Abraham Darby III

Abraham Darby III (1750 – 1791) was an English ironmaster and Quaker. He was the third Abraham Darby in three generations of an English Quaker family that played a role in the Industrial Revolution.

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He carried on his family's tradition of improving the art of smelting iron. He built the largest cast iron structure of his era: the first iron bridge over the Severn near the small prinicipality of Coalbrookdale. The bridge caused the village of Ironbridge, Shropshire to grow up around it, with the area being subsequently named Ironbridge Gorge.

Abraham Darby III took over the family business in the 1770s. As it grew, he attracted more workers with various measures. In times of food shortage, he bought up farms to grow food for his workers, built housing for them, and offered higher wages than were paid in other local industry (such as mining or pottery).

A secondary school in Telford, UK, is named after Abraham Darby III. The school's full name is Abraham Darby Specialist School for the Performing Arts.

The two key themes of Darby's life – iron and the Quakers – and the character himself are present in a fantasy novel, The Iron Bridge, by David Morse [1].