No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
For at least two thousand years the metallic mineral wealth of Britain—its tin, copper, lead, iron, silver and gold—has been diligently, if intermittently, sought by merchant and manufacturer, by statesman and speculator, yet only in the last two centuries have soundly-based conceptions of the origin of metalliferous deposits been clearly postulated and widely accepted. Systematic prospecting, surveying and exploitation of the major deposits has been the work of an even shorter period of time. In the immediately preceding centuries practice and theory alike were curious concoctions of practical commonsense, specious medieval theory and spurious alchemical notions—in the words of an eminent modern authority:
A spreading structure supported by fables, a structure top heavy with philosophical reasoning directed towards supporting prior authorities and contemporary religious dogma.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries important and wide-reaching changes took place in the geographical distribution and the intensity of metalliferous mining in the British Isles. From a predominantly surface operation at the beginning of the Tudor Age, metalliferous mining had become a largely subterranean activity by the end of the Stuart era. This led, in virtually all parts of the two islands, to a modified, if not completely transformed, mining technology. During a century of transition, between approximately 1540 and 1640, much of the art of underground mining was learned by the miners of Cornwall and Devon, the High Peak, Alston Moor and other mining districts, an art which was to come to full flower in the nineteenth century and lead to the exodus of the “Cousin Jacks” to Michigan and Nevada, Broken Hill, Iron Knob and a hundred other mining districts in the Americas, Africa and Australasia, where experienced hard rock miners were in high demand.
Revised version of a paper read at the Pacific Northwest Conference on British Studies, Eugene, Oregon, March 1973.
1 Abbot, George, An Essay on the Mines of England: Their Importance as a Source of National Wealth and as a Channel for the Advantageous Employment of Private Capital (London, 1833), p. 3.Google Scholar
2 Agricola, Georgius, De Natura Fossileum. Introduction by Bandy, Mark Chance (New York. 1955). p. v.Google Scholar
3 Dubbed by some as “Nef's century”, the fortunes of the British coal industry, metalliferous mining and smelting industries and other forms of manufacturing have been explored in a major corpus of monographs and research articles by John U. Nef of Chicago. The most important of these are: The Rise of the British Coal Industry (2 vols. London, 1932)Google Scholar; “The Progress of Technology and the Growth of Large-scale Industry in Great Britain, 1540-1640,” Economic History Review, V (1934–1935)Google Scholar; “Notes on the Progress of Iron Production in England, 1540-1640,” Journal of Political Economy, XLIV (1936)Google Scholar; “A Comparison of Industrial Growth in France and England, 1540 to 1640,” Ibid., XLIV (1936); “Prices and Industrial Capitalism in France and England, 1540-1640,” Economic History Review, VII (1937)Google Scholar; “Industry and Government in France and England, 1540-1640,” Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, XV (1940)Google Scholar; “The Genesis of Industrialism and Modern Science, 1540-1640,” in Essays in Honor of Conyers Read, ed. by Downs, Norton (Chicago, 1953)Google Scholar; and Cultural Foundations of Industrial Civilization (Cambridge, 1957).Google Scholar
4 Two recent works cover this subject well as far as America is concerned. See Todd, Arthur C., The Cornish Miner in America (Glendale, California, 1968)Google Scholar and Rowse, A. L., Cousin Jacks: The Cornish in America (New York, 1969).Google Scholar
5 This is dealt with in Aristotle's work Meteorologia.
6 Theophrastus, On Stones, as quoted by the Hoovers in their edition of Agricola's De Re Metallica, p. 43, footnote 1.
7 Magnus, Albertus, De Mineralibus et Rebus Metallis (circa 1260, first printed 1476).Google Scholar
8 As quoted in Adams, Frank Dawson, The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences (New York, 1954), p. 280.Google Scholar
9 Argicola, Georgius, De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum (Basel, 1546), II, p. 35.Google Scholar
10 Glauber, Johann R., Operis Mineralis. Pars II. De Ortu et Origine Omnium Metallorum et Mineralium (Amsterday, 1652), p. 10, as quoted in Adams, p. 281.Google Scholar
11 See Pachter, Henry M., Paracelsus: Magic into Science (New York, 1951)Google Scholar, for a fascinating study of this remarkable Renaissance man.
