in 1824, and wrote books on agricultural topics. Surveyors, the Quakers and Railways are topics which are closely linked, so that it is not perhaps so surprising that Charles came into contact with George Stephenson, the great railway engineer, and was engaged as his private secretary. Stephenson settled in Chesterfield (Tapton Hall) in 1838 intent on developing the mineral resources of the area. In 1837, together with his son Robert, Joshua Walmsley MP (Charles's father-in-law), George Hudson (The Railway King) and others, he established George Stephenson & Co., and Charles Binns was appointed the General Manager, a post which he held until his retirement on ill-health grounds in 1884. While Charles does not seem to have 'practised' as a Quaker, certainly his family connections with the Friends seem to have made him a 'good' employer, by Victorian standards, being especially keen to develop educational facilities for the Clay Cross area. The reverse of the coin was that in 1872 Charles announced that the assistance the Company gave to the employees and their families would be withdrawn should the men be so presumptuous as to found or join a trade union. During Charles's time as GM, the Clay Cross Company, as it was renamed, flourished, and when he died in 1887, he was a wealthy man. His assets were mainly placed in a trust for the benefit of his wife and three surviving daughters - there had been four daughters originally, but no sons. The trust was still in existence at least as late as 1931, paying out its income as prescribed by Charles in his will.

CONFLICT: 1881 Census gives residence as Beach House (spelling error).

MISCELLANEOUS_NOTES: Reference is made to Charles Binns in 'George and RobertStephenson' by L.T.C. Rolt and gives the background to the limestone enterprise. There is also reference to James Cropper,a relative - who also was an implacable enemy of the Stephensons.

INITIAL_SOURCE: Leicester.

1. ↑ ? Arthur Chamney Leicester. An Account of the Family of the Binns from 1663 (Leicester Document). (Unpublished Family Tree).
2. ↑ Public Records Office. 1881 British Census Transcript. (Electronic transcript to CD by LDS)
   FHL Film 1341819 PRO Ref RG11 Piece 4327 Folio 108 Page 1.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 T. Cann Hughes, MA, FSA of Lancaster. A Lancaster Literary Family. (The Manchester Literary Club Papers 1932)
   p.226.
4.   Joseph John Binns (1839-1922). An Account of the Family of the Binns from 1663 (Sunderland document). (Largely collected materials from Friends' Registers)
   Line 8, pp 43-44.
5.   Quaker Newsletter Transcript (original title to be discovered). (Biographical notes.).