ge that swept over France, the Muntz family, in
common with so many hundreds of their countrymen, emigrated; and after
a time, a younger son, Mr. Muntz's father, who seems to have been a
man of great enterprise and force of character, became a merchant
at Amsterdam. This step was very displeasing to his aristocratic
relatives, but he followed his own course independently. In a few
months he left Amsterdam for England, and established himself in
Birmingham. At the age of 41 he married an English lady, Miss Purden,
she being 17 years of age, and they resided in the house in Newhall
Street now occupied by Messrs. Benson and Co., merchants, as offices,
where, in the month of November, 1794, Mr. George Frederic Muntz was
born. It is believed that his baptismal names were given him in honour
of Handel, the composer. At the time of his birth the house stood amid
fields and gardens, and the old mansion known as "New Hall," was in
close proximity, standing on the ground now occupied by the roadway
of Newhall Street, just where the hill begins to descend towards
Charlotte Street.

The mother of Mr. Muntz was a lady of great acquirements and
considerable mental power. She undertook the early education of her
son, and was singularly qualified for the work. At the age of 12 he
was sent to a school at Small Heath, kept by a Dr. Currie, where
he remained for one year, and from that time he never received any
professional instruction. He had, however, a hunger for knowledge that
was insatiable, and, with the assistance of his excellent mother, he
pursued his studies privately. He became very well up in ancient and
modern history. At a very early age he was associated with his father
in business, and soon became a very apt assistant. His father's
somewhat premature death in 1811 brought him, at the early age of 18,
face to face with the stern realities of life, for he became, so to
speak, the head of the family, and the mainstay of the two businesses
with which his father had been connected--the rolling mills in Water
Street and the mercantile establishment in Great Charles Street. There
he continued a hard-working, plodding; life for many years; but on the
fortunate discovery of the fact that a peculiar alloy of sixteen
parts of copper with ten and two-thirds of spelter made a metal as
efficacious for the sheathing of ships' bottoms as copper itself, at
about two-thirds the cost, he left the management of the old concerns
pretty much