The Continental Origins of Bristol Brass
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The Continental Origins of Bristol Brass loan Day Summary: Gennml entrepreneurs help~d III estab• from the contincnt. where the industry had been lish the English brass industry during the sixteenth developing from medieval times. Eventually, by century. Bristol eventually became an important setting up two powerful monopoly companies, cemre for the production of beaten holluw-ware Elizabeth's government provided a means of vessels, knuwn as battery ware. Documentary introducing brass production into this country evidence, including surnames of continental origin, under the guidance of German expertise. ) suggests that rhe Bristol industry may also have Supplies of the zinc ore, calamine, together with made use of/oreign experrise. This arric/e examines refined copper, charcoal and coal, and adequate the hisruriwl evidence and ,ndusrrial archaeology of water power were their main requirements. The the mining and metallurgical industries of the Mines Royal Company achieved its aim of Aachen area on the borders of France, Germany smelting and refining copper and the Society of and Belgium and suggests that a continental work• Mineral and Battery Works found calamine, the force may have been recruited there for the Bristol zinc carbonate, ZnC03, on Mendip, but failed to industry during the eighteenth century. produce a workable brass.4 This failure led to a series of attempts in brass production and A series of brass-mill sitcs on the Avon bctween manufacture during the following century, Bath and Bristol can be seen in various stages of ostensibly still controlled and licensed by the quiet disintegration. The industry flourished monopoly companies. S Most of these efforts early in the eighteenth century to become the were quickly abandoned, mainly because of most important in Europe, but, thereafter, difficulties experienced in meeting license fees suffered slow decline in competition with and also in obtaining supplies of refined copper Birmingham. Two mills were still using their after the Mines Royal production had lapsed. water-powered methods until closure in the Significantly, the most successful of these 1920s. The physical remains of this industry seventeenth century pioneers was the immigrant constitutes the main evidence for its existence, Jacob Momma, who will be referred to later. 6 endorsed only by fragmentary documentary Nevertheless, he also suffered from similar sources. As a result its study had been neglected, restrictions which limited his achievements. being dealt with only in a national review of The eventual collapse of the monopoly brass and copper industries. I It was the growth structure came with the passing of the Mines of interest in industrial archaeology which Royal Act of 1689, reinforced in 1693.' At about offered a new approach to an understanding of the same time new coal-fired techniques of technical innovation in this important industry. 1 copper smelting were being pioneered in Bristol. Investigations were then still far from complete, New markets were soon being sought in Bristol for no study in depth could be satisfactory for the copper which had been refined by the without enquiry into the continental origins of new methods. The combination of these two the men and techniques on which the Bristol events offered new prospects for brass industry was founded. production by the early years of the eighteenth Introduction century. With calamine available from Mendip just 12-15 miles away, it is hardly surprising that The absence of a home industry in brass the initiative came from Bristol. In the first few production gave rise to increasing cause for years of the eighteenth century Abraham Darby concern in post-medieval England. The govern• became actively involved, with fellow Quakers, ment of Henry VIII wished to avoid a danRerous in establishing an industry of brass production dependenc~ on imports of the metal from and manufacture. It was to survive and flourish, Europe. The remedy involved persuasion of implementing many new techniques and, managers and skilled men to come to EnglaJld, ~Y.enfually, was to be described as the largest of 32 :n its kind in Europe. At its outset, however, it was The continental workforce deemed prudent to acquire skilled men from the continent. S According to Hannah Rose, writing In the villages of the Avon Valley and its much later, Abraham Darby 'went over to tributaries, to which the brass company Holland and hired some Dutch workmen, and expanded in the early decades of the century, the set up the Brass works at Baptist Mills'. 9 The traditions today concerning these immigrant relevant dates quoted by Hannah Rose are not workers are still very strong. They can be quite in accordance with other sources and it is supported by entries in local parish registers and also believed that her references to Holland and other documentary records. 