Aieux Morris

"Mais certains expatriés quittaient leur pays pour des raisons politiques - ainsi un certain John Holker, jacobite rebelle que Daniel Trudaine, ministre du Commerce, attira en France, où il devint fabriquant de toiles de laine et de machines pour l'industrie textile et Inspecteur général des produits manufacturés étrangers."
David S. Landes, Richesse et pauvreté des nations, Ed. Albin Michel (2000) p. 360,361

Science and Technology in the Early French Chemical Industry[1]
John Graham Smith
University of Leicester
(Extraits)
As contemporaries remarked, the heavy chemical industry grew up in France in close chronological parallel with the growth of chemical science. In the mid-eighteenth century France had no chemical industry to speak of, and in this was distinctly behind Britain and Holland, and dependent on imports. Such chemical production as did then exist here was in the hands of the distillers of aqua fortis - sparsely scattered artisans who made nitric acid and a few other materials using laboratory-scale apparatus in small workshops. The large-scale chemical industry effectively began with the introduction into France of sulphuric acid manufacture by the lead-chamber process. This came somewhat tardily, only a generation after the first development of that process in Britain, and it was then due to an English expatriate, John Holker, the inspector of manufactures, whose official position gave him the specific duty of introducing foreign manufacturing methods into France, and who erected the first French lead chambers in a works he formed at Rouen. By a coincidence that appears neatly symbolic, this seminal industrial innovation occurred in 1772, the year Henry Guerlac, in another context, has called 'the crucial year', as being the year Lavoisier embarked on his researches destined to revolutionise chemical science. It cannot honestly be said that the introduction of lead chambers involved any conspicuous science - it owed more to the international industrial espionage that Holker was deeply engaged in - but it is not, I think, entirely irrelevant, and might be seen as prophetic, that Holker's son, who had charge of the venture, had earlier enjoyed a scientific education with leading chemists in Paris. Following Holker's lead the new manufacture spread quite rapidly so that by the early years of the Revolution there were perhaps some 15 or 20 works in different parts of the country. And the resulting availability of cheap and abundant acid was by then already contributing to two further key developments: the endeavour to manufacture soda from salt, to replace the imported plant ashes that were the traditional natural source of soda supply; and the development of chlorine as a bleaching agent for textiles, in place of the old natural process of exposure to sunlight on bleachfields. These early applications of sulphuric acid to the creation of new technologies - a process that was to continue and proliferate - illustrate the kind of internal dynamic that was one fundamental factor in the rise of the chemical industry. The fact that sulphuric acid production in France tended to run ahead of market demand encouraged manufacturers to seek to extend the uses of the acid in such ways.
Holker's pioneering acid venture resembled much industrial development in eighteenth-century France, in being based on imported technology, and in enjoying considerable government support in the form of tariff protection, tax privileges, and financial subsidy. It would be wrong, though, to see the venture as typifying the subsequent growth of the chemical industry in France, for the industry was soon to leave behind its imitative origins to develop very largely as a home-grown affair, with remarkably little dependence on foreign skills or technique; while as regards government support, no chemical manufacturer after Holker ever received the degree of positive backing he enjoyed. Of course, one does find the government continuing to play a characteristic promotional role, as in its endeavours in the 1780's to initiate a synthetic soda industry, through measures that included the Academy of Sciences' soda prize, and the award of clusters of privileges to a succession of would-be manufacturers. In other aspects of the early industry too, one sees the hand of government at work in its provision of fiscal and tariff support, its sponsoring of technical publications, its honorary awards to inventors and manufacturers, and its moral exhortations and support for new products that were often received with great suspicion by the French market. But such promotional measures could be patchy and were often less impressive in reality than they are apt to appear. Their significance should not be overestimated, and when it comes to comparison with Britain in this regard one needs to beware of the exaggeration inherent in those familiar national stereotypes which contrast a paternalistic French state, ever seeking to stir and steer the economy into the paths of progress, with a Britain whose liberal voluntarist traditions simply left manufacturers to their own devices to get on with the Industrial Revolution. Just how far France's success in chemical industry can be regarded as a fruit of French traditions of economic dirigisme is a debatable question. What seems clear is that far more fundamentally important in shaping the growth of her chemical industry was the play of accidental forces, particularly those powerful and erratic forces unleashed by the Revolution and its aftermath of war.

[1]Paper read to a colloquium on 'Science, Techniques et Société', at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Most of the detailed evidence on which this essay is based is contained in my book The origins and early development of the heavy chemical industry in France (Oxford, 1979).

