Catalogue description RECORDS OF YATES, COX AND COMPANY, IRON MERCHANTS AND NAIL MANUFACTURER, OF LIVERPOOL

The collection consists of balance sheets, articles of partnership, deeds and an apprenticeship indenture.

671 YAT 1 Balance sheets

671 YAT 2 Articles of partnership

671 YAT 3 Deeds relating to property in Brunswick Street

671 YAT 4 Letters to customers

671 YAT 5 Apprenticeship indenture

For a letter from Benjamin Gibson, Rome, to Richard V. Yates, Yates and Cox, Brunswick Street, 18 June 1842 see MD 207-9. For a letter by Richard V. Yates relating to Princes Park, 1843, see 380 MD 112.

The article by R. Dickinson 'James Naysmyth and the Liverpool Iron Trade' in Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society, Volume 108 (1956) (our ref: H942 7206 HIS) contains a brief history of Yates and Cox. The administrative history for this catalogue relied heavily on this article.

The following material relating to Richard Vaughan Yates is available for consultation in the Liverpool Local Studies Library:

'Funeral of the late Mr. Richard Vaughan Yates' in In Memoriam (1876), pp. 245-247 (our ref: H920.1 IMM)

'The Late Richard Vaughan Yates, Esq.' in S.A.T. Yates, Memorials of the Family of the Rev. John Yates (1890) (our ref: H 920 YAT Rare Book Sequence)

J. Robberds, 'Christian Humility: a sermon preached in the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth Park, Liverpool, on Sunday 7 December 1856 after the funeral of the late Richard Vaughan Yates, Esq., together with the address and prayer at the funeral service, and the appendix, containing the obituary notice in the Liverpool Mercury 3 December and the proceedings of the Liverpool Town Council on the same day in reference to the deceased' (1856) bound in Liverpool Sermons, 1772-1883 (our ref: H252 LIV)

The following item is available consultation in Liverpool Central Library (Humanities Reference):

Caroline R. Kerkham, 'Richard Vaughan Yates (1785-1856), traveller in Wales' in Library of Wales Journal, Volume 20, Number 3 (Summer 1978), pp. 265-272 (ref: R027.5429WAL)

Yates, Cox and Company, Liverpool, iron merchants and nail manufacturers

Access will be granted to any accredited reader.

Acc.5476

Transferred from Lancashire Record Office in 2001. The custodial history prior to this is not clear. The papers were contained in an envelope dated 1953 addressed to G. Lissant Cox Esq., O.B.E., M.D., Bracken Lea, Hazler Lane, Church Stretton, Salop from R. Dickinson, The Lawns, Rainhill, Liverpool

In 1807 William Jevons (1760-1852) formed a partnership as iron merchants and nail manufacturers with Richard Vaughan Yates (1785-1856). The partnership was dissolved in 1811 and each started their own business. In 1816 Yates was joined in partnership by two of his brothers, George John Ashton Yates (1781-1863) and Pemberton Heywood Yates (1791-1822), together with George Lissant Cox. The business was based in Nottingham Buildings, Brunswick Street, and known as Yateses and Cox. The Yates brothers provided the sum of £15,000. This included money which was lent to the partnership by their father the Reverend John Yates. George Lissant Cox provided the sum of £1,000. In 1816 it sold £45527.15.5 worth of goods and made a net profit of £538.0.7. The majority of its customers were from Liverpool, Lancashire, Cumbria, North Wales, Cheshire, Scotland, and Birmingham. They also had customers from as far afield as Dublin and New York.

Richard Vaughan Yates was born in Liverpool, the third son of the Reverend John Yates (1755-1856). His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of John Ashton of Woolton (1742-1833). Richard married Sarah, daughter of Richard Mills, a Liverpool merchant by his wife Esther, daughter of Roger Gaskell, sailcloth maker of Warrington. Sarah died without issue in 1828, aged 35. His second wife was Ann Simpson who survived him. Yates is best known for his gift to Liverpool of Princes Park, where an obelisk stands to his memory. He was a patron of the arts and a keen traveller.

George Lissant Cox was born on 4 September 1782 in Nottingham. His father of the same name was a hosier in that town. About 1804, because of friction with his stepmother, the son left and came to Liverpool where he was employed by William Jevons as a book-keeper. It is said that when Jevons and Yates dissolved their partnership "they had a law-suit as to which was entitled to their clerk young George Lissant Cox ... finally it was decided that Mr. Yates should have the treasure." Cox was a Unitarian and attended the Renshaw Street Chapel.

By 1827 the two brothers had dropped out of the business and it became Yates and Cox. The articles of partnership for 1827 reveals that Richard Vaughan Yates provided £15,000 and George Lissant Cox £3,000. George Frederick Cox, a son of George Lissant Cox, was made a partner in 1840 and the business became Yates, Cox and Cox. In 1846 another son, Nathaniel Cox, was made partner and it became Yates, Cox and Co. In 1856 Richard Vaughan Yates provided £15,000, George Lissant Cox £7,000, George Frederick Cox £1,000 and Nathaniel Cox £500.

Richard Vaughan Yates retired and the partnership was dissolved on 31 December 1854. He died on 30 November 1856 and was buried in the family grave at Toxteth Chapel. The business was continued by George Lissant Cox, George Frederick Cox, and Nathaniel Cox as 'George Lissant Cox and Sons', but it failed in c.1860. George Lissant Cox died at Conway on 1 July 1860, aged 78, and was buried in Toxteth Cemetery.

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