James Stott & Co.
Gas lighting manufacturers
Gas, heating and ventilation engineers James Stott & Co. (later Stotts of Oldham) was founded in 1878 by the younger of two well-known Lancashire cotton-mill architects, brothers Abraham H. and Joseph Stott. 1
It was their brother, James Stott (c. 1846–1934), however, who appears to have been the innovator in the field of gas, heating and ventilation engineering. He had a diverse career, starting as a bookbinder at 15, before working as an architect, while simultaneously running a temperance hotel, and suffered bankruptcy in 1870–1, perhaps due to his sideline in developing innovative gas valves. He was then successively a dentist, a 'gas engineer and farmer', and finally, ran a hotel and country estate in Cornwall, which showcased his own 'Plenum' ventilation system. 2
Stott's brothers also patented engineering designs, but it was James who developed the bestselling 'Mercurial' or Stott 'patent self-acting gas governor' in the 1870s. By 1885, it had 'won more awards in five years than all other makes in fifteen years'. The firm exported worldwide from their Vernon Works in Oldham, which also produced coin-operated gas meters, and later specialised in gas-powered catering equipment such as steamers and boilers. 3
James Stott separated from his wife and moved to Wales, where had a second family with hotelier Caroline Bailey (neé Matcham), whom he married in 1920 after the death of his first wife. Caroline was the sister of famous theatre architect Frank Matcham, with whom Stott occasionally worked, for example on the London Hippodrome in 1900. 4
James’s son Vernon Heywood Stott became director of the successful family company in Oldham and left a sizeable estate of £39,400 in 1939. 5
Notes:
1: 'B.C.G.A. Salesmen's Circles, Some Papers on Gas-heated Appliances', The Gas World, 88, 1928, p. 205; census information, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 12 September 2012]; 'Abraham Henthorn Stott' and 'Joseph Stott', www.scottisharchitects.org.uk [accessed 12 September 2012].
2: The Times, 29 May 1934, p. 1A; 'Obituary', Journal Royal Society of Arts, 82, 1934, p. 780; census information, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 12 September 2012]; London Gazette, 4 March 1870, p. 1617; 14 June 1870, p. 2993; James Stott & Co. (Engineers) Ltd, Archive Collection Cat. No. D-JSE, Administrative History, Oldham Local Studies and Archives Catalogue, on Access to Archives, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/default.aspx [accessed 12 September 2012]; A. R. Hope-Moncrieff, Black's Guide to Cornwall, London: A. & C. Black, 1904, p. 17.
3: Stott Architectural Practices Archive Collections, cat. nos D-SRJS – D-SRJS/54, Administrative History, Oldham Local Studies and Archives Catalogue, on Access to Archives, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/default.aspx [accessed 12 September 2012]; James Stott listed as engineer, 1875, in 'New Companies', Capital and Labour, 28 May 1875, p. 252; Leeds Mercury, 23 April 1879, p. 3; Patent 1879, in The Times, 26 June 1886, p. 1B; 37 medals were won from August 1879, Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, 4 May 1881, p. 5; Advertising Appendix, Congress at Leicester, Transactions of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, 7, 1885–6, p. 466.
4: Census, marriage, death and will information, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 12 September 2012]; A. R. Hope-Moncrieff, Black's Guide to Cornwall, London: A. & C. Black, 1904, p. 17; 'Obituary: James Stott', Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 82, 1934, p. 780–1.
5: The Times, 12 October 1939, p. 11.
