Dud Dudley - Posterity

Posterity

The existence of Metallum Martis meant that many historians have noted his achievements. Dudd has been seen as the forerunner of later success by Abraham Darby and others in smelting iron with coke in the 18th century. However it remains unclear to what extent he was its technological ancestor rather than a mere precursor. In Metallum Martis, he named a relative of his first wife to whom he would leave his knowledge, but nothing came of that. However, there are two possible linkages to later developments:

  • Abraham Darby, who took over the ironworks at Coalbrookdale in 1709, was descended from Dudd's older full sister (also the daughter of Elizabeth Tomlinson).
  • Sir Clement Clerke, a partner in the Dudley furnace, developed lead smelting in reverberatory furnaces. He and his son Talbot Clerke then applied this to copper smelting and to iron foundry work. Associates in the latter business, floated as the Company for Making Iron with Pitcoal built a coke furnace at Cleator in Cumberland in the 1690s. That company had some dispute with Shadrach Fox of Coalbrookdale who was casting shot for the Board of Ordnance, and may have used coal at another furnace at Wombridge.

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