12 As quoted in Webster, John, Metallographa, or an History of Metals (London, 1671), p. 124.Google Scholar
13 Barba, Alvaro Alonzo, El Arte do los Metales (1640) Translated from the Spanish and edited by Douglass, Ross E. and Mathewson, E. P. (New York, 1923), p. 55.Google Scholar
14 Lehmann, Johann Gottald, L'Art des Mines (1759)Google Scholar, as quoted in Adams, , Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences, pp. 282–83.Google Scholar
15 Ibid., p. 305.
16 Barba, , El Arte de los Metales. Translated by the Earl of Sandwich (London, 1669)Google Scholar, as quoted in Adams, p. 306.
17 McLean, Antonia, Humanism and the Rise of Science in Tudor England (New York, 1972), pp. 232–33.Google Scholar
18 Robinson, Thomas, An Essay Towards a Natural History of Westmorland and and Cumberland (London, 1709).Google Scholar
19 This soubriquet appears to have been given Agricola first by Werner, Abraham Gottlieb, Neue Theorie von der Entstehung der Gänge (Friburg, 1791), p. 10.Google Scholar
20 Vogelsang, , Philosophie der Geologie (Bonn, 1867), p.58.Google Scholar
21 The seven known works are: Bermannus (1530); De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum (1546); De Natura eorum Quae effluent ex Terra (1546); De Natura Fossileum (1546); De Veteribus et Novis Metallis (1546); De Animantibus Subterraneis (1549); and, post-humously, De Re Metallica (1556). Adams, on the authority of Agricola's biographer—Georg Hoffmann—mentions the possibility of an eighth work, De Metallis et Machinis (1543), being still in existence.
22 According to Aitchison, Leslie, “certainly the most important book on metals to appear before the nineteenth century.” Aitchison, A History of Metals (2 vols. London, 1960), I, 293.Google Scholar
23 According to Herbert Hoover, “No appreciation of Agricola's contribution to science can be gained without a study of De Ortu et Causis and De Natura Fossileum, for which De Re Metallica is of much more general interest; it contains but incidental reference to geology and mineralogy.” De Re Metallica. Hoover translation, p. xii.
24 Adams, , Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences, p. 309.Google Scholar
25 De Natura Fossileum. Bandy translation, p. vi.
26 Although translations were made into German and Italian within a few years of the appearance of the original, no English translation of Agricola's work appeared before the twentieth century. SirPettus, John in his Fleta Minor (1686)Google Scholar makes mention of his intention to publish an English translation of De Re Metallica, which would parallel his translation of Lazarus Ercker's Essay on Ores and Assaying, but according to the Hoovers no trace of this proposed work has ever been discovered. De Re Metallica, p. XVII.
27 Adams, , Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences, p. 186.Google Scholar
28 Just as Biringuccio was indebted to Agricola's early work, Bermannus (1530), for information on silver ores, among other matters.
29 Biringuccio, Vannoccio, De la Pirotechnia (Venice, 1540)Google Scholar. A French translation by Jacques Vincent was made in 1556, and partial English translations by Richard Eden of parts of Book I in 1555, and by Peter Whitehorn of most of Book X in 1560. The first full English translation was completed by Martha Teach Gnudi, and the whole work edited by Cyril Stanley Smith, in 1943, sponsored by the Seeley W. Mudd Memorial Fund of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers.
