Jacob Chivers (1815-1883): a South Wales Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
© Graham Humphrys and Michael Williams
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Natural resources, indigenous and imported, were central to the industrial revolution in eighteenth century Wales. Much has been written about the availability of indigenous coal, iron ore, limestone and slate in north and south Wales. Copper, tin and other commercial metals were imported and stimulated the growth of industrial communities. Unless capital could be accessed and utilised skilfully, these resources would have been left unexploited. There emerged a new class of industrial entrepreneurs, a term that is used loosely to describe a variety of inventors, engineers, managers and speculators. Architectural icons such as Margam Castle, Cyfarthfa Castle, Castell Coch and Penrhyn Castle are reminders of the wealth accumulated from landownership and commerce and industrialism though it should be noted that these were generally migrants from places outside Wales. Though not as notable as Talbot, Crawshay, Bute and Pennant, Jacob Chivers, an Englishman, can be identified as a successful industrial entrepreneur who left his mark on several communities in south Wales.
Early life
Jacob Chivers was born on May 29th 1815 in the village of Ruardean, located in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. A stranger visiting this village today would find little to suggest that it played a prominent role in the industrial transformation of the Forest of Dean. It was never populous having grown from 845 residents in 1801 to 1,295 by 1881 and then declining to 1,096 in 1901.1 At the time of Jacob’s birth, Ruardean was experiencing a rapid growth in the iron industry and the details of the changes have been well documented.ii It is likely that his father would have been employed in this industry and, if so, it is probable that Jacob, having left school at an early age, would have followed him into this work.iii The Royal Commission that examined the employment conditions in 1842 in the coal mines of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire painted a picture of young children engaged in challenging environments and conditions would have been similar in the iron industry. This quotation from the Royal Commission speaks volumes:
“Grovelling in their habits, depressed in spirit, and without any stimulus to improvement, these poor boys passively take such work, and wages, as they can readily obtain and if they can satisfy the cravings of hunger, seem to abandon all expectation of anything further, beyond the most sordid covering for their nakedness, and a place of shelter and repose. Some of them will eagerly ask permission to work by night occasionally, as well as by day, for the sake of a small addition to their weekly pittance”. 4
There is nothing to suggest that similar working conditions did not characterise the metallurgical industries.
To Wales and Spain
Sometime in the 1830s he left the Forest of Dean and moved to south Wales. It is not clear where he first found employment but, on November 7th 1835, when he was aged twenty, he married Elizabeth Bright (1814-1880).i Jacob was employed at this time in the Margam Tin Works, as was his father-in-law, William Bright. The Margam Tin Works had been opened in 1822, replacing Lord Mansel’s forge. He did not stay long in Margam and he moved to Maesteg where he was employed as an engineer at the Llynfi Iron Works. Jacob’s son Thomas, was born in Maesteg in 1843.
Jacob was clearly ambitious and restless since he moved from south Wales to Spain where he bought a lead mine. Southern Spain has a long history of mining, especially of lead, silver and copper. From the 1840s there was a resurgence of mining activity in various parts of southern Spain. In one account, this mining boom refers to the Murcia region as the “Spanish California”.i In the twentieth century, this has attracted the interest of the UNESCO World History Convention that recorded,
“Following a long barren period lasting several centuries, the chance finding of a vein of argentiferous lead at Barranco Jaroso in 1839 sparked the “Silver fever” which lasted until the end of the 19th century and a period of decline which ultimately led to the closure of most of the mining sites during the first decades of the 20th century”.
Much has been written about the mining of lead and silver in nineteenth century Spain and Vernon has provided much detailed information, with helpful illustrations, of the mining landscapes of southern Spain. Helpfully, he has written in English while drawing on Spanish sources.i For our purposes, it is important to note that Jacob Chivers bought a lead mine located close to Cartagena, the city where his daughter Elizabeth was born in 1848. It has not been possible to trace the dates for the years he and his family spent in Spain.ii What is most important is that he became rich, enabling him to return to south Wales and the next stage of his career.
Kidwelly
It is recorded that in 1860 Jacob was living in Aberdare, where he had an interest in the Gadlys Uchaf Tinplate Works, and in that year he bought the Kidwelly Tin Works, initially helped by his brother Caleb who was engaged in chemical manufacturing in Carmarthen. 10 The population of Kidwelly at that time was 1,652 and the tin works was, clearly, an important employer.
There are three distinct facets of Jacob’s life in Kidwelly, tinplate mill owner, English Wesleyan Methodist, and local community leader.
