Anthony Bacon (industrialist)

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Anthony Bacon (c. 4 January 1717 – January 21, 1786), was an English-born merchant and industrialist who was significantly responsible for the emergence of Merthyr Tydfil as the iron-smelting centre of Britain.

Bacon was born near Whitehaven in Cumberland the son of William Bacon, a ship's captain trading in coal from that port to Ireland. Following the death of both his parents he went to Maryland to live with his maternal uncles, who were tobacco merchants there. He was trained as a merchant and mariner, expanding his trade to include Virginia and the import of Spanish wine. During the Seven Years War he became a government contractor for shipping and victualling in partnership with William Biggin, a London merchant, also from Whitehaven.

In 1764, he withdrew from the tobacco trade, and concentrated on trade to and contracting in new British colonies (the ceded islands—St Vincent, Tobago, Dominica, and Grenada) in the West Indies and west Africa. At the same time to aid his business in governmetn contracts, he was elected as Member of Parliament for the venal borough of Aylesbury, which he represented until 1784, by which time the participation of MPs in government cointracting had been prohibited.[1]

In 1765 he went into partnership with William Brownrigg of Whitehaven, taking out a lease on 4,000 acres (16 km²) of land in the Merthyr valley.[2] obtained the mineral-rich land very cheaply, they employed Charles Wood to build Cyfarthfa forge using his patented potting and stamping process to make pig iron into bar iron.[3] This was followed by a blast furnace at Cyfarthfa, 50 feet high and opened in 1767. Bacon took over the Plymouth Ironworks in 1766 to supply pig iron to his forge. The partnership with Brownrigg was dissolved in 1777.[4] Bacon leased the Hirwaun ironworks in 1780.[5]

Bacon's government contracts extended to the supply of ordnance. In 1773, after the Carron Company's guns had been withdrawn from service as dangerous, he offered to provide three cannon for a trial, made respectively with charcoal, coke, and mixed fuel. He also delivered a fourth with then 'cast solid and bored'. This gun was reported to be 'infintely better than [those cast] in the ordinary way, because it makes the ordnance more compact and consequently more durable', despite the greater expense. This led to a contract in 1774.[6] These guns were apparently cast by John Wilkinson until Bacon's contract with him ended in 1776. A year later, Bacon asked for Richard Crawshay's name to be included in his warrants, and from this time the cannon were cast at Cyfarthfa. This continued until Bacon as a Member of Parliament was disabled from undertaking government contracts in 1782, when the forge and gunfoundry business were leased some of his interests to Francis Homfray.[7]

Bacon's only legitimate son died in childhood, and he left his property (including his industrial interests) to four illegitimate sons and a daughter. The Court of Chancery directed leases to be made of the various ironworks separately, Richard Crawshay (with partners) taking over Cyfarthfa.[8]

[edit] Sources

  • Jacob M. Price, ‘Bacon, Anthony (bap. 1717, d. 1786)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2008 subscription needed, accessed 26 May 2008.
  • Welsh Biography Online
  1. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biogrpahy
  2. ^ L. Ince, The South Wales Iron Industry, 1750-1885 (1993), 60.
  3. ^ J. Gross (ed.), The Diary of Charles Wood of Cyfarthfa Ironworks, Merthy Tydfil, 1766-1767 (Merton Priory Press, Cardiff, 2001).
  4. ^ Ince, 60.
  5. ^ Ince, 33.
  6. ^ D. Braid, 'John Wilkinson's first patent' Wilkinson Studies I (1991), 45-47; D. Braid, 'John Wilkinson's patent, 1063' Wilkinson Studies II (1992), 33-4; The National Archives, WO 47/83, 240 (original pagination).
  7. ^ The National Archives, WO 47/80-100, passim.
  8. ^ Ince, 60.