and John Roebuck, founded the Carron Iron Works, in Scotland, in 1759, in which the two Birmingham men each held a 25% share. He also chaired, from January 1788, a Birmingham committee against the slave trade.

His eldest child and only daughter Mary married Charles Gascoigne in 1759, and in 1765 Gascoigne became a partner in the Carron works, having been manager of Garbett's