Early Life
Hugh Lee Pattinson was born on the 25
th of December 1796 in
Alston, Cumberland, to Quakers
Thomas Pattinson (a shopkeeper) and
Margaret Lee. The two witnesses to the birth were Betty Lee and Mary Pattinson, possibly siblings of Thomas and Margaret. Hugh didn't have the middle name "Lee" at baptism - this was added when he married (see below).
Hugh went to
Tirrel school near
Penrith, a large town 20 miles to the southwest of Alston in Cumberland.
Career
Hugh earned fame as a chemist, inventing a process to economically extract silver ore with low concentrations. The following is taken from the
Wikipedia1 entry on Hugh:
He began his working life by helping his father in his shop in Alston. In around 1825 he worked for Anthony Clapham, a soap maker in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Later in 1825 he became assay master (a tester of the purity of gold or silver coins) to the Greenwich Hospital Commissioners, back at Alston. In continuing experiments in metallurgy, he discovered the basis of his method of separating silver from lead in 1829, but had too little money to go any further. In 1831 he became works manager at Thomas Wentworth Beaumont's lead works. The greater income allowed him to continue his experiments on silver refining until he had a workable process.
Pattinson patented his process for enriching silver bearing lead in 1833. It exploited the fact that in molten lead containing traces of silver the first metal to solidify out of the melt is lead, leaving the remaining liquid richer in silver. Pattinson's equipment consisted basically of nothing more complex than a row of about 8–9 iron pots, which were heated from below. Some lead, naturally containing a small percentage of silver, was loaded into the central pot and melted. This was then allowed to cool. As the lead solidified, it was skimmed off and moved to the next pot in one direction, and the remaining metal which was now richer in silver was then transferred to the next pot in the opposite direction. The process was repeated from one pot to the next, the lead accumulating in the pot at one end and metal enriched in silver in the pot at the other. The level of enrichment possible is limited by the lead-silver eutectic and typically the process stopped around 600 to 700 ounces per ton (approx 2%), so further separation is carried out by cupellation.
The patent process, known as pattinsonisation, earned Pattinson £16,000 in royalties. The earlier process of "cupellation" had required at least 8 ounces (250 grams) of silver per ton of lead to be economic. Cupellation involved removing the lead from a silver-rich alloy by oxidising the lead to litharge, leaving the silver behind. Pattinson's process was economic with as little as 2 to 3 ounces (about 75 grams) of silver per ton.
Family Life
Aged just 18, Hugh married
Phoebe Walton, a local girl from Alston, on their common birthday (the 25
th of December) in 1815. Hugh and Phoebe had known each other from childhood, and were both students of a Dame Turnbull when he joked and said she "must marry him when the time came".
From a profile of Hugh available
online2:
On Christmas Day, Phoebe, attended by a numerous party, rode on her gallant steed from the Nest to Alston through the snow, dressed very gaily in a Leghorn bonnet, white veil, and handsome riding habit, and in the parish church of Alston took Hugh Lee Pattinson as her husband for better or for worse. The bridal party were entertained at Mrs Pattinson’s, and it may be added that chocolate was served up at breakfast as a great treat. The bride and bridegroom having both been born on Christmas Day 1796, completed their nineteen years on their marriage-day2.
As Hugh was a Quaker and Phoebe was not, he evidently had to convert to the Anglican tradition as a condition of marriage: his baptism was therefore conducted by the Rev. Benjamin Jackson a couple of days earlier on the 23
rd of December in Alston at the Angel Inn. Following the christening, Hugh adoped the middle name Lee in honour of his mother.
Hugh and Phoebe had eight children though only 4 survived to have children of their own:
- Thomas Walton, born 1817 but who died in 1820
- Eleanor Ellen, born 1819, who married Robert Bowman, a botanist
- Margaret Elizabeth, born 1820 and who married the ironmaster and later baronet, Isaac Lowthian Bell
- Thomas Hugh, born 1822 but who died aged 2
- Hugh Lee jnr, born 1824 (but baptised in 1829) who married Isabella Shield
- Mary, born 1827, who married Robert Stirling Newall
- Thomas, born 1837 and died in Brazil aged 19 in 1856
- Walter, born 1841 but who died (at school) in 1847, aged 5
Death
Hugh died at
Scot's House in Durham on the 11
th of November 1858. A memorial in
Holy Trinity church, Washington in Durham reads:
To the memory of
HUGH LEE, PHOEBE and WALTER PATTINSON
whose remains are deposited in the adjoining vault
Hugh Lee Pattinson was born at Alston Cumberland 25 Decr 1796,
died at Scots House Durham 11 Novr 1858
Phoebe his wife was born at Alston 25 Decr 1796
and died at Newcastle upon Tyne 6 April 1861
Walter their youngest child was born at Bensham Grove Gateshead 13 May 1841
and died at school in Newcastle 6 March 1847.
An article
5 about Hugh's funeral reads as follows:
The funeral of this eminent gentleman took place at the village of Washington on Saturday.
[Principal guests included]
Hugh Lee Pattinson, Esq., son of deceased,
Isaac Lowthian Bell, Esq., Washington and Robert Bowman, Esq., Jesmond, sons-in-law
W. Watson Pattinson, Felling New House, nephew
R.S. Newall, Esq., Fern Dean, Gateshead,
J. Hylton, Esq., R. ReadMayne, Esq, Felling
Thomas Bell, Esq., Usworth House,
John Forster, Esq.
J. Wilson, Esq., of Newcastle, W. Swan, Esq., Washington
Many other gentlemen and 500 workmen attended. The neat little church was crowded to excess. Mr. Pattinson is deposited in a vault at the east end, at the head of which stands a monumental stone, recording the deaths of Walter, his beloved child, who died March 6th, 1847, aged six years; and also Thomas, who died at Para, in Brazil, July 17th, 1856, aged nineteen. The coffin (the outer of oak and the inner of lead) was covered with black cloth, ornamented with brass.
In his will, Hugh named his son
Hugh Lee Pattinson, nephew William Walter Pattinson and friend James Foster as executors. He gave the bulk of his estate to his son and left his wife Phoebe with an annual stipend of £600/year (this was a very large sum, worth about £35,000/year now). His three daughters Ellen, Margaret and Mary were left sums in trust (c. £10,000 each, worth a massive £590,000 now).
Footnotes
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Lee_Pattinson
[2] See
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/special-collections//collections/daguerreotypes/worthies.pdf; and also
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/special-collections//collections/daguerreotypes/pattinson.php
[3]
https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-21582
[4]
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Hugh_Lee_Pattinson
[5] Gateshead Observer, November 1858
[6]
http://www.gastronomyafharrison.co.uk/page230.php
[7]
http://ismay.one-name.net/recordoffices/cumbria.htm
1796 - 1858 (61 years)
[1, 2, 3] 
