Famous people of Derbyshire, England. My disappointment.

Following a visit to a website set up to promote business and tourism in Derbyshire.
www.visitderbyshire.co.uk (I don't want you to link to them)
I could not be more disappointed in them. Either they had copied the list from 3 other sites or the 3 other sites had copied from them.

Chatsworth house. Once home of Bess of Hardwick and a possible relative of mine. Currently owned by the Duke of Devonshire.

Their List

Bess Of Hardwick
Izaak Walton
Erasmus Darwin
Charles Edward Stuart
Jedediah Strutt
Sir Richard Arkwright
Joseph Wright
Thomas Cook
Florence Nightingale
Henry Royce
D. H. Lawrence
Joe Davis OBE
Ellen MacArthur
Stanislaw Jozefiak

This website is there to promote Derbyshire and business. I think it got it all wrong with its pick of famous people. We have lots.

Born in Derbyshire?

Bess YES
Izaak Staffordshire NO
Erasmus Nottinghamshire NO
Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart. Rome, Italy NO
Jedediah Yes but they have him born in the wrong village.
Richard. Preston Lancashire NO
Joseph YES
Thomas YES
Florence. Italy again NO
Henry. Huntingdonshire NO
D.H. YES
Joe YES
Ellen YES
Stanislaw Poland NO

So that’s 7 out of 14 they have got right. And that’s giving them a full point for Jedediah Strutt him being from the correct county.

If they wanted to pick people that spent some time in Derbyshire, they could pick many better names.

Mary Queen of Scots. (Possible queen of England if she had kept her head).

The website is made to promote business in Derbyshire.
They could use some of the famous businessmen born there.

Francis Beresford and Benjamin Outram who founded the Butterley Company.

Joseph Bourne who was born in Belper and founded the pottery company there. Later taking over the famous Denby Pottery.

John King of Pinxton who invented the ‘detaching hook’ used world-wide on mine shaft cages.

John Smedley from Matlock not only ran the family business, which is still owned by the family. Located at Lea near Matlock, making fine knitwear but he also established Matlock Bath.

His home, a gothic castle. Riber.

Robert Watchorn Born in Alfreton Derbyshire but making a fortune in the USA in oil.

Barnes Wallis You must have heard of him and his bouncing bomb.

Joseph Cyril Bamford
Founder of the JCB factory. One of the most modern family businesses in the world. Sponsers of the Williams F1 team.

Other notable Derbyshire names.

The Fitzherberts are one of Derbyshire’s oldest families living in Derbyshire since the Norman conquest of 1066.

What about Sir James Outram (son of Benjamin Outram). Born at Butterley and being so famous for his military career in India he has a statue in the Whitehall Gardens, London and Calcutta.

Having several roads and a town named after him. Maybe he should have a statue in Derbyshire as well?

The Curzons have lived in Derbyshire since the 1200s and have many famous members. Another Derbyshire born with a statue in London and Calcutta.

John Flamstead The first Astronomer Royal and founder of the Greenwich observatory.

Anthony Babbington not remembered in a good way. He was executed for plotting to kill Elizabeth 1.

Michelle Gent not dead like the rest but someone to remember. Author, film producer, business woman, county councillor and wife.

The Gent Coat of arms

We also have a big list of famous actors and actresses.