Samuel Homfray (1762 – 22 May 1822) was an English

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, associated with the early

iron industry Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

. Samuel was the son of a successful

ironmaster An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain. The ironmaster was usually a larg ...

, Francis Homfray, and the brother of Jeremiah Homfray and Thomas Homfray. His elder brothers were Jeston, Francis, Jeremiah and Thomas. With his two brothers, Jeremiah and Thomas, he took over the lease of Anthony Bacon's cannon foundry at Cyfarthfa, before they began the Penydarren Ironworks during the 1780s. In 1784, after a court case they transferred the lease of the foundry from Anthony Bacon (with whom they had quarrelled), who reassigned it to David Tanner, and moved to where they had set up the works on the banks of the River Morlais, building Penydarren House on the far side river bank. After years of fierce competition with the

Dowlais Dowlais () is a village and community of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, in Wales. At the 2011 census the electoral ward had a population of 6,926, The population of the Community being 4,270 at the 2011 census having excluded Pant. Dowla ...

and Cyfarthfa ironworks, they began to prosper. Samuel took over as proprietor of the Penydarren works, while Jeremiah moved to

Ebbw Vale Ebbw Vale (; cy, Glynebwy) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr con ...

. Samuel was one of the chief promoters of the Glamorgan canal, which opened in 1795 and cost £103,000, of which he subscribed £40,000 and which enabled the transporting of heavy manufactured iron to Cardiff docks. In 1804 Samuel won a 1000 guineas wager with

Richard Crawshay Richard Crawshay (1739 – 27 June 1810) was a London iron merchant and then South Wales ironmaster; he was one of ten known British millionaires in 1799. Early life and marriage Richard Crawshay was born in Normanton in the West Riding ...

as to which of them could first build a

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

for use in their works. Homfray employed

Richard Trevithick Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He ...

for this purpose and his locomotive won the bet, hauling five wagons, carrying ten tons of iron and seventy men, at a speed of five miles an hour. In 1800, Samuel married Jane Morgan, daughter of Sir Charles Gould Morgan, 1st Baronet of

Tredegar House Tredegar House (Welsh: ''Tŷ Tredegar'') is a 17th-century Charles II-era mansion on the southwestern edge of Newport, Wales. For over five hundred years it was home to the Morgan family, later Lords Tredegar; one of the most powerful and influe ...

, and thus obtained a favorable lease of mineral land at

Tredegar Tredegar (pronounced , ) is a town and community situated on the banks of the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in the southeast of Wales. Within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the ...

, where he established the Tredegar Ironworks. In 1813 he was appointed

High Sheriff of Monmouthshire This is a list of Sheriffs of Monmouthshire, an office which was created in 1536 but not fully settled until 1540. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, the shrievalty of Monmouthshire was abolished, and replaced ...

and in 1818, returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in ...

borough.

Family

Of the children of Samuel and Jane Homfray: *Two sons. Watkin Homfray (1796–1837) and Samuel Homfray the younger (1795–1883), went into the iron business *Amelia married joint owner of the ironworks William Thompson (1793–1854) *Mary, the youngest daughter, married

George Darby Vice Admiral George Darby (c.1720 – 1790) was a Royal Navy officer. He commanded HMS ''Norwich'' at the capture of Martinique in 1762 during the Seven Years' War. He went on to command the Channel Fleet during the American Revolutionary ...

, Member of Parliament for , and had a family of four sons and eight daughters

References

Sources

Welsh Biography Online
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Homfray, Samuel Welsh industrialists History of Monmouthshire British ironmasters Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Stafford UK MPs 1818–1820 High Sheriffs of Monmouthshire 1822 deaths 1762 births