494 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Lord Mountjoy was the owner of Canford Manor in Dorset- 

 shire, and in the year 1566 he obtained an Act of Parliament 

 confirming to him the patent granted to Cornelius de Vos. The 

 Act recites that the Queen " of her moost gracious disposcion to 

 the benefitt and profitt of thys hyr Realme of Englande, amonge 

 sundrye other the singuler frutes of hir Majesties goodnes 

 towardes the same, hath bin desirous that the hidden riches of 

 the earthe should by serche and woorke of men skilfull, be 

 founde and browght to the use and comoditye of hir sayd 

 Realme ; and to that end being informed of some hope of 

 allome and coperas to be founde and made within her highnes 

 dominyons, although the same hath bin ofte attempted in tymes 

 of her moost noble progenytors, and yet never heretofore 

 browght to efifecte " — had granted a patent to Cornelius de Vos. 

 Vos, however, not being a man of sufficient wealth and ability 

 to carry on the undertaking, had transferred his patent to Lord 

 Mountjoy, within whose grounds great quantities of suitable 

 ore had been discovered, and Lord Mountjoy had caused to be 

 made good and perfect copperas at more reasonable rates than 

 the imported copperas, and he was " in good hope to have lyke 

 successe in woorking of allome, which is a verie necessarye 

 commoditie for the use of draperie." 



It will be noticed that it is not alleged that alum had been 

 made at the date of the Act, but in a letter written in the 

 same year Mountjoy undertakes to deliver 150 tons of alum at 

 the end of two years. He did not succeed in doing this, and 

 there is evidence that the alum industry had not emerged from 

 the experimental stage in 1572. From an inquisition made in 

 1577 it appears that there were works at Ockeman's House, 

 at Boscombe, at Alum Chine, and on Brownsea Island. Pos- 

 sibly two of these were for the production of alum and the others 

 for that of copperas. 



At the death of Lord Mountjoy in 1581 the Canford Manor 

 estate and the alum and copperas works were acquired by the 

 Earl of Huntingdon. There was a considerable amount of 

 litigation over the transfer, and it becomes clear in the course 

 of the proceedings that the works were considered to be of 

 great value. It would seem that the copperas monopoly was 

 the main consideration. 



The manufacture of copperas was a comparatively simple 

 process, and there is no doubt that this was placed on a profit- 



