VIII Richard Reynolds, 1763–1772 and Abraham Darby III, 1768–1789

Abstract

The quiet and apparently casual entry of Richard Reynolds into the Coalbrookdale works in 1756 could not at the time have been recognised, even by the most venturesome imagination, for the revolution it portended. We are generally told, in baldest outline, that Reynolds was sent to the Dale by Thomas Goldney, to carry messages and transact business with Abraham Darby on behalf of Goldney, and that while in the Dale he met and fell at once in love with Hannah Darby, Abraham's daughter, whom he married in the following year. We can at least fill in a few details of Reynolds's background, some of which might remove a little of the appearance of casualness and accident which in such an account surrounds his first contacts with Coalbrookdale.

Reprinted from Arthur Raistrick, Dynasty of iron founders: the Darbys and Coalbrookdale, Newton Abbot, 1970.

Reprinted from Arthur Raistrick, Dynasty of iron founders: the Darbys and Coalbrookdale, Newton Abbot, 1970.

Notes

Reprinted from Arthur Raistrick, Dynasty of iron founders: the Darbys and Coalbrookdale, Newton Abbot, 1970.