2 EME EPOUX DE RIBARD MARIE MARGUERITE THERESE
Homme - (14/10/1719 - 27/04/1786)

• Titre : 2 EME EPOUX DE RIBARD MARIE MARGUERITE THERESE
• Nationalité : GB
• Naissance : 14/10/1719, STRETFORD (LANCASHIRE GB)
  [Source : HERVE LAINE-BUCAILLE / INTERNET]
• Décès : 27/04/1786, MONTIGNY
  [Source : REVUE DE PRESSE]
  EST ENTERRE AU CIMETIERE SAINT-SEVER
  FAUX : VU LE 01/09/2001 ACTE D'INHUMATION DU 28/04/1786 A SAINT-VINCENT
  RP 643 SAINT-VINCENT
  EST ENTERRE CIMETIERE CAUCHOISE AVEC LA PRESENCE DE JEAN OHILIPPE NICOLAS RIBARD, NEGOCIANT ANCIEN CONSEILLER ECHEVIN, JACQUES PAUL ADRIEN RIBARD, NEGOCIANT, FRERES DE LA-DITE RIBARD HOLKER ET EN PRESENCE DE PIERRE LOUIS HURARD, NEGOCIANT, ADMINISTRATEUR DE L'HOPITAL GENERAL ET ANTOINE SIMON PIERRE LE VIEUX, NEGOCIANT 1ER ECHEVIN ET ANCIEN JUGE CONSUL

Notes
UNE PLAQUETTE A ETE PUBLIE CHEZ DESVAGES EXPLIQUANT COMMENT JOHN HOLKER S'INSTALLA EN FRANCE.
IL ETAIT ANGLAIS NATURALISE EN 1766 ET FUT L'UN DES FONDATEURS DE L'INDUSTRIE COTONNIERE NORMANDE
IL NAQUIT A STRETFORD EN 1719 ET SE FIXA A MANCHESTER EN 1741 OU IL S'INTERESSA A L'INDUSTRIE COTONNIERE.
PARTISAN DE CHARLES-EDOUARD STUART DANS LA REVOLTE DE CE DERNIER CONTRE LA COURONNE D'ANGLETERRE IL FUT ARRETE EN 1746
IL FUT PRISONNIER A LA TOUR DE LONDRES POUR Y ÊTRE PENDU.
S'ECHAPPANT GRÂCE A LA COMPLICITE DE SA FEMME ELISABETH HILTON, IL SE REFUGIA EN HOLLANDE PUIS A PARIS.
IL ENTRA DANS LE REGIMENT ECOSSAIS D'OLIGIVY (OU OGILVY) EN 1747 ET DEMISSIONNAIRE DE L'ARMEE EN 1751 VINT S'ETABLIR A ROUEN.
IL S'INSTALLA DANS LE QUARTIER SAINT-SEVER DE ROUEN GRACE AUX SUBSIDES DU DUC DE CHOISENEL ET CREA UNE MANUFACTURE DE VELOURS DE COTON RUE SAINT-JULIEN, PUIS D'AUTRES A VERNON, EVREUX, SENS, DIJON, AMIENS PUIS DES FABRIQUES DE TOILES DE COTON A BEAUVAIS, BOURGES, TOURS, LIMOGES, LYON , MONTPELLIER AINSI QUE L'ECOLE DE BAYEUX.
IL FUT AUSSI INSPECTEUR GENERAL DES MANUFACTURES ET S'OCCUPA D'AUTRES AFFAIRES ET FONDA UNE FABRIQUE DE VITRIOL "CHARTREL ET CIE"SUR UN TERRAIN SITUE AU 85 RUE D'ELBEUF-41 RUE PAVEE (ACTUELLEMENT RUE DE SOTTEVILLE N° 41)
IL ETAIT NOBLE DEPUIS UNE ATTESTATION DU ROY DE 1774
Père : JEAN HOLKER
Mère : ALLIS MORRIS
Conjoint 1 : MARIE MARGUERITE THERESE RIBARD

• Mariage : 06/11/1776, ROUEN ST VINCENT
  [Source : Correspondance épistolaire]
  ORIGINAIRE DE ROUEN ST SEVER
  Conjoint 2 : ELISABETH HULTON
• Mariage : VERS 1745
  [Source : REVUE DE PRESSE / BIBLIOTHEQUE MUNICIPALE DE ROUEN]

