Talk:Anthony Bessemer

Moved from Blythwood

Starting with the pseudonym point-can very well believe it (or at least that his name was spelled differently), but in 1795 he sold a font to the Enschedé type foundry in the Netherlands while he was working in Paris, and they reproduced this in a history in 1908, Charles Enschede’s 1908 Fonderies de caracteres et leur materiel dans le Pays-Bas (Type Foundries of the Netherlands, which I haven’t read, mind, although the 1969 JPHS source provides a picture from it) citing it as cut by him. So clearly they were aware of who he was. It doesn’t say he was Minister for Bread, but it does say “during the revolution he was an active member of the Commissariat department”–that said, apart from Enschedé all the sources they cite are British, and there’s no indication the author consulted French or Dutch sources. I've had a quick look and here's the text from Bessemer's autobiography, which I hadn't read up to now. Is that your source?

He was still residing in Paris at the time of the great French Revolution, and, as an active member of the Commissariat Department, he had to distribute a certain dole of bread and rice to the starving thousands, who formed a long queue for many hours every morning before the municipal bakery was opened. Everyone in Paris at that time felt the pinch for food. My father had a small estate some twenty miles out of town, and when he saw the probability of a famine, he had a few sacks of wheat taken to his house in Paris, and there secretly stowed away; for a knowledge of their presence would have brought the hungry mob upon him. It was my mother's task at night, when the household had retired to rest, to grind some of this wheat in a coffee mill, so that cakes might be made for the morrow's breakfast; and thus in secret my parents enjoyed the luxury of whole-meal bread of their own manufacture. My father was most anxious to return to England, but it was very difficult to get away. He could obtain nothing from his bankers but the paper money then well known as Assignats, which were issued for amounts as low as fifty sous, or about two shillings in English value. Fortunately a short lull occurred in those stormy times, and, taking advantage of the opportunity, my parents escaped to England, bringing with them about £6,000 in nominal value in Assignats, and only a very small sum in cash.

It is a bit fanciful! Although the stories of refugees often are. Bessemer was writing about events that happened to his father almost a century before, and I can imagine it being a bit romanticised, shall we say. Artistically he was clearly a virtuoso engraver, even if a lot of his work is rather hard to love. Lane doesn’t know when he died but he thinks it was after 1840 (he doesn't say why, although again I haven't read the whole of Bessemer's autobiography so maybe it's in there). Incidentally, I’ve removed one thing from the article: I think for some reason I believed he did work for Vincent Figgins, but re-examining the sources I looked at I can’t find reference to this, and I think I may have misunderstood something.

The remaining sources cited in JPHS are:

• Hine, Hitchin Worthies (1932)-I haven't seen this
• Johnson, Typographia (1824)-just lists Catherwood's foundry that he later formed a partnership with, see Reed (below)
• Reed, A History of the Old Letter Foundries (edition edited by A.F. Johnson, 1952)-I don't have this to hand although the original 1887 edition is digitised; JPHS doesn't mention anything not in the original text
• Caslon's Circular July 1880-not seen, but presume it's the text printed in an 1880 American printing journal, reprinting a letter from Henry Bessemer; it seems to tell more or less the same story as his autobiography

You may find contacting the PHS worthwhile in case they can suggest something, but to be honest I doubt they're going to have any sources from the Continent. I think the obvious source I can point you towards would be Enschedé but really I think for your enquiry you need to speak to a French historian who specialises in the revolutionary period. Blythwood (talk) 23:07, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

@Blythwood: As I said, what I really want are the parts of the man rather his work. Yes, I read Henry Bessemer, and it's really just the same as read elsewhere (or everyone else used the autobiography). Actually there are hardly any facts.

• he and his family moved from London to Netherlands somewhere in 1769, when he was 11 years old.
  
• he was working in Paris around 1792 to 1798 when he had to flee.
  
• he was living in London and started a family in 1803.

The stories:

• he worked in the Paris Mint (Monnaie de Paris) and made improvements in optical microscopes and draining machinery.
  
• he was a member of the French Academy of Science (allegedly) ––there's no mention of his name amongst the 1,218 members (since 1666).
  
• there is nothing seen in FamilySearch.org (which contains data from many countries) until his family started in Herts; not himself, nor his wife, nor any of his nuclear family. Wife is known as Elizabeth, her family name is not really known – Minette is probable just a nickname / family name.

I think they're family stories, the type which get bigger each time they're told. Talk about confusing (talk) 01:57, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Yeah, Talk about confusing, I completely agree that there may well be some exaggeration. Although the evidence of his specimen book doesn't leave any doubt in my mind that in his final career he was a very able machinist and engraver. You may want to post on the Reference Desks for humanities and language asking for more information. If you wanted to get in touch with someone off-Wikipedia, I don't know about historians of the French Revolution but Sébastien Morlighem is the leading living French historian of printing, and I know he's interested in the early nineteenth century, although he hasn't published much in English. Blythwood (talk) 17:49, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

@Blythwood: BTW the last chapter of the Bessemer autobiography is posthumous, actually written by his son Henry Bessemer (no Kt). The very last page in the book is pictures of his grandfather and grandmother. His name is Mr Anthony Bessemer, and her name is Mrs Anthony Bessemer! Seems like the pictures were painted in Paris, but it doesn't mean when is their marriage. At that time both looked late thirties. I mean they could have married in Netherlands (Haarlem??) around 1790. Her name is Elizabeth, according to the christenings of their children. Talk about confusing (talk) 02:32, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

@Blythwood: I got an email reply from l'Académie de France

Monsieur,

Je vous confirme qu'Anthony Bessemer n' a pas été membre ni correspondant de l'Académie royale des sciences. Son nom ne figure pas ans les tables et index des répertoires de nos archives.

Un Antoine Bessemer, sujet britannique, est attesté à la fin de l'Ancien régime comme bijoutier à Paris. Il est possible qu'il ait été un des fournisseurs de l'Académie royale des sciences.

Cordialement,

Isabelle Maurin-Joffre

________________________________
Académie des sciences
Service des Archives et du Patrimoine scientifique
23 quai de Conti
75006 Paris

http://www.academie-sciences.fr/fr/Transmettre-les-connaissances/les-archives-de-l-academie-des-sciences.html

These days I can hardly write English never mind French. It seems like it's not yes nor no. Talk about confusing (talk) 14:14, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

• Talk about confusing, in that case this may be of interest. I haven't had a chance to read or translate it. Blythwood (talk) 17:20, 13 February 2019 (UTC)