George Sitwell JP (–1667), was a 17th-century landowner and

ironmaster An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain. The ironmaster was usually a larg ...

. He built

Renishaw Hall Renishaw Hall is a country house in Renishaw in the parish of Eckington in Derbyshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building and has been the home of the Sitwell family for nearly 400 years. The hall is southeast of Sheffield, and north of ...

in Derbyshire in 1626. His company mined, forged, and rolled iron for use in Britain and overseas. It exported a complete

rolling mill In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simi ...

to the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

Early life

Sitwell was born at Eckington in Derbyshire and baptized there on 15 March 1601. He was the eldest son of George Sitwell (1569–1607) and Mary ( Walker) Sitwell. When George was six, his father died, and later he attended

Derby School Derby School was a school in Derby in the English Midlands from 1160 to 1989. It had an almost continuous history of education of over eight centuries. For most of that time it was a grammar school for boys. The school became co-educational a ...

.The Derby School Register
1570-1901'', ed. Benjamin Tacchella (London, 1902) The Sitwells were freeholders who acquired land in and around Eckington and became gentry.

Career

Sitwell became a Justice of the Peace, served as

High Sheriff of Derbyshire This is a list of Sheriffs of Derbyshire from 1567 until 1974 and High Sheriffs since. The ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around ...

in 1653 and was granted arms in 1660.''The History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby'' Vol 1 (1831) Stephen Glover. Appendix p 11 Charles I. Google Books Sitwell exploited the mineral wealth beneath his estate, some coal but chiefly iron ore, and built a

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

in partnership with his mother's second husband, Henry Wigfall, at Plumbley a mile north west of Eckington in the 1630s. In 1652 Sitwell built a furnace at Foxbrooke close to Renishaw, which became the core of the largest

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...

in Derbyshire. Sitwell made saws at Pleasley and in 1656, installed a

rolling Rolling is a Motion (physics)#Types of motion, type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an Axial symmetry, axially symmetric object) and Translation (geometry), translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the ot ...

and

slitting mill Slitting Mill is a small village on the outskirts of Rugeley, Staffordshire. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 265. The village is within Rugeley civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish use ...

at Renishaw to supply the rod iron used by numerous local nailmakers and

scythe A scythe (, rhyming with ''writhe'') is an agriculture, agricultural hand-tool for mowing grass or Harvest, harvesting Crop, crops. It was historically used to cut down or reaping, reap edible grain, grains before they underwent the process of ...

and sickle makers. Sitwell was closely involved in the operation of his works which produced

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

and

bar iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

, castings, nails, saws and other goods for sale to tradesmen around Eckington and in London where he sent iron via the

River Idle The River Idle is a river in Nottinghamshire, England, formed by the confluence of the River Maun and the River Meden near Markham Moor. It flows north from its source through Retford and Bawtry before joining the River Trent at West Stockwi ...

from

Bawtry Bawtry is a market town and civil parish in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. It lies south-east of Doncaster, west of Gainsborough and north-west of Retford, on the border with Nottinghamshire and close to Lincolnshire. ...

and by road. His works built a rolling mill for export to the West Indies. Sitwell regularly visited London to supervise sales of his products.George Sitwell's Letterbook 1662–66
, Derbyshire Record Society, accessed March 2010

Personal life

On 2 August 1667, Sitwell married Margaret Childers of Carr House, near Doncaster.

was built for Sitwell in 1626 was the centre of his estate. Together, they were the parents of seven children. His eldest son continued his business at Renishaw and two other sons became iron merchants. In the 1690s the works were leased and though the Sitwells retained management of their collieries until the mid-18th century they accumulated wealth as landowners from the industrial enterprises on the estate. Sitwell died in 1667 and was buried at Eckington. His memorial is in

St Peter and St Paul's Church, Eckington St Peter and St Paul's Church, Eckington is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Eckington, Derbyshire. History The church dates from the 12th century with elements from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The south aisle p ...

Legacy

The Sitwell family became

baronets A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 1 ...

and George Sitwell's descendants,

Osbert Osbert is a male Germanic given name and a surname, composed of the elements '' ans/os'' "god", and ''berht'' "bright". It may refer to: Given name Pre-modern era *Osbert or Osberht of Northumbria (died 867), King of Northumbria *Osbert or ...

Edith Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English word , meaning ''wealth'' or ''prosperity'', in combination with the Old English , meaning ''wiktionary:strife, strife'', and is in common usage in this form in English language, Englis ...

and

Sacheverell Sitwell Sir Sacheverell Reresby Sitwell, 6th Baronet, (; 15 November 1897 – 1 October 1988) was an English writer, particularly on baroque architecture, and an art and music critic. Sitwell produced some 50 volumes of poetry and some 50 works o ...

were members of the

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

in the 20th century. The family still own Renishaw Hall, although it is no longer owned by the Sitwell baronet.Resresby Sitwell
Obituary, ''Daily Telegraph'', accessed March 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sitwell, George 1600s births 1667 deaths Year of birth uncertain English ironmasters People from Derbyshire High sheriffs of Derbyshire People educated at Derby School

George George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...