Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley

Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley (1567–1643) inherited the lordship of Dudley from his father, also Edward Sutton, and was the last of his name to bear the title. He was married to Theodosia Harrington. They had a son Ferdinando, who predeceased his father leaving a daughter Frances.

Lord Dudley also had a longtime mistress Elizabeth Tomlinson, who bore him a large family of illegitimate children. Lord Dudley provided for this second family. The eldest Robert Dudley otherwise Tomlinson was given a small estate at Netherton in Dudley. Another son Dud Dudley was given a lease of Chasepool Lodge in Swindon, Staffordshire. A daughter Jane was grandmother to ironmaster Abraham Darby I.

Lord Dudley (like his ancestors) owned a substantial estate around Dudley Castle including the manors of Dudley, Sedgley and Kingswinford. He developed the mineral resources of these estates, building (probably) five blast furnaces on them. He obtained a licence to use the patent of John Robinson (or Rovenson) for making iron with pitcoal that is mineral coal in 1619, and in 1622 renewed this patent in his own name. He brought Dud Dudley home from Balliol College, Oxford to manage his ironworks, but this was not entirely successful. Ultimately he fell out with Dud and expelled Dud from the new coke-fired furnace that he had built at Hasco Bridge on the boundary between Gornal and Himley.

By the 1620s, Lord Dudley was severely in debt and his estates were disappearing into the hands of creditors. He found salvation for the estates by marrying his granddaughter to Humble Ward, the son of a wealthy goldsmith William Ward, who paid the debts and redeemed the estates for the benefit of them and their descendants.

Further reading

P. W. King, 'Dud Dudley's contribution to metallurgy' Hist. Metall. 22(1) (2002), 43-53.