Catalogue description Muspratt Papers

The papers are grouped as follows:

920 MUS/1 Letters written by members of the Muspratt family.

920 MUS/2 Letters written by other correspondents to members of the Muspratt family.

920 MUS/3 Autograph material relating to the Muspratt family.

920 MUS/4 Printed material.

Some of the letters were quoted by D.W.F. Hardie in his article The Muspratts and the British chemical industry, which was published in Endeavour, Jan. 1955.

Muspratt family of Liverpool, Widnes and Flint

The following papers were purchased from Ifan Kyrle Fletcher in 1964.

Acc. 1374

James Muspratt, regarded as the founder of the British heavy chemical industry, came to Liverpool in 1822. He established a sulphuric acid plant, and afterwards installed the Leblanc process, in Vauxhall Road. In 1828, in partnership with Josiah Gamble, he built an alkali works at Newton in Lancashire. He was succeeded in business by his youngest son, Dr. Edmund Knowles Muspratt who, like his eldest brother Dr. James Sheridan Muspratt, had studied chemistry under Justus von Liebig at Giessen. Dr. J.S. Muspratt was the author of a dictionary of chemical technology, and in 1848 he established the Liverpool College of Practical Chemistry. Another son, Richard Muspratt, in partnership with a Mr. Huntley, operated a large Leblanc works at Flint, N. Wales, and his brother Frederick Muspratt was for a time alkali-making in Widnes. In 1890, the Muspratt concerns in Liverpool, Widnes and Flint, together with most other Leblanc works, amalgamated in United Alkali Co. Ltd., now a constituent of Imperial Chemical Industries. Dr. E.K. Muspratt was made a director and was succeeded by his son, Sir Max Muspratt who participated in the founding of I.C.I. in 1926.

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