page_title: The Churchill Machine Tool Company
section_title: Charles Churchill
hierarchical_section_title: The Churchill Machine Tool Company / History / Charles Churchill
caption_attribution_description: English: Charles Churchill, US-born British machine tool importer and manufacturer, pictured prior to 1916, the year of his death
context_page_description: The Churchill Machine Tool Company Limited began as the manufacturing subsidiary of the machine tool importers Charles Churchill & Company Limited founded in the early 1900s by US-born Charles Churchill. Created out of the personal bankruptcy of Charles Churchill, the company developed to become one of the largest British importers of machine tools from the United States and a major manufacturer of such tools, initially under licence and later of its own development.
  The original business importing American machine tools into Britain began with Charles Churchill as sole proprietor and later as a partnership with two others. It became a limited company in 1889. In 1906 a separate company, The Churchill Machine Tool Co Ltd, was established with the purpose of adapting tools imported by Charles Churchill & Co. The former expanded, producing American tools under licence and then manufactured tools of its own design, in particular precision surface grinders and similar engineering machinery. In 1918 The Churchill Machine Tool Co relocated its factories onto a single site at Broadheath, near Altrincham.
context_section_description: Charles Churchill was born in the United States, in Hamden, Connecticut, on 8 July 1837. His father was Willis Churchill, described as "a mechanic of rare ability, original in the style of his goods and in his process of manufacture," who had been manufacturing brass surgical instruments at a time when such instruments were all imported to the United States. Willis Churchill founded a factory manufacturing auger drill bits which was so locally prominent that the area of Hamden in which it was situated was called Augerville.
  Charles worked in his father's auger manufacturing business, but when Willis went to London in 1861 to supervise the installation of wire-covering machinery being exported by Thompson, Langdon & Co of New York City, Charles soon followed and, once there, spotted a business opportunity for himself as he saw the interest that the US-made equipment generated. By the time of his death his businesses had a presence in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and Newcastle-on-Tyne and was "a giant machine-importing business".
  According to historian L. T. C. Rolt, the original installation was of machines for wire-braiding crinoline frames, and Charles simultaneously imported metal cutting machine tools to aid his friend Hiram Maxim who was developing a machine gun. This is a moot point: the Maxim gun was not developed for a further 20 years, and it is unlikely that Maxim was in England during the 1860s; however, the Gatling gun was patented in 1862. Rolt claimed that Charles Churchill & Co began trading in 1865 as importers of engineering tools and is thought to have imported the first examples of Morse tapered twist drills, self-centring drill chucks (manufactured by Cushman) and hand-held micrometers into the UK. According to Floud, he imported agricultural implements and other non-engineering items at this time. In its early years the company traded from 28 Wilson Street, Finsbury: sales catalogues were published certainly between 1876 and 1882 stating this address.
  Charles Churchill & Co initially operated on Charles' own account rather than as a limited company. In his early period of operating in England he was active in patenting engineered items in conjunction with one of several other parties. The London Gazette shows several announcements for protection under the terms of the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852 (see table below). Two of them were subsequently announced as voided by reason of non-payment for continuance. (To continue required that the applicant pay a stamp duty of £50 within three years subsequent to the application.)
  Churchill's location is stated as being New York City for the 1865 applications (Buckingham was at Westmoreland House,  Walworth Common, Surrey); for those of 1867 and 1868 he was in Norwood, Surrey, and states himself to be a merchant; still listing himself as a merchant, the 1869–70 applications show his summarised address as Darnley Crescent, Hackney, Middlesex; and thereafter as a merchant at Wilson Street, Finsbury. Willis Churchill, Clark and Gee were all shown as being of New York City; Tiffany was of Bennington, Vermont; Miller was of West Meriden, Connecticut; and Beach of Newark, New Jersey.
  
  Charles Churchill living at 118 Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington, Middlesex, with offices at 21 Cross Street, Finsbury, trading as Charles Churchill & Co was declared bankrupt by debtors' petition on 1 September 1887. He declared himself bankrupt rather than be declared so by someone to whom he owed money. The final dividend in bankruptcy was paid in 1889, and he was released from trusteeship on 29 April 1890. He had applied earlier for discharge but it had been refused on the grounds that he 
  had omitted to keep such books of account as are usual and proper in the business carried on by him, and as sufficiently disclose his business transactions and financial position within three years immediately preceding his bankruptcy; had continued to trade after knowing himself to be insolvent; and had brought on his bankruptcy by rash and hazardous speculations.
  Churchill fully toole
caption: Charles Churchill, 1837–1916
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