Joseph Henry Nettlefold (19 September 1827 – 22 November 1881) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 industrialist, the Nettlefold in Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds.

He was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to John Sutton Nettlefold

John Sutton Nettlefold

John Sutton Nettlefold was a British industrialist and entrepreneur.-Life:In 1823, Nettlefold opened a hardware store at 54 High Holborn, London. This was followed in 1826 by a workshop to make wood-screws based in Sunbury-on-Thames...

 who, in 1854, dispatched him to manage the business of Nettlefold and Chamberlain in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 with his brother Edward John and cousin Joseph Chamberlain

Joseph Chamberlain

Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....

. The Chamberlains left the firm in 1874 and Edward John died in 1878, leaving effective control of Birmingham manufacturing and engineering to Joseph, and his younger brother Frederick Nettlefold

Frederick Nettlefold

Frederick Nettlefold 6 April 1833-1 March 1913 was a British industrialist, one of the Nettlefolds in Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. He was a leader in the Unitarian Church, ending up as lay president of the international organisation....

 as chairman in London. Nettlefolds Ltd was launched as a limited company

Limited company

A limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be...

 in 1880 and Nettlefold, by a series of astute mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...

, went on to establish a virtual monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

 in the British wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

-screw

Screw

A screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as an internal thread, often in the form of a nut or an object that has the...

 market.

Nettlefold was a sober man whose principal interests were technical. He became a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Institution of Mechanical Engineers

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is the British engineering society based in central London, representing mechanical engineering. It is licensed by the Engineering Council UK to assess candidates for inclusion on ECUK's Register of professional Engineers...

 in 1860.

Though both his parents were Unitarian

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

, Nettlefold married a Roman Catholic, Mary Maria Seaborne (born 1835), in 1867. None of their three daughters went on to have any connection with the family business.

Joseph died of apoplexy

Apoplexy

Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...

 at his Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 residence, Allean House, near Pitlochry

Pitlochry

Pitlochry , is a burgh in the council area of Perth and Kinross, Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. Its population according to the 2001 census was 2,564....

, Perthshire

Perthshire

Perthshire, officially the County of Perth , is a registration county in central Scotland. It extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south...

. He bequeathed several paintings by David Cox

David Cox (artist)

- David Cox Junior :David Cox had a son of the same name who followed his calling as a watercolour painter. He was born in Dulwich, but educated in Hereford. He exhibited in London from 1827, although today he is known mainly through association with his father. He died in Streatham on 4 December...

 to the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England.Entrance to the Museum and Art Gallery is free, but some major exhibitions in the Gas Hall incur an entrance fee...

, on condition that it open on Sundays. He left a further £ 1000 to the King's Heath and Moseley Institute.

Sometime after Nettlefold's death, Nettlefold & Co. was acquired by Arthur Keen

Arthur Keen

Arthur Keen was a British entrepreneur, the Keen in engineering firm Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds, later GKN plc.-Early years:...

's Guest, Keen & Co. to create Guest, Keen and Nettlefold which is, , still trading. For many years, this company has been better known as GKN plc