30 Biringuccio, , Pirotechnia. Smith edition, introduction, p. vii.Google Scholar
31 Ibid., p. 26, footnote.
32 Barba, Alvaro Alonzo, El Arte de los Metales (Madrid, 1640)Google Scholar was originally written as a report to the Crown's representative and approved by the Deputies of Potosi and its Amalgamators' Guild and recommended for publication. In 1669 the Earl of Sandwich attempted a translation of the first two books into English. German and French translations followed. The modern English translation was completed by Ross E. Douglass and E.P. Mathewson and published in 1923. See note 13 above.
33 El Arte de los Metales. Douglass and Mathewson translation, p. 55.
34 A. R. Hall, The Scientific Revolution, 1500-1800; The Formation of the Modern Scientific Attitude (London, 1954)Google Scholar and Boas, Marie, The Scientific Renaissance, 1450-1630 (New York, 1962)Google Scholar, may be cited as representative examples.
35 Leslie Aitchison, A History of Metals, deals with Sir John Pettus; Frank Dawson Adams, The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences, with Robert Boyle; and Wolf, A., A History of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the 16th and 17th Centuries (2 vols. New York, 1959)Google Scholar, with Martin Lister, Sir Isaac Newton, John Woodward, Thomas Burnet, Edward Lhuyd and Robert Hooke.
36 An excellent review of the progress of Saxon mining is given in Boyce, Helen, The Mines of the Upper Harz from 1514 to 1589 (Menasha, Wisconsin, 1920).Google Scholar
37 Harrison, William, Description of England (London, 1577).Google Scholar
38 Thomas Robinson, An Essay Towards a Natural History of Westmorland and Cumberland.
39 A large body of topographical writing can be assembled for the period under review. Much of it was concerned with antiquarian and genealogical matters, like Leland, John, The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the Years 1535-1543, edited by Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (5 volumes, London, 1907–1910)Google Scholar and William Camden, Britannia, translated from the edition published by the author in 1607 and enlarged by the latest discoveries by Richard Gough (3 volumes, London, 1789). Among the regional works that contain much useful material on mining and smelting may be cited: Carew, Richard, Survey of Cornwall (London, 1602)Google Scholar; John Norden, “Special Britanniae Pars: A Topographical Description: Cornwall,” Harleian MSS., no. 6252; Plot, Robert, The Natural History of Staffordshire (Oxford, 1686)Google Scholar; Boate, Gerard, Ireland's Naturall History (London, 1652)Google Scholar; and Westcote, Thomas, A View of Devonshire in 1630, edited by Oliver, George and Jones, Pitman (Exeter, 1845).Google Scholar
40 Sir John Pettus wrote for publication two well-known works: Fodinae Regales: On the History, Laws and Places of the Chief Mines in England, Wales and the English Pale in Ireland (London, 1670)Google Scholar, and Fleta Minor: The Laws of Art and Nature in Knowing, Judging, Assaying, Refining and Inlarging the Bodies of Confin'd Metals (London, 1686)Google Scholar. As Governor of the Company of Mines Royal for many years, he was intimately connected with many of the mining and metallurgical ventures of the seventeenth century. Leslie Aitchison has written of Pettus: “From a study of his two books it seems clear that Pettus, that normal, sensible man, half believed in the alchemical abracadabra and crinkum-crankum, and certainly was not prepared to deny the alchemical doctrines, provided that those professing them were men having clean hands and pure hearts.” A History of Metals, I, 299.Google Scholar
41 British Museum, Harleian MS. 6380, entitled “Account of Tin-Works in Cornwall,” is a most important sixteenth century account of the Cornish tin industry, written by a tinner, Thomas Beare, circa 1586.
42 Francis Nedham was a shareholder of the Company of the Mines Royal, and coauthor, with Thomas Bowes, of the “Report on the Mines” made for the Company in 1602. The whereabouts of the original report are unknown—Professor Donald suggests that it may still be in existence, perhaps among the Popham Papers (Elizabethan Copper, p. 3)—but a number of other copies exist. The one used in the preparation of this paper is a xerox copy of that which appears in one of Sir Daniel Fleming's notebooks, formerly at Rydal Hall, and now deposited in the Westmorland Record Office, Kendall—D/Ry Ms. R. Letters written by Nedham, and containing information on mining matters, are to be found in the State Papers Domestic, the MSS. of the Duke of Northumberland and other collections.
43 Apart from the joint report written with Francis Nedham and cited above, letters and reports written by Bowes over a period of more than thirty years appear in the State Papers Domestic, the MSS. of the Marquis of Salisbury and other collections. These letters and reports are frequently most informative on conditions in the mines and on mining techniques, particularly the long report written from the Scottish gold-fields in 1603 to the Earl of Suffolk, the Lord Chamberlain. See Historical Manuscripts Commission, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury (Cecil Manuscripts) at Hatfield, XV, (London, 1883), 317–18.Google Scholar
44 Letters written by Carnsew to Cecil and others are to be found in the State Papers Domestic and other collections, but his most important writings are those in the Mount Edgcumbe MSS, now deposited in the Cornwall County Record Office, Truro. Accession No. 821, which includes the “Treatise on Cornish Mining, circa 1590” and “Memorandum Relating to Silver and Lead Mines in Cornwall,” is the most important group of Carnsew writings.
45 There are many letters written by Bulmer in the State Papers Domestic, the Border Papers, the Lansdowne MSS. and other collections. “Bulmer's Skill (On Mines and Minerals)” is regarded as the most important of his writings. See Taylor, E.G.R., Late Tudor and Early Stuart Geography (London, 1934), p. 221Google Scholar; also Stephen Atkinson's work on the gold mines of Scotland cited in footnote 47 below.
46 Although there are many references to Myddelton in the State Papers Domestic, the Acts of the Privy Council and other public records, a large proportion of these is concerned with Myddelton's work in providing London with a new supply of fresh water. Bushell's Just and True Remonstrance…, cited in footnote 47 below, and Sir John Pettus. Fodinae Regales, contain fair detail on his mining achievements. A modern work by Gough, J. W., Sir Hugh Myddelton: Entrepreneur and Engineer (Oxford, 1964)Google Scholar, draws together the available evidence from many public and private sources.
47 Atkinson, Stephen, The Discoverie and Historic of the Gold Mynes in Scotland, Written in the Year 1619, Presented to the Bannatyne Club by Meason, Gilbert Laing (Edinburgh, 1825)Google Scholar. Atkinson was a goldsmith and employed for some time as a finer in the Tower of London. He worked with Bulmer in various parts of the British Isles and had high respect for his ability as a mining prospector and engineer. Details of this association are given in the book.
48 Bushell's writings were numerous; a good many of them being of a polemical nature. The best known is his Just and True Remonstrance of His Majesty's Mines Royall in the Principalities of Wales (London, 1641)Google Scholar. A large number of his letters are to be found in the State Papers Domestic, the House of Lords MSS. and other collections.
49 There were numerous earlier arrivals of German miners, but not until after 1550 was the influx of notable proportions. See on this topic Cunningham, William, Alien Immigrants to England (London, 1897)Google Scholar; Williams, Lionel, “Alien Immigrants in Relation to Industry and Society in Tudor England.” Proceedings of the Huguenot Society, XIX (1956), 146–69Google Scholar; and Collingwood, W. G., Elizabethan Keswick (Kendal, Westmorland, 1912).Google Scholar
50 Donald, M. B., Copper, Elizabeth: The History of the Company of the Mines Royal, 1568-1605 (London, 1955), p. 3.Google Scholar
51 See especially Merton, Robert K., Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England (New York, 1970Google Scholar; originally published as Volume IV, Part Two, of Osiris; Studies on the History and Philosophy of Science, and on the History of Learning and Culture, 1938), for a broad treatment of the role played by the Royal Society in the advancement of technology during this period. Not all scholars are agreed as to the validity of Merton's thesis, though there is wide agreement as to its importance as a contribution to one major facet of English history in the seventeenth century. Hall's, A. Rupert “Merton Revisited, or Science and Society in the Seventeenth Century,” History of Science: An Annual Review, II (1963), 1–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar, is the best treatment of this matter. Davies, Gordon L., The Earth in Decay: A History of British Geomorphology, 1578-1878 (New York, 1969)Google Scholar, is useful for its coverage of contributions to geological theory, while Rossi's, PaoloPhilosophy, Technology and the Arts in the Early Modern Era (New York, 1970)Google Scholar, provides a lucid general account of the interaction of science, technology and thought in this period.
