Abraham Darby IV

Abraham Darby IV (30 March 1804 – 28 November 1878) was an English ironmaster.

He was born in Dale House, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire the son of Edmund Darby, a member of the Darby ironmaking family and Lucy (née Burlingham) Darby. He was a great-nephew of Abraham Darby III.

In 1830, he and his brother Alfred took over the management of the Horsehay foundry, one of several foundries owned by the family business, and set about re-establishing the Coalbrookdale Company's reputation by investing in new technology there for the manufacture of wrought iron.^[1]

In 1844, he became a major shareholder in the Ebbw Vale ironworks in South Wales. After a series of family disagreements, he resigned his management of the Coalbrookdale Company in 1849, and, in 1851, bought Stoke Court near Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, and moved to live there. He also acquired property at Treberfydd in Breconshire, Wales. He acted as a Justice of the Peace in both counties, and, in 1853, was appointed High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire.^[2]

Although born into a Quaker family, he joined the Church of England and paid for the building of Holy Trinity church in Coalbrookdale (1850–54).

He died at Treberfydd and was buried at his church in Coalbrookdale. He had married his cousin Matilda Frances, the daughter of Francis Darby, in 1853.

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