THE KATES HILL
PRESS, DUDLEY, ENGLAND
STORY OF THE
WEEK, #4, AUTHOR: DUD DUDLEY
The following
are the letters which form the introduction to Dud Dudley’s Metallum Martis,
first published in 1665. Dud Dudley was
the illegitimate 5th son of Lord Dudley. His claim was that he had discovered how to smelt iron using sea cole
as opposed to charcoal. This was some
80 years before Abraham Darby is acknowledged by history to have invented the
smelting of iron using coke. Dud
Dudley’s claims have been hotly disputed by historians. While Metallum Martis does not give the details
of his process, it does chronicle his endeavours to make a commercial success
of his discoveries, and describes the opposition and difficulties he
faced. Dud Dudley has been seen as a
braggart and a charlatan by some, and as a man ahead of his time by
others. The Kates Hill Press of Dudley
is proud to bring this important historical document from one of Dudley’s most
famous sons to a modern audience in the first printing of the work since 1888. Further details.
TO
THE
KINGS
Most
Sacred Majesty.
May it Please your
Majesty,
All Your Kingdoms, Dominions, and Territories, being
the happy Subjects of Your Cares, are therefore the proper Objects of Your View: Great
Brittain, O Great Brittain, Your Principal Island, here Humbly Presents her
self unto Your Royall Presence, View, and Care; be Pleased, to interpret this
her Obsequiousness, to be her Duty; for since Your Majesties safe Return, has
already Graciously dayned, to View, and often to review her Shipings, Stores,
Armories, Ordnance, Magazines, and Trade; Vouchsafe, Great Sir, Great
Brittain Your Royal Patronage, and once more, at some one hour, or two, to
Grace it with Your Auspcious Aspect, in this Mite, with all Humiliy Presented,
By,
A Faithful
Servant, of Your Sacred Fathers;
And a Loyal Sufferer,
for Your Sacred
Majesty; And by
Pattent-Servant,
Dud Dudley
TO THE
Council,
The
High Court of Parliament.
Our Predecessors
in former Ages, had both serious Consultations, and Considerations, before they
made those many Wholesome and Good Lawes, for the Preservation of Wood, and
Timber, of this King-dome, 1 Eliz. 15. 23 Eliz. 5. 27 Eliz. 19.
23 Eliz.3.5. in whose dayes, and since in King James’s Reign,
Ships in most Ports and Rivers of this Kingdom, (Thames Excepted) might
have been built, for forty Shillings per Tunn; but now they can hardly
be built for treble the value, wood and timber is so much decayed; therefore
men of War, Trade of Merchants, of Fishing, of Navigating, unto Plantations
wi1l decay, if not timely prevented, which is hoped wi1l be one of Your
Principallest Cares, seeing our Enemies have carried Timber from England, and
the Iron Works have much exhausted it; For the prevention of so great a Consumption,
almost incurable: First is to put the Wholesome Laws in Execution; Secondly,
not to permit Timber to be Exported. Thirdly, to animate, as King James did,
and also Prince Henry, the making of Iron in England, Scotland, and
Wales with Pit-cole, Sea-cole, and Peate: which if the Author (who had a
Pattent for it) had not been opposed, after he had made much good Iron with
Pit-cole, it had long since, by his Inventions, been fully perfected. The
Fourth is, to stop all the Exportation of Pit-cole, and Sea-cole (paying His
Majesties Duty) if the Cole be in a fit place, to make Iron therewith. Fifthly,
That the Authour, or his Agents may have power to preserve many thousand
Tuns of Pit-cole, which are annually destroyed, for ever in England, Scot/and,
and Wales, which are fit to make Iron; and the Authour in
this Treatise hath demonstrated it being moved with pitty, seeing his Native
Country decaying, Humbly offers but his Judgement, and leaves the grave
consideration thereof, to your Learned, and more Serious Consultations and
Actings, praying that you may animate good things, and new inventions, that may
bring unto His Sacred Majesty, and all Loyal Subjects, Safety, Strength,
Wealth, and Honour by our Ships, and Men of War, Fishing, Navigation, and Merchandizing,
unto Forreign Nations; but more especially, to and from the Territories
of Great Britain, our NorthIndies abounding in Mines and Minerals,
that they that are of the Honourable Corporations of Mines Royal, and
Batteries, or any others, would lay in a Common, or Joynt Stock, fully
to set the Mines at Work, by imploying our idle, and burdensom supernumerary
people therein, Iron, Tin, Lead, Copper, Quick-silver, Silver and Gold,
besides many other Minerals, and Marcesit’s, Lapis Calaminaris,
Antimonie, Maganes, &c. also many Mineral Earths and Precious
Stones: Did I call Great Brittian our North Indies? give me
leave to repeat a passage till further satisfaction, of King Josina of Scotland,
a great Phylosopher, Physitian, and Herbalist, living before Christ, 161
years, at which tine, two venerable Phylosophers and Priests passing from Portugall
to Athens, their Ship and Company, and Marriners, all perished at Ros,
they only saved; after refreshing, and good Entertainment, the King desired
of them what they understood by their Science of the Nature of the Ground of Scotland;
after deliberate advisement, said, There was more Riches and Profit to
he gotten within the Veins of the Earth of Scotland, then above, for the
winning of Mines and Metals; They knew this by the Influence of the Heavens: This
you may see in the Chronicles of Scoland.