Source dictionnaire encyclopedique d'histoire, de biographie, de mythologie et de géographie par Louis Grégoire 1876 :
Holker, industriel anglais né près de Manchester dans les premières années du du XVIIIe S., mort à Rouen en 1786. Chef d'une filature importante en Angleterre, il la quitta pour aller rejoindre le prince Charles-Edouard en Ecosse, et combatit à Culloden, ce qui lui attira une condamnaion à mort. Il fut assez heureux pour s'y soustraire. La France, où il se réfugia, lui dut la première application des calendres à chaud dans l'apprêt des étoffes, et un bon nombre de perfectionnement emprunté à l'industrie anglaise. Son petit-fils mort en 1844, découvrit, à Rouen la méthode de combustion continue en usage dans toutes les manufactures de produits chimiques.
Culloden, champ de bataille où fut défait, en 1746, le prétendant Charles Edouard, près du bourg de Croy, à 12 km SO de Nairn, dans le comté d'Inverness (Ecosse), près du golfe de Murray.

Source Internet : ­http­://­www­.­quesnels­.­com­/­history­.­htm­
John Holker had been born in Manchester in 1745, and his family, for four generations beginning in 1620, had lived (where else?) in Eccles. His father, also named John, had been born at Stratford and settled in Manchester in 1741, intending to set up a cotton mill. In 1745, however, he joined the Scottish uprising of Bonnie Prince Charlie, was wounded, taken prisoner and sent to the Tower of London to be hanged, but managed to escape to France. Unable to return to England, he started a cotton mill near Rouen. With the help of experts from England, he promoted the cotton industry on a huge scale thoughout France and was named General Inspector for Manufactured Goods, in which charge he was succeeded by his son. He became a French national in 1766.

Source (Internet) : Nadine Smith, Paul Jr. Independent Charter Public School, Washington, D. C.

Another Englishman who transmitted valuable secrets to the French government was the Lancashire Jacobite, John Holker. Holker, an extremely courageous man, had masterminded a daring escape from Newgate prison. He had served as a Jacobite officer in the French army. As a young man he embarked upon dangerous espionage missions for the French government bringing into France prohibited English models and plans. Holker, himself, possessed a vast knowledge about textiles. He had made his reputation with his hot?calendering process and possessed textile secrets about the importance of certain preparatory and critical finishing processes. He also knew secrets related to the bleaching and dyeing of fabrics. Some of the English practices that he recommended to the French included oiling wool slightly, to improve its handling in the carding, spinning, and weaving phases and also using large spinning wheels to get a more uniform thread (He also recommended that spinners be paid according to the fineness of their yam). Holker 's vast knowledge about textile also included the care and rearing of sheep, even going so far as to recommend inspecting sheep pens to be certain that the wool would be clean and not tangled or discolored. Holker, like John Law, worked closely with the French government. In 1767 he was appointed to the position of Inspector General of Foreign Manufacturers ?which simply meant being the head of a French scheme to spy on England's skilled artisans and bring them across the Channel. Holker was paid 8,000 livres annually and was also given a 600 livre army pension by the French government. Assisting John Holker in spying on the newest inventions was his son who had observed the new cotton spinning machines in Derbyshire. When the young Holker heard disparaging remarks about his father as he traveled through Yorkshire and the North Country, he worked out a code to keep his operations from being discovered. Although of simple English origins, nobility was conferred upon John Holker in 1774 by Louis XV. Holker and his son went on to become deeply involved in the affairs of the infant United States, with the son traveling to Philadelphia in 1778 as an agent of the French government. The Holkers were both devoted to aiding the commercial and financial activities of the American rebels and even housed Benjamin Franklin when he was in France and corresponded with Thomas Jefferson as well. John Holker throughout his four decades in France remains one of the most effective and impressive figures in industrial espionage.

Source :
Cite web page as: John Adams autobiography, part 2, "Travels, and Negotiations," 1777-1778, sheet 12 of 37 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. ­http­://­www­.­masshist­.­org­/­digitaladams­/
Original manuscript: Adams, John. John Adams autobiography, part 2, "Travels, and Negotiations," 1777-1778. Part 2 is comprised of 37 sheets and 7 insertions; 164 pages total. Original manuscript from the Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Source of transcription: Butterfield, L.H., ed. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams. Vol. 4 Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1961.

