A PICTURE OF THE IRON TRADE. 2Q 



High Peak in 1624. Twice in the reign of Charles the First he 

 was fined in the Star Chamber. His house at Renishaw was, 

 I believe, garrisoned for the hiring ; and he had a protection, in 

 1644, from Ferdinand, Lord Fairfax, to prevent its being pillaged 

 or plundered. He was heavily and repeatedly fined by the rebel 

 party, and had to compound for his Yorkshire estate. He entered 

 his pedigree in the visitations of 1630 and 1662, was High Sheriff 

 in 1653, died in 1667, and was buried at Eckington, where is a 

 monument to his memory, with kneeling figures of himself and 

 his wife in alabaster. Amongst the men of his time, he had a 

 great reputation for shrewdness and success ; so much so, that, 

 though completely ignorant of the methods of copper-mining, the 

 Earl of Devonshire insisted upon having his advice, and desired 

 him to " goe a parte " in the charges and rather doubtful profits 

 of the mines at Wotton. His dealings were on the largest scale. 

 By one bargain, he supplied Lionell Copley with 850 tons of sow 

 iron to the value of ^4.533, and he was ready to make five thou- 

 sand pounds worth of iron bullets for the navy, to buy all the 

 trees which the commissioners were about to sell in Sherwood, 

 paying in plank, to take 20,000 cords from the Marquess of 

 Newcastle, or 10,000 cords and all the wood he had at Clipston. 

 His saws, sugar stoves, and rollers for crushing the cane found a 

 market even so far away as at Barbadoes. 



I suppose that he first learnt the trade from his step-father, 

 Henry Wigfall, Esquire (a descendant of the Wigfalls of Carter 

 Hall, and ancestor of the Wigfalls of Renishaw), with whom he 

 was at one time in partnership. Amongst other great iron 

 masters, there are frequent notices of Lionell Copley, Esquire, 

 whose name and family are well-known to Yorkshire historians. 

 Paul Fletcher, of Walton, ancestor of the Jenkinsons of Walton, 

 baronets, seems to have been in the trade. Sir Thomas Osborne 

 is once mentioned as having a good supply of iron, which he was 

 holding till Copley's was sold. Mr. Clayton was the great rival 

 of our merchant (though he had been in partnership with him for 

 certain bargains of wood and iron), and derived much advantage 

 from his influence with some grandees, especially with the Duke 



