Richard Foley (1580–1657) was a prominent English ironmaster. He is best known from the folktale of "Fiddler Foley", which is either not correct or does not apply to him.

Ironmaster

Richard was the son of another Richard Foley (1551-1600), a nailer at Dudley, though the son is likely to have traded in nails rather than making them. In the 1620s, he became a partner in a network of ironworks in south Staffordshire, which were undoubtedly the source of the family's fortune.

"Fiddler Foley"

According to the folktale, "Fiddler Foley", he went to Sweden where, posing as a simple fiddler, he succeeded in discovering the secret of the

slitting mill The slitting mill was a watermill for slitting bars of iron into rods. The rods then were passed to nailers who made the rods into nails, by giving them a point and head. The slitting mill was probably invented near Liège in what is now Belg ...

, which was enabling the price of English nails to be undercut. He returned home and set up a slitting mill at Hyde Mill in

Kinver Kinver is a large village in the District of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the ...

, thus making his fortune. Unfortunately, the earliest version of the legend, while applying to Hyde Mill, referred not to Richard Foley, but to a member of the Brindley family, who owned the mill until the 1730s. This may possibly have been George Brindley, Richard's brother-in-law. Richard certainly leased Hyde Mill in 1627 and converted it to a slitting mill, though it was not the first in England or even in the Midlands.

Family

Richard Foley married twice, and was able to set up several of his sons as gentlemen or in other prominent positions. By his first marriage: *Richard Foley (1614–1678) of Birmingham, and then an ironmaster at Longton in north Staffordshire. By his second marriage to Alice Brindley, daughter of Sir William Brindley of Willenhal: * Thomas Foley (1616-1677), another prominent ironmaster, whose descendant was elevated to the peerage as

Baron Foley Baron Foley is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Great Britain, both times for members of the same family. The first creation came in 1712 in favour of Thomas Foley, who had earlier represented Stafford in the House of C ...

. * Robert Foley (d. 1676), ironmonger *Priscilla, who married first Ezekiel Wallis and then in 1665 Henry Glover *Samuel Foley, a cleric, of

Clonmel Clonmel () is the county town and largest settlement of County Tipperary, Ireland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian army which sacked the towns of Drogheda and Wexford. With the exception of the townland ...

and

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

*John Foley (1631-c.1684), a Turkey merchant, i.e. a trader with the

Levant The Levant () is an approximation, approximate historical geography, historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology an ...

References

*R. G. Schafer (ed.), ''A selection from the Records of Philip Foley's Stour Valley Iron Works'' (Worcs. Hist. Soc., n.s. 9 (1978), xvii-xviii. *P. W. King, 'The Development of the iron industry in south Staffordshire in the 17th century: history and myth' ''Trans. Staffs. Arch. & Hist. Soc. XXXVIII (1999 for 1996-7), 59-76. The story is also told in the 1902 novel, "Nebo the Nailer" by Sabine Baring-Gould. New edition Praxis Books, 2014. 1580 births 1657 deaths British ironmasters

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

17th-century English businesspeople Business people from Worcester, England {{UK-business-bio-stub