Sir Clement Clerke, 1st Baronet (died 1693) was created a baronet shortly after the Restoration. He was the third son of George Clerke of Willoughby, Warwickshire.^[1] He was married to Sarah, daughter and heiress of George Talbot of Rudge, Shropshire. In 1657, he bought the Launde Abbey estate in Leicestershire in 1658 and this was settled on him and his wife. They had another estate at Notgrove in Gloucestershire. Events January 11 - Eruption of Mt. ... A baronet (traditional abbreviation Bart, modern abbreviation Bt), is the holder of an hereditary title awarded by the British Crown, known as a baronetcy. ... King Charles II, the first monarch to rule after the English Restoration. ... Willoughby is the name of several places: Willoughby, New South Wales is a suburb Sydney, Australia. ... Gloucestershire (pronounced ; GLOSS-ter-sher) is a county in South West England. ...

In the early 1670s, Sir Clement joined various other people in sponsoring Dud Dudley to build a furnace at Dudley to smelt iron using a mixed fuel amde from wood and coal. This (uniquely) was to be powered by the strength of men and of horses. By 1674 Sir Clement and John Finch of Dudley were the only partners. Finch had other ironworks, but competition between him and Philip Foley was damaging to them both; this led them to enter into a restrictive agreement as to where they would respectively buy wood and generally limiting their activities. A few months later, John Finch sold all his works to Alderman John Foorth (of London) and Sir Clement Clerke. They also bought wood in the Forest of Dean, bit found that the King's Ironworks there had been sold to Paul Foley for demolition and had to build their own furnace at Linton, Herefordshire. They then brought in further partners including John's brother Dannett Foorth and George Skippe of Ledbury. They also bought further ironworks from Philip Foley. This proved to be a troubled business because Sir Clement borrowed money from moneylenders on the security of his share (in breach of the terms of the partnership agreement). This led Dannett Foorth having him Sir Clement arrested for debt, and George Skippe bailing him out. These difficulties were resolved by the sale of the ironworks in 1676, and the dissolution of the partnership.^[2] Events and Trends Newton and Leibniz independently discover calculus. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wikisource. ... Events February 19 - England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster. ... Philip Foley (1648 - 1716) was the youngest of the three surviving sons of the British ironmaster Thomas Foley (1616-1677). ... An alderman is a member of a municipal legislative body in a town or city with many jurisdictions. ... The (Royal) Forest of Dean is a region in the county of Gloucestershire, England. ... Paul Foley was the second son of Thomas Foley of Witley Court the prominent Midlands ironmaster. ... Location within the British Isles Ledbury (known locally as jippo)is a town in Herefordshire, England. ... Philip Foley (1648 - 1716) was the youngest of the three surviving sons of the British ironmaster Thomas Foley (1616-1677). ... Events January 29 - Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia First measurement of the speed of light, by Ole Rømer Bacons Rebellion Russo-Turkish Wars commence. ...

During their partnership, Andrew Yarranton persuaded John Foorth and Sir Clement Clerke to finance the completion of the navigation of the Worcesterhire Stour. This would have been a convenience for them, as it ran near some of their works, but nothing was done except pay off some debts, due to the problems with the ironworks business. On its dissolution, George Skippe took over Foorth’s share in the navigation; new contractors (including Andrew Yarranton’s son Robert, and they were to be paid by instalments as the works progressed, but the money ran out when the river was only completed from Stourbridge to Kidderminster.^[3] Andrew Yarranton (1619-1684) was an important English engineer, who was responsible for building several canals. ... The Stour is a river in Worcestershire. ... Andrew Yarranton (1619-1684) was an important English engineer, who was responsible for building several canals. ...

By this stage, Sir Clement had exhausted his resources; the manor of Rudge was ultimately foreclosed by the mortgagee. Lord Grandison had financed a certain Samuel Hutchinson, who had a patent for smelting lead with pitcoal, but failed. Grandison then approached Sir Clement. Grandison and Robert Thorowgood (a King's Lynn merchant) provided the capital in 1678 for Sir Clement and Francis Nicholson (Grandison's dependent) to set up lead works. Sir Clement went to Bristol and built cupolas - reverberatory furnaces, but when Sir Clement went back for the rest of the capital, he found that Nicholson had taken it to Derbyshire and lost it. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and... Electric phosphate smelting furnace in a TVA chemical plant (1942) Chemical reduction, or smelting, is a form of extractive metallurgy. ... Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by underground mining or open-pit mining (surface mining). ... Kings Lynn is a town and port in the English county of Norfolk. ... Bristol (IPA: ) is a city, unitary authority and ceremonial county in South West England, 115 miles (185 km) west of London and located at With a population of 400,000, and metropolitan area of 550,000, it is Englands sixth, and the United Kingdoms ninth, most populous city... A reverbatory furnace is a metallurgical or process furnace which characteristically isolates the material being processed from contact with the fuel, but not from contact with the combustion gases. ...