11 As early as 1708 the Dutch might be interpreted as referring to the Keynsham records of St John's Church show the general area between the Meuse and the the birth of a 'son for John Buck, described as a Rhine where the industry was concentrated. brass worker, and believed to have been an Other details are lacking but it can be inferred immigrant. A month later similar records refer that the new business would have required to the Steger family who are known, from later skilled melters to produce brass metal and registers, to have had continental origins. batterymen to operate fast water-powered Names appearing later include those of hammers. Water-powered beating was used to Francome, Craymer, Rackham, Fray (anglicised shape hollow-ware vessels, known as battery• from Varoy), Crinks (anglicised from Krintz) ware,IU which was to become the main product and Ollis, most with variable spelling but all can of the Bristol industry and to remain so be connected with immigrant workers. The local throughout most of its existence. tradition declares that the company undertook 16• ~ 1 Stockley Vale 18 Warm", 2 St Augustlne's bck 19 IIoleL_ 3 Lawins Mead 20 Ann.ill 4 Small Slreet 21 ClllWIIII 5 Corn Stlllet 22 South.iII 6 Oueen Stlllet 23 Woodboroug/llill 7 Redcross Slrell 24 WIIollanllill 8 Babers Tower 25 Publowlill 9 Baptist.iIIs 26 "'ndonl.1II 10 Cheese Lane 27 .ve .HIs 11 IIetham Worlls 28 BIt10nMIII 12 BlacllSWIrtll ~ 29 Swlntonl 1111 13 Crew's Hole 30 Leather.1II 14 Conham 31 Kelston MNls 15 Hanham 32 Salllonl Mill 16 Kingswool! 33 •• lhIWestonl 17 Soundwell on Brass and copper working sites which were established in Bristol and the Avon valley from c1680 to c1845 Fig.1 34 INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW, VII, I, AUTUMN 1984 .," .. .•......•.•..•. .~ Plate 1 Indenture apprenticing John Varoy to the Bristol brass company in 1745. His original signature was erased and anglicised to Fray, the family still holding the document. to employ descendants up to the third impossibility of this solution for their foreign generation and, although this cannot be verified, workers had been the cause of several disputes many families were still represented in the mills between the brass works and the paymaster of a century later. A few descendants of Keynsham parish, who had faced an additional immigrants were still working in the mills when burden. The company solved the problem by they finally closed in the 1920s and their families taking responsibility for these families in the 1740 can still be found locally today. The tendency to Agreement. The immigrants were then recorded in remain with the company can be explained church registers as 'no parishoners', a convenient partly by a difficulty highlighted in 'An Agree• means of identification for the paymaster, and also ment made between the Parish of Keynsham for present-day research. From then on, quite and the Brass Wire Work Company concerning clearly, it was in their own interest for these men the men and their families', signed 30 June to stay with the company. 1740.1] When falling on hard times and needing Other registers of parishes connected with the parish relief through ill health or misfortune, industry contain similar records but at a later English workers from outside the parish would date whan those at Keynsham. At Twcrton, near have been required to return home for assistance Bath, a village well placed to accommodate men under the Act of Settlement of 1662. The working at the West on mill on the opposite side 35 of rhe river, rhere are records of John Jockman, this country if home deposits were not a 'Dmchman' buried in 1723; George son of discovered. It could be made available at a John and Elizabeth (no surname) Dutchman, reasonable rate as transport to England would baprised in 1724; and a burial in the Buik or have been mainly by water with Aachen lying Buick family which may have been connected between the Meuse and the Rhine. Elizabeth's with the Bucks ar Keynsham. I) Several entries Assay Master of the Mint, writing to Sir William for the Graft, Graff or Graef family, also Cecil in 1565, spoke of the hope of finding described as 'Dutch', confirm that this calamine in England, but: description does not necessarily imply a Nether• 'notwithstanding yf all the rest shold fayle... may it therefore lands origin, as a stone memorial inside the pleas your honor to understand that my principall grounds church records rhat they were from Veit in for callamyn is from the mynes of Akon wher it is to be had in great aboundance for the said myne lieth open to all Germany. people that will buy thereof withowte restrainte, and that Bristol remained the major centre of initiative which is to be brought into this realme for 7s the hundred• in the manufacmre of brass for a considerable waite cannot be recovered to Nurhenburgh for 14s the pan of the century but was not alone in estab• hundredwaight by reason of land carriage .