Scottish Mining Web Site

  • Source Citation: Hamilton, "Scottish Mining Web Site".

Data

  • ID: S147
  • Source Index: 74

Page: Recruitment of miners from Shropshire

  • "A beginning was made in securing skilled men in June, 1759, when Dr. Roebuck engaged “a clever founder or furnaceman who was used to working with pit coal as well as wood fuel.” His wages were to be £50 a year. As soon as this expert was definitely engaged, the bellows for the blast furnace were to be ordered and an experienced man was to be sent to supervise the building of them. “A set of masons and bricklayers and millwrights and bellows makers” who were in the habit of working for all the experienced ironmasters of England were next secured. These experts undertook to teach Scots, and so it was hoped that after the first furnace was built, English labour might be dispensed with.It was likewise necessary to engage English experts to take charge of the smelting operations. In June, 1759, Roebuck provisionally engaged a skilled furnaceman. This man, who was one of the principal workmen at Coalbrookdale, set out for Scotland in September. Soon more men were engaged with whom an agreement was made to teach Scots. At the beginning of 1760 Garbett engaged one Robert Hawkins, a relative of the Darbys of Coalbrookdale, whose family had a long connection with furnaces in England. He was a very valuable acquisition to the Carron staff and was to receive a salary of £100 per year, his task being to teach Scotsmen the art of boring cylinders and grinding sad irons. Garbett hoped to secure the services of another highly skilled expert—the man who had charge of the cylinder and engine department at Coalbrookdale. In March a skilled charcoal burner and various other workers were brought from England, and in May several ironstone miners were secured in Shropshire. The Carron partners had also to look to England for most of their building materials. The hearth stones, a shaft for the water wheel, the boards and leather for the bellows and the necessary ironplates for a furnace were ordered in July, 1759, and it was hoped to have them shipped from Bristol by the end of August. But these hopes were not to be fulfilled. The materials which had been purchased could not be sent down the Severn on account of the drought while the greatest difficulty was experienced in securing a tree of sufficient dimensions for the axle shaft though three men had been employed nearly two months to look out and purchase them. By the beginning of October Garbett was able to announce that he had at last secured the shaft and the other necessary timber, though the former which they hoped would have been 27 feet long and 30 inches in diameter, fell short of these requirements. The goods were probably despatched from Bristol in the same month, but the ship was lost at sea, and so all the labour of Garbett went in vain; and in March, 1760, a man was sent to Yorkshire to procure another set of bellows boards. In the meantime other materials were purchased - 20,000 Stourbridge bricks, 100 tons Stourbridge clay, 20 tons pig iron from Coalbrookdale, 30 tons of the best pig iron from Madeley Wood, and 10 tons of timber. These goods were sent down the Severn from Bewdley and shipped from Bristol in February. Further supplies of timber were purchased in Yorkshire, and these with pots for making bricks, baskets, shovels, etc., were despatched from Hull. More timber and iron were obtained in Norway and from Gothenburg."

Events & Attributes

PersonClaimDateDetailAge
Cornelius HotchkissBirthApr 23, 1739Madeley, Shropshire, England [74]
Cornelius HotchkissCarron Iron Company - 17591759Carron Iron Company was founded in 1759 and recruited Iron Workers from Shropshire. These workers worked the coal in a different way from the local men and were paid a higher wage causing resentment., Carron, Stirlingshire, Scotland [74]