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National Maritime Museum

Kellock, C.W., & Co


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0064 KCK

Held at: National Maritime Museum

Title: Kellock, C.W., & Co

Date(s): [1850-1949]

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 30ft: 914cm

Name of creator(s): Kellock, C.W., & Co

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Daniel Tonge (1788-1848), the son of Captain Daniel Tonge, RN (d 1800) was a master mariner and shipowner in Liverpool. In 1820 he established himself as a merchant and agent for the sale of ships. By 1846 he had been joined by his son Percival (fl 1840-1870) to form Daniel Tonge and Son. Two years later, Henry Curry (d 1865) was taken into the partnership which was renamed Tonge, Curry and Co. Henry Curry had begun business in Liverpool in the early 1840s and by 1843 was operating as a commission merchant under the name of Henry Curry and Co. In 1846 he became a broker for Lloyds. By 1850 Charles Walford Kellock (d 1897), the son of Henry Gray Kellock (fl 1820-1850), a lieutenant in the Navy, who had established himself in Liverpool in the early 1840s as an agent for Lloyds, joined the company. In this year the three partners in the company were Charles W Kellock, Henry Curry and Percival Tonge. In 1855, the partnership was dissolved. Percival Tonge continued on his own under the name of Tonge and Co, and this company remained in business until 1877. Charles W. Kellock remained with Henry Curry to form Curry and Co and two years later the name was changed to Curry, Kellock and Co. In October 1864 this partnership was dissolved and two companies emerged, H.F. Curry and Co and C.W. Kellock and Co. H.F. Curry and Co closed in 1866, the year after Henry Curry's death. C.W. Kellock greatly expanded his business and in 1867 opened an office in London under the management of his brother W.B. Kellock (fl 1867-85). Auction sales were conducted at the Royal Exchange in the Lloyd's Captains Room. In 1885 the management of the London office was taken over by George Kay, a partner of C.W. Kellock. In the mid-1880s, Kellock's two eldest sons, William Walter Kellock (d 1929) and Henry Gray Kellock (d 1926) joined the company and later became partners. In 1894 Nelson Cameron (d 1905) of the firm of Taylor Cameron and Co joined the firm. On his death in 1905 Henry Gray Kellock, who had retired from the company in 1893 to join the firm of Pim, Forwood & Kellock in New York, returned. Charles W. Kellock retired from the company and died in 1897. His two sons remained as partners until their deaths. The management of the company was then taken over by various senior partners within the firm. The Liverpool office was closed in 1972 and the London office is still active. By the middle of the nineteenth century this company had become one of the leading ship brokers of Liverpool. By the end of the century, probably every major vessel trading regularly in and out of Liverpool and London had appeared on the Company books at one time or another. An unprecedented sale occurred in December 1854 when a fleet of 78 vessels was sold at public auction at the Cotton Sale Room, Liverpool. The sale lasted three days and realized a total of over half a million pounds. During the Crimean War the company acted as brokers and appraisers to the Admiralty and sold a number of Russian prizes. During the First World War, numerous German steamships were auctioned by Kellock for the Admiralty. In addition to ship brokerage, during the nineteenth century Kellock's owned and operated their own fleet of sailing vessels and steamships.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of C.W. Kellock and Co. The greater portion of the records forms an almost complete collection of copies of sale contracts for the Liverpool office, 1850 to 1949, and five volumes of copies of sale contracts for the London office, 1867 to 1883. These sale agreements give the name of the vessel, its tonnage, name of purchaser and seller, selling price and conditions of sale. Many of these are indexed in the early years and a copy of the British shipping register is often included. In many cases, copies of correspondence, special agreements and Charter Parties are also included. For example, the papers of the sale of the GREAT BRITAIN in London in 1885 for £26,000 include a complete inventory of the vessel. In addition there are three volumes of conditions of sale, 1890 to 1931; ten volumes of valuations (sail and steam), 1895 to 1913, 1922 to 1924; four volumes of records of sales, 1895 to 1945, of vessels built up to 1905 (sail and steam); nine volumes of ledgers 1851 to 1895; six volumes of journals 1880 to 1882, 1916 to 1919; three volumes of Charter Parties, one each for Stoddard Bros, 1866 to 1869, Taylor Cameron and Co, 1889 to 1891 and C.W. Kellock and Co, 1897 to 1907. These papers give a detailed picture of the value of British shipping for both sail and steam from the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Finding aids:

Detailed catalogue online at the: National Maritime Museum website .

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

The records of C.W. Kellock and Co were deposited on loan by the Curry and Co, 1850 to 1855; Curry and Co, 1855 to 1857; Curry, Kellock and Co, 1857 to 1864 and C.W. Kellock and Co, 1864 to 1949.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented by C.W. Kellock and Co., 2010.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

A large collection of half models as well as other artefacts belonging to the company were presented by C.W. Kellock and Co to the Merseyside County Museum in Liverpool in 1972. In addition this museum holds a number of volumes of steamer valuations for the twentieth century.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Edited by Sarah Drewery, Sep 2011.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 2011-05-09


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Shipping | Maritime transport | Transport
Ships | Vehicles | Transport
Company records
Water transport

Personal names

Corporate names
C W Kellock and Co

Places
Liverpool | Lancashire | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe