Famille de Cambourg

Source OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Homfray family (per. 1702–1833), ironmasters, of Wollaston and Penydarren, came to prominence with Francis [i] Homfray (1674–1737), who was born at Wales, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, on 23 September 1674. He was the first member of his family to be employed in the iron trade. He moved from Yorkshire to Old Swinford, near Stourbridge, where he became involved in the local iron industry, rising to become nail-keeper in the large Crowley family business, which made and sold iron goods. Francis [i] Homfray left the Crowleys in 1702 to set himself up as a dealer in iron goods and later as a slitter, turning wrought iron bars into thin rods ready for nail manufacture. In 1704 he married Sarah Baker (d. 1715), and then in 1717 Mary Jeston [Mary Homfray (d. 1758)]. He had four sons and five daughters. After his death on 1 March 1737, the business was carried on by Mary Homfray. Various members of the family were now working mills and forges along the River Stour and around Kidderminster.

Francis Homfray's sons followed their father into the iron industry. His fourth son, John Homfray (1731–1760), of Wollaston Hall, died leaving one son, John Homfray [John Addenbrooke (1759–1827)], who in 1792 assumed the maiden name of his mother, Mary, the daughter and heir of Jeremiah Addenbrooke, a local landowner. John Addenbrooke was involved with his Homfray relatives in the iron industry of Shropshire and the Black Country. In 1780 he married Elizabeth Grazebrook. He was high sheriff of Worcestershire in 1798.

However, of the second generation, it was to be Francis [i] Homfray's second son, Francis [ii] Homfray (1725–1798), of Broadwaters and Stourton Castle, who was to achieve fame in the iron trade. Born on 9 September 1725, he greatly extended the family's undertakings along the Stour and invested in the Shropshire coke iron industry. This period of expansion was related to his two marriages. In 1751 he married Hannah Popkin (d. 1754), a member of an important ironmaking family based in south Wales. After her death in 1754, he married in 1756 Catherine (d. 1766), the daughter of Jeremiah Caswell, one of the principal iron manufacturers operating on the River Stour. By 1787 Francis [ii] Homfray and John Addenbrooke owned the Lightmoor ironworks in Shropshire. In 1778 Francis [ii] was a partner in the Calcutts ironworks, also in Shropshire, at which cannon were manufactured during and after the American War of Independence.

Two of Francis [ii] Homfray's sons continued to be involved in the midlands iron industry, operating a series of forges and mills along the River Stour. Francis [iii] Homfray (1757–1809), of The Hyde, married Mary Pidcock in 1778, and their two elder daughters married into the Crawshay family; Jeston Homfray (1752–1816) married Sarah Pidcock in 1776. After Jeston Homfray's death in 1816 his wife continued to run the Stourton mill as Widow Homfray & Son.

However, a crisis in the ironmaking business of Anthony Bacon (bap. 1717, d. 1786) was to draw Francis [ii] Homfray to south Wales. Bacon, a successful merchant who was manufacturing cannon at Cyfarthfa, was also MP for Aylesbury. When in 1782 Clerke's Act was passed prohibiting government contractors from sitting in the House of Commons, Bacon circumvented this problem by subletting the mill and forge to another operator, with the stipulation that the concern had to purchase his Cyfarthfa iron. He turned to Francis [ii] whose wide experience in slitting iron and manufacturing nails, selling iron and iron goods, operating forges and blast furnaces, and boring cannon had gained him all the necessary skills to work the forge and the mill. Bacon persuaded Homfray to lease the Cyfarthfa undertakings in 1784 with rather restrictive terms.

Francis [ii] Homfray worked the forge and mill until March 1786. However, after a disagreement with Bacon over the supply of iron, he gave up the lease of the Cyfarthfa property. While working at Cyfarthfa, he had seen the potential for ironmaking at Merthyr Tudful. As a result, he encouraged two of his other sons—Samuel Homfray (1762–1822), who was born on 16 February 1762, and Sir Jeremiah Homfray (1759–1833), born on 16 February 1759—to lease land at Penydarren and build an ironworks. The partnership was soon expanded when their brother Thomas Homfray (1760–1825) and members of the Forman family invested in the Penydarren ironworks. William Forman, one of the new partners, was an ordnance agent at the Tower of London and had become acquainted with the Homfrays through cannon manufacture.

In 1795 Samuel Homfray was the chief promoter of the Glamorgan Canal. While managing the Penydarren ironworks he appears to have worked closely with Richard Crawshay (1739–1810) in improving Henry Cort's puddling process for making wrought iron. Crawshay and Homfray were both abrasive characters: Crawshay described Homfray as ‘so ungrateful and litigious that I cannot be on neighbourly terms with him’ (R. Crawshay to the Revd George Maber, 16 Nov 1795, Gwent RO, D2/162, fol. 169). Both Samuel Homfray and Richard Crawshay, in evidence to a parliamentary committee in 1811, cast doubt on Cort's patent for his puddling process, but whereas Crawshay queried its effectiveness, Homfray challenged its originality, and there is no evidence of collusion between them.

A quarrel between Samuel and Jeremiah Homfray concerning expenditure on the Penydarren ironworks saw the management of the business fall completely on Samuel Homfray's shoulders. As sole manager of the works he could pursue his own deep interest in steam power. He installed Boulton and Watt engines to increase output and also manufactured boiler plate and engine parts. His interest in steam power brought him into contact with Richard Trevithick (1771–1833) in May 1803. The result of this meeting was that Samuel Homfray bought a one-quarter share in Trevithick's high-pressure steam patent. Homfray encouraged Trevithick to develop his high-pressure engine and one of Trevithick's engines was constructed at Penydarren in 1804 as a tram road locomotive. This locomotive is acknowledged as the world's first steam locomotive and it made several trips along the Penydarren tram road before being converted to stationary use.

In 1787 Jeremiah Homfray married Mary Richards (d. 1830). Barred from active management at Penydarren, he turned his talents to the development of other ironworks along the northern outcrop of the south Wales coalfield. He was involved in the early development of ironworks at Ebbw Vale, Aber-nant, and Hirwaun, and, in fact, seems to have made a profitable career in setting up ironworks and then selling them as going concerns. He was also later involved in leasing land for coalmining, but this proved to be less successful than his ventures in the iron trade and led to his bankruptcy. Sir Jeremiah Homfray, who was knighted in 1809, died on 9 January 1833.

Samuel Homfray seems, like many of his family, to have had a restless nature and about 1813 he left the Penydarren Iron Company to concentrate his resources on developing the Tredegar ironworks in Monmouthshire. Handicapped at Penydarren by a shortage of coal on the property, he faced no such problems when he built his new works. In 1793 Samuel Homfray married Mary Jane (d. 1846), widow of Captain Henry Ball RN and the elder daughter of Sir Charles Gould Morgan of Tredegar. The marriage saw Homfray's fortunes tied closely to those of one of the most important landowning gentry families in south-east Wales. In 1800 Morgan leased to Homfray land at Bedwellte Common, Tredegar, on which he developed the Tredegar ironworks. By 1823 Tredegar had five furnaces in blast, producing over 16,000 tons of iron each year. Homfray's connection with Penydarren continued, however, for his daughter Amelia married one of the works' owners, William Thompson (1793–1854). Samuel Homfray's success as a businessman led him to become high sheriff of Monmouthshire, and he served as MP for Stafford from 1818 to 1820. He is thought to have been the ‘Mr. H’ who harassed Wilberforce on a coach journey on 13 November 1816, who ‘with stentorian voice left me no peace till his whole tale was told. Inventor of tram roads, founder of all great iron works in Monmouthshire, etc.’ (HoP, Commons, 1790–1820, 220).

After Samuel Homfray's death on 20 May 1822 his sons, Watkin Homfray (1796–1837) and Samuel Homfray (1795–1883), continued to take an active role in the management of the Tredegar ironworks. The Homfray family's involvement with the Tredegar ironworks continued until 1868, when the family sold its shares to the Fothergill and Forman families, who were co-partners.

The Homfray family played a major part in the changes introduced in the south Wales iron industry during the industrial revolution. Members of the family were highly involved in promoting the adoption in south Wales of coal-using technology in the iron industry. Furthermore, the Homfrays' story exemplifies the migration of skills to Wales from the west midlands and clearly demonstrates the rise of steam power in the British iron industry.

Laurence Ince