52 Bushell was for a time a member of Bacon's household and seems to have held him in high esteem. However his attribution to Bacon of some of the practical ideas he initiated in the mines of Cardiganshire in the 1630s and 1640s is obviously misplaced. These are manifestly ideas derived from Agricola and others of the previous century, though it is possible that they came to Bushell via Bacon unacknowledged.
53 These operations can be followed in Gough's, J. W.The Superlative Prodigal: A Life of Thomas Bushell (Bristol. 1932)Google Scholar, and three works by Lewis, W. J.: “Some Aspects of Lead Mining in Cardiganshire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” Ceredigion, I (1950–1951), 177–92Google Scholar; “The Cymsymlog Lead Mine,” Ibid., I; (1952–55), 27-38; and Lead Mining in Wales (Cardiff, 1967)Google ScholarPubMed. Contemporary materials are to be found in Bushell's own works and in Sir John Pettus, Fodinae Regales.
54 John Aubrey's comments about Bushell in the mid-seventeenth century regarding his extravagances reveal a character larger than life. See Aubrey's Brief Lives, edited by Dick, Oliver Lawson (Ann Arbor, 1962), p. 42Google Scholar. Also, J. W. Gough, The Superlative Prodigal.
55 Webster, John, Metallographa, or an History of Metals. (London, 1661).Google Scholar
56 The Hon.Boyle, Robert, “Articles of Inquiries Touching Mines,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, I (1665–1666), 330–43.Google Scholar
57 The Reverend Joseph Glanvil, “Reply by Joseph Glanvil to Boyle's ‘Articles of Inquiries’,” Ibid., II (1667), 525-27.
58 Anonymous, “Of Some Mineral Observations touching the Mines of Cornwal and Devon; wherein is described the Art of Trayning a Load; the Art and Manner of Digging the Ore; and the Way of Dressing and of Blowing Tin; Communicated by an Inquisitive person, that was much conversant in those Mines,” Ibid., VI (1671), 2096–113.
59 Dr. Christopher Merret, “A Relation of the Tinn-Mines, and working of Tinn in the County of Cornwal,” Ibid., XII (1677), 949-52.
60 Davies, Gordon L., The Earth in Decay, pp. 63–94Google Scholar; Burnet, Thomas, Sacred Theory of the Earth (London, 1684)Google Scholar; Robinson, Thomas, The Anatomy of the Earth (London, 1694)Google Scholar; Ray, John, Three Physico-Theological Discourses (second edition, London, 1692)Google Scholar; Woodward, John, Essay Towards a Natural Theory of the Earth (London, 1695)Google Scholar; Whiston, William, Theory of the Earth (London, 1696).Google Scholar
61 Among these might be mentioned Boyle, Robert, The Sceptical Chymist (London, 1662)Google Scholar; Hooke, Robert, Micrographia (London, 1665)Google Scholar; Ray, John, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (London, 1692)Google Scholar; Lhuyd, Edward, Lithophylacium Britannicum (London, 1698)Google Scholar; and letters and articles of Martin Lister, Sir Isaac Newton and John Ray in the Philosophical Transactions and elsewhere.
62 Davies, , The Earth in Decay, p. 63.Google Scholar