Kellock, C.W., & Co

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.