Career
He was a promoter of the Dorset and Somerset Canal and the inventor of the Balance lock. James Fussell III leased the site in Mells in 1744, to erect "a good, firme and substantiall Mill or Mills for Grinding Edge Tools and forging Iron plates". Tools produced by Fussells were exported to Europe and America, and the family expanded its activities to include coal mining and banking, with the business issuing its own banknotes at one stage.
The business declined towards the end of the 19th century, due in part to a failure to convert from water to steam power until a late stage, and also to the collapse of English agriculture in the 1870s.
By 1895 production had ceased, and the company folded in 1900.