The family of John Bazley White
The family who established J B White's - Britain's biggest 19th century cement company - is described at great length in A J Francis' book. This page only gives basic data on the main members involved in Portland cement.
Charles Francis (1777-) was a builders' merchant with a depot at Phoenix Wharf, Nine Elms Lane, Battersea, 300 m upstream from Vauxhall Bridge (first built 1809). In 1808, he proposed to start making Parker's Roman cement and took into partnership merchant John Bazley White I (b 7/10/1784, Stepney, Middlesex: d 22/10/1867, Kidbooke, Kent). White's grandfather was an East End Dutch immigrant - De Witt. The Nine Elms plant commenced on 21/6/1810.The Roman cement business was successful, doing a steadily increasing trade, particularly for masonry construction. It received valuable testimonials from Marc Isambard Brunel, whose Thames Tunnel was being built during 1825-1842.
In 1833, they bought James Frost's plant at Swanscombe. Frost was one of the original Roman cement manufacturers, making it at Harwich and - from 1825 - Swanscombe. Because Swanscombe had chalk, he could also develop his "artificial cement" by wet processing chalk and clay, intended to be a cheap substitute for the increasingly hard-to-get septaria used in Roman cement. He emigrated to the USA in 1832. Francis & White continued manufacturing both types of cement at Swanscombe.
Francis and White dissolved their partnership in 1836: Francis kept the Nine Elms plant and White kept Swanscombe. On 1/1/1837 J B White I entered into partnership with his eldest son John Bazley White II (b 23/4/1814, Battersea, Surrey: d 9/3/1893, Newton Abbot, Devon) to form the firm John Bazley White & Son. The firm expanded production, and added gypsum cements such as Keene's cement to their list of products. In 1839, his second son, George Frederick White (b 24/12/1816, Battersea, Surrey: d 11/8/1898, Dorking, Surrey) was also taken into the partnership. G F White had trained as an architect, and now rapidly became the driving force in the company.
In 1841, William Aspdin arrived on the Thames and put Portland cement on the market. Although the local manufacturers all tried to play down the importance of this event, the effect was clearly sensational, and White's immediately began attempting to emulate it, and finally succeeded in producing something roughly comparable in October 1845. There followed a long period in which attempts were made to promote the product, with small success in Britain. G F White set about promoting the product in France and Germany, and in 1847 succeeded in getting the French government works department (Administration des Ponts & Chaussées) to specify it for use in concrete - an application for which Roman cement was unsuitable. The first major project was for the harbour at Cherbourg, and many similar projects followed. This allowed production to increase much faster than that of other producers. A similar project began in Britain at Dover in 1851.
In 1852, John Bazley White I retired, G F White became managing partner, and the firm was re-named John Bazley White and Brothers.