In 1860 the Kidwelly Tin Works was requiring substantial investment following a period of neglect and under-investment. The Rev. D. Dafen Jones wrote an interesting History of Kidwelly in which he highlights the work of Jacob from 1860,
“Down to this time the machinery had been propelled by water power. Mr. Jacob Chivers was joined by Mr. Thomas Bright as a working partner, and it was under the auspices of this firm that that the first steam engine was put up at Kidwelly. The old Puddling and Balling Furnaces were now augmented with a charcoal forge, with hollow fires and a helve hammer, and two mills were added to the existing one…A coke forge, with steam hammer, was substituted for that of chsarcoal, and two mills were added, so that there were now altogether five mills”. 11
Morris has written detailed accounts of these circumstances. Using contemporary newspaper reports, he recounts the substantial changes that Jacob and his partner Bright, and later his son Thomas, had achieved,
“In 1867 the [Llanelly] Guardian reported that "Messrs. Chivers and Son have nearly completed the great additions which commenced some time ago". By 1874 there were three mills, two operated by steam, the other by water, a forge where cast-iron was converted into wrought-iron, and a tin house with eight tinning pots. Adjoining the tin house was a new block of buildings comprising a sorting room, store-room and offices”. 12
It is interesting to find that Thomas Bright was also born in Gloucestershire, three years after Jacob Chivers and had moved to the iron works in Carmarthen. In his detailed article and booklet, Morris records other industrial activities undertaken by Jacob both near Kidwelly and further afield. He refers to the Ffrwd colliery located in Pembrey and the Gladys Ucha Tinplate Works in Aberdare. The Yspitty Tin Works had been established near Loughor in 1869 and this attracted the attention of Jacob and his son Thomas. The Cambrian 13 reported in 1872,
“Messrs. Thomas Chivers and Son, of Kidwelly, have bought the lease and plant of these works [Yspitty Tin Works]. The Messrs. Chivers are men of substance, and judging from the energetic and liberal manner in which their business has been carried on at Kidwelly and elsewhere, it is confidently hoped that the Yspitty works will enter upon a course of prosperity, alike beneficial to the workmen and their employers and the locality. Messrs. Chivers, who are eminently practical men, have obtained a property second to none in advantages of position, and in the arrangements of the works for manufacturing purposes”. 14
“I am informed that the Yspitty Tin Works is about to change hand, the purchaser being a gentleman from near Ross, Herefordshire. Kidwelly works are still closed, and there are but slender hopes of an early start. Thus the Chivers family have practically ceased to be manufacturers of tinplates. I regret to state that much poverty prevails in the neighbourhood of Kidwelly”. 15
i South Wales Daily News. May 31st 1876, p.4.
This optimism was misplaced since a few years later this newspaper report appeared,
Loughor – Yspitty Works, The Cambrian, March 1st 1872, p.3.
Newspaper references have been drawn from the website of the National Library of Wales, Welsh Newspapers Online.
i W.H. Morris, Kidwelly Tin Works 1737 to 1914, Ref: kidwellyhistory.co.uk/Industry/TinWorks.htm
i D. Daven Jones (1908) A History of Kidwelly, Carmarthen, W. Spurrrell and Son.
i W.H. Morris (undated), Kidwelly Tin Works 1737 to 1914, Ref: kidwelly history
[Accessed 26 October 2022].
W.H. Morris (1990) Kidwelly Tinplate Works, published by the author.
i R,W.Vernon (2009a) Linares, Spain – The British Contribution to the Landscape, Proceedings of the NAMHO 2009 Mining History Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society, Vol. 17, No.4.
R.W.Vernon (2009b) The Linares Mining District: The English Connection, De Re Metallica, 13, Madrid: Sociedad Espanola para la Defense del Patrimonio Geologici y Minero.
R.W.Vernon (2015) Lead Mining Landscapes of Southern Spain, Mining History Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society, Vol. 19, No, 3, 43-51.
ii
Minas de plomo en Cartegena, Ref: isaiaswhitedesevilla.blogspot.com [Accessed 26 October 2022].
i Ref: whc.unesco.org
[Accessed 26 October 2022].
i History of the Union, Murcia Regional website, ReF: regmurcia.com/servlet/s.Sl?sit=a,59,c,373,m,1871&r=ReP-5203-DETALLE_REPORTAJESPADRE [Accessed 26 October 2022].
Jacob was clearly ambitious and restless since he moved from south Wales to Spain where he bought a lead mine. Southern Spain has a long history of mining, especially of lead, silver and copper. From the 1840s there was a resurgence of mining activity in various parts of southern Spain. In one account, this mining boom refers to the Murcia region as the “Spanish California”.i In the twentieth century, this has attracted the interest of the UNESCO World History Convention that recorded,
i History of the Union, Murcia Regional website, https://www.regmurcia.com/servlet/s.Sl?sit=a,59,c,373,m,1871&r=ReP-5203-DETALLE_REPORTAJESPADRE [Accessed 26 October 2022].
i Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Brecon Gazette, Saturday 14 November 1835.
1 A. P. Baggs and A. R. J. Jurica (1996), 'Ruardean', in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5, Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, the Forest of Dean, ed. C R J Currie and N M Herbert (London, 1996), pp. 231-247. Ref: British History Online [accessed 16 September 2022].
There is nothing to suggest that similar working conditions did not characterise the metallurgical industries.
2 A. P. Baggs and A. R. J. Jurica (1996), 'Ruardean', in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5, Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, the Forest of Dean, ed. C R J Currie and N M Herbert (London, 1996), pp. 231-247. Ref: British History Online [accessed 16 September 2022].
3 Children’s Employment Commission 1842. Report by Elijah Waring, Esq., on the Employment of Children and Young Persons in the Collieries of South Gloucestershire and on the State, Condition, and Treatment of such Children and Young Persons ( Children's Employment Commission 1842 .PDF) [Accessed 26 October 2022].