We do not know for certain the name of the "Son" of the business. However, the 1851 Census records a John Corns living at 144, Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton. The occupation of John Corns is given as "Mill Maker". We also know that a John Corns, closely connected with the family (there is a memorial card in the family archive), died on January 27^th 1869 at the age of 82. This would put his date of birth at around 1786/7. It would seem likely from these facts that John Corns is the son of William, the founder of the business.

We also know from the family archives that William Corns (the father of Samuel born in 1845) was born in 1795/6. He was probably the brother of the John Corns who went into the business with his father. William junior (as we shall call him) may not have gone into the family business since he is described as a "Gentleman" in his son Samuel’s Indenture of Apprenticeship to an architect in 1860. A direct line of succession from the original William Corns of the 18^th Century through to the descendants of Samuel William Corns and his sister Harriet Corns (who married Henry Jones) can be followed (see the family tree).

Samuel Corns Senior and Harriet Corns had four children – Samuel William, Hannah Jane, Harriet Mary and Helen Louise. Helen Louise died at the age of three. It was mentioned earlier that Harriet Corns’s maiden name was Newton. It has long been family lore that she was descended from Isaac Newton. This, however, is probably not strictly true since Isaac Newton never married, but he could, of course, have had an illegitimate son. The more likely connection is that Harriet was descended from a brother or cousin of Isaac Newton.

Samuel Corns Senior was indentured to an architect, one George Bidlake, at the age of 15. As we have already noted, the Deed of Indenture, dated April 15^th 1860, describes William junior (Samuel’s father), as a "Gentleman" of Penn Fields near Wolverhampton. This rather suggests that the fortunes of the Corns family had prospered to the extent that William junior did not need to work. William junior may have had some interest in the business but left the day to day management to elder brother, John. Further evidence of the prosperity of the Corns family at this time is that a premium of £99 and 10 shillings was paid to George Bidlake for Samuel Corns Senior to be indentured to him – quite a considerable sum in those days.

Whether or not Samuel Corns Senior ever practised as an architect, we do not know. What we do know is that he formed his own business as a Builders’ Merchant in Lower Stafford Street, Wolverhampton. The business, which also dealt in coal, coke and lime, eventually moved to Littles Lane, North Road, Wolverhampton adjacent to the canal, obviously a convenient location for shipping heavy goods.

Samuel Corns’s son, Samuel William Corns, became an electrical and mechanical engineer and worked with the Metropolitan Railway. As we have seen earlier, Charles Jones (born 1870) also joined the Metropolitan Railway and became its Chief Locomotive and Electrical Engineer. It would seem very likely that Samuel William Corns (born 1878) joined the Metropolitan Railway via his connection with Charles Jones. Harriet Mary, his sister, was married to Charles Jones’s younger brother, Henry. Furthermore Samuel William Corns worked at the ECC in Bushbury between 1898 and 1903 during the time when Richard Jones, the father of Charles and Henry, was the Works Manager. Samuel William Corns joined the Metropolitan Railway in 1904, one year after Charles Jones.

Hannah Jane Corns, the sister of Samuel William and Harriet Mary, never married. She lived at 86, Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton, where her mother Harriet (née Newton) had lived before her. Hannah Jane, in the entrepreneurial spirit of the Corns family, ran her own haberdashery shop.