My Dear Master,
our Sacred Martyr, Charles the First of ever Blessed Memory, did animate
the Author by Granting him a Pattent, Anno 14 of His Reign, for the
making of Iron, and Melting, Smelting, Extracting, Refining, and Reducing all
Mines and Metals with Pit-cole, Sea-cole, Peat and Turf, which was Extinct, and
Obstructed by reason of the War; and had not this unnatural and
unparallel’d War been, His late Sacred Majesty himself had set at work many of
His Mines, and much good had been produced to Great Brittain before this
time.
At present, the Authour is in good hope,
and incessantly prayes, that the Mines be set at work in his dayes, by the
Honourable Corporation of the Mines Royal, for he verily believeth the time to
be near, when the Omnipotent God, before he Judge the World in Fire, will shew
his Omnipotency unto the Nations, by revealing of the wonderful and
incredible things of Nature, of which the Learned do believe very many to be,
in the Mineral Kingdome, by working of Mines and Fusion of Metals, gotten by
honest labour under ground, profitable to Man, and Acceptable with God. I
might here speak somewhat of Superiour Planets producing Metal, Saturn, Lead:
Iupiter, Tin: Mars, Iron: but these abound in Great But/am, so
do the Inferiour Planets produce Venus, Copper: Mercury, Quicksilver:
Luna, Silver.
If God permit me health and leasure from Sutes
and Troubles, not onely to write of them, but also the manner of the Melting,
Extracting, Refining, and Reducing of them with Pit-cole, Sea-cole, Peat,
&c. In the interim to let you know that Great Brittain abounds with Copper
Mines, much neglected, yet of great use for Ordnance, at Land, and also at
Seas, and for the making of Brass, with our Lapis Calaminaris, so much
Exported by the Dutch, which doth hinder our manufactories of Brass, and
causes the Dutch and Swedes to raise the price of Copper
and Brass ever since our small loss at Sea by the Dutch. Mercury, Quicksilver
is not wanting, but few Artists have made any Experiment of that Mine in this
King-dome.
Luna, Silver doth abound in Great
Britain, especially a very Rich Vein, Rake, or Fibrey thereof was wrought
at Binny-hills near Lithgo in Scotland, in
the Authors dayes, some part of which he hath, is malleable Silver in the Oare
or Mine, yet neglected. And so are many of our richest Mines in England and
Wales, &c. the cause is conceived to be the want of a general
and joynt-stock for the imploying our idle people in getting, and working of
the Copper, and Silver Mines.
Of the Planet Sol, Gold: I may not
be silent, whose Golden, Glorious, Pure, Sulphurious, Percing, Spirit,
communicating his virtue Mineral unto all things in the Mineral Kingdom, as
well as to the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom, whose pure influence producing
Gold, caused the poor indigent people of Scotland, which the Author did
see, Anno 37, at Shortlough, six men to dig and carry with
wheele-barrows, the common Earth or Mould unto Rivolets remote, out of which
those men did wash Gold-grains, as good as in the sand of the Rivers, in which
Rivers many have gotten Gold, and seen grains of Sol, near one ounce
weight, both in the Low-lands, and in the High-lands; also
he hath seen Gold gotten in England, but not so plentiful as in Scotland:
For Sir James Hope, An. 1654, brought from Scotland, Baggs
of Gold Grains unto Cromwell, some of which Grains were very large, and
as fine as any Gold in the world, that is in Mines; thus I came to see the
Baggs, taking a view of the Low-lands, and High-lands of Scotland,
Anno 37, in which year, I spent the whole Summer (in opening of Mines, and
making of discoveries) was at Sir James Hopes Lead Hills, near
which I got Gold, and he coming to London, imployed Captain David
Acheson, a Refiner, whom I met with in Scotland, Anno 37, to find me
out; when I came unto Sir James Hope, dwelling in White Hall, he produced
the Baggs unto me, and poured the Gold out upon a board, in which was one large
piece of Gold, which had to it adjoyning a large piece of white spar very
transparent, which Cap. David Acheson yet living at Edenburgh saw;
but I would never Act with Sir James Hope, hoping of these times to see
good things acted, for I believe God is about to reveal many of his secrets,
unto his Israel in this latter Age, which made me not to Answer the Letter of Sir
James Hope, as followeth.
