To use all functions of this page, please activate cookies in your browser.
my.chemeurope.com
With an accout for my.chemeurope.com you can always see everything at a glance – and you can configure your own website and individual newsletter.
- My watch list
- My saved searches
- My saved topics
- My newsletter
Richard FoleyRichard Foley 1580 - 1657 was a prominent English ironmaster. He is best known from the folktale of "Fiddler Foley", which is either not correct or does not apply to him. Richard was the son of another Richard Foley, a nailer at Dudley. Richard himself is likely tomahve traded in nails rather than making them. Additional recommended knowledge
IronmasterIn the 1620s, he became a partner in a network of mostly ironworks in south Staffordshire, which were undoubtedly the source of the family's fortune. The FolktaleAccording to the folktale, he went to Sweden, where posing a simple fiddler, he succeeded in discovering the secret of the slitting mill, which was enabling English nails to be undercut. He returned home and set up a slitting mill at Hyde Mill in Kinver, thus making his fortune. Unfortunately, the earliest version of the legend, while applyng to Hyde Mill referred not to Richard Foley, but to a member of the Brindley family, who owned the mill until the 1730s. This may possibly have been George Brindley, Richard's brother-in-law. Richard certainly leased Hyde Mill in 1627 and converted it to a slitting mill, though it was not the first in England or even in the Midlands. FamilyRichard Foley married twice, and was able to set up several of his sons as gentlemen or in other prominent positions. By his first marriage:
By his second marriage to Alice Brindley:
Sources
|
|
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Richard_Foley". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |