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Book Notices.
Book
Notices.
Booh~ Notices.
155
156
Book Notices.
hack to Virginia, and see what was the early progress referred to.
" The first iron made in this country was made in Virginia. Capt.
John Smith early called attention to iron ore in Virginia, and Sir
Thomas Gates (1610) mentioned iron ore ten miles in circuit, of
which we have made trial at home [in England]; that it makes as
good iron as any in Europe. In April, 1608, ore was sent from
Jamestown to England, which was smelted in the autumn, yielding
seventeen tons of pig metal," a fact which is corroborated by the
statement that " i t was sold to the East India Company for 4
sterling per ton." Sir Edwin Landys (1620) says that " one hundred
and ten iron workers fi'om Warwickshire and Staffordshire, and
forty fi'om Sussex were sent to Virginia to erect three iron works."
One of the proposed three is stated to have been commenced, and it
was " certified by Mr. Berkely, that by Whitsuntide next (1622) iron
would be made." " B u t , alas! in 16"22 (March 229(t) Mr. John
Berkely, with twenty-two men, two women and three children, were
massacred by the Indians, and the works destroyed before they got
into the body of the mines (Beverley). Tt~e iron proved reasonably
good [die italics are the reviewer's]. Maurice Barkley was directed
to employ the survivors, and rebuild the works; but in 1624 the
Virginia Company was dissolved by royal decree, and the whole
enterprise fell to the ground." There does not appear to be any
evidence that iron was made in Virginia at that time, nor at any
other prior to 1715, except by inference.
It will probably be found, if this book stimulates inquiry amongst
the old records, that tile Colonies, from the first years of' their settlement, produced more or less forge iron in a small way. The colonists
included numbers of working mechanics. Emigrants are always
mainly tradespeople and working men. Farmers and farm laborers
have a land attachment, which it is difficult to break. And the
smith's art is the earliest to find employment in a new settlement.
Under the protection of the heavy cost of bringing iron from the
mother country, and the absolute want of money or exchangeable
commodity to pay for it, with the advantage of a more than abundance of wood to make cha.rcoal, while the forests of England were
even then in good part cut away--under these circumstances the
making of iron was stimulated at once into a business. The little
forges wherein wrought iron was made by the sinking process were
probably numerous, although as few records would remain of them, as
Book Notices.
157
and Bar-Iron from His Majesty's Colonies in America into the Port
of .London and to prevent the .Erection of any ~lill or other Engine
for Slitting or Rolling of Iron ; or any Plating 'orge to work with a
Tilt Hammer or any Furnace for making ,.S'teel in said Colonies."
A very brief summary of this Act is as follows :
The Act was to go into effect on the 24th of June, 1750 ; it abolished
all duties then in force on colonial pig or bar iron imported into any
part of England, and permitted pig or bar iron to enter the port of
London free of duty, but it was not permitted to enter iron at any
other place in the kingdom of Great Britain, and after its arrival at
London it could not be shipped trom Londori or transmitted by land
further than ten miles, in any unmanufactured state. Ships transporting were to be forfeited and seized--punishments and penalties
awaited masters or commanders--forfeitures and fines were to be
inflicted on carriers on horseback, in wagon, cart or carriage, i Every
bar was to be Stamped in three places (and forging of a stamp was a
capital crime, to be punished by hanging in those days).
" No Mill or other Engine for Slitting or Rolling of Iron or any
Plating Forge to work with a Tilt Hammer or any Furnace for
making" Steel shall be erected, or after such Erection continue, or cause
to be continued, in any of the said Colonies, under penalties of 200,
for such Mill, Engine, Forge or Furnace. Such Mill, Engine, Forge
or Furnace so erected or continued * * shall be deemed a common
nuisance and abated accordingly, with forfeiture of 500 by the
In 1756, the trade was made free to any port in Great Britain, and in 1765, to any
port in Ireland, but otherwise the taw, with its restrictions against Slitting, Roiling,
Plating or Steel making, remained in force until the Revolution.
158
Book Notices.