Passi [1] April 13 1778.
Sir
........
Mr. Holker [was] the Father of the Mr. Holker who came to America with Mr. Deane, at the same time with Mr. Gerard and who passed in America for a Person of great Consequence, and as Consul General of France. The Holkers, Father and Son, were very intimate Friends of Mr. Deane, but neither had any appointment from King or Minister. Mr. Le Ray de Chaumont was their Patron, and their Occupation wholly as Merchants or rather as Manufacturers chiefly of Cotton, either in Partnership with Mr. Chaumont, or wholly under his direction. Holker the Father often came to see me. And repeatedly related to me his History. He said he owed his ruin to his Grandfather, who as well as his Father was an Inhabitant of Manchester, and a Manufacturer there. Being in the Neighbourhood of Scotland, Manchester was greatly disaffected to the House of Hanover and his Grandfather a furious Jacobite. His grandfather was very fond of him and not less delighted with Porter and strong Beer, with which he regularly got drunk every night. When he began to grow mellow, it was his practice to take his Grandson [illegible] then a little boy upon his Knee, and his Loyalty to the Steuarts glowing as the liquor inflamed him, he made the Child swear to stand by the Royal House of Stewart as long as he should live. Such was his love and veneration for his Grandfather, that these Oaths thus imposed upon him every evening, although young as he was he knew the old Gentleman to be drunk, made such an impression upon him that he could not help joining in the Rebellion of the Year 1745 in favour of the Pretender. After their defeat by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden he fled to London and concealed himself as it happened somewhere in the Neighbourhood of Kitty Fisher, who was visited almost every Night by the Duke after his Return from Scotland. Kitty lived very near the Waters Edge, and he had laid a Scheme to seize upon the Duke when in the Arms of his Mistress and hurry him on board a Vessell to carry him directly to France. He had got his Vessel and his Men and every thing prepared, when he found he had been discovered and was obliged to fly to France without his Royal Prisoner. Here he found himself destitute and had subsisted by his Skill in the Manufactures of Manchester some of which he had endeavoured to introduce and establish in this Kingdom. He always regretted his Error and his Folly as he always called it, but it was irretrievable. He had formerly endeavoured to obtain a Pardon, but so daring an Attempt upon the Liberty if not the Life of the Duke could not then be pardoned. Perhaps it might now but it was too late. He was too old and had become too much connected in France. The most important of his Connections however, were I believe those with Mr. Chaumont which were of little profit, and one with a French Wife, an old wrinkled Woman, the most biggoted superstitious Catholic in France always counting her Beads and saying her Pater Noster and believing her Salvation to depend upon them.Justice however requires that it should be acknowledged that he always spoke of her with respect and treated her with tenderness. She was possessed of some property, perhaps enough to subsist herself and him. Whether he was concerned with Mr. Chaumont in any Shipments of Merchandize to America particularly to Mr. Langdon of Portsmouth, upon Mr. Deanes recommendation, I know not. That Mr. Chaumont shipped Goods to a considerable Amount, I knew because he shewed me Mr. Langdons Account rendered, in which almost the whole Capital was sunk by the depreciation of Paper Money.
Holkers Conduct to me was always civil, respectful, social, frank and agreable, and as he spoke English so well and french so tolerably I was always glad to see him and converse with him. But he was always making Apologies for Mr. Deane, and it was easy to see that he regretted very much the loss of his Friend, by whom he had expected to make his fortune, and although he had no other Objection to me, he found that I was not the Man for his Purpose.

Notes (FM) :
[1] Il s'agit de Passy ou plus exactement aujourd'hui d'Auteuil. Au 43 rue d'Auteuil à PARIS (16éme) un plaque indique que John Adams ainsi que son fils John Quincy Adams séjournèrent dans cet hôtel particulier (des demoiselles de Verrières) pendant leurs séjours en France. Actuellement le bâtiment fait partie du siège du CNRS.

Source Peter SAHLINS, Unnaturally French: Foreign Citizens in the Old Regime and After (Cornell University Press, 2004)

Some of the military officers became citizens to pursue other employ : after all, thre were many merchants and officeholders who at one time had been military professionals. Such was the case of Jean Holker, who hade been captain of the Oglivi Regiment, but by 1766 had lived in Rouen for twenty years where he had established a factory of cotton velours. For this efforts to introduce the “secret of a way of preparing different cloth which wasn't yet used in France,” he had been given the commission of inspector general of manufacturers in that city. [AN O/1/233, fol.335] (page 153)

In the eighteenth century, the French monarchy rewarded foreigners who made industrial
contributions with naturalization. Jean Holker, of Lancaster, England, had been settled in Rouen
for twenty years when he sought naturalization in 1766. Holker's contribution was to give "the secret
of an entirely new way of preparing cloth hitherto unknown in France, which gained him the
commission of Inspector General of Manufacturers" in Rouen, where he had also established a
manufactory of cotton velours: AN O/1/233, fol. 335, draft naturalization for Holker, his wife and
son, 29 January 1766. (page 376)