The Mayburys’ Iron Industry
John Maybury of Sussex was a hammerman, one of the skilled workers involved in the production of iron by a technique variously called the ‘two stage technique’, the ‘indirect technique’ or, more commonly, ‘Walloon forging’. This technique was introduced into England from the Low Countries – modern Belgium (homeland of the ethnic Walloons) and Netherlands - via Normandy, France, in the late 15th century.
Before the late 15th century, iron in England was produced in ‘bloomerys’ - furnaces in which iron oxides in iron ore were reduced to metallic iron without melting the ore. This produced a ‘bloom’, a mix of slag and iron, from which the slag was beaten out and pure ‘wrought’ iron obtained. Bloomery iron production was slow and small-scale. In contrast, 12th and 13th century Walloon forging employed blast furnace technology and produced large quantities of pig iron in a continuous process. However, the pig iron produced was high in carbon and required additional processing, hence the term ‘two stage technique’. The pig iron was melted down in a furnace called a ‘finery’ and the mass of iron and slag was beaten into a bloom by finers. The bloom was then reheated and drawn out into the desired gauge of bar by hammermen working at a ‘chafery’. The ironworkers worked in teams: two fineries - each operated by a team of three finers - supplied blooms to a single chafery operated by a team of three hammermen – a master hammerman, a ‘hammerman’s man’ and an apprentice. It would be expected that John Maybury of Sussex would have been born into the family of a hammerman or, at least, an iron-worker.
Hammer Forge drawing by J. Lewis
Iron-workers from France were brought to Britain by English ironmasters to drive the adoption of the Walloon forging technique. Over five hundred continental workers immigrated to Sussex between the 1490s and the 1540s, the progenitors of many families of ironworkers in England. The paucity of early Maybury records indicates that the population of Mayburys in 16th century England was quite small and geographically concentrated, especially in the period 1600-1650. This has led researchers to consider the possibility that the Mayburys (perhaps either John or his father) were among the workers who immigrated to Britain in the last decades of the 15th century or the early 16th century. No documentary evidence for this has been located. An additional problem here is that the Maybury surname may have evolved from a quite different foreign surname, transformed in England by everyday usage and the tortured attempts by clerks to grapple with an unfamiliar name and accent. On the other hand, John Maybury’s first wife, Margaret Bourder or Border, bore a surname, Burder, that did travel from Normandy to England.
The initial focus of Walloon forging in England was in the Weald in Sussex. The Weald was an extensive area of forest capable of supplying the timber required to make the charcoal used in the furnace during the process of separating iron from iron ore. It was also an area with deposits of iron ore. The Weald was additionally blessed with streams capable of being dammed to provide a constant supply of water. This water supply was needed to power the waterwheels that drove the hammers operated by the hammermen. John Maybury of Sussex lived and worked in the Weald until about 1593.
Walloon forging soon spread beyond the Weald into new, suitable areas throughout England. This diffusion was accelerated by the ravages of the timber-cutters and ‘colliers’ (charcoal makers) in the Weald woodland that resulted in a dwindling supply of charcoal. So, iron-workers became a very mobile workforce by necessity, moving from one ironworking area to another. They also became dynastic as young family members were apprenticed to kin. The Mayburys, for instance, continued as a family associated with iron-working for at least three hundred years after John Maybury was admitted into the industry. Intermarriage with other iron-working families produced complex kinship networks that served to spread information about work opportunities at forges throughout England and beyond.
References:
Chris Evans, 'A skilled workforce during the transition to industrial society: forgemen in the British iron trade, 1500-1850', Labour History Review, Vol.63, No.2, 1998.
Brian G. Awty, Provisional identifications of ironworkers among French immigrants listed in the Denization rolls of 1541 and 1544, Wealden Iron Research Group, Bulletin No. 16, 1979, pp.2-11.
M. A. Smithson
December 2023