#15223, James RANSOME

He was born the elder son of Robert Ransome, founder of the manufacturer of agricultural implements (later known as Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies) inIpswich, Suffolk. He entered his father's business in 1795.

James, with his brother Robert (1795–1864), who became a partner in the business in 1819, took out several patents for improvements in ploughs. Threshing machines, scarifiers, and other agricultural implements were also improved by the firm. James and Robert Ransome were among the earliest members of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, which was founded in 1838, and they gained in later years many of the society's chief medals and prizes.

On the coming of railways, the Ransomes became the largest manufacturers of railway chairs, a patent being obtained for casting them. A patent was also taken out for compressed wood keys and treenails for securing the chairs and rails, and many millions of these were produced.

James Ransome died, his wife Hannah, daughter of Samuel Hunton of Southwold, having predeceased him. They had several children, including James Allen Ransome (1806–1875), who became a partner in the business in 1829. His daughter Jane was the mother of John Sherwell Corder, architect and artist. Another daughter, Hannah Hunton Ransome married Stafford Allen, the quaker abolitionist.

OBITUARY, 1851, Institution of Civil Engineers stated:

Mr. James Ransome was born on the 14th of December, 1782; he was the eldest son of Robert Ransome, an iron-founder at Norwich, whose patent in the year 1785, for making plough-shares of cast iron, was the first step in a series of improvements in the plough, which have induced very important results.

In the year 1789, Mr. Robert Ransome transferred his business to Ipswich, and commenced the iron foundry and manufactory of agricultural implements, and machinery, which has now deservedly attained a world-wide reputation. Here Mr. James Ransome served his apprenticeship, became a very skillful workman, and was, for a few years, his father’s chief assistant.

In 1804, he became associated with James Bird Sparke in an iron foundry, at Great Yarmouth, where circumstances induced a connexion between him and Mr. Cubitt, now the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, with whom he maintained a steady, undisturbed friendship, to his latest day.

In 1809, he relinquished his business at Yarmouth, in order to join his father, who had taken out a patent, for applying the process of case-hardening to cast-iron plough-shares, which promised such an extension of their use, as to demand greatly increased means of production.

The improvement referred to, consisted in casting the plough-shares upon iron moulds, so as to chill the under surface, to the depth of one-sixteenth, or one-eighth of an inch, acting in the same manner as a layer of harder metal, and producing the same effect, as the old process of welding steel on to the wrought-iron shares. When at work, the upper surface, not being hardened, suffered most from the abrasion of the earth it turned up, whilst the case-hardened lower surfaces, wearing away more slowly, retained a constant sharp cutting edge, which enabled a larger amount of work to be accomplished, whilst the expense and loss of time and labour, formerly attending the sharpening and laying of the wrought-iron shares, was entirely avoided.

The patents subsequently obtained by the father for improvements in the plough, and so ably conducted by the son, induced the system of making each part of that implement with such accuracy, as to insure its according itself to all the other portions, without any manual adjustment; so that any portions, bearing certain marks, could be sent to any part of the world, however distant, with the certainty of their being ready for immediate use. This accuracy could only be accomplished by great attention to the moulding, and casting; but being once attained, it pervaded everything constructed by the firm of Ransomes and May, and induced the spread of their implements over the civilized world; and on the general establishment of railways, the same system of accurate moulding was so successfully applied to the casting of railway chairs, that at present, their chairs are adopted on upwards of fifty railways, whilst the compressed wedges, keys and trenails, introduced and manufactured by the same firm, are almost as generally employed.

For upwards of a year previous to his decease, Mr. James Ransome had withdrawn from any active participation in the direction of the business, but his counsel was always sought by his partners, and his influence was most beneficially felt, over the whole establishment.

The prominent points of his character were, urbanity of manner, combined with great firmness of purpose, sound judgment, and undeviating integrity.