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 large-scale entrepreneur and thus an important member of a community. He would have a large country house or mansion as his residence. The organization of operations surrounding the smelting, refining, and casting of iron was labour-intensive, and so there would be numerous workers reliant on the furnace works.

There were ironmasters (possibly not called such) from the 17th century onward, but they became more prominent with the great expansion in the British iron industry during the Industrial Revolution.

An early ironmaster was John Winter (about 1600–1676) who owned substantial holdings in the Forest of Dean. During the English Civil War he cast cannons for Charles I. Following the Restoration, Winter developed his interest in the iron industry, and experimented with a new type of coking oven. This was a precursor to the later work of Abraham Darby I who successfully used coke to smelt iron.

Three successive generations of the same family, all bearing the name Abraham Darby are renowned for their contributions to the development of the English iron industry. Their works at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire nurtured the start of improvements in metallurgy that allowed large-scale production of the iron that made the development of steam engines and railways possible, although their most notable innovation was The Iron Bridge.

One of the best-known ironmasters of the early part of the industrial revolution was John Wilkinson (1728–1808), who was considered to have "iron madness", extending even to making cast iron coffins. Wilkinson's patented method for boring iron cylinders was first used to create cannons, but later provided the precision needed to create James Watt's first steam engines.

Samuel Van Leer was a well-known ironmaster and a United States Army officer during the American Revolutionary War. He started a military career with enthusiasm with his neighbor General Anthony Wayne in 1775. His furnace, Reading Furnace in Pennsylvania, supplied cannon and cannonballs for the Continental Army. Van Leer's furnace was a center of colonial ironmaking and is associated with the introduction of the Franklin Stove, and the retreat of George Washington's army following its defeat at the Battle of Brandywine, where they came for musket repairs. The location is listed as a temporary George Washington Headquarter.

W Van Leer's children all joined the iron business as well.