In 1683, there was a complicated agreement to the effect that business should be carried on by Sir Clement's son Talbot, but he was not quite 21 years old so that the business had to be in the name of a trustee. The business was in fact profitable. Talbot sought to declare a dividend, but Lord Grandison and his fellow financier, Hon. Henry Howard demanded that they be repaid money that they said Sir Clement owed them. This led to litigation, during the course of which one Gravely Claypoole was appointed by the court to run the works for Grandison. The litigation was ultimately resolved in Talbot's favour.^[4] Events June 6 - The Ashmolean Museum opens as the worlds first university museum. ...

Another venture related to the production of white lead. This was in the names of Talbot's trustee an Grandison's son Edward Fitzgerald Villiers, but was evidently not successful, with the result that money had to be obtained by mortgaging Launde Abbey to repay Villiers. Sample of cerussite-bearing quartzite Cerussite (also known as Horn silver, Lead carbonate, White lead ore) is a mineral consisting of lead carbonate (PbCO3), and an important ore of lead. ...

In 1687, while the lead cupola was out of their possession, Sir Clement and Talbot built a reverberatory furnace at Putney and smelted copper there. A patent was obtained for this in 1688. This led to the establishment of a copper smelting works close to the banks of the River Wye at Redbrook and the chartering of the English Copper Company. Events March 19 - The men under explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murder him while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. ... Putney is a middle-class district in the London Borough of Wandsworth. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic pinkish red Atomic mass 63. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and... // Events A high-powered conspiracy of notables, the Immortal Seven, invite William and Mary to depose James II of England. ... River Wye and Lancat and Ban y Gore Nature Reserve The Wye at Hay-on-Wye The Wye at Tintern This article is about the river that flows along the Anglo-Welsh border. ...

With the conclusion of the litigation, the cupola near Bristol reverted to Talbot Clerke. The Company for Smelting down Lead with Pitcoal (later in different ownership known as the London Lead Company) was chartered to run this, but this was evidently not successful and returned to Talbot (by then Sir Talbot) in 1695. Events January 27 - Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Ahmed II to Mustafa II (1695-1703) July 17 - The Bank of Scotland is founded by an Act of Parliament of the old Scottish Parliament. ...

'A work for remelting and casting old iron with sea coal' was built at 'Fox Hall' (probably Vauxhall under the direction of Sir Clement. This was the first reverberatory furnace (in this case known as an 'air furnace') to be built for iron foundry purposes. This seems to have formed the basis for the Company for Making Iron with Pitcoal, though it may also have been intended to exploit a patent granted to Thomas Addison in 1692. The company ran its foundry for a few years, with Thomas Fox (the brother of Shadrach Fox of Coalbrookdale) as founder.^[5] Vauxhall is an inner city area of south London in the London Borough of Lambeth. ... A reverbatory furnace is a metallurgical or process furnace which characteristically isolates the material being processed from contact with the fuel, but not from contact with the combustion gases. ... This article is about the factory that makes castings of metal. ... Events February 13 - Massacre of Glencoe March 1 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. ... Coalbrookdale is a settlement in a side valley of the Ironbridge Gorge in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. ...

Sir Clement apparently guided many of these developments; though he probably did not personally benefit from them financially, his sons probably did. Sir Clement is certainly to be credited with the practical application of the reverberatory furnace (or cupola) to several metallurgical processes. Until the introduction in the late 18th century of the foundry cupola (which is a sort of small blast furnace), his air furnace was the normal way of remelting pig for foundry purposes. The cupola (reverberatory furnace) long remained in use for smelted copper and lead, and was applied by Robert Lyddall to tin. A reverbatory furnace is a metallurgical or process furnace which characteristically isolates the material being processed from contact with the fuel, but not from contact with the combustion gases. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... It has been suggested that Old Furnace, Ironbridge be merged into this article or section. ... This article is about the factory that makes castings of metal. ...

It is not clear where he obtained his knowledge of metallurgy, but it is possible that Dud Dudley was his teacher; certainly, his lead smelting efforts seem to be foreshadowed by an enterprise involving Dud Dudley at Okham Slade (location unknown) in Clifton, Bristol. Sir Clement died in debt in 1693. His baronetcy passed to Talbot, as did Launde Abbey, which was not swallowed by by his debts because of his marriage settlement. Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and of materials engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. ... The crowded Princess Victoria Street lies at the heart of Clifton Village Clifton is an inner suburb of the English port city of Bristol. ...

Sources

1. ^ J. Nichols, History and Antquities of Leicestershire III(1) (1800), 323.
2. ^ P. W. King, 'Dud Dudley's contribution to metallurgy' Hist. Metall. 36(1) (2002), 43-53.
3. ^ A. W. Skempton et al., biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers I (2002), 808-13.
4. ^ P. W. King, 'The cupola at Bristol' Somerset Archaeol. & Nat. Hist. 140 (1997), 37-51.
5. ^ P. W. King, 'Sir Clement Clerke and the Adoption of Coal in metallurgy' Trans. Newcomen Soc. 73(1) (2001-2), 33-52.

• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.