Edinburgh,
26. June 1654.
Sir, If I
had found the opportunity before my parting, I purposed to have been a sutor to
you, and I perswade myself, you are so kinde and generously disposed, that you
would hare answered my desire, and therefore also even at this distance
adventure to offer it: And it is that you would confer upon me one breviate of
your journey through the North of Scotland; as to the discovery of
Minerals upon some account, and at first view, this may seem as unreasonable of
me desired, as improbable that you should grant it, but the circumstance of
time and persons and substance of the things considered, I am not
altogether out of hope of it; onely, I shall say, if you condescend to me in
this, though it be more in satisfaction, to my curiosity, then for any designe
I have upon the matter ; yet you shall singularly oblige me to
indeavour and be ready as opportunity shall offor, to expresse my
thankfulnesse, in what way you will prescribe, that is in the power of;
your
very affectionate brother
and
Servant, James Hope.
This
Sir James Hope, was a Judge at the City of Edinburgh,
and by Cromwel made Lord Marshall of Scotland.
My hope now
is, that the Honourable and ingenious Corporation of the Mines Royall, will set
the Mines at work, that my Inventions, in which I have spent much time and
charge, in melting, smelting, extracting, refining and reducing of Mines and
Mettals with Pitcoal, Seacoal and Peats; and have made with the same Fuell many
hundred Tuns of good Merchantable Iron, into cast works and Bars; may by the
inventioner be enjoyed according to the Act of Parliament, 21. Jacob. Seeing
the Authour can make it appear lie hath been much obstructed by lawsuits and
the Wars hithmerto: Desires that his Talent of Undoubted truths (may not be
buried) for the general good, but be brought to light, after all the sad Sufferings
of the Authour, whereby lie may add unto his new Inventions, what lie conceives
fit to be done: That not onely this so exhausted Kingdome may enjoy the
benefit thereof, but also Scotland and Wales which abound with
Coals, Iron, Stone and Mines of all sorts, minerals and precious Stones,
&c.
Yet from England’s Granery, Scotland making
no Iron, and other Territories, have their thorow supply, not onely of Iron,
but of Iron manufactories many, so hath Wales; yet might Scotland and
Wales not onely supply themselves, but supply His Sacred Majesties other
Territories with Iron and Iron Wares and Steel also, by Iron and Steel made
with Pit-coale, Sea-coale and Peat; and thereby be helpfull unto themselves and
England, and all Plantations of his Majesties, on this side and beyond
the line.
To the Reader, especially of England, Scotland and
Wales
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The injury
and prejudice done unto me & to this Island, my native
Country for the making of Iron, in cast works and bars with Pitcoal, Seacoal,
Peat and Turff, and with the like feuell, to melt, extract, refine and reduce
all Mines and mettals, moved me in the negligence of better Wits and Pens to
apologise for it; in this ensuing Treatise, and believe me Reader, twas
no private, or politick designe in my Invention, but meer zeal, becomming an
honest man, Patriae, parentibus and amicis; that Engaged me (after many
others failed) in these Inventions, for the general good and preservation of Wood and Timber, which,
Eque pauperibus, locupletibus, eque,
Eque neglectis pueris senibusq; nocébit;
Therefore it
concerns his Sacred Majesty, his high Court of Parliament, all his Counsels,
Mariners, Merchants, Royall and Loyall Subjects (the destruction of Wood and
Timber) to lay it to heart, and helping hands, upon fit occasions, in these so
laudable Inventions of making Iron & melting of mines and refining of them
with Pitcole, Seacole, Peat, and Turf; for the preservation of Wood and Timber
for maintenance of Navigation, men of War, the Fishing and Merchants’ Trade,
which is the greatest strength of Great Brittain, and all other his Majesties
Kingdomes and Territories, whose defence and offence next under God, consists
by his sacred Majesties assisting care, and view of his men of War, Ships,
experienced marrinours, merchants, Ordinance of Copper, Bras and Iron Armories,
Steels, and Irons of all sorts; both of bars, squares, and cast works and which
ought and may be suplyed from Scotland and Wales by
Iron, Copper, and Brasse, and made there, with Pitcole, Seacole and Peat; and
which abound there and in England, also, In Cornwall,
Devonshire, Sommerset, Glocester, Stafford, Darby, York, Lancaster,
Westmerland, Cumberland; are many Copper mines: so is there in Pembrook,
Carmarthin, Merionith and Denbyshires, also there are very many rich
Coper mines in very many places in Scotland, at Sterling, at Dumfad
and many other places well known unto the Authour.
Dud
Dudley.