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{{Short description|British industrialist and entrepreneur}}
{{about||his grandson, the British social reformer|John Sutton Nettlefold (social reformer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''John Sutton Nettlefold''' (23 September 1792 – 12 April 1866) was a British [[industrialist]] and [[entrepreneur]].<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{cite web|title=John Sutton Nettlefold|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/John_Sutton_Nettlefold|publisher=Grace's Guide to British Industrial History|accessdate=9 July 2017|language=en}}</ref>

==Early life and family==
Nettlefold was born in London. Nettlefold was a [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]]; he married a co-religionist, Martha Chamberlain (1794&ndash;1866). Hers was a family of [[Birmingham]] manufacturers and politicians: her brother's son, [[Joseph Chamberlain]] (1836&ndash;1914), was a radical Liberal and a leading imperialist. They lived in [[The Grove, Highgate]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Richardson |first1=John |title=Highgate: Its history since the Fifteenth Century |date=1983 |publisher=Eyre and Spottiswoode |isbn=0-9503656-4-5}}</ref>

They had three sons: Edward John Nettlefold (1820&ndash;1878), [[Joseph Henry Nettlefold]] (1827&ndash;1881) and [[Frederick Nettlefold]] (1833&ndash;1913). One of Edward John's sons was named after him, [[John Sutton Nettlefold (social reformer)|John Sutton Nettlefold]], who was a social reformer.

==Career==

In 1823, he opened a hardware store at 54 [[High Holborn]]. This was followed in 1826 by a workshop to make [[screw|woodscrews]] based in [[Sunbury-on-Thames]]. The Sunbury factory was powered by a [[waterwheel]] and Nettlefold saw the importance of motive power when he took advantage of [[steam power]] in a new factory in Baskerville Place, off [[Broad Street, Birmingham]]. He renamed the business Nettlefold and Sons, Ltd., and it expanded rapidly in London and Birmingham.<ref name="ODNB">Smith (2004)</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Mr. Frederick Nettlefold |work=[[The Times]] |page= 9|date=6 March 1913 }}</ref>

In 1854, Nettlefold acquired the opportunity to purchase a licence to manufacture to a U.S. [[patent]] for a novel woodscrew. The licence, and the establishment of a new factory, demanded an investment of [[GBP|£]] 30,000. Nettlefold sought and obtained the involvement of his brother-in-law as equal partner for an investment of £10,000 and the two established a factory in [[Smethwick]], leaving its management to their sons, Edward John and [[Joseph Henry Nettlefold]], and Joseph Chamberlain.<ref name="ODNB"/>

In later years, the management of the partnership, Nettlefold and Chamberlain, was passed to Joseph and [[Frederick Nettlefold]], and later was absorbed into [[GKN|Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds]],<ref name="ODNB"/> a [[Multinational corporation|multinational]] engineering company headquartered in [[Redditch]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book | author=Jones, E | title=A History of GKN Volume 1: Innovation and Enterprise 1759&ndash;1918 | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan  | year=1987 | isbn=0-333-34594-0 }}
*Smith, B.D.M (2004) "[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37804 Nettlefold, Joseph Henry (1827-1881)]", rev., ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press, accessed 27 July 2005 {{ODNBsub}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nettlefold, John Sutton}}
[[Category:1792 births]]
[[Category:1866 deaths]]
[[Category:History of Birmingham, West Midlands]]
[[Category:19th-century English businesspeople]]


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