I have only recently joined the arch-metals discussion
group and am not sure if this issue is still current. 
  

I cannot say when pig iron was first marked in
England, but would suggest it goes back at least to
when pig began to be traded in a significant basis,
which may well be as far back as the 1650s and
certainly the 1670s. The names below seem to represent
marks (brand names) on pig iron used in the Stour
Valley ironworks of Edward Knight & Co. in north
Worcestershire. They are followed by personal names
and quantities. The personal names seem to be those
the vendors of whom R. Molineux, Jevon, Seney, and
Bradburne can be identified as ironmongers in the
Black Country, the industrial area west of Birmingham.
Spooner and Farmer were Birmingham ironmongers. Lyde,
Turton, Edward Oliver and Reynolds & Daniel were
Bristol ironmongers or iron merchants. Beale was a
prominent owner of trows (Severn river barges) and in
Bewdley, the Severn port town serving the Stour valley
and Black Country. I deduce that these ironmongers had
pig iron available to sell to Edward Knight & Co.,
because they received it in exchange for nails and
other ironware exported to America and were selling it
to Edward Knight in part payment for iron supplied to
them. 



Some of the brand names are clearly those of furnaces
in Virginia or Maryland, including Baltimore, Bush
River, Philadelphia, Patuxent, Principio, Potomac, and
Cornwall, or at least I presume so. Where was
Cornwall? I am sure it cannot mean the English county.




Tubal occurs intermittently 1742 to 1757 and I presume
it is the trademark of Governor Spottiswoode of
Virginia who had a number of furnaces considered
himself the Tubal-Cain of Virginia. 



R. Snowden 17 tons from Lyde (of Bristol) in 1738 was
I presume the name of an ironmaster



However can any one identify the following: 

WBNSJ occurs 1731 to 1744

TPNI (or TPNJ) occurs 1741 and 1748

TP/NB or TP, NB and also NB (alone) occur 1735 to 1742


TP occurs 1750-2

BC occurs 1748

FC occurs 1736 to 1746



Between 1728 and 1757 the five forges belonging to
Edward Knight & Co consumed almost 7000 tons of
American pig iron. The largest single source was Donne
& Co., later Lionel Lyde & Co. and then Bristol Co.,
who supplied 3655 tons between 1728 and 1757, with a
maximum of 533 tons in the year1737/8. I presume this
was made by the Bristol ironworks in King George
County, on which there is a published article. 



Edward Knight & Co. largely ceased using American pig
iron about 1757, probably because coke pig iron
suitable for forges was available in large quantities
from Horsehay, Ketley and Lightmoor Furnaces in
Shropshire. However 174 tons from ‘Deepcreek, Forest
of Dean, and Charlotteburg were used in 1774-5. Where
were these? 



MC from John Dunlop in 1766 (1 ton) and further
amounts from Finch & Laugher and from William Coles in
1766 and 1767 with [my note illegible] and Forest,
also 3 tons from Laugher & Hancox. Lougher & Hancox
were Dudley ironmongers, who exported ironware Through
Bristol to America in their own name, rather than
selling them to a merchant to export.



In 1785 Moser & Crawshaw (probably London iron
merchants) supplied 4 tons of Baltimore &c and 17 tons
of Speedwell &c. 



The letter book of Thomas Plumsted of London
(Cambridge Univ. Lib., Add. Ms. 2798) mentions
Patuxent, Union, Baltimore and Bush River, which he
was selling to various ironmasters



Help with the identities of these American furnqaces
will be much appreciated.



Peter King

49, Stourbridge Road, Hagley, Stourbridge, West
Midlands DY9 0QS England

 

 




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