Dud Dudley
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Dud Dudley, was born in 1599, the illegitimate son of Edward, Lord Dudley of Dudley Castle, (1556-1643) thus Grandson of Edward Dudley, (1525-1586) (Govenor of Hume Castle) by Katherine Brydges.
Dud was the fourth of eleven children by Elizabeth, the daughter of William Tomlinson. His eldest brother was Robert Dudley of Netherton Hall. Dud was to marry an Elieanor (ne) Heaton, (b1606-d 1675), on the 12th October in 1626 at St. Helen's Church, Worcester.
His father, Edward Sutton lord Dudley, although having legitimate heirs at the time, seems to have attended to the education of his natural children with equal attention. When a youth, in his father's iron-works near Dudley, Dud begun his study of the various processes of iron manufacture.
In 1618 Dud Dudley, left Balliol College, Oxford, at the age of 20 to take over his fathers furnace & forges on Pensnett Chase. He introduced the use of coal instead of charcoal for the smelting of Iron, being granted a Royal Patent in 1620.
From Dudley Castle the Sutton lords of Dudley controlled a large area of the West Midlands. The most enduring of their legacies perhaps being the Market Town of Dudley itself. There were about 2,000 smiths and workers in iron of various kinds living within ten miles of Dudley Castle. The town of Dudley was already a centre of iron production, in the main supplying the domestic market with such items as nails, horse-shoes, keys, locks, and essential agricultural implements.
With such an obvious abundance of coal, some places being found in seams up to ten feet thick, and ironstone four feet in depth immediately under the coal, and with limestone adjacent to both, Dud Dudley was the first ironmaster to abandon charcoal burning in favour of experimenting with coal (coke) for the smelting of iron ore.
Dud was favoured by his father, who encouraged his speculations with the improvement of iron production, giving him an education intended to enhance his practical abilities. He was studying at Baliol College, at Oxford, in 1619, when the Earl sent for him to take charge of a furnace and two forges at Pensnet in Worcestershire.
Young, intelligent and loyal, his first act as manager of the works, hampered by the want of wood for combustion, was in the exploitation of pit-coal as a substitute fuel. The standard metallurgical fuel available then was charcoal, with an complete reliance upon wood for smelting gradually destabilizing Britain's naval and mercantile strength, Dudley modified his furnace to accommodate the new process, but the quantity of iron initially produced was about three ton in a week from each furnace. Nevertheless Dud wrote to his father, then in London, informing him of his success, desiring him to immediately seek a patent from King James.
Dudley's patent, dated 22nd February, 1620, was taken out in the name of Edward Lord Dudley.
Dud proceeded with the manufacture of iron at Pensnet, and Cradley in Staffordshire, and a year after the patent was granted he was able to send a considerable quantity of the new iron for trial to the Tower. Under the King's command, many experiments were made with it: its qualities were fairly tested, and it was pronounced "good merchantable iron."
His many competitors had seen him making quality iron by his new patent process, undercutting them on price, and so accordingly put into circulation disapproving reports about his product, appealing to King James to prevent Dud's industry, by claiming his product was not merchantable.
The Great May day Flood.
The new works had been in successful operation little more than a year, when a flood, long after known as the "Great May day Flood," swept away Dudley's principal works at Cradley, and otherwise rendered considerable damage across the reigon.
"At the market town called Stourbridge," according to Dud, "although the author sent with speed to preserve the people from drowning, and one resolute man was carried from the bridge there in the day time, the nether part of the town was so deep in water that the people had much ado to preserve their lives in the uppermost rooms of their houses."
Dudley himself received very little sympathy for his losses. On the contrary, the iron-smelters of the district celebrated the destruction of his works by the flood, anticipating there might be an end to Dudley's pit-coal iron. Dud, undaunted and with a passion, set to work repairing his furnaces and forges at some great cost; and in a short time was again back in full production.
Other ironmasters continued to seek his downfall, addressing complaints against Dud and his iron to the King. In order to ascertain the quality of the product by testing it on a large scale, the King commanded Dud to send to the Tower of London, quantities of all the various sorts of bar-iron made by him, fit for the "making of muskets, carbines, and iron for great bolts for shipping; which iron", records Dud, "being so tried by artists and smiths, the ironmasters and iron-mongers were all silenced until the 21st year of King James's reign."
Dud's ill fortune continued to pursue him. The patent had scarcely been secured as the Civil War broke out. Dud Dudley's inovation of smelting iron with coke made of pit-coal, was ahead of its time. It was unappreciated by the iron-masters and the workmen. All schemes for smelting ore with any other fuel than charcoal made from wood were regarded with incredulity.
Dudley himself does not seem to have been able to make more on an average than five ton a week, with seven ton at the outside. Nor was the iron so good as that made by charcoal; as it is admitted to have been notably liable to deterioration by the sulphurous fumes of the coal during its manufacture.
Metallum Martis
"Metallum Martis" is Dud Dudley's personal view of his discovery, published after the Reformation, when he had petitioned King Charles II, to restore his lands & patents, only to be rejected.
Curious note:
‘In 1722 it was ordered that ‘iron work at Deptford, Woolwich, and Chatham was to be wrought up under a Master Smith selected from persons fitly qualified’. Thomas Dudley was given the first appointment of Master Smith at Chatham Dockyard, in 1723 and retained this position until 1746.