Cork motor dealership archive to be donated to city 

Johnson & Perrott Motor Group has donated historical documents to the Cork City Archives and is loaning a fully restored James Johnson carriage dating back to the middle of the 19th century, and a sign from the original carriage works on what was then called ‘Nelson Place Carriage Works’ to Cork Public Museum Photographed here are Brian McGee, Senior Archivist, Cork City and County Archives Service; Mark Whitaker, CEO of Johnson & Perrott Motor Group and Daniel Breen, Curator, Cork Public Museum. Photo Joleen Cronin

One of the country’s oldest motor dealerships and limited companies is donating its remarkable archive to Cork city today, providing a fascinating insight into the commercial and social life of the city as transport evolved from horse-drawn carriages to motor cars.

The archive of Johnson & Perrott, one of Cork's great family-owned businesses which dates from 1861 when a city centre carriage-building business was acquired by James Johnson, includes company documents, contracts and advertisements, as well as 11 personal diaries and some 200 photographs, negatives and glass plates.

The donation also includes a fully restored James Johnson-built horse-drawn ‘ladies’ carriage, dating from the middle of the 19th century and which was used on the Wyndham estate in Castletownroche and then by the Daunt family in Myrtleville, as well as an original sign from the company’s ‘Nelson Place Carriage Works’ on what is now Emmet Place in the city centre.

And what’s even more remarkable is that many of the company's historical documents were almost ‘lost’ to history. They were discovered by a solicitor cleaning out a strong room who then contacted the company.

Mark Whitaker, CEO of the Johnson & Perrott Motor Dealership (JPMD), a direct descendant of James Johnson, said that discovery prompted him to donate all the material to the city archives, with the unanimous support and approval of his wider family.

“I am hugely sensitive to protecting our archive for the benefit of future generations who might like to research it,” he said.

“With the company having been established in 1810, and in our family’s ownership since 1861, Johnson & Perrott has evolved and grown with its native city.

Johnson & Perrott Archive Photos. 

“I hope that this donation will help future historians to paint an accurate picture of what life was like in our city, and the people who helped build it.” 

The company can trace its roots back to an 1810-founded carriage building business in Cork city centre which was bought some time later by a Mr Edden. It's believed that he had an apprentice, James Johnson, who bought the business in 1861 and transformed it into a high-class coach and carriage building operation.

Johnson’s daughter, Kate, married Robert Perrott, whose family ran an iron foundry nearby, and their son William Perrott joined Johnson's carriage-building business in 1904, when it became a partnership. He managed it from 1907, when it became a limited company. William Perrott is Mr Whitaker’s great grandfather.

The archive spans several significant periods in the history of Cork, and among the items being donated are:

• documents relating to the introduction of motorised vehicles to Cork in the early 1900s, with the first second-hand car sold in 1903;
• William Perrott’s handwritten diaries which detail his experiences of Cork during the War of Independence and the Civil War;
• documents relating to the company’s ownership of Rushbrooke Dockyard (now Verolme dockyard), and its sequestration during World War One;
• and an original copy of one of the first franchise agreements in Ireland to sell Vauxhall cars and Bedford trucks from 1933

Mr Perrott was a keen amateur photographer and the archive contains a large collection of his personal photographs, glass plates and negatives, which show his love for sailing and outdoor pursuits at the turn of the last century.

The documents chart the difficulties faced by the company and the family during a turbulent period in Irish history, during which the Johnson & Perrott buildings were commandeered by the Free State Army during the Civil War.

Mr Whitaker said: “Personally, I found it fascinating to read through my great grandfather’s diaries where he spoke of the practical difficulties of life during the War of Independence and the Civil War, including brief references to the burning of Cork and the death of Michael Collins.

“They show how life just continued to be lived in the chaos.

“What I have learned as I've studied the material is that you can never have enough facts and that we should be slow to judge.

“The more information you get, the more context you get and the more you get to understand why things happened.

“It has made me more cautious about judging the actions of people in the past."

The archive will be formally donated to the Cork City Archives on Saturday afternoon during a ceremony at the Cork Public Museum, where Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Damien Boylan and Tánaiste Micheál Martin, will officially open the exhibition, ‘From Carriage to Car – The Early History of the Johnson & Perrott Group’.

Mr Martin said donations such as this greatly help tell the story of Cork.

Daniel Breen, the curator of Cork Public Museum, said there is huge scope for collaborations like this between public bodies and private companies with a long history like that of Johnson & Perrott.