Matthew Curtis (1807–1887) was an industrialist and civic leader in Manchester. He was Mayor of Manchester three times and elected to membership of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 18 April 1843.Complete List of the Members & Officers of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society. From its institution on February 28th 1781 to April, 1896.
Life Born in Manchester in 1807,Paul A. Pickering and Alex Tyrrell The People's Bread: a history of the Anti Corn Law League (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000) , 978-0-7185-0218-8. p. 275 Curtis was initially apprenticed to the firm of Joseph Chessborough Dyer,Lance Day & Ian McNeil Biographical dictionary of the history of technology (Taylor & Francis, 1996) , 978-0-415-06042-4. p. 227 subsequently becoming foreman, and then succeeding in 1836 to the ownership of Dyer's business, which became Curtis, Parr & Walton.Parliamentary Papers, 17 March 1841. p 110–124. Pub. HMSO By trade, Curtis was a wire-card manufacturer and a machine-maker. He was a partner in two businesses: Curtis, Parr & Walton, wire-card makers (with James Walton), and Parr, Curtis & Madely, machine-makers. These firms were involved in the manufacture of equipment for spinning cotton, the former in the production of Dyer's Frame and the latter producing Smith & Orr's Self-Acting Mule. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Curtis's firms were the largest manufacturers of cotton-spinning machinery in Britain.Albert Edward Musson & Eric Robinson Science and technology in the Industrial Revolution (Manchester University Press, 1969) , 978-0-7190-0370-7. p. 62, fn. 6
In December 1875, during his second term as Mayor of Manchester, Curtis put in place the copper ball on the summit of the Albert Square tower of the new Manchester Town Hall, which was nearing its completion in 1877.William E.A. Axon, The annals of Manchester: a chronological record from the earliest times to the end of 1885 (J. Heywood, 1886) p. 355 Curtis was a council member of the Manchester Anti-Corn Law AssociationPickering & Tyrrell, p. 275 and a founding director of the Manchester Athenaeum.Thomas Swindells Manchester Streets and Manchester Men (Cornish, 1906–1908) p. 33 He resided at Thornfield in Heaton Mersey, south of the city, and died on 9 June 1887The London Gazette, September 23, 1887 or 11 June 1887,The Manchester Guardian, 21 June 1887 during his third term as Mayor.
Marriages and children Curtis married twice: Firstly to Amelia Weaver (1810–1877), daughter of Richard Weaver of Tarvin in Cheshire, by whom he had 2 sons and 1 daughter,Burke, 1937, p.544; five or more children per: Pickering & Tyrrell, p.275 including: John Curtis (1836–1878),Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial families : a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour, Volume 1. (Edinburgh: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1905) eldest son, who predeceased his father, leaving 3 sons including the youngest Walter Septimus Curtis (born 1871) lord of the manor of Denbury in Devon, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn.Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, 1937, p.544, pedigree of "Curtis of Denbury Manor" One of Walter's daughters was Lettice Curtis (1915–2014) an aviator, flight test engineer, air racing pilot, and sportswoman.Lettice Curtis, Lettice Curtis - her autobiography, Red Kite, Walton on Thames, 2004, Richard Curtis, 2nd son; Secondly he married Charlotte Laughton (1824–1918), 5th daughter of Edmund Laughton of Tickhill, Yorkshire.Burke, 1937, p.544
The lych gate (1927) of St John's Church, Heaton Mersey carries an inscription, much faded, dedicated to Curtis and other, later members of the Curtis family.C. Hartwell, Lancashire: Manchester and the South East, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England. (Yale University Press, 2004) . p. 230
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