Dudd Dudley

Dudd Dudley (1599-?), was an English metallurgist.

Dudley has been named as the illegitimate son of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley of Dudley Castle, and grandson of Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley. Dudd was the fourth of Lord Dudley's eleven children by Elizabeth, the daughter of William Tomlinson. His eldest brother was Robert Dudley of Netherton Hall. Dudd married Eleanor (nee Heaton), (1606-1675), on October 12, 1626, at St. Helen's Church, Worcester.

His father, although having legitimate heirs at the time, seems to have taken equal care over the education of his natural children. When a youth, in his father's iron-works near Dudley, Dudd begun his study of the various processes of iron manufacture. His speculations with the improvement of iron production were encouraged by his father, who gave him an education intended to enhance his practical abilities.

In 1618 Dudd Dudley left Balliol College, Oxford, at the age of 20 to take over his father's furnace and forges on Pensnett Chase. Observing the lack of wood for combustion, he introduced pit-coal as a substitute fuel. The standard metallurgical fuel available then was charcoal, which relied on 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 reduce to about three tons a week from each furnace. Dudd 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 February 22, 1620, was taken out in the name of Edward, Lord Dudley.

His many competitors saw Dudley making quality iron by his new patent process, undercutting them on price, and they put into circulation disapproving reports about his product, appealing to King James to stop him working, by claiming his product was not merchantable. Dudley proceeded with the manufacture of iron at Pensnett, 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 of London. Under the King's command, many experiments were made with it: its qualities were fairly tested, and it was pronounced "good merchantable iron."

From Dudley Castle the Sutton lords of Dudley controlled a large area of the West Midlands. The most enduring of their legacies was 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, Dudd Dudley was the first ironmaster to abandon charcoal burning in favour of experimenting with coal (coke) for the smelting of iron ore.

The Great Mayday Flood

The new works had been in successful operation little more than a year, when a flood, long after known as the "Great Mayday 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 Dudd, "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 Dudd 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 Dudd 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 English Civil War broke out. Dudd 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 Dudd Dudley's personal view of his discovery, published after the Restoration, when he had petitioned King Charles II, to restore his lands & patents, only to be rejected.