Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Corbett, John
CORBETT, JOHN (1817–1901), promoter of the salt industry in Worcestershire and benefactor, born at Brierley Hill, Staffordshire, on 12 June 1817, was eldest son in a family of five sons and one daughter of Joseph Corbett by his wife Hannah. The father, originally a Shropshire farmer, migrated to Staffordshire to become a carrier of merchandise by canal boats. John, after attending as a child Mr. Gurney's school at Brierley Hill, helped on his father's boats from the age of ten to that of three and twenty. He devoted his leisure to an unaided study of mechanical problems; and in 1840, at the mature age of twenty-three, was apprenticed for five years to W. Lester, chief engineer of Messrs. Hunt & Brown of the Leys ironworks, Stourbridge. In 1846 he reluctantly abandoned the career of an engineer to become his father's partner, and under the name of Corbett & Son a prosperous business was carried on, a large fleet of boats being maintained between the Staffordshire district and London, Liverpool, Manchester, and other commercial centres. In 1852 the business was sold, the advent of railways threatening to decrease canal traffic, and Corbett then bought the Stoke Prior salt works near Droitwich.
Corbett's new venture was unpromising. Salt had been discovered at Stoke Prior by a Cheshire ‘brine-smeller’ in 1828. Vast sums had since been expended in the sinking of brine pits and the erection of salt-works. But the great depth of the brine springs and the weakening of the brine within the pits by an inflow from neighbouring fresh-water springs made production costly. Six private owners in turn became bankrupt, and then the property was divided between two rival joint-stock companies with no better result. Corbett acquired in 1852 the premises of both the companies, which stood respectively on opposite banks of the Worcester and Birmingham canal. Within a few years the enterprise was completely transformed. New brine pits lined with cast-iron cylinders to prevent the inflow of fresh water were sunk to a depth of 1000 feet, and by the introduction of a patent process whereby a system of pipes doubled the intensity of both the fire-heat and steam, a whiter, more finely grained salt was produced than was obtainable elsewhere, the size of the grain or crystal depending on the temperature at which the brine was evaporated. Other changes were the acquisition of fifty canal boats, the cutting of tributaries from the canal to the lofts in which the salt was stored, the building of a railway—the property of Corbett—which traversed the works, carrying coal to and salt from such places as could not be reached by water, and the establishment of a wagon factory, a foundry, fitting shops, sawmills, and a brickyard. As many as seven depôts were established in London. Corbett himself supervised all details. Within twenty-five years he converted an annual output of 26,000 tons of salt into one of 200,000 tons, and built up the most perfect system of salt-manufacture in the world. For his workpeople he built model houses, gardens, schools, a club-house, lecture-room, and dispensary. In 1859 he abolished female labour on the works, a step now commemorated by a window placed by public subscription in Stoke Prior church. He sold the works in 1889 to the Salt Union.
Corbett was interested in politics on the liberal side. In 1868 he contested unsuccessfully Droitwich against the conservative candidate, Sir John Pakington [q. v.]; but Droitwich reversed its decision in 1874, when Corbett defeated Pakington and was elected. He kept the seat in 1880; in 1885, when the old borough was merged in the mid-Worcestershire division, he was returned unopposed for that constituency. In the house, though never prominent in debate, he showed interest in questions of local taxation, advocated alterations in the laws of land tenure, and was an early advocate of woman suffrage. Opposed to home rule, he joined the ranks of the liberal unionists in 1886 and was returned by a large majority in that interest in July 1886. He retired at the dissolution of 1892.
Corbett acquired from Lord Somers a large estate at Impney near Droitwich and from Athelston Corbet (no relation) a second estate near Towyn in Wales. On the Impney property he erected a residence in the style of a French chateau of the time of Francis I. A generous supporter of philanthropic institutions in the Midlands, Corbett presented Corbett Hospital to Stourbridge and Salters' Hall, a building capable of holding 1500 people, to Droitwich. He also contributed generously to the funds of Birmingham University, of which he was a governor, and of the Bromsgrove Cottage Hospital; he helped in the development of Droitwich as a health-resort by the erection of St. Andrew's Brine Baths (1889), and by the restoration of the old Raven Hotel and the building of the Worcester Hotel; he presented a church clock to Brierley Hill and placed memorial windows in the church there to his father and mother. To the development of Towyn he contributed by the erection of a fine esplanade and a massive sea-wall.
Corbett, who was an associate of the Institute of Civil Engineers, died at Impney on 22 April 1901.
Corbett married in April 1856 Anna Eliza, daughter of John O'Meara of county Tipperary, and had issue two sons and four daughters.
A bust was executed by E. Onslow Ford, R.A., and a presentation portrait by H. T. Wells, R.A., was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895.
[The Times, 24 April 1901; Mining World, 27 April 1901; John Corbett of Impney: a Sketch of his Career, Stourbridge; Handbook to Droitwich, by L. D. B.; John Murray's Worcestershire; Soc. of Arts Journal, 1901; Oil Trade Review, 4 Jan. 1868; History of Worcestershire in Victoria County History; Journal of the Institute of Civil Engineers, 1901.]