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This page is part of a website based
on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. Please email site controller Eric Alexander
with any comments or queries. |
Later Merthyr
connections
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It was in the field of
iron refining that Crawshay made his most significant contribution to the
iron trade. He was the sponsor of the
“iron puddling” technique of Henry Cort, which was pioneered as a
commercially viable process at his works in the late 1780s and which
revolutionized the production of malleable bar iron in Britain. From entry for
Richard Crawshay in Oxford DNB. |
Two characters, Richard Crawshay and Samuel
Homfray, stand out among those in the Merthyr Tydfil area whose life has a
significant impact on Cort and on the fate of his inventions.
Much of
Crawshay's early history has been gleaned from a speech made by his grandson
William in Merthyr in 1847.
How he comes from Normanton in Yorkshire,
leaving after a quarrel with his father at the age of sixteen.
How he sells his pony on arrival in London,
to buy himself an apprenticeship to an ironmonger named Bicklewith.
How he advances in the firm, taking it over
when Bicklewith retires.
Other fragments of the story emerge from
Samuel Smiles's accounts, and from Crawshay's Letterbook.
These tell us of a burgeoning business in
London, and of contacts with ironmasters such as the Wilkinsons
in other parts of the country.
His first interest in iron manufacturing
comes around 1774, when Brownrigg retires from the Cyfarthfa
partnership. Crawshay takes over
his share in the cannon foundry, becoming partner with Anthony Bacon.
There is no evidence, however, of Crawshay
visiting Wales until after Bacon's death.
The Homfrays’ involvement also begins in
Cyfarthfa.
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When in 1782 Clerke’s Act was passed prohibiting government
contractors from sitting in the House of Commons, Bacon circumvented this
problem by subletting the mill and forge to another operator, with the
stipulation that the concern had to purchase his Cyfarthfa iron. He turned to Francis whose wide experience
in slitting iron and manufacturing nails, selling iron and iron goods,
operating forges and blast furnaces, and boring cannon had gained him all the
necessary skills. From entry for Homfray
family in Oxford DNB. |
The Homfrays are asked to take over
Cyfarthfa’s foundry. Father Francis
signs the lease, but he sends his three youngest sons to run it: Jeremiah,
Thomas and Samuel.
They do not feel themselves bound by the
conditions accepted by their father, and upset Bacon by making items other than
cannon.
Then they transgress further by entering
into a partnership with one of their customers, Richard Forman of Ordnance at
the Tower of London. This new
partnership leases land at Penydarren east of Cyfarthfa, where they start to
build a blast furnace in flagrant violation of the terms of the agreement with
Bacon.
He takes them to
court, citing (amongst other sins) a confrontation involving fisticuffs between
his agent Richard Hill and the young Samuel Homfray.
The Homfrays surrender the foundry's lease
and concentrate their efforts at Penydarren, where Samuel duly becomes
dominant.
Meanwhile Bacon has acquired the Hirwaun
ironworks, a little way to the west, to add to his investments at Cyfarthfa and Plymouth. When he dies in January 1786, he leaves one of the works to each
of three illegitimate sons. All far too young to take on the responsibility.
Eldest son Anthony gets Cyfarthfa. William Stevens,
one of Bacon's executors, becomes his effective guardian.
Stevens and Crawshay form a partnership
with James Cockshutt (son of John), who has been
running the foundry for a few years.
Cockshutt takes over management of the
whole Cyfarthfa complex on behalf of the partnership.
Crawshay
meanwhile has heard about Cort's process.
He realises that the other ironmasters are missing something.
They have dismissed the process because it
gives them no better yield than the "potting and
stamping" they are using. They
consider only how much wrought iron is produced from a fixed quantity of pig.
But Crawshay sees how much faster Cort's
process is, and how it's possible to optimise its output by feeding the output
of eight puddling furnaces through two shingling hammers to one rolling mill.
Following the agreement with Cort and
Jellicoe in May 1787, Crawshay invites Cort to Cyfarthfa to oversee building of
puddling furnaces there. Some of Cort's
workmen come to instruct the workers in puddling technique.
Initially he has no mill, but sends his
shingled "blooms" to Gosport or Rotherhithe to be rolled.
During this period he tries to persuade
other ironmasters to use the process.
Only Samuel Homfray shows any interest.
I will see Mr Jellicoe on Messrs Gibbons matter. I am sure the quality of our Iron is not Inferior to Shropshire. From letter of Richard
Crawshay to James Cockshutt, 19 June 1788. |
I may probably require the assistance of the Messrs Homfrays. From letter of Henry Cort to
James Cockshutt, 8th January 1788. |
And there are problems.
Cort at Gosport tells Crawshay in London
that the quality of iron from Cyfarthfa is variable.
They both blame Cockshutt and expect him to
sort it out.
By mid-1789 Crawshay has lost
patience. He ends the agreement with
Cort & Jellicoe.
Apparently he has paid little or nothing in
the way of royalties.
But he has built a rolling mill, and goes
on to install a Watt engine to drive it.
At this point Adam
Jellicoe dies and the Navy's axe falls on Cort.
Poor Cort & Jellicoe are ruined & will become bankrupts,From
letter of Richard Crawshay to James Cockshutt, 18 September 1789. |
"Perseverance" is Crawshay's
motto. He refuses to give up attempts
to produce high-quality iron at Cyfarthfa.
In 1792
he moves there, and instigates a series of changes which help to produce the desired result. By this time Stevens and Cockshutt have left the partnership.
Robert Thompson,
who has been chief clerk at Cyfarthfa for some time, seems set to benefit from
these developments. But he blots his
copybook by marrying Crawshay's widowed sister Elizabeth Moser.
Crawshay dismisses him, and he moves to the
works at Dowlais, which has been plodding on while
Cyfarthfa and Penydarren have seen most of the action. Later he sets up his own works in the Forest
of Dean.
Crawshay makes a will in September
1809. By this time his espousal of the
puddling process has brought enormous wealth.
He leaves Cyfarthfa to son-in-law Benjamin Hall and nephew Joseph Bailey.
Nothing for his son William.
But the following May he relents, and
leaves William a share in the works.
Just in time. He dies the following month, reputedly worth £1.5 million.
Samuel
Homfray has also been successful, marrying into a rich local family (but still
philandering, according to some accounts).
He has other iron interests including the
works at Tredegar. In 1813 he gives up
his interest in Penydarren. Later he
becomes an MP.
Dowlais and Plymouth, the two other
ironworks near Merthyr, have continued with few changes. Dowlais is expanding, and has adopted
puddling. Plymouth has been
concentrating on ore extraction and smelting.
In time, Dowlais and Penydarren will merge,
forming the nucleus of Guest, Keen and Nettlefold. By then steel manufacture will be surging ahead, replacing
puddling, and Merthyr will become less important as an ironmaking centre.
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RELATED TOPICS Cort’s promotion
efforts 1783-6 Shropshire
and Staffordshire ironmasters |
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